Quotes About Insight

If they can see themselves more clearly through our reflections, we can see ourselves more clearly through theirs. This happens to therapists when we're providing therapy, and it happens to our own therapists too. We are mirrors reflecting mirrors reflecting mirrors, showing one another what we can't yet see.

He'd given me permission to feel and also a reminder that, like so many people, I'd been mistaking feeling less for feeling better.

take the most seriously—are those they come to, little by little, on their own.

A therapist will hold up the mirror in the most compassionate way possible, but it's up to the patient to take a good look at that reflection, to stare back at it and say, "Oh, isn't that interesting! Now what?" instead of turning away.

Insight is the booby prize of therapy" is my favorite maxim of the trade, meaning that you can have all the insight in the world, but if you don't change when you're out in the world, the insight—and the therapy—is worthless

Years later, when I've done thousands of first sessions, and information-gathering has become second nature, I'll use a different barometer to judge how it went: Did the patient feel understood?

What makes therapy challenging is that it requires people to see themselves in ways they normally choose not to.

and I'm not sure if it's all of your annoying questions or the sadistic silences you put me through—but I feel like you get me, you know? And I don't want your head to get too big or anything, but I thought, you have a more complete picture of my total humanity than anyone else in my life.

Every day, our patients are opening up questions that we have to think about for ourselves. If they can see themselves more clearly through our reflections, we can see ourselves more clearly through theirs. This happens to therapists when we're providing therapy, and it happens to our own therapists too. We are mirrors reflecting mirrors reflecting mirrors, showing one another what we can't yet see.

There's a biblical saying that translates roughly as "First you will do, then you will understand." Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and experience something before its meaning becomes apparent.

Feeling your sadness or anxiety can also give you essential information about yourself and your world.

doorknob disclosures.

the most powerful truths—the ones people take the most seriously—are those they come to, little by little, on their own.

A therapist will hold up a mirror to patients, but patients will also hold up a mirror to their therapists.

When you stop tossing junk into the void—words, words, and more words—something important rises to the surface.

I've noticed that dreams can be a precursor to self-confession – a kind of pre-confession.

People want to be understood and to understand, but for most of us, our biggest problem is that we don't know what our problem is. We keep stepping in the same puddle.

Rather than steering people straight to the heart of the problem, we nudge them to arrive there on their own, because the most powerful truths—the ones people take the most seriously—are those they come to, little by little, on their own.

Sometimes we are the cause of our difficulties. And if we can step out of our own way, something astonishing happens.

It was Aunt Lovey's belief that all ordinary people led extraordinary lives, but just didn't notice.

The climb speaks to our character, but the view, I think, to our souls. The

There's none so blind as those who will not see.

Good sense comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from actin' like a damn fool. —Dutch Callahan

I ain't one of those who believe that a half knowledge of a subject is useless, but it has been my experience that when a fellow has that half knowledge he finds it's the other half which would really come in handy.