Inside the brain of a therapist......

Freedom

Timothy Snyder describes in his 2024 book "On Freedom" that there are two types of freedom. There is a negative freedom which he defines as the freedom from obstacles. Then there is positive freedom which he defines as the freedom to build and create. These two ideas of freedom date back to the time of Greek philosopher Plato.

I did not come here for a philosophy lesson.

Fair enough. Most people, when they seek treatment, are typically in a negative freedom frame of mind. An example is the answer to "What are your goals for therapy?". The vast majority answer with something to the effect of to "stop feeling depressed" or "get rid of my anxiety". Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with these answers. If you think about it outside of your annual physical, which my doctor keeps insisting is to be done every year, you are usually going because of something you want to have resolved. The preferable resolution is typically the absence of pain, nausea, the ability to procreate, etc.

What if the answer to "stop feeling depressed" is not to rid ourselves of any of these feelings and thoughts that we categorize as "depressing". What if the answer is to acknowledge these thoughts and feelings engage with them to use them as guiding factors while they are present in the moment? Think of it as letting them be the copilot.

What are you getting at..........

Instead of trying to immediately rid ourselves of the thoughts and feelings we don't want. We instead investigate them to see if they have something to offer to help us create the life, we want without defining that from the context of what we do not want. We build a framework in our head to work toward something (Freedom to) with those thoughts/feelings and not away from the same thoughts/feelings (Freedom from).

With Curiosity,

Tom (a therapist)