X-RAYS AND SOUL-RAYS

“You are scheduled for your soul-ray tomorrow at 2 pm. Please bring a copy of it with you to next week’s session.”

X-rays are essentially cameras that uses electromagnetic waves to penetrate material in varying degrees. We find broken bones that would otherwise cripple, and identify tumors that might have taken a life.

But I want a soul-ray machine. Even my counseling-is-for-other-people friends might find it interesting. And, it would make my job so much easier.

It might not drastically change how counselors care for clients, but it would change how clients think about the help they need. That would change everything.

Because the thing that brings a client to my office can’t be shown definitively on an x-ray (this bone is broken, this bone is not), it’s harder to know when help is needed. And makes it so much easier to put off getting the much needed help.

Medical doctors don’t have to convince their patients that they have broken a bone. They take an x-ray, show you the film, and voila! Done!

I wish I could pull out film for each client of his or her broken heart and crushed spirit. We are so used to the modern medical version of healing, we forget that we are complicated, intricate, vulnerable humans.

“See this darker spot here on your heart, this could really cause some problems in your marriage if we don’t treat it. And this crack right here in your spirit, this might be the fear and anxiety you’ve been feeling. And this hollow looking area over to the left in your soul, do you see it there? It may be nothing, but we’ll need to run a test.”

We are more than flesh and bone. We are spirit and soul. We are mind and emotion. Just because you can’t see it on a chart, doesn’t mean your pain and sorrow isn’t real. It is as real as a broken bone or open wound.

Until we have soul-ray machines in every hospital to give us clearer pictures of our deepest selves and deepest needs, we must learn to pay attention to the pain in our souls. Like all physical pain, soul pain is trying to tell us something.

What is yours saying?