I had a client some while ago who felt anxious. After working with him for a few sessions he said that there was something he needed to tell me, but had been afraid to do so because he wasn’t sure how it would affect him.

Obviously for reasons of confidentiality I’m not going to say what it was that he wanted to tell me about. All I will say is that for him it was massive, and it took a few sessions for him to make sure I was genuinely there for him and that I wasn’t going to judge him.

Rather than diving straight in to what the issue was, we talked about talking about it, if you see what I mean. He envisioned this issue as if it were a dragon or some kind of monster. He pictured the shadow of something frightening which was lurking around the corner waiting to devour him. It took him a while to summon up the courage, but knowing that we were in this together he drew strength and tentatively peered into the issue.

He was amazed to find that instead of a monster, what he eventually saw was more like a mouse. Beside the mouse was a tiny candle which cast a large shadow of the mouse onto the wall. Instead of something to fear, here was something delicate. His sense of relief was palpable. Yes there were still issues to work on, but he was able to have compassion for himself and the work deepened.

Are you afraid of something? It might be good to talk about it as it may be weighing you down or preventing you from living with a sense of freedom.