The One Butt Canoe

This is a book of problems, but it is not depressing! In many of my counseling sessions, clients have asked common questions. How did I get my insecurities? Why do I feel inferior to others? Why do I let others control me? How can I go on since he/she has left me? The perception of a one butt canoe was given as a visual picture to help clients detach emotionally from their Issue. The concept of one butt canoe depicts a person being born as a one butt canoe. The canoe is carved with a personality having a soul and an ego.


The purpose of the canoe’s journey on the river is to learn to conquer the ego’s desires. The canoe is the symbol for you and me, the soul reveals the love in us, the ego is our selfishness, and the river shows us our purpose. Clients came to counseling to discuss their problems, my goal in illustrating the one butt canoe was to help them develop attitudes of courage.