Once upon a time, therapy didn’t exist. Everyone knew what their roles in society were, and performed them. Survival was the most important agenda item on everyone’s to do list. You hunted, you gathered. Nuff said.
Then along came the 21st century. You no longer have to follow in mom’s and dad’s footsteps. All the traditional roles have gone out the window. The good news is that you are free. The bad news is that you are free. You get to figure out how to do your life in a way that fits you. AND, you have a lot of leftover tribal programming in your head that informs you what you can and cannot do. You may not be aware of this programming. You might not understand what it is that is holding you back and causing you unhappiness.
The rules have been thrown out. Just imagine – women did not have the vote until 1920 in this country. To put this in perspective, my mother was born in 1925. Her mother was born in a world where women didn’t count.
The affects of this societal change on men and women have been huge. We have gone through a sexual revolution since the advent of the oral contraceptives. Then it turned out that sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, were a huge issue. And women who felt sexually liberated did not count on the oxytocin that is released upon orgasm which bound them to recreational sexual partners that they might not have chosen for life.
Legally sanctioned or not, many of us are in committed relationships that would not have existed in times past. Perhaps we are with same sex partners. Perhaps we are living with boyfriends or girlfriends. Perhaps we are raising our grandchildren, or dealing with adult children who have come home to roost.
Men and women don’t quite know how to be in relationship with each other. What worked for our fathers and mothers frequently doesn’t work for us today. They might have been content to have an economic partnership, and we might want something more. Or perhaps our parents wanted something more and divorced, leaving us with no clear role model to follow of a happy, healthy relationship.
Our parents expected to be taken care of by corporations for all of their lives if they gave them their loyalty. This appears to be an unlikely expectation to those employed today.
In fact, many of us are unemployed or underemployed, given today’s economic situation.
Many of us are in free fall. We frequently need assistance in connecting with our inner truth. It can be challenging to figure out ways of being and living that will assist us in obtaining what we want. We don’t know how to proceed in ways that will work best for us and our loved ones. Therapy is a place to explore these issues. You can find out what others have discovered, and see if this assists you in finding your own truth.
Therapy is about personal empowerment , especially in an age of uncertainty.
Therapy is about working your way through all of the confusions that beset you, and coming to a place of personal peace in the midst of the craziness around us.