The Gift of Therapy (stolen from Kristie's blog, "Growing Up Loved")

My friend Kris posted a beautiful blog and in it was the paragraph below, something she was told by "Grandpa Mel" who is in his 80s at this point. I am posting it here for 2 reasons: 1. We rarely get this gift in human form, we get unconditional acceptance and someone who intimately knows our story, weaves it with us actually, from Jesus. 2. For those of us becoming therapists it is important to hear this. Dr. Manock (one of my favorite professors) speaks a lot about how privileged we are to be in the room with the client - it is a gift to hear this person's story and we need to be humble before it. That being said here is Mel's take:


"You know after Bernice died I was real sad. She was the center of my universe, and well it's been really hard so I went and started going to see a counselor. Do you know that this counselor is really a lovely woman and the only thing she wants to know about is me. She hasn't got an agenda. She just wants to know about me. So, we talk for the hour or so and she gives me the gift of unconditional acceptance. When I start to get real self-critical, she won't accept it, but helps me see that I can accept myself too. She's given me a real beautiful gift. I hope you will give that to people. You know, all they need is someone to want to know them and then you know...people just bam! blossom! They just become. It's the best medicine ever you could give someone," Mel finished.

He is telling this to my friend Kris who is a Director of Children's Ministries and who has, for as long as I can remember, loved to help, serve and work with kids - I bet she does give this to them.

I hope we give this gift to people in our own lives too.