3 Lessons from the Therapy Couch #TherapyRocks

Picture this.... you are 7 and getting ready for the first day of 2nd grade. You are excited and nervous and hopeful. You have your lunchbox and matching backpack ready to go. Eager to get the day started. Friends to see, missing teeth to compare, new shoes or clothes and the summer excitement to share.

Maybe this was your experience or pretty close to it. And maybe, like me, this is what you WANT to remember when you look back at that age. For a long time that description is what I told when I spoke of my childhood. Except that as an adult, I could never remember if it was actually something I'd experienced or some story I'd heard over an over again.

Which brings me to Lessons from the Therapy Couch

1. Our brains and bodies are incredible and will protect us at all costs. This comes in the form of forgetting pieces, entire years or events that were traumatic. Sometimes it also replaces those events with a different spin that is meant to protect you. Healing requires working through those things.

2. It's not a quick fix or adjustment. This lesson has been by far the most disappointing one I've encountered so far. I didn't think it would magically be fixed in one session but when my therapist told me it could be months or even years of work I almost walked out. Except that I had committed to healing so that I could move forward. UGH.

3. We will likely repeatedly visit the same trauma. WHAT?! Seriously? I was pissed when I hear this...... it is freaking hard work to heal and knowing that it was not a one and done felt like a pretty awful trick. I think she saw the panic on my face because my therapist quickly shared that each subsequent visit gets easier. You stay in the hard less and less and eventually it's not a trigger for you anymore. Whew.

There you have it the 3 Lessons I've learned in therapy this past month.

Healing is hard freaking work. You are literally rewiring your brain to connect to the present. To see that you are safe. If you are in the thick of healing or thinking of starting or on the other side of it.... I see you. I'm rooting for you. I'm SO PROUD of you.

xoxoxoxo Sarah