Into Autumn Musings
Now, I know some will protest my writing about Autumn when it feels as if we are only just getting a summer in England, but as we head into the Autumn months, I feel a sense of peaceful joy as it is my favourite season.
It also made me think of a question I like to ask my clients. What season do you think you are? I don’t mean this in colouring, but more a sense of what season they identify with or in which they feel their personality matches its common attributes. This might seem a foolish question, but it can be filed under those questions creatively placed to help us delve into a client's subconscious, bypass the natural filter, and think symbolically about the self.
Other variants of these types of questions I have asked before are:
If you were a colour, what would it be?
What would it be if you were a type of weather or a temperature?
If you were an animal, what animal would you be? And so on.
The trick is to answer with the first thing that comes into one's head and try not to overthink it, although, of course, you can if you want. We follow the client's lead. Also, bear in mind that the answer might change depending on the time in life when it is asked, perhaps how much sleep someone’s had, or related to how they’re doing at work and so on. They are questions that can be asked again and again.
Whether you adhere to the Astronomical Autumn or the Meteorological one, there is something exceptional about witnessing the changes in the world so clearly. With the palette of rich browns and oranges, the still warm breeze on your skin, the crisp fallen leaves, and the sense of renewal and promise, you must agree that Autumn is the most wholesome of seasons. After a quieter summer with clients away on holiday, hopefully recouping and integrating therapeutic insights, the new season brings a sense of hopefulness.
"Autumn is my season, dear. It is, after all, the season of the soul."
- Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Violet Dickinson written c. July 1907
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