That’s a question we ask as we consider getting therapy. Is there really a chance I could change? Can I risk hoping that my life could be better? Obviously, as a therapist I say the answer is YES!!
I base my answer on many things, but mostly on my belief that deeply embedded in every aspect of our humanness is a God-given ability to heal ourselves. We recognize this healing in our physical bodies, but find it harder to see in the other parts of ourselves.
I have a scar on my right hand index finger. I cut it when I was 6 playing with a toy car. I think it was a ’58 Mercury. I remember how it hurt, how the blood scared me, and how my mom tended to me. Gradually it healed. Every day I could see it changing as my body repaired itself.
We take this process for granted, how deep somewhere in our body is an image of how it’s supposed to be. How our bodies respond to injury with a miraculous barrage of healing activities resulting in nothing but a little scar on a finger.
If my finger can heal, maybe our hearts and minds can too. Maybe this miraculous God-given powerful self-healing thing is embedded in our souls as well as in our bodies. If so, maybe there’s more hope for emotional healing and change than we thought.
As a therapist, a big part of my job is to help clients identify and nurture this healing process already at work deep within themselves. My work is to help them clear away the debris that slows healing. Mom washed my finger. She sprayed it with some “Bactine” stuff that came in a green plastic bottle and smelled cool. She put a Band-aid on it and checked it every day.
Likewise, I help folks tend to their hurts by looking at the wounds, the bleeding places and the traumas. We locate lies together; the ones that hovered like germs as we tried as children to interpret why we got hurt. I remind them of their strength, their resilience and their potential support systems. My finger healed because it was connected to a body that had the necessary resources. Likewise, our healing is nurtured by healthy connection to other people. The ones who love us and have our back, not the ones whose critical voices pick at our scabs.
So have hope! Reach out. Call a qualified helper and let the healing process do its work in you.
And be careful with your toys, kids.