The Hyggelig Journey

In the half-light of the clinic, there is a moment when silence weighs like an ancient secret. The needle touches the skin, and the body responds before the mind, as if it knows something that thought has yet to grasp. Pain, anguish, insomnia — the invisible knots of existence — are all there, woven into the meridians but also into unspoken words. And then, a conversation begins. Not just any conversation, the kind that drifts absent-mindedly between time and urgency. But a deep listening, a thread of thought unravelling precisely where the body seeks relief. Acupuncture opens doors the mind has unknowingly closed, and cognitive therapy steps in to organise the chaos, like someone gently sweeping dry leaves from a garden. Because touching the body is not enough if the mind remains trapped in old labyrinths. Pain is born as much from what happens to us as from what we do with what happens to us. Thoughts weave our emotions, and more often than not, they are what tighten th...

Some people are so accustomed to themselves as they are that abandoning what harms them requires a certain amount of time and effort—something that is not for the therapist to judge. I recall a patient whose chronic pain made the periodic use of medication essential for clinical management. Yet, she was reluctant to rely on it. Her refusal to take any medication stemmed from a fear of becoming dependent on it. She associated it with a previous experience, where it took her far too long to wean herself off an antidepressant she had used daily. However, this was now a reheated emotion. What could have been resolved in a few follow-up appointments—if not the worst of the crisis at least—stretched into a long journey of many interventions. But, given her self-imposed limitations, perhaps that was the time she needed and was capable of allowing herself. The most painful part of humanised listening is knowing that much of what is advised and prescribed will be ignored by the patient. Hel...