Introduction

It will be almost four years that I’ve been working on an inpatient psychiatric unit. I have been getting nudges that I need to be more explicit about the work I do each day and what influences the therapeutic choices I make as I lead groups and work with patients.

I have always been an empathic person, but this work has brought me deeper into my empathic nature. I have been working in the field of mental health as a dance/movement therapist and counselor for eleven years now, but the past four years working with this population has asked me to dig deep into resources I didn’t know I had. The main internal resource I have cultivated is my ability to feel and sense what is happening around me and respond accordingly. I have learned to trust my body’s wisdom and knowing in a way that allows me to navigate within a large amount a chaos. I go to work each day wondering how I am going to get through it, but something always carries me, which is perhaps my deep calling to bring light and love to those who need it most.