Some years ago I looked into the handbag of my therapist;
I saw a packet of cigarettes and some support stockings.
I'm not proud of what I thought; ‘who is this person who claims
to be able to heal me, who needs support stocking and can’t quit smoking’. It
was a shocking realisation but, she was human!
I sometimes feel that within some of the alternative world
there is a desire/need for the therapist to be supper human. If they get a
cold, are fat, grumpy sometimes or express other human traits that they can’t
be a good healer/therapist.
This need for others to be better than us, leads to the ultra-shiny,
grinning, white teeth flashing portrait pictures we see on websites and promotional
materials.
So it’s time for me to come clean, I’m human, there I said
it! I have all the human frailties that everyone else has, and some I made up
just for me. And that’s how it should be.
I have an adductor strain at the moment which is limiting my
movement. I could be embarrassed about this when with clients. But my
conviction is that I would rather see a therapist who has lived a bit, who
understands what it is to live with pain. Who gets tied and does not always eat
the perfect diet, who has been in the trenches and knows what it is to be human.
Seeing a blessed person who has not had to struggle is no
use to me at all. So I apologise to my ex therapist for thinking those thoughts
and I celebrate all the imperfections that make us the fascinating humans we
are.
