Denial or Resilience?
We all have baggage. Some of us could fill Melania Trump's closet with our baggage. I am one such person.
I know people who have spent years "on the couch" and seem no better off for all their navel gazing. I know others who have lived such unconscious lives it's like they hit autopilot around age five and have been floating ever since. Somewhere, there must be a balance, but where?
No stranger to the helping professions, being part of a helping profession, I'm still wary of the helping profession. I'm wary of myself or any other doctor "guruized". My goal as a doctor, personal/professional coach or in whatever capactiy I'm helping someone, is to help them start listening to their higher self--the God-given part of them that leads to peace and happiness and optimal functioning.
I don't like to be a crutch--a drug someone uses to prolong their dysfunction. I want to be a catalyst and then let them, in their rediscovered enlightenment, figure it out. It is their life afterall.
It is a fine balance, knowing when enough reflection, enough intervention, enough therapy, is enough. It is sometimes difficult to know when a problem rises to the level of requiring intervention. Or, do you even need a problem to seek help? Could you just want to have a better, more productive life?
Does charging forward with life mean you're in denial? Or does charging forward with life indicate resilience?
I believe it is possible to seek therapy and stay in denial. I believe it is possible to seek therapy and be resilient. I believe therapy can help a person develop resilience. I believe it is possible to avoid therapy to stay in denial. I believe it is possible to avoid therapy because the person is resilient.
So, are people these days over-helped or not helped enough?
2 comments:
i've had some really bad experiences with therapy before. in my opinion, so much of it is only "opinion" anyway. That is their way of seeing the world, their own grid that they are looking through. their own understanding of what they've learned in school. but not always real practical in "real" life situations. i think you hit the nail right on the head. being able to quiet one self and then listen to the voice within. it's amazing just how right on that can be. i'm not against "therapy" either, but am very "cautious" who i will pick these days.
vj
I think it is a tough call. I think some people are really resilient and mostly don't benefit from therapy--in those cases it really is just an opinion a therapist would offer. However, there cases where someone suffers from a personality disorder or something and particularly isn't self-aware, and in these cases therapy is necessary.
I think a lot of it is knowing yourself. People who know themselves really well can often gather opinions and handle the situtation themselves, but there are people who are so blind to reality that they need to sort through that before they can handle life. I am a very resilient person and know myself really well due to some early tragedy in my life, so when bad things happen, I may get upset but overall I'm all right. My sister in law, on the other hand, is not the least bit resilient and had very little bad happen in her life but plenty of constant self-obsession fostered by my MIL. I need to collect opinions on things but my SIL needs and is in therapy.
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