Why blog?

I blog to confront the Critic.

The Critic whispers in my ear: you are nothing special, you have nothing to say. And if you did presume to speak, you will be crushed, you will be revealed. It is dangerous, don't do it.

The Critic says: You have a professional mask. Keep it on! What would your clients think if they knew?

It's a conundrum in the profession, actually. Graduate schools are struggling to define how much young therapists should reveal in their blogs, their tweats, and their social networking sites. Freud taught that the therapist must sit behind the "patient," who lies prone on the consulting room table, to allow the patient to project whatever they wished onto the therapist with no interference.

Now we know that the relationship itself is part of the healing. At times the therapist may reveal personal information, but this must always be in the service of the client. It's tricky. Hearing that one's therapist shared similar issues may lessen the client's shame, for example. But too much self-disclosure carries the risk that the client will begin to care for the therapist's needs and not their own. There's a tension there--to be genuine and yet also hold a certain level of privacy.

And isn't that a central issue in our culture as well? If not, perhaps it should be.

So there emerge two themes for this blog: the pursuit of creativity--to mine the genuine images and emotions that reside in Persephone's world, the Unconscious; and to develop this particular therapist's courage to create the work and send it into the world. My hope is that you, dear reader, will be encouraged to do the same for yourself.