You Gotta Therapy: A Short History of Therapy Jam Sessions and My Ridiculousness
This post marks my 50th Therapy Jam Session post!
I started this blog almost 5 years ago in September 2018. For years I had wanted to start a therapy blog, but I struggled with writer’s block.
So, guess when an idea for a blog finally came to me? Two months after my first child was born. Suddenly, with less time than I have ever had in my life, I had all these ideas for posts!
Over the past five years, a lot has happened. There were bad things that took more time away: the pandemic. But there were good things too: I founded and began managing a Relationship Therapy Training program at Mary’s Center, and my family grew even more. Through it all, I never stopped thinking about what I could write for this blog. I was going to say, “I never stopped working on this blog,” but that’s not so accurate. There were many times I just had to stop writing for months because I had so many other demands. But I didn’t let go of my idea. When I couldn’t write, I listened to tons of music. From October 2020 to March 2023 I listened to all 500 of Rolling Stone’s “greatest albums of all time.” I have so much to say on that once I compile my spreadsheet….
Anyway, I set a goal and worked to get here. My specific goal right now is to get to 100 blogs, so I am half-way there as of this post. I can see my progress. I feel so much more confident in the developing value of my work. I am not sure what many other people think, but I am getting to a point where I am ready to share more widely to invite feedback and engage in conversations. I want to keep doing this work.
I have some more recently written blogs already cued up and ready to post, but I wanted this one to be more connected to marking the 50th post. For this post, I dug into my “too shy to post” folder. The post was written by a silly former-me circa Fall 2019. I was still figuring out how Therapy Jam Sessions was going to work. Was it going to be me writing to song lyrics as if they were my clients? Was it going to be a straightforward resource link with a musical twist? Was it going to become more of an informed cultural commentary? I am still working it out, but I have a clearer vision now.
Now that I feel more secure with my work, I can have fun with past things I did when I was still figuring it out. With that whole story conveyed, here is the original post that attempts to point out how change requires lots of work. I do this through a lyrical exploration of Britney Spears’ Work B*tch:
One of my clients was realizing the other day how he had to work harder and do his part in his recovery. This is not identifying information, this is a common realization for many clients, and y’all have no idea when the other day was.
Anyway, this client was telling me how once he started putting in the work of a daily mindfulness practice and more awareness of negative thinking, and changing it to positive thinking, he was feeling much better. I was very happy for him. I did not tell him that “Work B*tch” became the session theme song in my head that day…
I fixed the lyrics though. Here they are:
You want a calm body? You wanna love somebody?
Reach out when you need somebody?
You better THERAPY!
Wanna stop thought meanies? Ditch the martinis?
Accept yourself in a bikini?
You better THERAPY!
You wanna live caringly? Existential expansion?
Let go and dance?
You better THERAPY, you better THERAPY
You better THERAPY, THERAPY
Now get to THERAPY!
Now get to THERAPY!
Interestingly these next lyrics did not need much of a rewrite. See my notes below:
THE ACTUAL BRITNEY LYRICS:
Bring it on, ring the alarm
Don’t stop now, just be the champion
Work it hard, like it’s your profession
Watch out now, cause here it comes
I mean one part of therapy is figuring out your triggers, aka alarms, and being able to work through them…
MORE ACTUAL BRITNEY LYRICS:
Here comes the smasher, here comes the master
Here comes the big beat, big beat disaster
No time to quit now, just time to get it now
Pick up what I’m putting down
Pick up what I’m putting down
OooOOooo it looks like someone is having a breakthrough!
THE REST OF THE ACTUAL BRITNEY LYRICS:
Break it off, break it down
See me come and you can hear my sound
Tell somebody in your town
Spread the word, spread the word
Go call the police, go call the governor
I bring the treble, don’t mean to trouble ya’
I make the governor, call me the governor
I am the bad bitch, the bitch that you’ll never know
I mean, therapy can often lead to necessary break offs and breakdowns. And maybe the police and the governor do need therapy. And through good therapy you can become a good police and governor of yourself.
And here we have the serenity we were seeking in therapy:
Hold your head high, fingers to the sky
They gonna try to try ya’, but they can’t deny ya’
Keep it moving higher, and higher
Keep it building higher, and higher
So hold your head high, fingers to the sky
Now they don’t believe ya’, but they gonna meet ya’
Keep it moving higher and higher
Keep it moving higher and higher and higher
