15. River Rights

Rivers are dying so give them rights: apparently this is the new radical. To give inanimate objects rights: or to assign an individual to speak for the river appears fanciful yet we are doing this all the time. With animals, children, teenagers, women, men, adults we can see how we do this. By speaking out, attracting attention, setting up charities to the plight of others. If they are sentient, feeling beings then we understand.

But with inanimate objects it can sound a bit fanciful. But who doesn’t need support other than our polluted rivers?
A voice to push back on the waste that is poured into them. Push back on the fish & animals that can no longer live in or alongside them. To be an advocate for an abused inanimate object that cannot help itself seems worthy. Especially as it encroaches more & more on our human lives. Roles for people are funded to raise the voices of our rivers. In contradiction the rivers are said to heal themselves.

Therapy also has this role. The therapist has to advocate for the child which the adult cannot see or feel. A lot of the work is the therapist holding parts of the client which are abused & wounded. What is blocked in the client gets put onto the therapist so the client can avoid feeling it. Anger, pain, resentment are the weights which the client unknowingly slides acroos the therapy room to the therapist.
Our work is to hold the weight for safekeeping, ready for it to be passed back to the client when ready.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2025
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