MY TRAVELS THROUGH HADES
Mel Waldman
Over the decades, I’ve heard rumors about therapists. (As I am a therapist, I am particularly curious about these stories.) They say that future therapists become shrinks to solve their own problems. Are these tall tales? Or are they true?
I suggest to you, my curious readers, that some have entered this risky profession because they are compelled and driven by an incomprehensible force within. Indeed, some may be driven by their own traumas, searching desperately for answers. Others like you are probably curious about the human mind and all its mysteries.
Indeed, I believe a cornucopia of causes determines the calling. And it is certainly a calling.
Every day I travel with my patients across dangerous, unexplored territory, not knowing if I will return intact or impaired, alive or dead, sane or insane. Every day I journey into Hades. I trust I will not be traumatized by these daily expeditions.
I will not share with you the personal traumas of my past. If they exist, I will not speculate whether they motivated me to be here, in this desolate room, isolated from the psychologically well, connected to the emotionally sick.
Yet I will share with you that each day, I travel to alien terrain in the private landscape of those who seek my help. And I never know for sure if I will return. Yet this emotional risk taking is what I do.
If I have a soul, it exists to heal others. If I don’t, being soulless, I must still create the meaning of my life right now. And I choose to journey through Hell with my patients, fearful and courageous, frightened but thrilled to have the opportunity to make a difference, no matter what, even if it means facing my darkest fears and wishes, as we travel through Hades.
As I cross the River Styx, I gaze into the hypnotic waters and discover the grotesque face of evil-mine-hidden beneath my masks of love and humanity. Inside this eerie reflection floating in the dark river, exposed by the malignant fires surrounding me, is a truth I must face. And if I do, I will return from my phantasmagoric journey. But if I can’t face this monster, I will float forever-in an open casket-down the River Styx, a ghost of a ghost, still searching for my way home.
