Journey home...

It was an eventful journey home from my placement induction. Having as soon as two days ago spoken to my art therapist about a lady who felt compelled to share her life story with me while I was working in a shop he mentioned that trainees and therapists alike often have this issue of trying to remain open as a person to people’s problems. He said that this often shows in some way on the outside to the general public, perhaps I am giving off some kind of aura? When talking about this in my therapy session he said it would be an ongoing issue to deal with.

I spend a lot of time on the train travelling to university and back to South London so I am aware that I spend most of this time reading and thinking about what has happened during the day. Sometimes this happens simultaneously, as it did today. There I was reading and thinking about what I learnt about my future placement setting, considering attachment theory and child development when a man who I was sitting next to was starring at me. I shrugged this off and continued reading Jung’s ‘memories, dreams and reflections’… until the man commented on my book claiming his sister in law had read it. He clearly didn’t really take in what I was reading but continued to talk about his girlfriend and how I looked a lot like her. I won’t go into detail on what he said exactly but it soon became apparent that he was suffering from some kind of delusion here. I sat and listened to these untrue statements, which trailed out of him so easily. I was surprised that as I listened to him I was in a way encouraging him to continue, almost in a therapeutic approach; this is interesting in itself as I was reading Jung at the time.

This encounter really made think about how I present myself. Two people have approached me this week, both of which have told me a considerable amount of personal information without me responding or judging them. It makes me wonder what it is that makes people feel open enough to talk to me in particular, does being a trainee therapist show physically through my everyday life?