Living Souls

by Jessica L. Faulk

     My mentor was fond of a saying of Carl Jung’s, and he would repeat it to me regularly over the years as I moved on my path toward graduate school and a social work education. Sometimes he would take his laptop and look up the phrase, so he could remember it accurately. He had a way of talking that impressed on you his warmth and care. “Learn your theories as well as you can,” he recited to me. “But put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul.”

     He knew my love of books and theory. Formerly majoring in English, I gathered to me the works of the founders of psychology, seeking an understanding of the classic literature of my field. Freud, Jung, Maslow, Horney, Pavlov, and Skinner were among those who filled the bookshelf next to my desk. I wanted the books near me as I worked my way through my psychology bachelor’s degree and began graduate school. They reminded me of the importance of the profession, and these founders daunted me with their achievements. As I studied the books and the lives of the authors behind them, I marveled at the human foibles of the writers. If they could be flawed and achieve such heights, then there was hope for anyone.

     When my mentor quoted the passage from what I later discovered was Jung’s third lecture on analytical psychology and education, I would generally receive it with polite interest. Coming back to school later in life than some of my peers, I had become a good student, and my books were a comfort to me. They would surely teach me what I needed. When I began my first internship in my second semester of graduate school, I worked with seniors in affordable housing. On the first day at my internship, my supervisor and I had a woman in the office, and my supervisor left the room for a few minutes to make copies of paperwork. For the first time in the process of my education, I was alone in the room with a client, and I was immediately struck by what I did not know.

     My mentor was right.

     In the wake of the global pandemic of COVID-19, students in many places had to cease their internships. For myself, I had been gaining confidence. I had stumbled; I had persevered; I had learned. Reading theory is easy and comfortable, but there is a unique education that only occurs in physical proximity to another person. The moment my supervisor left the room the first time, I had to fall back on knowledge that I thought had little to do with social work, policy, and ethics. It was about human connection. Carl Rogers put it another way: “It is the attitudes and feelings of the therapist, rather than his theoretical orientation, which is important.” No one benefits from treatment as an object. This was real learning - an experience of relational genuineness - and I was eager to learn it more deeply.

     For all of the students who were sent home from their internships, we lost some of the opportunity we had to expand our knowledge of being, which is something no classroom can teach. It is fortunate, then, that no matter if the students graduate soon or in a year - that internship was not our only chance to learn. There is much growth to be had in our next semester, in our careers, and in our daily lives. I wonder about the stories and lives that will develop out of the coronavirus. Our education will increase with diligence. With wisdom, we will learn to better reach the living souls we serve.

Jessica L. Faulk is an MSW student at Winthrop University, with a BA in psychology from Arizona State University. She intends to earn her LCSW and practice psychotherapy.