So I need to start by saying I have a really sore throat and I think that was my seventeen year old self trying to call in sick. She’s still not fully comfortable with me being seen, and, l have been reparenting her the past few days so here we both are.
So It’s really lovely to have an opportunity to get to say a few words today about my experience over the last four years at ICPPD. And truly it has been beyond what words can say, but I will try.
When I arrived into first year in ICPPD I came with a sense of real urgency with this persistent question with qualities of “how can I be more?” More capable, more able, more helpful, more knowing. And in my peers wide eyes I saw my own questions being reflected back at me.
Like many of us today I thought I was coming here to learn how to “do” psychotherapy and what I didn’t realise was that this journey we were on would invite us to become it.
And so, our academic learning didn’t stay neatly on pages or on screens, our group took this learning and we definitely turned it inwards. And so we bounced between theories and tissues.
ICPPD didn’t just teach us about healing it created an environment where learning happened on every single level. Intellectual, emotional, relational and spiritual.
We weren’t ever taught skills we were held in a process. A process that asked us to sit with uncertainty, so much uncertainty. We were encouraged to meet ourselves with honesty and to stay. To stay present when it would have been easier to look away.
As a group we became mirrors for one another, gifting eachother endless opportunities to tend to old pain that was still waiting inside of ourselves.
And so we showed up, we questioned, we resisted and we softened. We experienced moments of deep discomfort and deep pain, so many moments of vulnerability and moments when old pain resurfaced and asked or I might say demanded to be witnessed by myself especially.
And there were profound moments of deep connection that I’ll miss forever. I don’t imagine we will ever get to experience that again. We had so much laughter, insight and quiet slow transformation.
We learnt not only to listen to others but how to truly listen to ourselves. We especially learnt together that growth isn’t becoming more In a way that the world often demands of us but about becoming more real, more honest, more integrated, so much more compassionate and more human.
So for the facilitators and mentors that held us in deep care thank you from me and my class. And the biggest heartfelt thanks and gratitude goes to my class for staying the journey together. As we graduate today I am beyond proud of us.
And to go back to that original question that I came in with qualities of “how could I be more?” Has lovingly shifted to “ how am I already enough?”
And to finish, in the words of one of our peers Ails, can I please ask my Athlone class to get ready and let’s celebrate ourselves one last time after the count of three let’s say her two words that got us through some of the toughest moments ever – GET INNN.
