This Grace Note came from last year….I was looking through them today and decided to send this out. You can always find all of them on my website (search the archive on the side bar to the right).
The Work and Other Modalities:
One thing I love about The Work, is that it’s not one thing.
What I mean, is that it seems to incorporate into just about all types of therapies and practices and makes them better.
When I was in graduate school studying psychology, I learned about many famous therapists and their ideas about how to help humans stop suffering.
I also tried just about everything that was put in front of me (no, I’m not talking about food…although as you know from my food stories that on a binge, I did eat everything in front of me….but I digress, that is not the topic today).
I tried every kind of retreat, workshop, lecture, book, method, exercise, plan, orientation, spiritual practice that might help me understand life and live a better one.
All the way from Arthur Janov’s “Primal Scream,” that was popular in the 1970s where clients cried their guts out and screamed and beat pillows with a tennis racket.
To Freudian three-times-a-week talk therapy with a psychoanalyst. Good ol’ Freud with his talk about “transference” and childhood trauma and “projections”.
Carl Rogers was one of my favorite authors and therapists, and learning about his life and what he called “unconditional positive regard” with clients, really hearing them, was so sweet, so wonderful to hear that this alone helped people transform themselves.
I loved sitting in a “gestalt” workshop once where all the teachings were from Fritz Perls and we role-played like actors….the way Katie works with people, acting the part of that very person who is driving us nuts.
And I’ve spent hours in meditation retreats, listening to the incredible teachings of thoughtful, beautiful individuals who have worked with their own minds and questioned them (I’ll be sitting again with a teacher Stephan Bodian in a week who has accompanied me this year on a wonderful inner journey).
And the sharing in 12 steps! Revealing all the darkness, bleakest, rock-bottom stories of extreme suffering to other supportive and honest people who have walked the same walk.
Everything has had its sweet, perfect place. In every room, group, therapist, retreat, or workshop there is wisdom, learning….and there are also PEOPLE!
And if there’s not a disturbing, boring, annoying, broken, sad or difficult person….then there’s the weather, or the traffic or the poor quality of the hand-outs! Ha! Voila! The four questions!
Now that I have The Work I notice that asking the four questions enhances every single one of these theories or modalities I’ve encountered over the years. What an adventure.
I love how we humans are thirsty for knowledge, learning, understanding, seeking, reading, analyzing….thirsty for peace. I love how the Work can bring it.
If you’re ready to enjoy a group setting for four days at a mountain spa retreat in Oregon, USA, then join the amazing group forming for Breitenbush at the end of June.
Love, Grace