Before moving back to Spokane, I spent five years teaching and practicing in New Zealand which had a profound effect on me. One of the central symbols of Maori, the indigenous people, is the koru or “spiral” which is based on the unfurling of a silver fern. For Maori, it symbolizes new beginnings, creation, growth, strength, and peace. The spiral shape of the koru conveys one of life’s great tensions – that we are in perpetual movement and change. But the inner coil with its inner leaflets waiting to unfurl also suggests there is a lot of life yet to be experienced through this change.

To me, the this symbol encapsulates what I hope our time in therapy will be for the both of us. There will be some difficult change and discovery of our inner worlds, just like the leaves spreading on a fern. Without this, we stay dormant and life escapes us. If you’ve ever seen the end result of one of these ferns, you know the magnificence of what it can be. I hope our time can be similar in many respects.