Struggling with Meaning

Talking therapy allows us space to consider many aspects of what would give us a sense of having meaning and making meaning and having meaningful experiences as well as making sense of our difficulties and concerns.  So in and of itself, the dialogue in therapy is considered as meaningful and central to the work of talking therapy.

Making meaning is a topic that is exceptionally relevant at this time particularly over the past few years.  Meaning making was a dominant theme in talking therapies during the second world war which was a time of tragedy and catastrophe different from but not entirely alien from some aspects of the isolations, deprivations and losses that appeared and occurred for many people in recent times.

How do we make meaning in the face of much adversity?  One of the ways we do this in talking therapy is to recognise that some of the activities and endeavours that we are engaged in appear in detail as meaningless but it can still be very meaningful that we engage in them.  In this way, meaning is linked to purpose as it much of what we do or engage in doesn’t seem to have meaning but there may be a purpose to it.  We can all think of how this might relate to our physical activities, our social engagements and our work demands.