Crazywise

So, this is a very worthwhile 7 minutes of your time. I would recommend watching this to anyone whose life has been affected by mental health issues.

I’ve been following Phil Borges’s work for a while. He believes that in the developed world we take exactly the wrong approach to mental illness, and that we should look towards what happens in traditional cultures. There, someone having what is called a ‘psychotic episode’ is regarded as a gift, rather than a curse, and the question that is asked is: what is the meaning of this event? And it will have meaning, not just for the person affected but for the whole community. My belief is that this could lead to a whole new way of approaching these challenges, with innovations like peer-supported therapy, where people that would normally be classed as mentally ill are involved in the care of others.

This also has relevance to the kind of work that I do – one-to-one counselling.  Usually, the challenges are less severe, but the principles are the same. The work is to look not only for the cause of the problem, which might be something in the past, but also at its meaning, which might lead towards a possible future. Why have I been wounded or hurt in this way?  How has it shaped me? What purpose can I find in it?

The question about cause of a problem leads to understanding, but only the question about its meaning deepens and enriches life.