Is Your Therapist Really Listening ?

Daydreaming in the office can be helpful

Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash

People always ask “How can you sit and listen to people’s problems all day”. It’s a reasonable question and I’m trying to come up with a working answer.

Honestly I am often surprised when someone asks. Because I take it for granted. It’s who I am, what I do.

I sit in the brown leather chair facing my new client, notepad and pen in hand, listening carefully and taking notes. My face is trained to show neutrality, openness. A woman is telling me the long sad tale of her life. I smile kindly and nod to encourage her to continue. It is a difficult story full of purposeful cruelty and lingering worthlessness. I try to give her my full attention.

However, for some creative reason of its own my monkey mind is busy with other topics. It keeps musing about the colors I am wearing today. It tosses out a thought-

Wouldn’t it be cool if I had shiny dark red fingernails?

You see, I am wearing a plaid shirt with shades of maroon and burgundy and fig. Over top of the shirt is a dark red merino wool sweater. Fig colored pants, purple socks, red shoes, red earrings. It’s a wow!!! color scheme. Very distracting to me because the colors are colliding and popping like…