One of the most difficult things in
consultation work is maintaining the
freshness and aliveness that allows for
healing opportunities to arise spontaneously
in the present moment. It is often relatively
easy to be alert and attentive during an
initial encounter, but when we meet again for
follow-up sessions it is irresistably
tempting to think that we already 'know' this
person, and to relate to them as they used to
be rather than as they are now.
My experience has shown me repeatedly that
the potential for healing and growth exists
in every single moment, but - and its a big
but - if we are not awake and fully present
to it, that potential is liable to remain
dormant and unfulfilled.
The two enemies of present-time awareness are
of course the past and the future, and it is
no accident that virtually every kind of
spiritual practice attempts to eradicate these
two phantoms and to allow an experience of
the present moment to emerge.
Some years ago when I was still practicing as
a homeopath, I found myself struggling with
the routine I was falling into as a
practitioner, and some of the habits I had
adopted were starting to weigh me down. Most
of the consultation time was taken up with
gathering the details of 'the case', the
assumption being that all of this information
would be needed in order to find the remedy
that would then bring about the cure.
It gradually began to dawn on me that I had
become too concerned with what I hoped was
going to happen, in some future time
and place, and consequently I was missing
what was actually happening in the
here and now.
To make matters worse, I used to run through
my casenotes during each follow-up session,
asking the client to keep going back into the
past so that they could tell me how things
had changed in the intervening weeks and
months. I didn't realize at the time that
this reiteration of the past tends to dull
the senses, so that we have less and less
awareness of what is taking place in the present.
Inspired by R.D. Laing, Carl Jung, Milton
Erikson, Arnold Mindel and others, I began to
explore the possibility that healing could
(and often would) happen during the
consultation itself, provided we are open and
alert to the potentialities of the present
moment.
As a starting point, I would ask myself: What
if I had never seen this person before, and
knew nothing about their past? How would I
relate to them if this were the first time we
had ever met? This would help me to let go of
any 'past ideas' that were clouding my
perception. Then, I would tackle any 'future
fantasies' in the same way. What if I didn't know
what was supposed to happen for this person?
What if this was the one and only time that I
would ever see them?
I can't say that I have managed to be fully
present with all of my clients on every
occasion, but I do feel that the emphasis has
shifted, and that shift has had an
invigorating effect on my work, not only with
individuals but with groups also. I like to
think that less information, plus increased
awareness, equals more transformation. Try
it, and let me know what happens!
