https://www.guernicamag.com/features/woven/
Stunning piece of writing, by Lidia, weaving folk tale and metaphor around a deeply personal narrative. Don’t miss it.
Two themes that comes up regularly in the therapy room and supervision at this service:-
- how expressive, transformative and healing metaphor and story can be in therapy (and are in human experience);
- the extent to which it can offer us a sense of connection and meaning, to witness another person’s deep, authentic sharing of themselves and their experience. That seems to be true for face to face encounters, but also for what we share through art, or film, or writing: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” James Baldwin
The writer was moved by her description of the classroom scene – and how powerful it is both inwardly and relationally, when we are able to allow others to see our scars (literally in this case) and our vulnerability.
Here are the links to Lidia’s books (Harper are about to publish her third novel, ‘The Book of Joan’):-
Palace Gate Counselling Service, Exeter
Counselling Exeter since 1994
Palace Gate Counselling Service Blog 