The Gift of Therapy

humans appear to be meaning-seeking creatures who have had the misfortune of being thrown into a world devoid of intrinsic meaning. One of our major tasks is to invent a meaning sturdy enough to support a life and to perform the tricky maneuver of denying our personal authorship of this meaning. Thus we conclude instead that it was “out there” waiting for us. Our ongoing search for substantial meaning systems often throws us into crises of meaning.

I believe that balance and diversity in one’s practice vastly contribute to a sense of renewal

Besides, patients are so grateful, so adoring, so idealizing, we therapists run the risk of becoming less appreciative of family members and friends, who fail to recognize our omniscience and excellence in all things

Assume that new patients have fears and confusion about therapy and make certain to prepare each patient for the course of psychotherapy

I have always found quite useful Freud’s formulation that the dream borrows building blocks from the day residue, but that for images to be important enough to become incorporated into it, they must be reinforced by older, meaningful, affect-laden concerns

Next I urge patients to select parts of the dream and associate freely to the content. Or I may select promising parts of the dream for them to mull upon

Usually my first question is about the dream affect

I make a point of inquiring about dreams in the first session (often in the context of exploring sleep patterns)

Yet dreams (aside from a very occasional auditory experience) are visual phenomena, and the agency of the mind that manufactures dreams must find a way to turn abstract ideas into visual form (a journey, rickety stairs descending into a basement, a lizard, a rainbow car)

My task in the opening sessions? To help him engage in therapy and to help him overcome his resistance to it. Hence, I focused only on those components of the dream dealing with the onset of therapy: the symbol of the journey, his sense of unpreparedness and inadequacy, the dark, rickety stairs, the descent, the lizard.