The picture

There is a picture that hangs in my office.  Ok, not a picture per se, more like a saying.  However, for the imaginative and metaphorical language, it certainly is a picture.  For the sake of the here and now, I will refer to it as ‘the work’

There is a bit of history behind this I am calling ‘the work’.  Several years ago when I was working at a residential treatment facility, I had found ‘the work’ at a local home store.  It spoke to me so I picked it up and proudly hung it in my office thinking ‘wow, my patients are going to love this and it will spark up headways into therapy!’. And, well, it didn’t quite work that way.  What happened was it was a reference point for me and the formation of my practice.  It held value in the way that a seed plants and gestates into a mighty plan (insert plan of your choice here).  Eventually, it came time to leave my role in the residential facility and experience a different aspect of the mental health field.  Upon my leaving, I invited my co-workers to take a piece of wall hanging from my office as a gift.  ‘The work’ left my hands to bless another on their journey.

Now, as I moving into the field of therapist, I have acquired a new office.  Upon shopping around to decorate my office, I came across ‘the work’.  I quickly grabbed it up and proudly placed it in my office.  So, here the old expectation comes alive again ‘yes, this is going to be so inspirational to my clients!’.  One day I will get the hint that I would be wise to not listen to some of those expectations.  

So, the other day I had a look at ‘the work’.  And ‘the work’ did ‘the work’.  What it sparked in me was an insight, an awareness, an awakening to an understanding.  My trauma training and education kicked in and reminded me ‘trauma changes the way we see ourselves, others, and the world’.  To distill that, I have been repeating the same voice of my young, wounded child in many ways.  The self -talk, the talk to others, the voice, in one way or another, has become an echo.  Echoing in the great canyon of my mind and heart.  And if this is my experience, I am wondering if it is the same for others.

So, ‘the work’ is for me (and invitation for all) to become a voice.  A voice of healing, a voice of a loving, caring adult.  A voice that I (you, me, we, us) may have needed at that time when we didn’t need one.  Be a voice, not an echo.  Be the voice I have wanted to hear, and believe, for years.