Midwives and palliative carers

Since I worked in a labour ward in 2003, I have been intrigued by the work of midwives and palliative carers. Both are doing the same job, that of birthing something more extensive than the current.

Midwives facilitate children's births from the small world of the womb into the bigger world of the earth plane. The palliative carer births a bigger world of eternal communion from a small temporary existence.

While the midwife is present at birth, they are not the ones born, nor are they the ones bringing the child into the bigger world. They assist when they have to, and more importantly, they are witnesses to the birth.

While the palliative carer might be present at death/transition, they are not the ones that depart. They are witnesses to the departure.

Having said all that literally, the midwife and the palliative career might be mysteriously and metaphysically be internally participating in their notable births and transitions as they witness another's.

What do midwives and palliative carers do?

In a literal response, they can speak for themselves. In a metaphorical sense, they witness. To witness suggests attentiveness to what might be emerging, the control of which they might not have.

This metaphor informs my work as a therapist.

Being a therapist might be about waiting for what Howard Thurman's called "the sound of the genuine". Therapy might begin as holding a person through a crisis, an experience of conversion, a tragic loss, a period of great pain, a sharp awareness of being on a threshold.

According to Richard Rohr, while referring to spiritual companionship, suggests that, as a souls midwife, the therapist's task is to pay attention, listen to what the service-owner might not be saying—or what they might be minimising or marginalising.

The therapist works with the whole person. They are present and attentive to what might be emerging and to what the crises be a summons.

I want to know by what metaphor you are intrigued?