Any time we begin something new, especially if we don’t get started until later in life, our first efforts can be clunky and unskilled. Remember the first time you went out for a run (or took up any other new endeavor)? I do. For my first runs, I wore cotton sweats and baggy t-shirts and felt sure that everyone who drove by me was sneering at how I was so obviously NOT a real runner.
I remember, too, my first days as an intern therapist. My first client was a woman who poured out her soul to me, really entrusting me with her troubled history and her heartbreak. As I listened to her trauma and her list of depressive symptoms, it was on the tip of my tongue to say, “You know, I think you should go see a therapist.” I caught my advice before it came out. I was the therapist! Or at least I was pretending to be one at that point (thank goodness for supervision).
