The personal journey of the therapist … a repeated topic

I remember back four decades to when my cohort of young therapists began training in psychotherapy. Though technically a science, the feeling of it all was more akin to religion than science. We were young and idealistic, and profoundly invested in finding the “right path” to psychological healing. We had countless debates between us as to what was the truly potent form of therapy. In truth, we were all on a quest… looking for a kind of “holy grail.” We wanted to become healers of human suffering, not just to help those who came to us, but somehow to help ourselves with our own terrible suffering.