[Verse 1] Pull out the ledger of the last five years, Not profit and loss, but the weight that accrues — A retirement, a relocation, a spouse who disappears, Each threshold crossed leaves a residue. Map the transitions, stack them end to end, Cumulative grief moves like sediment downstream, What felt manageable at one bend By the fourth crossing, unravels every seam. Ask yourself: have I traced the full topography, Or just the peak the client chose to name? Self-assessment means auditing your own cartography — Do you flatten what you ought to frame? [Chorus] Schau genau hin, prüf dich selbst, Wer bist du in diesem Raum? Die Last der Jahre, die sich angehäuft, Erkennst du sie — oder nur den Schaum? Examine the layers, count the crossings made, Do not let the cumulative weight evade Your clinical eye — map what time has laid. Schau genau hin, prüf dich selbst. [Verse 2] Now the conversation turns to intimate ground, An older client, a life of desire still present — Do you clear your throat, glance suddenly around, Or do you hold the space without descent? Sexual health does not retire at seventy-two, It shifts its form, its frequency, its ache, Dyspareunia, libido recalibrated anew, A partner lost — what questions do you make? Self-assess your posture, not the clinical kind — Does your language assume celibacy by default? The assumption is the artifact of an untrained mind, A closed question is a door with a vault. [Chorus] Schau genau hin, prüf dich selbst, Wer bist du in diesem Raum? Die Last der Jahre, die sich angehäuft, Erkennst du sie — oder nur den Schaum? Examine the layers, count the crossings made, Do not let the cumulative weight evade Your clinical eye — map what time has laid. Schau genau hin, prüf dich selbst. [Bridge] Kein Vorurteil, keine Scham — The practitioner's creed when aging meets desire. You are the instrument; tune what became Assumption dressed as clinical attire. Five years of loss compounded, intimacy unspoken — Both demand the therapist undoctored and awake, Not the reflex of a bias long unbroken, But the courage of a question you can take. Wo steht du? — stand inside the audit. Map your blind spots with the same precision You bring to clients — do not simply guard it, Examine every edge of your own vision. [Verse 3] The baroque counterpoint of age and care Weaves two voices: competence and humility, Self-assessment is not theater to prepare — It is the daily practice of fidelity. To the work, to the elder across the table, To the five-year arc you haven't yet inquired, To the question you once felt somehow unable — Now you ask it, calibrated and unwired. Write the timeline. Speak the unspoken name. Notice where your discomfort marks a gap. Clinical growth is not a trophy or a claim — It lives in what you do before the session's map.
← 4 Spirituality, Meaning, and Existential Concerns | Learning Objectives →