Why Blue Doors?

Cara Allen, LCSW

What’s in a name? I’m so glad you asked!

If you’ve ever tried to name something (a child, a business, a car, a pet) you know how difficult it is to find that just-right combination. I contemplated “of course you want to come to me for therapy” and “the center for you’ll be glad you chose this practice” but those didn’t roll off the tongue. “I promise you’ll feel better” and “come on, take the leap” just didn’t fit right either. All joking aside, it’s really a difficult project to name something that matters.

I chose Blue Doors. Here’s what it means:

In life, I picture us as always in a room with many different doors. Sometimes we get to choose which door we walk through, and sometimes we don’t. Regardless, once we step through that new door, another room is there with a whole new set of doors. We keep going: choosing some and not others. Entering joyful rooms, neutral rooms, or rooms full of despair. These doors symbolize all of our life transitions, large and small. The sequence of doors creates our life story, our individuality, and our strength. It’s a process that goes on throughout our entire lives.

In my work with clients, we learn together what these doors have been, what has brought them to this moment in life, and where they would like to go next. We work to explore the current room, understand it a bit more, and make decisions that may influence what doors present themselves next. It’s a process of learning what we can control, what we can’t, and how we view where we currently are.

But why BLUE doors, you ask? That’s the easy part. I like the color blue. It’s also soothing and broad, reminiscent of laying on the grass and cloud gazing in the sky. It’s endless possibilities, individual interpretations, and a dependable constant.