This month’s prompt for the Sketchbook Circle was “Reflections”. This idea immediately connected with my professional identity as a psychologist, as “reflecting” feels like a core part of my work. When I Googled what it means to reflect, two definitions came up: “to throw back (heat, light or sound) without absorbing it”; and “to think deeply or carefully about”.
I was interested to consider how these meanings initially seem to be quite different – one a shallow deflection, and the other a deep consideration. Though I then wondered whether in fact being able to think deeply and carefully about things does require a certain distance – if we are too close to something, too absorbed in it, perhaps thinking becomes harder. This is one of the reasons why boundaries in therapeutic work are so important. If these become too porous, if we become too absorbed by our clients’ suffering, we not only become less effective as therapists, but we also risk harm to our own wellbeing. This is also a reason why professional supervision is key throughout a therapeutic career – having someone else to act as a mirror to your work, and to encourage reflections on your practice is key.
Thinking carefully and deeply in Psychology
“Thinking deeply and carefully” about things is probably quite a good description of a lot of what I do as a psychologist. Another part is creating a space for others, whether individuals, couples or teams, where it feels possible for them to think carefully and deeply about what is troubling them. This isn’t the whole of what I do – there’s certainly a large part of the work that is about feeling and digesting as well as building psychological skills – but I would say reflection is a core function of my work. I hold this reflective function in the assessments and therapeutic work I do with individuals, and more explicitly in the reflective supervision I provide for colleagues and reflective practice sessions I deliver for teams.
Micro-reflections
Common to all of this work is the aim of thinking deeply and carefully about the suffering, distress or complexity that has led people to seek support. This deeper reflective work is made possible by the multitude of micro-reflections that occur within therapeutic and clinical interactions. These might include:
- paraphrasing clients’ stories to help them feel heard, understood and validated
- adjusting my tone of voice, posture, facial expression and use of language to convey attunement with the client’s here-and-now experience
- offering observations designed to broaden or shift perspectives (like changing the angle of the reflective surface to offer a different way of looking at things)
- using symbolism and metaphor to enable painful experiences to be verbalised and thought about (similar to how Perseus could only look at Medusa via her reflection)
- facilitating the client’s connection to their own body by inviting them to notice, track and attend to their internal sensations
- drawing attention to the different voices or parts that might be present for the client or the team – holding up a mirror to more easily see the whole picture
Creating a meta-reflection
Translating all of this meta-reflection into a knitted piece for a sketchbook seemed like quite a challenge! I wanted to capture both meanings of the word – the bouncing back and the thinking deeply. After some trial and error I came up with a simple design of three long tear-drop like forms. I had to learn a few new techniques to make it happen – the 3D tear drop, and vertical colour-work. The bit I was most excited about was discovering reflective yarn – yarn with a reflective thread woven into it, which reacts to light. The final result represents deep, careful thinking on a background woven together by hundreds of micro-reflective stitches, just like the therapeutic process. The reflective effect really shone through when I took a photo with the flash – so I printed this out (as a mirror-image of course) to sit alongside the knitted piece.
If you look closely you’ll notice a mistake. I decided to leave this in as recognition of the mistakes I make as a therapist – sometimes my reflections don’t land well. Sometimes I get it wrong and need to work on repairing things. Mistakes, as a psychologist, knitter and human are always part of the process.
Now the question is what to do with all the left-over reflective yarn I have? Maybe I need a reflective cardigan to wear to reflective practice groups – or is that the most cringe-worthy psychologist in-joke ever?!