I’m going to show you something. I also know that once you see this, you might wonder why you ever thought I might be a good therapist! And I feel my resistance now, as I know I will feel it right before I post this. It’s a picture of me, in all my overweight glory, sliding down a cable. Even that day, I got to dance with my resistance. Oh yeah, I don’t jump off a platform five stories from rocky terrain with aplomb! Each time, my gut seized. It never got easier…there were five platforms, one a quarter of a mile long (this picture was taken during that stretch). I didn’t realize that there was both a certain strength and a physical skill level involved in ziplining; each time, despite my best efforts to straighten my legs for a forward direction, I would twist 90 degrees to the right. I would brake well ahead of the platform, so that either a) I would need with my shockingly weak arms to hand-over-hand pull myself along the cable to the platform or b) have one of the lovely young men grasp my tubby body respectfully and haul me in (and if I were heterosexual, I would have been thrilled…they were darling!). When I finally landed the platform on my own steam on the final try, the 13 others broke into spontaneous applause!
So when a client balks at a question I ask, argues against an exercise, or doesn’t do their homework, I feel them. I really do. Going into tough emotional terrain is HARD! It’s scary stuff…