A soaring endlessly curving path,
every few miles we have to rest.
I look around for my friends.
They've vanished in the wooded hills.

Rain floods the pine trees
and flows hushed among the rocks.
There are silent words deep in hill water,
a long whistle over the summits.

When I look at South Mountain
the sun floats white through the mist.
A blue marsh is luminous and clear.
Green trees are heavy shadows, drifting.

When I am tired of being closed in,
suddenly I come upon a clearing,
and the mind is at peace.
-Wang Wei (699-759) courtesy of dailyzen.com

One of the joys of being a psychotherapist is to witness a client's moment of clarity. The decision to seek professional help for psychological issues takes a tremendous amount of courage. We all want to believe we can take care of ourselves. I believe that each person who comes into my office arrives with the tools and solutions to their problems. I offer the space for us to discover them. Sometimes the discovery happens between sessions and my client walks in with a new confidence and wisdom; and sometimes it happens during the session and we are both aware of coming upon a clearing. The work shifts to understanding the meaning of the discovery so that my client knows what has been realized and what inner resources were utilized to allow that discovery to happen. What I take away from this elegant poem is the reassurance that when we help each other to quiet the myriad thoughts racing around in our minds we can experience that clearing;find our solutions;and enjoy the peace of confidence in ourselves.