“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”

I was drawn to this quote by Pema Chödrön because of how it speaks to the work I do. Because we are all the walking wounded, the terms healer and wounded in the context of the therapy space are interchangeable.

I am reminded of the rich and vivid, DESIDERATA, which guides one in the understanding that one should never take anything for granted because “always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself”, mostly because I am acutely aware in my healing sessions that often the very thing my clients come to me for are the things I need to learn. And, although I have been on a long and arduous journey towards my own spiritual, emotional and mental health, I am in no way a master because we are none of us finished products in the passage towards the ultimate light of awakening.

What I can say, in my deepest truth, is that part of the reason I am such a good facilitator of this work is because I have walked through many a dark night of the soul and I know my darkness well. And, because of this, I have developed compassion enough to sit with you in your darkness and share our mutual humanity. I continue to step into my greatest areas of growth and I will never stop because I will never be done. We teach each other because, as Ram Das famously says, “we are all just walking each other home.”