Therapy is a Hike

It’s a common topic in therapy to discuss one’s point of view. When you say it out loud, you realize what messages you’ve taken in, and when another hears it, they see how you feel about those messages in the way that you word them. That is a lot of therapy - to make space to really notice one’s perspectives. However, therapy does more than that. Steve de Shazer says it well through metaphor here: "Where you stand determines what you see and what you do not see; it determines also the angle you see it from; a change in where you stand changes everything." Therapy not only helps you recognize the frame from which you’ve been seeing things, but it also helps you move to take in new information. As you consider new information that was hidden before, you develop a more accurate picture of what is taking place. As you move around more, not staying still in one point of view, you develop a stronger awareness that you can shift yourself wherever you want to be, giving yourself the vantage point you like best. Working together in therapy isn’t shaping the landscape of the world around you, but curating a tailored hike for you, giving you the power to decide where you want to step next in life, to really treasure the movement itself and to help you take in the beauty as you walk through it.

"Where you stand determines what you see and what you do not see; it determines also the angle you see it from; a change in where you stand changes everything."

~ Steve de Shazer