Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday! So, what are YOU the most grateful for today? As for me, my gratitude is for all those therapists, social workers, psychologists, and life coaches out there who do their best every single day to help people around the world through all their pain and suffering.
Did you know that it really wasn’t until the 1950’s and later that seeing a professional for mental and emotional help even started to become an accepted thing in society? Honestly, I can’t imagine what it must have been like before then when someone was going through something really rough and needed someone to talk to about it. Treatments back then for this area of clinical care were far too aggressive, dangerous, and tended to end with people far worse, sometimes even in mental hospitals and padded rooms, which is probably why most kept their issues to themselves.
Thankfully, things are very different in the psychotherapy world today and people aren’t considered crazy or insane simply because they decide to go get some professional care for their angsts in life. Personally, I have utilized counseling in its many forms ever since I came out of the closet and became clean and sober from alcohol and drugs in June of 1995. It’s hard to believe that twenty-three years have passed since then and how many psychotherapists I have gone to during that time period. I’m quite glad I did though because each have helped me in their own way, to grow tremendously on my spiritual journey in life.
From my father’s suicide to my mother’s tragic passing, to the loss of a partner I thought I’d spend my life with and the business we owned together, to financial failure and health decline, and so much more, counselors have consistently helped me find plenty of solace in their guidance and direction, which is why I have an incredibly grateful heart for all those who have made this career their life practice.
So, to Linda, Katie, Martha, and the many others I’ve seen throughout my life thus far, and to all those other therapists, social workers, psychologists, and life coaches out there still alive, and even those who have passed on as well, I offer my thanks and gratitude to God for each of you on this Grateful Heart Monday. I thank all of you for taking the time, day in and day out, to listen to the many stresses, agonies, griefs, sorrows, despairs and the like so many of us have had to endure throughout our lives. It’s truly because of each of you that people just like me have been able to keep on going, one day at a time, no matter what the trials and tribulations have been. I am very grateful for each of you and I love you all…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
