Nothing Human is Foreign to Me
My overarching mission is:
To mitigate suffering wherever possible. To strengthen and increase resiliency, joy, compassion and curiosity. To normalize the wide spectrum of human emotions, thoughts, behaviors and experiences. To aspire to live in the meaning of a phrase a client once said to me “nothing human is foreign to me”
My primary professional resources are:
The body/mind/spirit/biome/colony’s natural, predictable ability to heal, balance and pursue joy.
A foundation of compassion, understanding, humility and humanity
My tools are:
- A lengthy and rigorous study of and fascination with the human condition
- A rigorous pursuit of images, narratives, ideas, philosophies, imaginings, possibilities that clear space for the body/brain/gut biome to heal itself.
- A rigorous program of breathing and non-judgmental noticing of all spectrums of lived experience, intense, terrifying, neutral, joyful, hopeful.
- A studied, curiosity and science-based knowledge of the central and peripheral nervous system, the body, what works for it, what doesn’t and what how it communicates to the experiencer.
- Extensive training and knowledge of how trauma presents, how it is stored in the brain and nervous system and most importantly, how it can be healed.
- Insight into and an informed respect for every coping mechanism because it has helped someone survive until now.
- Daily maintenance of professional and personal boundaries with clients
- Respect for the client’s expertise, wisdom and knowledge of their own lives (my expertise in a particular field or area does not render others inferior or helpless in any way).
- Constant personal and digital vigilance to protect the client’s narrative, identity, emotional and cognitive content from anyone’s knowledge unless I am mandated to report to a social agency in order to protect a child, an elder or a dependent adult.
- Never leveraging my position of trust to interrupt or attempt to control clients’ relationships to others, no matter my opinion of that relationship (the client leads).Though I immerse myself in clients’ narratives, suffering and often hatred of those who harmed them, I respect the humans with which they choose to associate. I respect my clients’ choices once they have clearly made them.
I must be willing to rewrite, rebuild my mission, goals and tools in response to the realities and challenges that present themselves. Evolution is not just advisable; it is a mandate.