We live in a fast culture, so fast we call it "kwik" because it would take too long to spell "quick." Food is "grab n' go" because who has time to eat? We've even got drive-throughs for everything; there's a funeral home in Michigan with a drive-through viewing of the open coffin. Think of all the time you save not having to park and get out of your car to go in and pay your respects to Grandma!
This isn't supposed to be a rant against progress and technology and our fast-paced way of life. It's about how therapy slows you down. It's that hour or so sitting and talking or feeling or crying or thinking or stretching your mind/soul/brain. For many of us, it may be the only time in a week where we sit still and reflect. It may be the chance to slow down enough to get some insight on who we are and where we want to go. There is so much we have to do just to get by that this time may be the one space where we actually feel our lives. And, in feeling, make the changes we want to make.
I know that therapy is so much than a quiet space. And I know there are a lot of other places where we can be at rest--in nature, meditating, slumbering, sitting quietly, to name a few things we don't have to pay money for. Maybe the gift of therapy is that we get to be in our lives with (one hopes) a wise guide who nudges us to reflect, connect and then move. Or just be.