It is difficult to imagine that one could build such a huge following on a truth as pessimistic as the statement that ALL life is suffering. But that is exactly what the Buddha did. Isn’t it suffering that has brought you here now? I hope it doesn’t sound at the onset that you are being pushed towards some kind of belief system. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rather than sitting in a mountain cave alone with your thoughts and feelings, which probably wouldn’t bring relief to your suffering so much as it would bring more intrusive thoughts, I would advocate for a more expressive milieu that leaves you feeling LESS isolated, less alone. The despair, the shame, the grief, the outrage: these masters can, for a time, run one’s life.
You’ve tried ignoring or avoiding these vexing feelings, but they incessantly draw your attention like a wound. Friends and family try to help, but their oversimplified, shortsighted advice doesn’t reach to the essence or nature of the wound. What you need is someone who can. Someone who has trained their ear to clearly hear the silent suffering that can be imperceptible to most, even to you. The stillness a highly trained counsellor can provide offers the possibility of both reflection and depth, like a still lake at the transition between day and night.
Taking time and making space for these moments holds not just the possibility of alleviation of suffering, but also for the possibility of the freshness that always escorts these transitions, greater confidence that comes from self-knowledge and a deeper, richer understanding of life.
Turning Towards Essence Counselling exists as a place to gather the difficult experiences of life. When you turn towards these experiences, express the deeper longing within them in a therapeutic environment, new, more spacious realities emerge.
Steve Woolf
Registered Clinical Counsellor
“I have been to numerous counsellors in the Fraser Valley and BY FAR you are the most skilled, insightful, intuitive and positively impacting that I have been graced to find. You listen to me in a way I have never before experienced. You deeply care about your clients and offer wisdom and guidance that is rare. You have changed my life, words cannot express my gratitude.”
~ Therapy Client
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Support
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Couples & Relationship
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Parenting
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