Very simply, this is my commitment to you, and to my work: That therapy will ultimately be about living with a greater sense of open-heartedness (Other terms for open-heartedness might be “compassionate awareness,” or “loving presence”).
Whether you are looking to develop a new habit, improve the quality of your relationships, or heal a traumatic memory, there are heart qualities waiting to be invited out of their protective shell and nurtured. In fact, one could define trauma as anything that hardened your heart. By this definition, all have been “traumatized,” and all therapy is “trauma therapy.”
The root of the word “courage” is “heart,” and it’s more original definition was something like “To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” Far from being soft minded or passive, heart-centered therapy and living takes true courage. It is the strength behind vulnerability. In this regard, therapy is one of the most courageous of all human endeavors.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
- Rumi “A Great Wagon”