Finding Adjust and Bliss: How Treatment Made a difference a Corporate Attorney Rediscover Her Imaginative Side.
As a psychotherapist, a few of the foremost satisfying work I do is making a difference clients reconnect with their more profound selves and reveal buried interface. Nowadays, I’d like to tell the motivating story of Claire, a corporate legal counsellor who rediscovered her enthusiasm for portray after a long time absent from it.
Claire to begin with came to visit me in her late thirties, enduring from burnout, uneasiness, and a common sense of vacancy in her life in spite of her proficient victory. Her high-powered profession had taken her more than a decade since law school, as it does for many legal experts.
“I feel like I’m fair going through the movements, but there’s no genuine bliss or meaning in my way of,” life she recognized amid one of our to begin with gatherings. “I have everything I’m assembled to require – an unimaginable work, cash, status – be that as it may I’m essentially disturbed.”
As we looked into Claire’s youth and early adulthood, a unequivocal design created. Developing up, she was a skilled youthful craftsman who found incredible fulfilment in portray and imaginative expression. In any case, her guardians had pushed her to seek after a more “common-sense” career in corporate law. She obeyed their requests and abandoned her dream of studying art, buried that love deep within.
The Cost of Abandoning Our Passions
For years, this loss went unaddressed as Claire dove headfirst into her legal career. But as so often happens, the soul’s unmet needs eventually rise to the surface. Her lack of creative outlets had left Claire spiritually drained and disconnected from her authentic self.
To help Claire rediscover that missing piece, I guided her through several therapeutic approaches:
Mindfulness Exercises
We began with mindfulness activities to help Claire become more aware of the present moment and able to tune into her inner world. Learning to examine her thoughts and feelings without judgement allowed her to reconnect with long-buried elements of herself.
Inner Child Work
We then conducted some inner child work, which allowed Claire to reconnect with her younger self, a joyful, expressive little girl who loved colours, textures, and the act of creating. Holding a childhood photo, Claire allowed herself to feel the sense of aliveness she experienced through art as a young person.
Creative Visualization
Using visualization exercises, I had Claire vividly imagine herself painting again – what it would look like, how it would feel in her body, the emotions it would evoke. This helped plant the seeds for reconnecting with that mode of expression.
Based on these explorations, it became clear that Claire’s original abandonment of painting was tied to fears of disappointing her parents and not living up to their expectations. We processed the emotional roots of this conditioning and Claire came to recognize that she had the power to honour herself by reclaiming this vital part of her identity.
Testing the Waters
Still, taking that first step felt daunting after so many years. So we started small by having Claire simply purchase art supplies – nothing fancy, just basic paints, brushes and canvases. For weeks, they sat untouched as she worked up the courage.
Claire texted me a snapshot of her first new painting in over 15 years on a Saturday morning, seemingly out of nowhere: a simple still life of flowers on her kitchen table. “I can’t believe how good this feels!” she composed, her eagerness essentially bursting through the screen.
Claire was unstoppable after that. Painting became like water for a person who had been wandering the desert for years. A profound reawakening had occurred.
Gradually Integrating Her New/Old Passion
Of course, simply rediscovering painting didn’t instantly solve Claire’s issue of lack of work-life balance and fulfilment. Her legal career still demanded a huge portion of her time and energy. But now that she had reconnected with this vital part of herself, we could start exploring how to integrate it sustainably.
Together, we broke things down into small, achievable steps:
- Setting aside 1-2 nights per week for creative time, which she fiercely guarded like a meeting with an important client. No excuses or procrastination allowed.
- Finding local art classes to further develop her skills and meet others with similar interests. This helped combat the isolation of her legal world.
- Tentatively sharing her work with trusted friends and co-workers, which provided an encouraging confidence boost.
- Investigating ways to ultimately turn her passion into a revenue stream, like teaching art classes or selling paintings.
The more Claire nurtured her reawakened artistic side, the more rewarding it became. The joy, sense of freedom, and deeper connection to herself that painting provided began seeping into other areas of her life in beautiful ways.
Colleagues noticed Claire seemed lighter, more present and authentic. The chronic anxiety that had plagued her started to dissipate. For maybe the first time, she was experiencing what it means to be a balanced, multi-faceted human being rather than just relentlessly pursuing professional success.
A New Chapter Emerges
These days when Claire comes in, her artistic identity is seamlessly woven into who she presents herself as being – no longer a separate, suppressed compartment of her psyche. She still maintains her thriving law career but has struck a harmonious balance.
In one of our recent sessions, she beamed as she told me, “You helped me reclaim the essence of who I’ve always been, but lost touch with for so long. I finally feel complete, like I’m being true to my whole self.”
For Claire, that internal shift has paved the way for some exciting new developments. She is looking into opening a private art studio and teaching classes in the evenings while maintaining her legal career during business hours. In collaboration with an art dealer friend, she also sold several of her paintings in a local gallery showing.
More important than any specific accomplishment, Claire is living a fully integrated, purposeful and joyous life that honours all of her facets – both her professional drive and her creative spirit. She’s an inspiring reminder that it’s never too late to rediscover our essential selves and find the balance we crave.
If you’re feeling called to reconnect with a long-lost passion or essential part of yourself, I’d encourage you to have the courage Claire did. It may appear intimidating at first, yet enormous liveliness and fulfilment await you on the other side. I would be honoured to assist you on that journey.