I was reading recently about a community shop somewhere in the east of England.  The shop sells a mixture of donated, second-hand and new goods, runs a food bank...and has a worry chair.

The worry chair is not for sale.

A notice on the back of the chair says something like “I cannot promise to solve all your problems, but I can promise you won’t have to face them alone”.

There’s an understanding that any customer who comes and sits in that chair, will get a cup of tea & biscuits and someone who will come and sit and talk, and listen to them.

What a fabulous idea!

I think there are certainly times if I lived in that area, when I might well go and sit in that chair for a while.

It also got me to thinking that perhaps, therapy is a bit like that too.

We have worries, difficulties, problems etc.  And sometimes we need a listening ear.  A time of soothing.  Someone to take time with us.

A therapist is not going to “fix” us.  But there will be that space that is focussed solely on you, or me.  Time to simply “say it as it is” without any judgement or expectation.

So, whether it’s called a therapy chair, a worry chair, simply the chair in a therapy room with  a professional, or the sofa in a friend’s house, it provides space and time for healing and refreshment so we can get up and face the world again.

My heart and admiration goes out to the staff and people in that Community Shop for such an absolutely brilliant idea.  So simple, and so effective.  And so much needed in our world today.

What would you want someone to listen to in that Worry Chair today with you?

Can you create your own worry chair and dialogue with your own inner voice to listen to yourself?

Or perhaps you can do that for someone else around you today?

Take Care.