You’re going about your daily business and suddenly some music starts and a man or woman next to you begins singing along; other people join in, and before you know it, you’re witnessing what seems to be a random group of people coming together to perform a kind of miracle — a shared experience of sheer delight.

In a multicultural society, it’s inevitable that counsellors, like everyone else, will come across people whose first or even second language is not English. But if therapist and client are — quite literally — speaking different languages, how can therapeutic work even begin to take place? The answer lies in the gift of empathy.

Buddhism and Taoism have emerged into the mainstream of therapeutic thinking. But Confucianism seems to have been left out, which is a shame, because this ethical and spiritual pillar of the East has much to say about the therapeutic process.

“How do you know when your clients are lying? Their lips are moving!” a mentor once quipped to me. I believe clients’ lies have as much to say about therapists as they do about the people under our care.

I lament the fall of the once mighty myth. Myth is about so much more than a non-factual story or colloquialisms about erroneous beliefs. We need myths to help articulate powerful truths about ourselves and the world in which we live.

Are emotions like a cold? Can you be caught by others’ emotions? I think so. Just like we have some immunity to colds, and we won’t get one every time we are exposed, we can develop some immunity to others’ emotions.

There are times in all our lives where we find ourselves saying ‘yes’ to others when really, we’d love to say no and put ourselves at the top of the priority list for a change; times when we feel we’re doing all the giving in relationships and our friends or loved ones are doing the taking. So what might be getting in the way of finding a better balance in relationships?