More than ‘The Secret’ is needed for therapy!

No acceptance = thumbs down

The basic qualities of an individual that foster a process of healing and/or growth in therapy are:

• authenticity
• desire
• capacity
• acceptance
• connection
• awareness / presence

The book entitled ‘The Secret’ bumps my clients up against acceptance.  I have found,  more often then not, clients who have a difficult time speaking about their issues are firm believers in ‘The Secret’.  Now lets be clear: setting intentions and utilizing positive thinking, language and affirmations can offer support to facilitate change in peoples’ lives. But for deep-rooted, recurring patterns and issues, this is simply not enough. This is precisely my concern with those who take ‘The Secret’ on as their main approach to growth and personal change.

Many of “The Secret’ followers who come to see me refuse to talk about their issues because they are afraid that speaking about their trauma will bring it into being.  Speaking about one’s issue does not bring it to fruition. In fact, by the time someone chooses to see me, they have already been living with their issue for sometime.  It has made changes to the way that the individual perceives  the world and in many instances we can see this as tension within the physical body. Sometimes this can lead to an overall sense of being tired or exhausted and leave one with little capacity to deal with new circumstances. All of this because their life force energy is tied up trying to maintain the repression, rejection, aversion or disassociation from the issue. Unfortunately, this limits their capacity to actually move through and heal what is going on.    Acceptance is key!  It brings with it relief that releases some of the physical, mental and/or emotional tension that was used to maintain  the status quo and offers the opportunity for growth and transformation.