After Kate cracked me open like an egg during our fourth session, she started helping me put the Humpty Dumpty pieces back together again during our fifth session.

We often have to demolish what was in our life before we can rebuild on firm foundations.

Step One is to figure out who we are beneath our masks and facades.

Kate suggested I use old photographs and magazine clippings to create a triptych collage.  A triptych is a piece of art in three panels which hang side-by-side.  Each panel of my triptych would represent one of these themes:

• The childhood I thought I had ~ the fantasy ~ the illusion
• The childhood I actually experienced ~ the reality
• My life now ~ who can I become?  Who is the phoenix in all those ashes?

Childhood, of course, isn’t just about our years before we reach the age of majority.  Some children are compelled to prematurely adapt adult behavior due to family dysfunctions.  And, many adults retain child-like qualities throughout their lives.  In some cases, this is expressed as playful delight.  At other times, it emerges as wounds which never quite healed.  And, we all know Peter Pan-type people who simply don’t want to grow up.

The goal of my therapy is to bring me to a place where I feel like the above graphic on a daily basis.