---
title: "4 Therapist Quotes By Thomas Lewis"
description: "4 Therapist quotes by Thomas Lewis. Plus more from Thomas Lewis and more Therapist sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg"
---

> [“People who need regulation often leave therapy sessions feeling calmer, stronger, safer, more able to handle the world. Often they don't know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-therapy-sessions-feeling/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg)

> [“Knowing someone is the first goal of therapy. Modulating emotionality - whether by relatedness or psychopharmacology or both - is second. Therapy's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-therapy-modulating-emotionality/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/95e/thomas-lewis-13941_emotional-life_knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-the_1205812.jpg)

> [“The person of the therapist is the converting catalyst, not his order or credo, not his spatial location in the room, not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-converting-catalyst-not-his-order/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e01/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-conve_1902198.jpg)

> [“The vocation of psychotherapy confers a few unexpected fringe benefits on its practitioners, and the following is one of them. It impels…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a-few-unexpected-fringe/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/thomas-lewis-13941_another-world_the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a_2095366.jpg)

## Other authors on Therapist

## More by Thomas Lewis

> [“One brain’s blueprint may promote joy more readily than most; in another, pessimism reigns. Whether happiness infuses or eludes a person depends, in part,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/one-brain-s-blueprint-may-promote-joy-more-readily-than-most-in/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“The limbic connectedness of a working psychotherapy requires uncommon courage. A patient asks to surrender the life he knows and to enter and emotional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-limbic-connectedness-of-a-working-psychotherapy-requires-uncommon/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“Everything a person is and everything he knows resides in the tangled thicket of his intertwined neurons. These fateful, tiny bridges number in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/everything-a-person-is-and-everything-he-knows-resides-in-the-tangled/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“People who need regulation often leave therapy sessions feeling calmer, stronger, safer, more able to handle the world. Often they don't know why. Nothing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-therapy-sessions-feeling/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“People rely on intelligence to solve problems, and they are naturally baffled when comprehension proves impotent to effect emotional change. To the neocortical brain,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/people-rely-on-intelligence-to-solve-problems-and-they-are-naturally/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“The benefits of deep attachment are powerful - regulated people feel whole, centered, alive.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-benefits-of-deep-attachment-are-powerful-regulated-people-feel/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“Long-standing togetherness writes permanent changes into a brain's open book. In a relationship, one mind revises another; one heart changes its partner. (144)”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/long-standing-togetherness-writes-permanent-changes-into-a-brain-s/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“When trying to fathom an immense, intricate system, drawing direct arrows of causality between micro and macro-components is perilous. Which stock caused the crash…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/when-trying-to-fathom-an-immense-intricate-system-drawing-direct/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“Modern amorists are sometimes taken aback at the prospect of investing in a relationship with no guarantee of reward. It is precisely that absence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/modern-amorists-are-sometimes-taken-aback-at-the-prospect-of/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“In a dazzling vote of confidence for form over substance, our culture fawns over the fleetingness of being “in love” while discounting the importance…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/in-a-dazzling-vote-of-confidence-for-form-over-substance-our-culture/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“A person cannot direct his emotional life in the way he bids his motor system to reach for a cup. He cannot will himself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/a-person-cannot-direct-his-emotional-life-in-the-way-he-bids-his/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“What Richard Selzer, M.D. once wrote of surgery is true of therapy: only human love keeps this from being the act of two madmen.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/what-richard-selzer-m-d-once-wrote-of-surgery-is-true-of-therapy-only/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“The brain’s dense thicket of interrelationships, like those of history or art, does not yield to the reductivist’s bright blade.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-brain-s-dense-thicket-of-interrelationships-like-those-of-history/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“Loving is limbically distinct from in love. Loving is mutuality ; loving is synchronous attunement and modulation. As such, adult love depends critically upon…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/loving-is-limbically-distinct-from-in-love-loving-is-mutuality-loving/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

> [“Advances in communication technology foster a false fantasy of togetherness by transmitting the impression of contact- phone calls, faxes, e-mail- without its substance. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/advances-in-communication-technology-foster-a-false-fantasy-of/)

[Thomas Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-lewis/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/#itemlist",
            "name": "4 Therapist Quotes By Thomas Lewis",
            "numberOfItems": 4,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“People who need regulation often leave therapy sessions feeling calmer, stronger, safer, more able to handle the world. Often they don't know why. Nothing obviously helpful happened - telling a stranger about your pain sounds nothing like a certain recipe for relief. And the feeling inevitably dwindles, sometimes within minutes, taking the warmth and security with it. But the longer a patient depends, the more his stability swells, expanding infinitesimally with ever session as length is added to a woven cloth with each pass of the shuttle, each contraction of the loom. And after he weaves enough of it, the day comes when the patient will unfurl his independence like a pair of spread wings. Free at last, he catches a wind and rides into other lands. (172)”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Thomas Lewis"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-therapy-sessions-feeling/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“People who need regulation often leave therapy sessions feeling calmer, stronger, safer, more able to handle…” — Thomas Lewis",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Knowing someone is the first goal of therapy. Modulating emotionality - whether by relatedness or psychopharmacology or both - is second. Therapy's last and most ambitious aim is revising the neural code that directs an emotional life. (176)”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Thomas Lewis"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-therapy-modulating-emotionality/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/95e/thomas-lewis-13941_emotional-life_knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-the_1205812.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/95e/thomas-lewis-13941_emotional-life_knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-the_1205812.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/95e/thomas-lewis-13941_emotional-life_knowing-someone-is-the-first-goal-of-the_1205812.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Knowing someone is the first goal of therapy. Modulating emotionality - whether by relatedness or…” — Thomas Lewis",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“The person of the therapist is the converting catalyst, not his order or credo, not his spatial location in the room, not his exquisitely chosen words or denominational silences. So long as the rules of a therapeutic system do not hinder limbic transmission - a critical caveat - they remain inconsequential, neocortical distractions. The dispensable trappings of dogma may determine what a therapist thinks he is doing, what he talks about when he talks about therapy, but the agent of change is who he is. (187)”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Thomas Lewis"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-converting-catalyst-not-his-order/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e01/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-conve_1902198.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e01/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-conve_1902198.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e01/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_the-person-of-the-therapist-is-the-conve_1902198.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“The person of the therapist is the converting catalyst, not his order or credo, not his spatial location in…” — Thomas Lewis",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“The vocation of psychotherapy confers a few unexpected fringe benefits on its practitioners, and the following is one of them. It impels participation in a process that our modern world has all but forgotten: sitting in a room with another person for hours at a time with no purpose in mind but attending. As you do so, another world expands and comes alive to your senses--a world governed by forces that were old before humanity began.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Thomas Lewis"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-lewis/the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a-few-unexpected-fringe/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/thomas-lewis-13941_another-world_the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a_2095366.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/thomas-lewis-13941_another-world_the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a_2095366.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/thomas-lewis-13941_another-world_the-vocation-of-psychotherapy-confers-a_2095366.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“The vocation of psychotherapy confers a few unexpected fringe benefits on its practitioners, and the…” — Thomas Lewis",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/",
            "name": "Therapist Quotes by Thomas Lewis",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36a/thomas-lewis-13941_mental-health_people-who-need-regulation-often-leave-t_224538.jpg"
            },
            "description": "4 Therapist quotes by Thomas Lewis. Plus more from Thomas Lewis and more Therapist sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Therapist",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Thomas Lewis",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/therapist/thomas-lewis/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
