To Choose Therapy

What therapy has meant to me

As a client, therapy has had a meaningful impact on my life. Being in the role of the client is what led me to become a therapist and has solidified my belief that this work is transformational. As you consider whether or not to take this step, I want to share with you the role therapy has played in my life.

From the time I was young I had absorbed feelings of discomfort as my whole identity. Feelings I was sure to endure for my lifetime. I didn’t see another way because my surroundings re-enforced my experience to the point that I could not imagine anything else. Through the deep inexplicable feeling of knowing that there was more for me, I decided to seek guidance.

In my early twenties after graduating from college I sought out therapy after life transitions that felt excruciating. Throughout that time, I learned about the ways I rejected myself before others could, my need to be ‘good’ and to please to keep others close, and how childhood patterns lingered and played out in current relationships. I learned that I could interrupt the hateful thoughts that kept circulating about myself and that it was ok to be loving towards myself.

My therapist had shifted to carry different roles as we evolved together. I healed through our relationship and began to shed the layers of discomfort that suffocated me for my lifetime. With a newfound skin, I felt like a child learning about myself and the world for the first time. I could interact more freely and expand into my body, versus the shrinking I was so familiar with.

My time is no longer as consumed by rumination, distress, and fear. I see healing as an action that takes different shapes in our lifetime, the inner ‘work’ is never finished, yet changes overtime. I reflect on how this led me to take brave steps in relationships, piqued my interest into different trailheads of self-discovery, and ultimately helped me to give myself permission to have self-compassion and face what is being reflected in the ways I had set up my world.

I have learned that urgency is how we are conditioned to look away and avoid what is. Avoidance of our feelings, fears, and needs. I believe through individual work we can affect one another and heal collectively. We need each other to hold and witness what is too heavy for one person to carry. To work towards slowing down, being present with what is, and moving from a space of love without certainty.

I feel called to be a therapist because I feel the desire to hold others in their time of need, and value the connection of sharing vulnerable truths. I want to show others that life can be different from what you believe you will endure for a lifetime. The beliefs we internalize about ourselves and our world can change into something more beautiful and free, which must encompass our pain in all it’s forms. To allow someone to peek into your experiences and witness your pain is courageous and an act of love. I have learned so much from the people I work(ed) with and feel endless love and gratitude for being granted access into their inner worlds.