I’ve taken up a new technique to learn Spanish this week, which had an unexpected therapeutic parallel.
Step 1 involved listening to an audio book.
Step 2 was listening to the same section and reading the text together.
The third step involved listening, reading and looking up any words that I didn’t know.
When I got to the third step and I found out what certain words meant, images unlocked in my head and the book came fully to life. I immediately experienced a deeper and more colourful understanding of what I had just about got the gist of before.
The first time it happened, it was a strange phenomenon and reminded me of those moments I had in my early therapeutic journey where I made discoveries about my life experience. I remember it feeling like missing pieces getting fitted into the puzzle.
These realisations suddenly made sense as to why I felt the way I did and what had been going on for me. It was as though I’d learnt a new way to interpret the world. Before I was translating things in the here and now based on experiences I’d had in the past. But by discovering that these interpretations were not an accurate reflection of the here and now, it has helped me generate a lot of relief and self-compassion.
Now, the good thing about therapy is that you don’t have to keep learning difficult vocab to deepen your journey. Once the curtains are drawn back and a new world is revealed, it won’t be unseen.
This deeper understanding of why things are the way they are can be incredibly helpful. It can enable us to stop getting stuck in unhelpful, unconscious patterns and take steps towards other things that we value in life.
This is what I hope to help my clients discover for themselves in session and I also continue to learn more about those parts of my own life that remain hidden from view.
Obviously therapy is not the only route to uncover a deeper understanding of your life but it’s certainly one option.
Have you had any of those experiences where the pieces fall into place?
If not, are you still looking?