One of the most beautiful expressions I have heard on the intention of a therapist is from Dr. Alberto Villoldo: “When my clients walk into my office, I see them as golden Buddhas. Which they are! They just don’t know it yet. But I see it, and I always keep them in my mind that way”.
What a true and wonderful way to see these beautiful souls that come and trust us therapists with their secrets and vulnerability. At the end of my day I look back with amazement and honor at the struggle these people make, befriending their demons, clearing cobwebs from their internal attics and just waking up to their lived reality.
We are all just trying to come home to our truth, which is ultimately our freedom.
We’re like the story of the clay buddha statue somewhere in Thailand. In 1957, a monastery in Thailand was being relocated, and when they tried to move the large clay Buddha statue, they found it was unusually heavy. One monk found light emanating from a crack, and using a chisel and hammer, found that under the clay was a large solid gold statue of the Buddha.
I have adapted this view in my own practice, and I can almost taste the effect it has. My heart really overflows with compassion when someone is at their toughest, or when they are really up against strong resistence.
A few days ago I was speaking to a client who was really struggling to admit the mental block she has put on herself, which was staring her square in the face. I had reflected it back to her in crisp clarity, which is always a bracing moment of raw truth, and she was squirming in her chair. Her eyes were narrowing, she was getting red and raising her voice. Tears were welling up in her reddening eyes. She was telling me again, through gritted teeth, that she hates it when I do this, that she is angry with me. She waved her arms around and kept changing her crossed legs, right over left, left over right, agitatedly moving around aimlessly. It is so unnerving when we know we’re hearing truth and we just don’t want to hear it, all the while being fully aware that it is right there. I certainly can relate. She just did not want to admit it. No way. It would be an admission of many years of unnecessary pain (and a future without that pain!).
I breathed slowly as we both witnessed her process, and then I just saw her as an already enlightened, beautiful being. Almost suddenly, the whole atmosphere softened. I’m not sure if she saw it in my gaze, if she felt it from the softness of my body or the depth of my breathing; perhaps it was simply the magic of being in flow together. But then she just stopped — and smiled in a giving up way, tears streaming down her cheeks, taking the mascara and anger with them. She slumped in her chair and said “Shit. Shit. I’m doing it again. You know what? I finally deserve better than kicking away this thing. Let’s see how I can embrace it.”.
These moments of courage and breakthrough give me chills. And it is moments like these that chip away all the mud so we can really come into our beautiful golden nature.
