Therapy is an experience that is difficult to completely describe. It’s a question I am commonly asked: what will therapy be like and what will I get from it? It’s so difficult because everyone’s therapeutic journey is different. It’s like trying to describe ‘support’ to someone who hasn’t had the experience of support. Gestalt therapy can offer you something you never knew you were missing or didn’t have or wanted but didn’t know how to obtain despite many attempts. It’s an experience created by the meeting of two people, both working with the intention of your benefit and growth.

I remember being 14 years old doing my first Duke of Edinburgh Award Bronze expedition. It was an overnight camping and hiking experience where we had to carry large backpacks with all our gear so it was pretty heavy, especially hiking up-hill. I was struggling. Feeling so tired and worn out, I kept on trying to push myself to keep up with the other girls who seemed to be coping just fine. I was feeling so defeated especially when I compared myself to the others and I just couldn’t go on any further. I called out to the girl in front of me to let her know I couldn’t go on – just so she could let people know at the end what had happened to me. Completely expecting her to continue walking on, she stopped. She called out to other girls ahead to let them know I had to stop and they stopped too.

I didn’t even know that girl ahead of me or the other girls who had stopped to wait for/with me. She came back down to me and stayed with me, encouraging me and telling me through my denials that I could do it. She was right; I’d just needed a short moment to take a break and recover. More than that though, her unexpected generosity of care, encouragement and understanding also helped me. Having the encouragement and support of the others made me realise how alone I’d felt in my struggle.

Therapy can be like that too – that someone unexpected who helps you with the troubles and struggles in your life. Therapy doesn’t take the burden from you, prescribe or judge you. It can be the perspective you haven’t been able to see, the hope you haven’t been able to grasp, the options you hadn’t realised were available, the encouragement and understanding you haven’t realised you’d been wanting to receive. It’s about working out what it is you’ve not had in your life and finding a way to bring it to resolution/fruition. It’s about figuring things out, together.

Take that first step with me and let’s see where we can go.