Episode 7: The Most I Have Ever Cried in Therapy

I can't believe what she made me do...

Before I get all dramatic, let me give you some context first. There are days I think that I am nailing it as a parent. And some days (a lot of days), I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. Sometimes I feel like I’m floundering, and none of the parenting books I’ve read or the hypothetical responses I’ve practiced seem to work. So I went into a recent therapy session with the focus of needing help communicating with my tween daughter.

The conversation with my therapist, H, kept evolving to the point where she asked if we could do a visualization exercise. Oh boy…here’s when the hippy dippy parts of therapy make me question if I am in the right place or not.

Please don’t bring out the rocks, I think to myself.

She said,
“Imagine YOU at the same age as your daughter. The 11 year old version of you is about to walk into that door and stand right there in front of you. I want to you look at her. Describe what she is wearing. Tell me how she’s standing. What is she thinking?”

Here’s what I visualized…