HERAKLES
12 seconds into my first session
With my first client
I was sure they saw me
As the imposter, I felt I was.
This tender moment of uncertainty
Of frailness, of tentative tenacity
Was a beginning
An invitation to bridge
The shared humanity and humility
Between worlds, between stories
Between suffering and hope
Initiated as I was, ready or not
Anointed with tears and a smile
To become story-keeper, world-mapper
To become an acolyte to the liminal rites
Of their mythos, of their hero-journey.
12 days into my practicum
I hover near the entrance
Watching, learning, waiting
Waiting for clients
Waiting to feel legitimate
Waiting to enter inwards
To the belly of the whale,
The navel of each world
Dual travelers mutually transforming
As we follow the golden thread
Towards the balance of center.
12 weeks pass.
Challenges present themselves
Pushing against each growth edge
Urged by a whispered sense
Of synthesis beyond
Each hourly sojourn
An immersion into the crystallization
Of theory and practice
Became and becoming
Exploration and integration
Circles within circles
Imbued with grace
Journey and home rooted within.
12 weeks cycle to 12 months, 12 years
I will see many heroes
Many worlds over many years
Be witness and guide
in the taming of their monsters
the cleaning of their emotional stables
the staunching of multiplying problems
the confrontation of uncertainty
the reckoning of experience
In the persistent pursuit of their boon
a transmutation of pain to purpose.
At each new beginning
I —we—will fortify strengths
cultivate our creative cleverness
draw on resources evident and discovered
confront the shadow self
To navigate each task; complete each labour
To change and be changed
In this infinite, fluid
Journey of discovered healing;
Story of transformation.
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November 24, 2020: There are moments in new learning in which it feels you are being asked to do Herculean feats. My practicum has felt a bit like this, from sitting alone in front of my first client to learning the large administrative curve. Fundamentally the stories of Hercules are stories of facing the monsters within and finding redemption—of finding hope. As my clients face their monsters, real or perceived, I face my own challenges in learning how to journey with them. To stay with them. The hero's journey seems an apt metaphor for the process of therapy:
"...we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an
abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay
ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our
existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."
(Campbell, 2008, p.18)
Hercules was tasked with 12 healing labours; to round out these reflective self-portraits I have chosen twelve words to sum up the learnings of my practicum and coursework:
creativity
compassion
collaboration
uncertainty
caring
experimentation
courage
trust
balance
hope
peers
meaning
Therapy is a creative dialogue that discovers possibilities and encourages meaningful action.
Therapy is an act of courage and trust.
Therapists are purveyors of hope, believing change is possible.
Clients exist in many complex systems that strive towards homeostasis or balance.
Therapists extend compassion through presence and genuine connection.
Caring is critical to healing professionals, extended to clients, and to the self.
Clients are agents of their own change through experimentation, meaning-making & choice.
We influence and are influenced by each other; therapy is a dynamic collaborative process.
Disorder and uncertainty are part of the processes of development, growth, and change.
Peers are critical for support, as mirrors, and as a fulcrum for our own development.
Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces (3rd ed.). New World Library.