Symbols and Images

At bottom one searches in everything new (country or person or thing) only for an expression that will aid one's personal confessions to reach greater force and maturity. All things exist in order to become images for us in some sense. And this does not cause them any harm: for while they express us ever more clearly, our soul bows down to them to some degree.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, The Poet's Guide to Life

Symbols and images are vital because, most simply, they put us in touch with our depths. They simultaneously have familiar elements that resonate with us and mysterious elements that compel us to pause and look more deeply. When we recognize this and allow them to be alive and three-dimensional, they have a life of their own. Easily recognizable examples are flags or religious symbols.

Symbols and images are not limited, though, to such obvious examples or even to just pictures. In fact, images are everywhere. One of the easiest ways to start seeing them is to notice anything that speaks to you or resonates with you, whether good or bad: songs, stories, activities, hobbies, special possessions, memories, fantasies, dreams, rituals, relationships, experiences of the senses, things in nature, and on and on. As a simple example, you might have a story that you loved as a child. The reasons you enjoyed that story probably go beyond just the words and might include the pictures in the story, the memory of someone special reading or telling the story to you, and the feelings the story evoked in you. Recalling the memory of it probably stirs your mind and heart in many different ways, some of which you might not immediately understand or be able to explain.

Symbols and images are part of my therapeutic work with you because they allow you to express feelings and experiences in ways that words alone cannot and because they draw you into a deeper understanding of yourself. To say that you had a painful childhood is one thing; to describe the feeling you get in your stomach when you recall it is something more. To say that you are feeling depressed probably doesn't accurately capture the experience; to hear a song whose rhythms, sounds, and words speak exactly to your feelings not only echoes those feelings, but also soothes them and can help you better understand them. Finding a symbol or image that resonates with what you are feeling inside, whether those feelings are good or bad, is enormously comforting—it validates the feelings and also gives them a clearer form, something you can hold onto and work with instead of a big, overwhelming, shapeless blob. And because symbols always have multiple facets to them, finding the right symbol for an experience can help you see that there is more to that experience than you realize.