To mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month and as part of our It Takes A Friend campaign, one of Between Friends’ clients has submitted the following poem.
Therapy
By Judith Annique François
Before I even met her
I didn’t want to like her
I already had a therapist
Who knew just what to say
Why did I have to stop seeing her
To start new with a new one
Will I ever not need therapy
I ask myself
If it’s helping me
The answer should be yes
My new therapist
She makes me take deep breaths
She makes me move
She makes place my hands in different parts of my body
When I tell her how I feel
She asks me where I feel it
The hurt, the joy, the pain
She makes me point
To which part of my body it’s manifesting
She says that I should be grounded
And get into a place ready to receive
Before we get started
She reads poems to me
She asks me to read poems
Sometimes I do
She makes me tell her things
Without asking me to tell her
Things that I had never told anyone before
Not even my other therapist
I want to not feel shame
I want to feel acceptance
I want to feel safe
I don’t know how many years of therapy
It’s going to take
However
I know that I don’t have enough time for this
I don’t have time to waste
I don’t have time to not try
So
I will keep trying
And do as my therapist told me
Take a deep breath
Ground myself
And be open to receive
—
If you’d like to support the counseling program at Between Friends, take a moment to donate here today!