What is Elephant in the Room?
Therapy is about confronting emotional challenges in ourselves and our relationships. It’s about learning to be at home with the uncomfortable, to embrace difficult feelings, to accept parts of ourselves that we avoid or reject, to examine our past and return with a fresh perspective.
Elephant in the Room
PSYCHOTHERAPY
The elephant in the room is the unsaid. And the unsaid is a site of healing. It’s the thoughts, feelings, memories and fantasies that lie beneath the surface.
In common usage, the expression refers to something both parties are aware of but are unwilling to address. In the way I use it, it’s also about something that both parties are unaware of but work together to bring to awareness and resolve.
So, it’s about becoming self-aware, building a bridge between yourself and others, filling in the gaps, making yourself vulnerable and authentic, and connecting with your feelings to drive that authenticity.
It’s about making the unconscious conscious, resolving conflicts and breaking harmful behaviour patterns. And it’s about identifying the issues that arise between therapist and client that once addressed, strengthen the therapeutic relationship and equip the client with the capacity to flourish in all other relationships in life.
That’s the elephant in the room.
“Your imperfections are what make you desirable. Because it is to your imperfections that others can relate. If you were ‘perfect,’ you would be out of reach. Sure, others might admire you, but on a deeper level, they might feel you were unattainable.”
— Hammam Farah