Client Insight: “It felt scary when therapy started to change how I saw myself and others.”
Doing the work in therapy often comes with challenging the stories you’ve always told yourself. Over time we solidify ideas about ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. This can sound like:
“I’m broken.”
“I’ll always be an emotional eater.”
“My mom did the best she could.”
But as you face these narratives about yourself, you’ll start to find the wiggle room, the space to start re-thinking how you see yourself and what that means for your identity. This can feel destabilizing! It is scary if you always thought of yourself or those in your life one way, only to unpack that things are different that they first appeared. It can feel easier to stick with the familiar way you’ve always understood your family and friends, and even yourself.
While this experience is uncomfortable, it is also a great sign that therapy is getting to the root of your experiences. Let’s flip the script: changing how you see the world is like taking off a pair of tinted sunglasses.
Let’s try this with one of the examples above: “I’ll always be an emotional eater.” This is a great example of how your coping mechanism has become a part of how you see yourself. But it is also limiting: the “always” implies you’ll never be able to feel in control around food or manage your emotions differently.
Wearing this emotional eater identity can keep you stuck in the habit—how often do you regret emotional eating after the fact? This limiting belief makes you feel almost as if you have to continue to rely on food for emotional release because it is how you’ve identified for so long it feels familiar.
A shift starts to happen when you wonder who you might be and how you might act if you weren’t an emotional eater. Even just doing away with the “always” gives you a little more wiggle room and allows you to get curious and come from a place of “I’m learning” not “I’m stuck.”
If you feel ready to dive in, ask yourself: If emotional eating wasn’t an option, how would I care for myself? We hope that makes these internal changes feel less scary—you don’t have to fear change!
💛 Your peace awaits.
