The analyst is the expert in the exploration
The analysand is the owner of the territory
Richard L. Rubens
These words capture that intangible force we experience in therapy; never fully the client’s, never completely the therapist’s.
That force, that has led many of us to liberation, revolution, awareness, is created in the interaction between two, irreplaceable individuals.
There is one of them who comes with
📔 a story,
⚙️ a complaint,
🧩 a request.
🔥 For some these are messy, unclear, all tangled together. There is a raw emotion, something growing inside. It’s almost physical; so, when the therapist asks “where do you feel it?”, at first it’s strange but then the answer is found while searching for it.
“It’s in my hands” and suddenly something blurry starts having a shape, a home, a story.
🌊 For others, it’s words. It’s a definition.
There is a statement, prepared just to unveil what’s safe and leave out the rest. Words reveal and protect, rationalise the emotion. So, if there is a wall between the two, they will both have to look at it. There will be a way around it only together.
With the experience of the one who knows how to move around walls, how to climb them, how to read what’s on them; and the wisdom of the one who created it, and knows what it’s made of, and what’s behind it.
🌞 Therapy happens there, in that space brought by both parts.
Empatherapy 