A client once described sitting at her kitchen table on a Saturday morning, staring at her to-do list. “A part of me wanted to curl up on the couch with a book,” she said, “and another part told me I was wasting time.” Many people recognize this tension — feeling...
In therapy, there is a common exercise where we write a letter from our future self to our present self — imagining the wiser, more grounded version of who we hope to become. It is a hopeful practice, and for many, it offers motivation and direction. But this exercise...
“I should have known better.” “That wasn’t good enough.” “What’s wrong with me?” Most people know the feeling of the internal voice that pounces the moment we falter. In depth-oriented therapy, this voice is often understood as part of the superego — the internalized...
“Making amends is like tending a garden. You can’t undo the neglect, but you can return with water, patience, and care.” Saying “I was wrong” is one of the most difficult sentences for the ego to form — and one of the most transformative. To recognize that we have...
Picture a quiet, moss-covered forest. Close your eyes and place yourself there — not as a visitor, but as someone returning. What do you hear? What do you smell? What changes in your breath? There is a reason the forest feels like medicine. Long before cities,...
We are always speaking inwardly, even in silence. This ongoing conversation, self-talk, becomes the unseen architecture of our emotional life. Sometimes it’s a steadying presence, a quiet coach reminding us we’re capable. More often, it is a relentless judge,...
