A Note from your Friendly Neighborhood Therapist

Dear Reader,

Therapy is so much more than just an hour per week. It’s taking a chance on yourself and the better future you imagine. It’s bravery, courage, love, letting go, grief, and understanding. It’s a place to take the mask off, to be whoever you are without fear of judgment. It’s a commitment to yourself to live life on your own terms, unburdened by the past and the traumas placed upon you.

I always tell my clients that therapy is like hiking tumultuous terrain. You need help navigating the land in front of you, so you pick me (the therapist) up as a hitchhiker. Together, we set forth on the path to learn just how we need to move through this land. We go through the peaks, the valleys, and everything in between. I share my resources and knowledge with you along the way until you can say, “I think I can do this on my own.” Then, you drop me back off and we wave goodbye, knowing you can always pick me back up at any point in your journey, feeling confident in the life you have created.

Therapy is more than just an hour a week. It’s the insights in between, the little moments where your work starts to show up in real time. It’s learning how to have awareness in the moment without judgment or shame. It’s building a trusting and healthy relationship with another person to work through a lifetime of pain and hurt. It’s being willing to try something new for the sake of yourself.

I’m here to let you in on a little secret—for us therapists, therapy is more than just an hour per week, too. It’s learning all about your world, your people, your likes and dislikes, your successes and failures, how you came to be the person you are. It’s seeing a rosebush and thinking of your client who grows her own in her backyard. It’s seeing a show on TV and thinking “client would love this!” It’s going to your own personal therapy to have continued empathy for what it feels like to be on the other side of the couch and the commitment to the phrase “you can only meet others as deeply as you’ve met yourself.”

Therapy is so much more than just an hour a week—it’s a place to feel safe and grow into the person you’ve always wanted to be because you took a risk becoming vulnerable. All because you were willing to be brave and courageous to try something new and scary. It is a true honor to get to witness and see you, to get to share in your light, and to lend you mine when you can’t find yours. Therapy is so much more than just an hour a week, yet it is my favorite hour each and every week.

From my couch to yours,

Kate