La crise!

I am having an existential crisis!

I did not know, until I read the existential section of the book I am reading about different kinds of therapy (kindly recommended by la bobo).

It is dreadful!

I am going to smoke cigarettes in cafes and wander the streets in the rain wearing a trenchcoat.

I might grow a moustache.

I am finding all of this reading about the different approaches to therapy completely fascinating. And with every one I think "Yes, that's it, that's definitely the one! The one for me!"

I am rather impulsive.

What is rather heartening, and rather wonderful, is that it has made me realise just how much I believe in people, in how precious we are, and in our ability to grow and change for the better.

There is one exercise (I am not sure if this is the right terminology. And I am used to working in theatre, where we do exercises all the time. Actually, I call them games, but important people call them exercises. They are not to do with starjumps. Anyway.) which is from the constructivist section (get me!) in which the therapist asks the client to write a description of herself as if she were the main character in a play.

It is called self-characterisation.

Now I am sure that this is to do with all my drama training, but I have been thinking about it a lot.

The idea is for the therapist to get a real picture of the way the person sees themself, to understand more clearly inside where the person lives. It provides a window into the way we invent and create ourselves.

The next step is that the therapist writes an alternative version, which is then worked on with the person until it gets to a description of someone that the person feels it would be possible to be.

Then they try it out for a week. Or so. And see.

See how they are in this new skin. How others react. How things change.

See it is possible to change.

I think this is A Good.

I am sure that from my naive standpoint, there is a great deal more to it than this, and there are many associated complications. But the point is, that it gave me hope.

Which is A Good.

As I said.