SPRING-TIME
“ Spring is Nature’s Way of Saying: Let’s Party!”
-Robin Williams
It’s the first full week of spring. The crocuses and daffodils are starting to ‘push through’. I saw the first robin touch down in our backyard yesterday. Although the air is still brisk, the new season is official, and we can hopefully store away our snow shovels without looking over our shoulder or up in the sky!
Spring reminds me of three important ingredients to effective counselling and therapy:
Movement . . . Change . . . Growth
1. Growth:
“I believe in process. I believe in 4 seasons.
I believe that winter’s tough, but spring is coming.
I believe that there’s a growing season. And I think
that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better.”
-Steve Southerland
No season like spring ‘hits’ all of our senses with the ‘process’ of growing - bulbs emerging from the soil, new buds on the trees, and fields being cultivated and planted. Counselling and therapy is a process that builds and moves in stages, inviting us to grow, learn about ourselves, and ‘make’ ourselves better. It’s an experience that will stretch us to be different, if we’re ‘up for it’?!
2. Movement
“In the winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move.”
-Henry Rollins
Winter brings dormancy to the natural world. Spring instills movement…grass being raked and cut for the first time, backyard ponds and pools being readied for a new season, and deck furniture brought out of storage. So it is with counselling and therapy- movement is crucial. Homework exercises make counselling sessions relevant and practical. Activity and action is essential to all healthy therapeutic outcomes.
3. Change
“In the spring, I have counted 136 different
kinds of weather inside 24 hours!”
- Mark Twain
Spring is the season of change. It’s easy to miss if we’re not observant or attentive. Session by session, my work and role as a therapist is to help facilitate the change clients want to make in their lives and to measure these changes, be they an improved relationship, an alleviated mood disorder, or a more fulfilling purpose in life.
So ask yourself:
- How are you growing?
- Are you moving?
- What changes are you making to better yourself and your life?