September is a beautiful month that invites you to prepare for the next season and year. Most people equate the spring season as the most generative time of the year, but many bulbs are planted in the autumn as well. As the days shorten, and the weather grows cooler, you likely find yourself engaging in annual traditions that mark the closing of the year. Packing away your summer clothing, preparing your children for a healthy start to school, and closing up your cottage are all familiar rituals that people engage in to prepare for winter.
Hopefully, you created space for repose and restoration over the summer months. The health benefits from a restful summer vacation will reinvigorate your body and help to sustain all of the tasks involved in your return to work and school. Enjoying the company of friends and family restores your heart and grounds you in love. Tending to your garden and personal belongings are wellness activities that both mobilize and demarcate your experiences. It is a healthy time to sort through your stuff and to decide what you will keep, donate, or throw away. The fall is an excellent time to clean up, declutter, and reorganize your living spaces. It is also a time to reclaim items and memories that matter most to you.
Lakeside Wellness Therapy Affiliates is moving at the end of September. For the past five years, I have been located on Queen St East in the beaches in Toronto. The community has been especially supportive and welcoming, especially in light of the challenges to small businesses through Covid. In fact, the pandemic started soon after I signed my commercial lease agreement. I had no idea that for the majority of the time, I would be working remotely from my new therapy offices. Over the course of time, I mentored four new start-ups and supported clinicians professionally. My fields of social work counselling, psychotherapy, and coaching have evolved. Although a few people still prefer to meet in person, most clients favour the convenience of online care.
My small business will mostly operate virtually from my home office. Of course, there will be some monthly business expenses associated with accessing in-person therapy spaces closer to home, but overhead costs will reduce dramatically. So, I have also been sorting and packing things up this fall. As I engage in this ritual of closure, I am taking note of the emotional impact on me, and all of the things I learned as a small business owner. I feel so very grateful to all of the clients I met over the past five years. Some have chosen to continue to work with me as longer term clients. I have witnessed such amazing growth and healing in so many people. I continue to be awed by the capacity of the human heart to overcome and to carry on. I have been privileged to journey with people in their stories of recovery and to witness healing.
During this ritual of closure, I have also had time to reflect on who sought out my services over the past five years and why. It has certainly been an intense five years in Toronto! Thankfully, my clients reflect the cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, and gender diversity of our city. I feel honoured and humbled by their collective faith in my ability to provide a safe and non-judgemental space to gain clarity and to heal. It has reminded me that, in my view, human suffering transcends the divisive limits created by radical identity politics.
Much like planting bulbs in autumn, the closing of my office on Queen St. this fall brings with it a sense of hope for new beginnings as well!
Lisa Romano-Dwyer BSc, MSW, PhD, RSW
