30/30/30/10: The Space

The “space” of therapy means a few things.

There is, of course, the literal office space. Then there is the (ideally) regular appointment time, a space in your calendar that you set aside for therapy every week or every other week.

Finally, there is space in the sense that you and your therapist are going to work together to create an environment that you need at the moment. The space will fill a hole that is missing in your everyday life. If therapy becomes a “safe space,” it is perhaps because your life feels threatening. If a creative space, because your life feels bland.

The space will also change throughout your therapy. Many people begin therapy with very basic and immediate needs—to feel safe, to feel heard, to hear silence, to have contact. Once these immediate needs are met, different needs come to the fore—the need to be creative, to have self-knowledge, to acquire direction.

In addition to the activity of talking and the relationship between you and your therapist, the therapeutic space is a primary factor in the success of healing, because it shores up the needs that are not being currently met.