Blog post #1: My therapeutic approach: hermes and hades

Greetings, and welcome to my blog! I intend for this to be a space where I can share my thoughts and perspectives on psychotherapy, my approach to the therapeutic relationship, and what inspires and informs my work. I’d like to start by discussing my therapeutic approach, and how I think about psychotherapy. To help me with this, I’d like to enlist two beings, the Greek gods Hermes and Hades. From my studies in Greek mythology and astrology, I understand Hermes as the god of communication. He is associated with twilight, liminal spaces, and the in between. He is the only god who is able to travel between Olympus, the human world, and the underworld. He is also known as the psychopomp, the guide of souls to the underworld. To me, he holds a very special and unique power - his transitional ability. Hermes has the ability to be with you in the many transitions of our lives. I believe it is in these transitions that we must face our complexities and difficulties. Maybe it is a new addition to the family, a loss in your life, a drastic change in your environment, a transition in your inner emotional landscape, or a reckoning with your identity. Each of these spaces can feel overwhelming, tender, or seemingly impossible to navigate. Here is where Hermes offers his guidance - he has the ability to move the narrative, to find new perspectives, to find a way through.

While Hermes is able to guide us through transitions, he is not able to stay in the deepening process of the therapeutic journey. This is where we meet Hades, the god of the underworld. Though initially scary and frightening, he offers something none of the other gods can - the ability to sit in and navigate through the darkness. Hades shows up where Hermes has to go. In my experience within psychotherapy, it is often in these spaces of darkness that we meet the rich inner worlds of our psyche, imaginations, and unconscious. We are able to meet the different parts of us that were hidden because of trauma, pain, and neglect. However, we are often told these spaces within us are scary, they are disgusting, they are not right, they are not normal. This is where Hades allows us the guidance and space to explore these rejected parts of us, and the parts that are not allowed to live. If we can tolerate the discomfort, if we can hold the judgment, then the portals can open to the rich inner landscapes that make us alive and human.