Once in a blue moon, I get someone who walks in and presents to me wisdom and connection. I am grateful for those moments. So, there I was in my office talking to a young client when I had this phenomenal experience where our roles shifted. He became the teacher and I, his student. It was a pleasant experience that I had to share this with him. My reason for doing so was that he understood no one is higher or lower than the other, but we are all masters and also students in our journey, all of us equals regardless of gender, status, role and age.
I discerned about this before I decided to share this with him and I am glad I did. Reading up on Irving Yalom's book on "The Gift of Therapy", he shared that Harry Stack Sullivan, an American psychiatric theorist described that "the patient's self-esteem is radically boosted by being of help to the therapist". In being open to learning from your client and informing them so, it helps to boost their own confidence and how they view themselves.
If I closed myself to these possibilities of learning, it would have been a total loss for me! My message here is, to be open to learning from anyone and everyone; don't allow ego and pride stop you from being life's student. You would be missing out on a lot if you do.
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