Reality Therapy
Rahman's session with Daniel was fascinating for me to read. Because my own goal in pursuing this degree is to work as a life coach, the fact that Daniel is approaching therapy not because of serious behavioral disturbances but because he is interested in exploring and thinking about the direction his life is taking made him seem precisely relevant to the sort of work I hope to do. His presenting symptom admittedly appears to be anxiety, but it seems like a sort of anxiety we have all experienced, and Daniel's problems sound like ordinary problems. In some sense, the mystery is why someone in Daniel's position wants to seek therapy in the first place. Rahman lists his goals as "to be more altruistic, to be open to inspiration, and to be more organized and peaceful." These are all admirable goals in therapy, but I do think it's worth noting that Daniel isn't seeking therapy because he has been acting out or engaged in paranoid ideation or anything more pathological. He sounds like an ordinary...
Instead Daniel seems to wish that he could just "be in the habit" of attaining peace without having to do anything to build the habit. I was led to wonder several things from this stumbling-block that Rahman reported in the session. Daniel is sixty-five years old. Although he is still working in IT tech, he is at an age when most people begin to think about retirement and ultimately about the end of life. If Daniel were retired, I cannot imagine that he would be devoid of ideas and suggestions for things that he could do to attain peace -- retirees are usually interested in the idea of remaining active, and are always keen to seek hobbies that keep them engaged while also letting…
