How do you know if your therapy experience is the beginning of something? The sense of a beginning, is best understood by paying attention to how and what you feel during the time you spend in session. It's a bit like that phrase, "its not what she says, but how she makes you feel," that relates most to the beginning of something special in therapy.

The therapist meets you where you are and together, you work on developing into the person you want to be. It's a collaborative process.

The therapist recognizes what you are feeling deeply, tapping into what you need most in the time you work together. Perhaps you feel heard and understood for the first time. 

The therapist reflects back to you, how and why you might be feeling a certain way, even if it was out of your own conscious awareness.  Somehow she is able to feel into your subjective experience in a way that no other person has, convey this experience to you, and help you know yourself a little bit better in the process.

The therapist helps you understand how you got to be the person you are, including your strengths and your challenges, yet the process of knowing unfolds with kindness, compassion, and non-judgment. You feel understood.

The therapist notices and conveys a sense of aliveness, deadness, or somewhere in between, which seems to help you understand parts of yourself like never before.

The therapist helps you gain insight in to your patterns of connecting or disconnecting with others. This new perspective-taking comes with greater self and social awareness, two mental assets that matter significantly in how you navigate in life.

The therapist makes it known that you are not alone; she is with you and you can borrow whatever you need for your own growth and development. 

"We are on this path together. Borrow my strengths until they become yours."

Warm regards,

Rebecca