Welp, it is that time of year again --- baseball season.
Within a few weeks, you will see me staring at my planning trying to figure out how to schedule everyone while trying to get to baseball. We are now entering the time of year where Therapist Melissa becomes a baseball mom, so if you thought the baseball analogies during a session were cute - prepare for more. If you have been in therapy with me for at least six months, you know the drill.
Baseball season is the time of the year that I sit and ponder am I being a good enough therapist and am I being a good enough mom. Winnicott, a British pediatrician and psychoanalyst, coined the term describing a good enough mother as someone who entirely devotes their lives to their baby's every need, sacrificing her own needs for the baby. As time goes by, the mother allows the child to experience small amounts of frustrations while remaining empathic. At this point, the mother is no longer " perfect" but " good enough."
So what does baseball, being a therapist, and Winnicott have anything to do with one another? It is simple. This is the time of year I have learned that letting go of my expectations of everything being " perfect" and learn to settle with " good enough." Adapting to rushing a little more to get one last client in before I have to drive up the parkway in rush hour. Adapt to there might be makeup games, and I will need to rearrange my work schedule. Adapt to taking phone sessions in my car as I drive to a game. I have learned to evolve into this part of my life. I will be a therapist for a long time, and I will always be a mom. I have learned to work these two aspects of my life together without becoming too overwhelmed with an ever-changing schedule.