State of Therapy: What Therapists Are Afraid to Say Out Loud

Yeah.

So it's interesting.

I think you posted something actually in the classroom in business school, just like a little conversation topic, which...

You posted something like the regular monthly conversation topic.

And usually those get a little bit of conversation.

But this last one that you posted just sort of felt like it really blew up into great conversation.

It was on this topic of fear.

And so based on that, we also took some of that conversation about fear out to our broad list.

And I like the responses that came up in both places were, um, Some of them were really beautiful, some of them were very heartbreaking, and there was just a really interesting theme that came out regarding how we tend to, it seems like, as therapists, respond to fear.

Or respond with fear.

I know like we've gotten some feedback too as well with how we do our newsletters.

And there's this weird balance that you have to strike of honesty and what's going on without fear mongering, right? And It's not that these fears aren't rooted in some of the realities happening.

It's like how you engage with the fear influences how you feel throughout your day, how you run your business, how you live your life.

And so we would never say bypass the fear, right? And we wouldn't say feed the fear, but it's sort of how do you honor it and work with it within your nervous system to not get stuck there.

And I feel like the world just keeps throwing more stuff to challenge that practice for sure.

Yeah, no, I agree.

I think it's a weird space.

I think earlier in my career, I was definitely the like, just put the fear to the side and just move forward.

Right? Like, just that space of fear.

dissociative sort of space, like probably should have had more fear than that than I actually did, because I couldn't even like sit with it because it could, it could get kind of overwhelming in that space.

And so over time, I have realized like the the impact not just in my professional life, but in my personal life too, of with any emotion with any sensation that I have in my body, just completely ignoring it and trying to push through without giving it some attention is actually like quite harmful.

And so I think this space of like the very first step in terms of navigating it is how can we be with the reality of whatever the emotion is, whether it's fear, whether it's anger, whether it's frustration, whether it's delight, excitement, passion, what have you.

Like, can I give myself time to like actually sit down and be with the fear.