Читать книгу 8 Strategies for Successful Step-Parenting - Nadir Baksh Psy.D. PsyD - Страница 8

In our practice, one of the questions we like to ask is, “Who do you think you are?” This question renders most people speechless for a few moments, as they fixate on adjectives to describe themselves best. Certainly our clients think they know who they are. Yet almost all of them quickly discover that they do not know themselves that well . Believing (or wishing) that they are one person, they later find out (or secretly know) that they are quite another. Only those introspective individuals who have made the time to “research”—directly addressing and living with—the eternal and often illusive question, “Who am I?” can really have a deeper understanding of themselves.

Martha believed she was incapable of handling more than one project or issue at a time, because her mother always “rescued” her when things became overwhelming. Since her mother died (one year before we met her), Martha had stumbled through her life, intellectual y advantaged but emotionally stifled. It was as if when her mother died Martha’s ability to cope died as well. After taking a Personal Inventory like the one we offer you later in this chapter, Martha became acquainted with herself for the first time. She saw that, while her strengths were always present, they were overshadowed by her mother’s concern that Martha might not make the right decision. Consequently, she allowed mother to make all her decisions. Martha soon understood that stumbling and even falling were a necessary part of life. We learn from our experience, and those falls are what propel the next success.