Honoring the Past While Feeling Inspired for the Future

A question I return to often in this field: How do we innovate while still honoring those who came before us?

It’s something I think about every time I sit with new therapists, fresh out of school, stepping into their first cases. I almost find myself whispering: Rethink what you’ve learned, so you’re not confined by the boxes laid before you.

In a profession built on understanding the human experience, we have become fluent in the language of disorder—attaching diagnoses to life’s natural ebbs and flows. But what if we stepped back and reexamined the way we see our clients?

Rethinking the Lens

Grief. Anxiety. Trauma. These are real experiences, but do they always need to be pathologized?

When a parent passes, is it a disorder to still feel the weight of their absence years later? I know that as I move through different seasons of my life, I still find myself longing for my mother’s voice—for the comfort of her words as I navigate the challenges of caring for my aging father. Is this the so-called stages of grief we memorized in Psychology 101, or is it something more fluid—an evolving understanding of love and loss?

Every day, I am reminded of life’s fragility, of the stories we carry, and of the ways we make sense of our own existence. But if I were to frame these thoughts within a rigid clinical model, would I now be categorized as having an Anxiety Disorder?

The Role of Diagnosis—And the Need for More

Labels serve a purpose. In the medical and mental health fields, diagnosis guides treatment and offers a framework for care. But what if we expanded that framework? What if, alongside identifying struggle, we looked just as intently for resilience, strength, and the ways people are already adapting?

In therapy, we call this a lens. And a lens that only looks for disorder will always find disorder.

As therapists, we have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to refine our approach. To take what we’ve learned, honor the wisdom of those who came before us, and reshape it into something that aligns with our values, our instincts, and the needs of the people sitting across from us.

This is the evolution of our field.

This is how we move forward.