The Power of Perspective
I once heard a story about a student and her art teacher where the student was instructed to draw a Campbell’s soup can. Following the teacher’s instructions, the student designed her artwork, featuring the red-and-white soup can from a frontal perspective.
The art teacher was dissatisfied and failed her. The student felt heartbroken and sought an explanation. The teacher said that the student’s approach lacked creativity and suggested that there are numerous ways to draw a soup can.
The art teacher commented further:
Why not show the soup can from the back, where the label and ingredients might tell a different story? How about turning the can on its side or highlighting something else in the background? What might we see if we examined the contents of the can from the top-down? What about showing an empty can, lying on the street, strewn amidst other rubbish? Art is about telling a story, and we can tell a story from a host of different perspectives.
The student accepted her teacher’s feedback and began creating her portfolio of work in different ways. She later came to regard her teacher as a mentor and credited him with having influenced her career.
When asked about her work and her creativity, the student would often say that her art teacher taught her about “the power of perspective.” In art, she could draw or envision different projects from a variety of angles, using shadow, light, and colours to enhance the effects of her work.
“Like art, therapy is about telling a story, and we can tell a story from a host of different perspectives.”
As the student became a professional artist, she also learned to apply the concept of “perspective” to her daily life. Sometimes her art was highly regarded by critics. At other times, comments could be scathing, and she could go months without a sale or an invitation to exhibit her work. In these challenging moments, she used the power of perspective to keep herself grounded, to regulate her emotions, and to remind herself of her strengths. She often recalled that moment when her teacher expressed his dissatisfaction. Reflecting on how far she had come in her career, she found the courage and strength within herself to take those more challenging moments in stride and accept them with humility.
Like art, therapy is about telling a story, and we can tell a story from a host of different perspectives. Often, we come to therapy because something untoward has happened to us, something has gone wrong that needs to be fixed, or we find that we are not feeling quite ourselves. By naming our problems, and by sharing our stories with a trusted therapist or counsellor, we notice that our perspectives begin to shift. Over time, and with effort, events that have left us feeling stuck, may begin to loosen their hold on us.
Narrative therapy calls this process “re-authoring.” In my practice, my goal is to meet you where you are, to listen and validate your experience of what has happened to you, and to journey with you on your quest for healing. Along the way, therapy can help you develop your capacity for resilience, feel more empowered, and ultimately, to share your stories from a place of strength and courage.
Much like the way in which the student embraced the art teacher’s lesson, so too can therapy help us recognise the power of perspective.