The Emerald City

Comparing therapy with a visit to the Wizard of Oz is dubious. After all, the wizard in the story was not a wizard at all, in fact he was a charlatan and eventually gets exposed as such.

But he gives one important piece of advice that many therapists will stand beside: what you need was inside you all along. The Tin Man’s heart and the Scarecrows brains and especially the Cowardly Lion’s courage are all inside them.

Not only do we contain these abilities and virtues that we seek but we actually also use them every day. So many people fail to give themselves credit for the strength it takes to get out of bed and face another day of work. Or the compassion it takes to listen to our partner’s anxieties when we are feeling stressed and distracted ourselves. Or even the courage to go on when basic necessities like housing and income become uncertain.

Some people devalue or simply fail to see the heroism it takes just to live a so-called ‘normal’ life. If they are people that are especially captured by Fantasy they might compare themselves to fictional heroes and conclude that their own lives lack meaning, adventure and colour. In these cases I am happy to compare therapy to a visit with the Wizard of Oz, because just like the wizard I have no magic to offer.

What I can help with is the realisation that real life has a magic of its own. With high stakes, real failures and successes. Comedy and Tragedy.

Therapy can produce a lot of different insights and conclusions but I have never seen it end in the mundane. When (and if) we look deep enough at our own lives, we see that we were already on an amazing adventure and that we are already worthy protagonists. At that point we no longer need the Emerald City because we can have faith in who we were all along.