Reconnecting With Your Purpose as a Therapist
There are moments in every therapist’s career when the work begins to feel flat, sessions feel like they run into each other, and you notice yourself becoming tense or impatient. In spite of this, you keep showing up because you are trained to hold space, doing your job, yet something inside feels distant from the deeper meaning of what you do.
This doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong. It simply means you’re human!
Most therapists I work with began this career path because something inside them recognised the power of healing through touch. There was a sense of calling. A knowing that people deserve to be met with care and tenderness. For many of us, this calling is shaped by our own story. It is rarely random. It emerges from our experiences and the moments in our lives when someone truly saw us.
As the years go by, the constant responsibility of holding others can make you forget that original spark. You give a lot, you listen all day, and you absorb so much that your purpose gradually becomes buried under the weight of daily work. Let me reassure you that it has not disappeared. It is simply quiet, and all you need to do is find it again!
This is when I encourage therapists to stop for a moment and breathe. Step away from the pressure to be endlessly available and allow yourself to ask one simple question, why did I start? Let yourself sit with this question. There is no need to force an answer. I believe it will come to you gently when you are ready to hear it.
Perhaps there was a client you supported who changed your understanding of what connection can do. Perhaps you recall the first time yourself felt truly held by a therapist and realised how transformative that experience could be. Or perhaps something in you wanted to bring softness and understanding into a world that can feel painfully harsh.
Your purpose is still within you. Even if you cannot feel it right now, it may be covered by fatigue or routine, but it has not left. Reconnecting with your purpose doesn’t usually happen in one dramatic moment. It often arrives in small glimmers. A client breathes more deeply during a session, something shifts in their body or their heart, you feel a quiet sense of recognition that the work matters. These moments remind you that the impact of your presence is far bigger than what you see in a single treatment.
I remember a time when I had to remind myself of my own empowering context and why I chose this path in the first place. Someone very dear to me had passed away, and I was completely absorbed in grief. I could not see beyond it. The clients who were already booked, no longer felt important and I couldn’t bring myself to think about their needs. All I could feel was the weight of my own pain.
At one point I stopped and asked myself a simple question. “Why did you start this work, Beata?”
That moment brought me back to the truth that first guided me. I had learnt, through my own experiences, how powerful touch can be in healing others. I wanted to become a therapist so I could offer that same experience to others.
Remembering this shifted everything. Even though my grief was still there, I was able to be present for my clients. When I gave treatments, my personal sorrow no longer took over the entire space. I was fully focused on the person in front of me and I found comfort in the thought that this is exactly what my friend would have wanted. They would have wanted to see me helping others and continuing the work that brings meaning to my life.
Wanting to rediscover your purpose is already evidence that it is alive. You wouldn’t feel this longing if the connection had truly gone. So, allow yourself to return to the beginning. Not the beginning of your training or your career, but the beginning of your inner why. Remember what first moved you, the tenderness or the curiosity or the longing that guided you toward this profession.
Your purpose has not been lost. It is just waiting to be remembered!