essayist Mary PlouffeEach week, we’ll hear a new This I Believe essay – this week by Mary Plouffe. She was trained as a classical soprano before becoming a clinical psychologist in private practice in South Freeport, Maine. She writes essays about therapy and social/cultural issues and is completing a memoir about childhood grief based on her sister’s death and the relationship with her niece from ages three to ten. Plouffe makes her living with words: In the life details her patients share, and in the counsel she offers in return. But Plouffe has come to believe that the best opportunities for healing may come when no words are spoken at all.
Click here to read a transcript and to listen to the audio of her “This I Believe” essay.
Read the guidelines for writing and submitting your own statement of belief.
Thank you for your beautiful "This I Believe" essay on silence. It was written with gentleness and conviction, and compelled me to "silence" everything else and just listen to your words intently. In recent years I have wrestled with, been curious about, feared, hated, wished for, understood, and finally become very comfortable in silence. I thought your essay was a wonderful reflection on this underused, underappreciated, unsung concept. Thank you.