How does that make you feel?

Stuffed 'emoticons': fabric and filling

I have been watching the DVD series 1 of In Treatment, with Gabriel Byrne as the psychotherapist Paul. Each DVD features five weekly clinical sessions, with five clients (one is a couples session) including his supervision with Gina (Dianne Wiest) on Fridays, for 8 weeks. There are 4 series, so this should keep me going for some time. Its not quite real time, as the sessions are less than half an hour, but they feel longer. This is drama, not real psychotherapy, but its fascinating to watch the character development unfold through the constraint of the therapy session.  

One thing that really annoys me, is that Paul asks his clients 'How does that make you feel?' which I am sure no therapist would ever say. Perhaps I am wrong, but the idea that an event makes you feel a particular way is to miss the point that it is our interpretation of events that creates the emotional response, not the event itself. 

The stuffed emoticons, in the photo, are 3D shapes I am making, as a possible therapy resource, for helping people identify feelings. At the moment I am just playing around with fabric shapes and seeing what might work. The idea is to have lots of random shapes, colours, sizes and textures, that are not supposed to represent any particular emotion. (The heart shape is a pin cushion!). The client may be able to relate their emotions to one or more of the shapes, or to say how it is different. Experimental soft sculpture?

I have been wanting to write in here more often, and perhaps the way to do this, is to write less each time. So instead, some more photos. Something I did last week, was to take photos on my drive to work. Probably not a good idea from a safety point of view, but I only took a photo (with my phone, so not great quality) when stopped at traffic lights.  Noticing the moments.

and home again. I noticed the sky most.

P.S. I am fascinated to know who is reading this blog, around the world. I see the stats, and I wonder who you are. Please leave a comment! If you want to...

more later.