Being human is a struggle. Navigating pain, love, anger, fear, shame and guilt can keep us from healing. We create patterns of beliefs about ourselves and others that can keep us from knowing our authentic selves. Life is for the living. It involves exploring your strengths and your abilities.

As humans, we develop patterns of behaviors that enable us to cope. Whether our behaviors are learned in our youth or as adults, we get stuck in patterns that create relational distance. This distance prevents us from connecting with others or with ourselves and inevitably produces loneliness and shame.

Therapy clarifies how something you heard, saw or had done to your body has affected your ability to relate to yourself, to your body or to others—rather than the intention the other person may have had. We all have been impacted by other humans, whether it is the media, family, friend or ourselves telling us, for example, "who or how we should be living out our lives or what will make us happy." These 'traumas' become a belief system we hold for ourselves. Our bodies will react, shut down, or feel like we are out of control. This creates feelings of isolation, helplessness, and hopelessness. The issue is not the trauma (pain), it is the residue that plays out in our daily life that keeps us from feeling alive now.

The hope of therapy is to offer guidance in processing new ways of relating to ourself and to others. This process is painful but healing. By creating a safe space in therapy, we can navigate how the impact of life events, coping skills (defenses), relationships with others, and/or self-talk may have had on you and we can create new avenues for healing.