My Friend Who Went
Not For An Alternative Therapy Thing
When he first told me about it, I didn’t get it. I figured it was some kind of alternative therapy thing — bit weird, bit risky.
But there was something in the way he talked, calm and sure, like he’d been somewhere I hadn’t.
He didn’t sell it, just mentioned it in passing. Said it wasn’t about fixing anything, just… stopping for a while. Being seen.
That stuck with me.
I didn’t realise how long it had been since I’d felt seen, not as a worker or a dad or a bloke holding it together, but as myself.
I kept thinking about it — this idea of two men just sitting there, no expectations, no masks. I couldn’t decide if it sounded stupid or brave. In the end curiosity won.
It’s hard to describe what happened, because it wasn’t really doing anything. More like something undone.
The noise in my head — the running commentary that never shuts up — it went quiet for a bit. I hadn’t even noticed how loud it was until it stopped.
There was no therapy talk, no “tell me about your childhood.” Just stillness. Space. The kind you don’t get anywhere else.
I walked out lighter. Not healed, not transformed — just clearer, like someone wiped the fog off the glass.
I told him later I understood now. He smiled, that same calm look I’d noticed before.
We didn’t say much more, but that was fine. Some things don’t need explaining. You just know.
