Why "Turning Stones?"

When starting my private practice, I had no doubt this was the name I would choose. I also had no shortage of people asking me why. If you know me personally or have worked with me professionally, you know that I rely heavily on good- bad puns and analogies to make sense of life and all it teaches. 

Most of my own personal moments of change and healing have come from a single moment, not some grandiose chain of events. In my undergrad program at WWU while discussing the butterfly effect, we read a book by a caseworker in New York City called “Turning Stones: Days and Nights with Children At Risk” by Marc Parent. Throughout this book, I found the author weaving the weight and impact of single moments in our lives and how often they are lumped together or overlooked.

In one of Parent’s chapters, he recalls a story one of his teachers shared in middle school. She was traveling with fellow nuns on a road trip and one nun in particular exited the travel bus at  each of the 56 stops. She would then go find a stone and simply turn it over, leaving her peers perplexed at first. Parent describes it how he understands it, “…she reaches down to do something in that moment that no other man or woman that ever lived or died, no matter how great or powerful…-something that no person and no thing on the entire planet could ever do at that exact point in time.” When she asked by the nuns why she does this, she replies, “I turn a stone…so that the place is different…because I have been there.” (Parent, 1996). 

I love the ambiguity of how everyone can create their own idea of what turning stones might mean for them. In therapy with me, I will invite you to “turn stones” however you find it useful. Maybe you’re stepping over the rocks of your past. Maybe you’re turning them over one by one and placing them behind you as you move forward. Maybe you pick them up to toss them into the water, releasing the heaviness back to the water where it no longer weighs you down. Or maybe it’s truly an action of discovery, just noticing that turning one stone or changing one thought is different because you were there. Whatever the reason may be, I’m committed to partnering with you and remind you that your experiences can provide strength for you, if you allow it. 

Also, I do really love a good bad-pun so it’s only appropriate to make sure to remind you that therapy ROCKS and so do you for reaching out! 😊

Reference

Parent, Marc. (1996). A Caseworker’s story: Turning Stones: My Days and Nights with Children at Risk. The Ballantine Publishing Goup.

Find Marc Parent’s Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Stones-Nights-Children-Caseworkers/dp/0449912353