What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Rather than being a depressed, mixed up, dissociative kid, (kids like those who were frequently brought to me for so-called “diagnosis and treatment” because they weren’t doing well in school or were perceived to be socially maladjusted or too “shy”), maybe Suzy Bell was just a normal, highly creative and imaginative kid, reacting to a difficult home situation with grief, in all its normal stages . . . sadness and depression (in The River of Tears), and confusion and anger and feeling lost (in The Road North).
And then there’s Suzy Bell’s “helpers” — she had a lot of them along the way: the Wolf, who perhaps symbolized an inner spiritual resource, her “guide”; the Angel-in-the-moon, a shrink type who made a stab at some cognitive restructuring in helping Suzy Bell to find some kind of way to live in an unhappy situation with her Hallelujah Anyway advice; and of course The Lady and the Dragonfly, spiritual resources who helped bring it all home for Suzy Bell, enabling her to claim her real self, Suzy Bellissima.
In my teaching days, I would have talked about this treatment process being one of cognitive restructuring leading to an increased capacity for better emotional regulation, of enabling Suzy Bell to work through her grieving to a place of acceptance and more positive coping.
But the true healing lies in the magic of Suzy Bell’s discovery of who she truly is, and of what her place in the world is all about. Young or old, may we all be so blessed as to discover Suzy Bellissima’s Magic.