Where a Strange Otherness Belongs.

At a gathering last month, a friend asked, “Doesn’t therapy contribute to more self-absorbed narcissism?” What an insightful question, honest and open, yet revealing an underlying fear that seems to pervade our cultural psyche. Have we become so disconnected from one another that we now need to seek out and pay someone just to listen to us, or so the question implies. For me, the inquiry was a beautiful reminder of the mystery inherent in psychotherapy and the vestiges of a lingering societal stigma. So, what actually happens in therapy?