The Garden and the Gardener
As a child, I grew up playing outside every day in the garden. I am no stranger to spending time in green space and observing how plant life changes with the passing seasons. Gardening however, as a hobby or domestic task, is a much more recent interest of mine. I’m still very much in the early stages of developing my green thumb!
With Spring just around the corner I’ve been spending more time in the garden lately, tidying and preparing for the next season. All that time weeding and nourishing the soil and planting has recently got me thinking about how the garden and the act of gardening are much akin to life and the modifications we make in our lives to survive and thrive.
There are some plants that seem to grow and thrive with very little gardening effort. They tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, they can survive several seasons and they don’t seem to need protection from insect/animal life. Other plants - not so much. These other plants need very specific environmental conditions to survive, they may only be seasonal in the first place and they require a lot more attention and nurturing in comparison (netting, spraying, fertilising, pruning, weeding…!)
At any given point in time, there are certain aspects in life that may also seem to thrive more easily than others. You could probably bring to mind your own experiences of times when growth in an aspect of your life has happened easily for you … and other experiences when growth has not happened so easily. Some examples of these life aspects might be in the sphere of education and career, business, travel and adventure, friendships, intimate relationships, family life, health and fitness, creative projects or something else altogether.
Eventually of course, the season changes. Life isn’t static and things don’t stay the same forever. Perhaps that thing you used to find so easy is something that now seems to require a bit more effort. Maybe it’s a friendship or an intimate relationship that needs some focused attention, or maybe you find yourself having to put something like your career or travel on hold in order to manage something completely new such as parenting or a setback with your health.
As with plant care, having some knowledge about what could help can make all the difference. There might not be much point in netting that plant to protect it from animal life when all that is needed is a little less watering, or planting that particular vegetable seedling right now when it’s completely the wrong season for it. How useful would it be to have the guidance of a green thumb with gardening expertise to point you in the right direction of what to try and what could help when you’ve got a plant that is struggling?
That’s how I see my role as a psychologist - the mental health equivalent of a green thumb with psychological (rather than gardening!) expertise. I’m here to support during those seasons when certain life aspects seem to require a bit more attention and extra effort than usual, and to offer some guidance about what to try or what could help to get back to a state of flourishing.