"You cannot heal what you will not feel" - Clarissa Pinkola Estes
 

Feeling the things you've worked hard to avoid can be scary if you don't have someone helping you sit with what comes up.

I believe you can handle any hard emotion, and with the right support, those emotions can point to a path of healing.

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." - Carl Rogers
 

If I were to guess, you've been beating yourself up for a long time. You feel that you don't deserve to be kind to yourself. In fact, you  feel that if you were nicer to yourself, you wouldn't change. However, the opposite is true: radical self-acceptance leads to positive changes. Sometimes, seeing yourself through someone else's eyes helps you get there. 

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you" - Maya Angelou
 

There's parts of you -- thoughts you have, things that have happened to you, things you've done -- that are covered in confusion, guilt, and shame. An amazing thing happens when you talk about those things with someone who won't judge you and will help you make sense of it all. 

"Let’s not deny our feelings, nor else mix them up with facts" - Corinne Shields
 

Many of us either ignore our feelings completely or take them too seriously. I believe we should acknowledge all thoughts and emotions with kindness and curiosity, but we don't have to accept them as true. Counseling helps you approach your inner world with compassion instead of being controlled by it. 

“Emotional pain is not something that should be hidden away and never spoken about. There is truth in your pain, there is growth in your pain, but only if it's first brought out into the open.” - Steven Aitchison

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