Benjamin Thompson

He is not without his controversy, but Nietzsche said something that is relevant to our journey through life, and often poignant in therapy: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Often, that’s a large jump in therapy—to finally be able to say, “Well that makes more sense now!”.  Then we can step through that barrier of isolation and feeling defective and realize that our pain is often a brilliant part of who we are, of our common humanity, of our resiliency to survive and thrive.

Whatever you bring to the therapy experience, you bring some things that are common to all of humanity, some things that you share with your family and culture, and some things that are completely unique to just yourself.  Together, we seek to explore these hidden belief systems, rules, and expectations that have come to define us.  Often, they have gone unvoiced, unobserved, and undiscussed for decades…and while they inform our identity and our experience, they don’t have to control our goals, hopes, and dreams.

The cliche of what many conceive of therapy to be—dredging up the past and blaming everything on our upbringing and our life circumstances, and then somehow magically experiencing catharsis and eliminating pain and discomfort from our life, is not really how it all works out.  Neither do we disavow the past and formative experiences.  We find a middle ground where we mindfully acknowledge everything that has brought us to this point in life, right here and now, but we find a way to reframe that journey and find a new direction forward that is equipped with a new sense of self-compassion, context, and purpose.

Therapy isn’t necessarily a lifeboat from a foundering ship.  (Well, okay, sometimes it is in the short-term.  That’s what sweatpants and Netflix are for.) It’s more of rewiring so that we realize we’re the expert of our own life.  Together, it is my hope that we will move forward and you will start using the tools that you’ve always had…and begin responding to life, instead of just experiencing life as something that is happening to you.