Reframe

As a grand finale to my spring cleaning and purge, I participated in a neighborhood garage sale last weekend. We had a street full of families who participated, so in addition to the lovely weather, it turned out to be quite fun. There was a mother and young son, 4 years old, who came to my garage looking for children's toys. The boy was thrilled to find some toys which my children had outgrown but were new treasures for him which he could take home. As he and his mother were wandering around the garage they were talking. The mother then approached me and said, my son just said to me, " So a Garage Sale is when someone sells stuff they don't want so I can buy it and it's new to me?". She chuckled and said to both me and her son, "Yes, that's it exactly!". The son looked as if he'd just solved one of the mysteries of the universe. This interaction stuck in my mind for the next few days. It made me think of the power of "reframing" in psychotherapy. Reframing is a technique where the therapist presents to the client an alternate way to view or think about a situation. It's like looking at a situation from the opposite perspective. I think it can be very powerful. Often we get stuck in a particular way of viewing a situation and for someone to say, "Actually, maybe it's really like this----" can be very insightful. Sometimes it's about seeing the positives in an otherwise negative situation, sometimes it's understanding a possible motivation or cause for a behavior, or sometimes it's the ability to understand something from another person's point of view. This little boy had an excellent reframe for my discarded stuff--new treasures for him to take home.

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