Eulogy to the Therapeutic Relationship

I have proactively written a Eulogy to my "therapeutic relationship"...I will explain in more detail shortly....

Dear Therapist was the kind of therapist who stood by you when you needed someone to be there for you. She saved my life on more than one occasion. I remember so many times when I was blinded by the darkness that she reached out to me, grabbed my hand and did not let go until I found the light. She was an amazing therapist: she had the strength of 100 men, and the endurance of the greatest distance runner. Of course her job was not easy, and she wound through many tough obstacle courses, and jumped the highest hurdles~ there was simply no task too great for her. I tested DT's patience time and time again, year after year~ and yet she remained steady.

I remember the first time I met her, she seemed so confident and self-assured~ her blue eyes were an endless sea of compassion and empathy. I had known her for about a year when I began to realize that she was the first person I had met that I could always count on to be the 'same'. She began to represent so much to me: strength, truth, honesty, compassion, empathy, validation, and humor; but most importantly, DT represented safety for me. When I was with her, well, I felt a safety that I had never known....That's probably what I miss about her the most. Well, that and her laugh, and well, her "realness", and gosh, the way she could calm me down just by taking a couple of deep breaths and encouraging me to do the same.

You know, there was once a time when she raced to meet me in 30 minutes because I "needed" her...I'll never forget that. The true selflessness of her… that she gave to all of her clients was amazing to me. By accident once I met another client of DT's and the look of love in her eyes showed me that DT had a gift for her profession. A true gift.... They say that God gives us each individual talents, and at times it is a challenge to find these talents, and to use them to make the world, and those in it, a better place. DT found her talent, her gift from God, and she used it to work with the most troubled, complicated people there are. I can only imagine how trying it was for her at times....and although I'll never know, I imagine there were complications in her own life that made her job even more difficult. I don't know how she remained so steady and patient. I guess I never will.

I think all of her clients would agree that she truly went above and beyond time after time. I mean, there were so many times I would call her, or email her, exasperated and angry at the world, and just the sound of her voice, or her written words, were enough for me… Enough for me to know that I wasn't alone and despite what I learned as a child, people weren't inherently bad.

The loss of DT in my life is still shocking to me, most days I still can't believe it. It wasn't a huge surprise, I had seen the end coming. At first, it felt like a dull ache in my left temple, but eventually it grew into a full-blown migraine. The kind where you think your head might explode. And that's when I knew it was the end. She had given up.

I will forever be grateful to have known DT. I will forever be grateful that she was there at the right place and at the right time to save my life. I will forever be grateful for spending 3 years of my life with a therapist like her. All the pain she shared with me, the acceptance, the things I learned from her, I will forever cherish.

Truly, I am grieving, but this is not a time to grieve, it is a time to celebrate all DT offered me, her other clients, her profession. She didn't want to see people suffer, and yet she knew that the suffering was necessary to find peace. DT wanted to help me, and all of her clients, find peace.

I'd like to take a few moments to think back and remember how much DT touched my life. *lights a candle/while the pianist begins to play Amazing Grace....a power point begins displays on the screen and reveals snippets of the past 3 years* Grace wipes a tear from her cheek, and continues, And in this moment, I may be shedding tears, but I will forever be grateful to have been given the chance to know a woman named ‘dear therapist’.

DT will forever be missed but I know that if I am lucky, in the right time, I will meet DT again. And someday she will help me feel safe again.

Until then! *raise wine glass*
TO MY DEAR THERAPIST!She will forever live in my heart....
Thank you...*bows head*
(I think this is the time I walk off into the sunset...or straight to the nearest bar.)