Connections

More and more frequently I find myself noticing connections. Connections between similar topics, themes, or threads appearing in conversations with completely unrelated clients, friends, family members, and even random strangers. Perhaps I’m subconsciously inviting similar conversations or maybe I’m just noticing them in clusters because of the way I have set my perception filters. Still, I believe that everything happens for a reason.

Many years ago, in a former lifetime, I used to write book reviews for HarperCollins. Well, not in an official capacity, but each month I would select a bunch of books from their new publications catalogue, and they would send me three copies of each: one for me to read and review, and two to give away on my website. It was as close as I could get to being paid to read – a pretty good gig if you ask me!

Now, my brain works in mysterious ways. One is my habit of telling multiple storylines within one story – and miraculously finding my way back to the original thread. Another is my complete inability to recall names and dates (which is why I was never good at History). However, I have a remarkable talent for remembering and applying concepts (which is one of the skills that makes me a good therapist).

Due to the nature of the website I was running at the time, I reviewed a variety of books – both fiction and non-fiction, often related to parenting. Occasionally, I would also review biographies/memoirs; and it was one such book that solidified my belief that everything happens for a reason – even if that reason isn’t immediately clear. We may not know the reason for days, months, years, or even a lifetime; but everything happens for a reason.

So at the end of a session with one of my long-term clients last week, I asked for a suggestion for a TV series. (We discovered that we have a similar taste in shows some time ago.) They suggested a foreign series currently available on Netflix: Another Self. To be honest, it wasn’t really grabbing me. It felt a bit “romance novel” for my liking. But then they showed the first scene involving group therapy. It took me back to the Group Drama Therapy I undertook during my counselling training. I had actually forgotten about that therapy group. Well, I hadn’t completely forgotten about it! But it wasn’t something I regularly thought about. Memories of working on family relationships came flooding back to me – acting out each participant’s family stories in an effort to help them resolve and heal from past hurts.

As I was reminiscing, the show continued… and then it captured me. Through this group therapy (loosely based on Drama Therapy), each character linked issues they were experiencing in the present with life stories of their ancestors.

And there it was.

My thesis topic, played out in a foreign drama series.