You can read the original post here.
Hello, everyone. I hope you all have been well. There are only four more months to go until the end of the year and I do not know how time flies. I love this time of the year in Australia that flowers have started to bloom, and nature is decorating themselves. By the middle of September, four years of my stay in Australia will be completed. We moved during the pandemic, and I remember the day when we were ‘released’ from the two-week quarantine at a hotel and made one big step outside. I remember how free it felt and how shocked I was to see most people in Adelaide wearing no masks at that time.
Book Week
I enjoyed the Book Week parade at my son’s school last week. My son wore the Spider Man’s costume (again) and took a completely unrelated book to school. Anyway, since then I introduced a routine at home for all family members to read books before the kids go to bed. This 15-minute book reading time is so precious and we adults are off from the screen too. I do not need to read the same paragraphs again and again every time I revisit the same book. Right now, I am reading the book called, “The Good Life and How to Live with It” by Robert Waldinger.
In the last newsletter, I spoke about what brings me a little happiness. This book, “The Good Life” is the 80-year-old-world’s longest research on happiness ever done by Harvard University. This book’s conclusion is very simple; a ‘good’ relationship makes us happy. They have been following thousands of American people’s lives over their lifespans, and keep asking questions – what makes their life happy? The book explains that we all know that money can’t buy us happiness. Yet, we compare our happiness based on the amount of money, social status, career achievements, etc. So the book suggests the question needs to be; what makes us happy?
This book resonates with my profession as a psychotherapist. Yes, our work is all about a relationship; how we become relational with one another. Another reason for resonance is that I struggle in Adelaide as a ‘professional immigrant’, and a mother of two who wants to achieve dreams. I know my practice has just properly embarked this year and I know it takes time to build up caseloads. I know this in my head, but my body does not seem to get this message sometimes. This week I just felt an urge to move and draw at my practice space to respond to a growing anxiety (I call it a monster) in me; I just felt the monster was taking over my body, my identity, and myself (see the black drawing above).
Did I feel less anxious after that? Yes, I think so. It does not mean that my reality will change immediately. But to my surprise, I was more ready to meet my clients’ needs after that. And I felt that yes, I love my profession no matter what! I am in quest of understanding this deep philosophy; what makes us happy.
This year I started Embodied Group Supervision and was able to run two groups. I had creative arts therapists in these groups and I am so grateful for their bringing their expertise and rich case studies. If you are an art therapist, you may have read writings by Shaun McNiff. He speaks about how artmaking involves dynamic movements and gestures and how important it is to allow them to emerge with the body, not with thoughts (McNiff, 2004). I believe whatever medium we are using in a therapeutic relationship, whether they are talking, artmaking, music, drama, there are two or more bodies in the room that are constantly intersubjectively meeting. Hence reflecting on somatic aspects in clinical work is becoming more essential for practitioners and this embodied process, I believe, helps us to become more present with our bodies for our clients and to meet another body. I will continue to offer embodied group supervision in 2025. If you are keen to be part of this, please get in touch with me.
Let’s embrace a little happiness such as colourful flowers on the streets we can notice! Thank you for reading my newsletter.
Reference
McNiff, S. (2004). Art Heals. How Creativity Cures the Soul. Shambhala.
Comments