I’ve seen many new clients recently and it always amazes me learning about people’s experiences and life stories. People are incredible, so resilient and strong in the face of adversity. No one seems to escape trouble – whether it’s affairs and heartbreak, deception, lack of confidence or just plain misery and depression. We all have our cross to bear, our own brand of heartache.
If anything, my job has made me like people even more. It has helped me to see the human vulnerability that we all have. Yeah, there has been the odd client that I found hard to work with. They are usually the ones who tend to be quite narcissistic, believe in their own hype and never take any responsibility for their own behaviour. They are harder to work with and lack empathy for the world around them. Thankfully 95% of my clients have been people I like and admire. They have shown me that most people are actually quite forgiving and reasonable. That most of us worry about not being good enough. We all have far more in common than we think we do. The thing is we don’t tend to open up much in normal life the way we do in therapy. I see so many patterns and parallels in people who would never normally see this as people don’t get onto this deeper level of communication during normal day-to-day life.
If we were all more open and expressive we would realise how many others are going through similar life challenges to us. We would have far more support if we hadn’t all been socially conditioned to always say “I’m fine” when asked how we are.
Just know that you are certainly not alone, no matter what your particular issue is, I can guarantee that there is someone somewhere going through something similar. Someone somewhere feeling similar feelings to you. If only we could find them…
Welcome to messy life, we are all in this together. This is why I have compassion for others, we are all managing in a world that can be mean, petty and unjust and we still manage to find things to smile about.
Mandy X
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
