The marriage therapist that I am, I walked into my office for the enth time.
This one day, for one reason or another, it just hit me in a different way.
And I couldn’t keep it to myself.
Contrary to what you may see in so many other places around you.
I think about this all the time.
How lucky I am to be doing the work I do.
Though the term ‘lucky’ makes it sound like it happened by chance. And doesn’t do it justice.
Blessed would describe it better, no doubt.
Though I find people misuse that term so much that I swerve away from it, in an attempt not to forget where the original and ultimate blessings come from.
Either way, grateful will do.
Because grateful I am.
That’s the short of it.
And the truth is – The more I think about it, the more reasons I find.
Here are the first ten of why:
I. Marriage Therapist – Grateful Beyond Belief for the privilege of working with clients who apologize profusely on the phone that they will be unable to make our meeting that day due to – what in my book constitutes – a real emergency.
And that’s after they emailed already in the morning and left a voicemail while I was in session at mid-day.
II. Grateful Beyond Belief to be working alongside clients who value the work and come in every week, motivated, driven and purposeful. And sometimes leave a trail of used Kleenex in the trash to prove it.
III. Grateful Beyond Belief to have the best job on the planet.
I wake up every morning to do just that.
Call it a cliché all you want.
It can’t be a cliché if it’s true.
In a world where so many tolerate their jobs & barely tolerate their bosses, walk in every day, hating what they do only to rub their unhappiness on the people they love and care about.
IV. Marriage Therapist – Grateful Beyond Belief to get a front row seat as my clients take on their biggest and scariest monsters, take them out of the closet, sometimes only to have the most gutsy fight of all.
Watching them win is a marvelous sight.
V. Grateful Beyond Belief for working with couples who, from the very start, are willing to do what it takes to make their relationship the best that it can be, in session and outside of it.
Homework included.
Updates between sessions included.
Going the extra mile included.
VI. Grateful Beyond Belief that 90% of my couples do, in fact, prevent divorce from happening.
Saving themselves from headaches unseen, lawyer fees unimagined and trauma in the aftermath for all involved unspoken.
Nobody talks about the extended family or friends – as if divorce only affected the couple and their kids.
Or just the two people in the relationship.
Notice I didn’t say – I do that.
They do the work.
I just show them how.
VII. Grateful Beyond Belief that I get to do pro-bono work on the side at a place close to my heart where there are no resources left to provide the support necessary.
I’ve been able to involve my family and include them as often as we can in the travel.
If you must know – yes, it does include a border crossing and stamp in their passport which undoubtedly helps.
VIII. Grateful Beyond Belief to have space that I don’t need to share with anyone.
To have the ability to do my schedule in a way that best suits my family.
To have suitable waiting room space that catches my clients by surprise.
Decorated with plants which I sometimes end up accidentally killing 🙂 only then to switch to fresh-cut flowers instead for a while.
How do I know that, you ask?
‘Cause they tell me, one by one, as they walk in for the first time – Ever since I got this new space almost three years ago.
XI. Marriage Therapist- Grateful Beyond Belief that I get trusted with my clients’ deepest secrets, their biggest fears, passions and joys — and everything in between.
I get to watch them raise the bar every single week.
I get to see them carry out the craziest of feats, showing strength and drive.
The things others would call impossible, they make happen.
X. Grateful Beyond Belief – As a marriage therapist, I get to watch transformation happen right in front of my eyes.
Hearing the stories of victories big and small as they conquered this or the other thing since we last saw each other, as they share during check-ins at the start of a session.
Changes it from mundane to fulfilling.
Getting to do what I get to do is a privilege and I don’t take that lightly.
I get to work with my couples, engaging with them in a way that impacts their world for the better.
And mine.
Their relationship, transformed.
Their marriage, transformed.
It makes it all worth while.
Grateful Beyond Belief – Wouldn’t YOU be?
You tell ME.
And no, I didn’t exhaust the list. But I gotta stop somewhere 🙂
PS: Happy Early Thanksgiving to all!
