If you've ever sought therapy, then you know that your first encounter with a therapist is often birthed from some ongoing mental, emotional, or existential crisis that has finally become unbearable. Prior to setting that appointment, you were attempting to regulate and manage the pain or circumstance on your own, but you reached a breaking point. Congratulations, you're now ready for help and you can choose to see the breaking point as either a new beginning or a sad ending. It's your perspective to define. We all have a limit on how much we can take, and seeking therapy is not an indication of your weakness, but a bold statement of your humility and fortitude and drive to overcome. While many disdain the benefit of mental and emotional health treatment, as a therapist, I've seen beautiful and profound strength in the broken client who tearfully seeks help (Psalm 51:17). Those who disregard the advantages of therapy are usually the ones who have never experienced it, and therefore, have no knowledge with which to judge the treatment process and therapy dynamic. Is that to say therapy is for everyone? Certainly not. Each person must handle life in a way fitting for himself, but if you're a therapy patient, and have sought help from a place of brokenness and despair, know that you're stronger than you think, more capable than you've ever dreamed, and fully known and loved by a God who sees you (Genesis 16:13), not just as you are, but also as you can be.
Irvin Yalom said that "every person must choose how much truth he can stand," and therapy, in many ways, is a search for, and exploration of situational, mental, and emotional truth and all the layers therein. I spent many years asking God to show me the truth of who I am. "Father, show me who I am in Your eyes," was an oft repeated request, yet more recently, I have been asking Him to show me, not who I am, but who I can be and who I am to become. A similar investigative journey, but with presumably different revelations and outcomes. Some people claim a refusal to change and cite age or contentment or indifference as the reason why, but none of those alter the inescapable truth that change is occurring with or without their participation. Every passing second brings with it an unseen metamorphosis of one's being. You are no longer as young now as you were when you started reading this. You have aged between this word and the word "if" at the top of the page. Change. Deny it, run from it, refuse it, and try as you may, but you cannot escape it. I hear people frequently say he will never change or she is just set in her ways, and while this may appear to be true on the surface, inside the mind is a different story. Every time life comes at you, it will target these areas of self-proclaimed sameness and an impact is made at a mental and emotional level that is often unconscious until targeted once again at a later day. Upon impact, however, change, no matter how slight, does occur. Unseen, unfelt, unknown, perhaps, but real nevertheless. The decision you get to make, the decision we all get to make, is whether or not to participate in our life's ever evolving processes.
I accept and love who I am, but I eagerly anticipate who I can be. Ten years ago I never dreamed I would hear people refer to me as "Dr. Heather Gent," but I'm addressed by that name more and more frequently lately and it's strange and surreal, but gratifying given the work I put in to earn the title. Several years ago I had nearly given up on being a mother of two, but here I sit in my new daughter's room as the mother of not only an amazing 12 year old son, but also a 12 week old baby. Change. I'm not content to stay in one place or mindset for the rest of my life. I want to grow and flourish and blossom into all that God created me to be. I want to learn all that I can, help as many people as I'm able, and move out of old mindsets that no longer serve me. If you're at a place in your life where you've seen who you are, but believe you can be more, ask God to open your eyes and show you not just what He sees now, but what He sees when He looks at you as you can be. (ISaiah 46:10).
You're stronger than you think, more capable than you've ever dreamed, and fully known and loved by a God who sees you (Genesis 16:13), not just as you are, but also as you can be.
Irvin Yalom said that "every person must choose how much truth he can stand," and therapy, in many ways, is a search for, and exploration of situational, mental, and emotional truth and all the layers therein. I spent many years asking God to show me the truth of who I am. "Father, show me who I am in Your eyes," was an oft repeated request, yet more recently, I have been asking Him to show me, not who I am, but who I can be and who I am to become. A similar investigative journey, but with presumably different revelations and outcomes. Some people claim a refusal to change and cite age or contentment or indifference as the reason why, but none of those alter the inescapable truth that change is occurring with or without their participation. Every passing second brings with it an unseen metamorphosis of one's being. You are no longer as young now as you were when you started reading this. You have aged between this word and the word "if" at the top of the page. Change. Deny it, run from it, refuse it, and try as you may, but you cannot escape it. I hear people frequently say he will never change or she is just set in her ways, and while this may appear to be true on the surface, inside the mind is a different story. Every time life comes at you, it will target these areas of self-proclaimed sameness and an impact is made at a mental and emotional level that is often unconscious until targeted once again at a later day. Upon impact, however, change, no matter how slight, does occur. Unseen, unfelt, unknown, perhaps, but real nevertheless. The decision you get to make, the decision we all get to make, is whether or not to participate in our life's ever evolving processes.
I accept and love who I am, but I eagerly anticipate who I can be. Ten years ago I never dreamed I would hear people refer to me as "Dr. Heather Gent," but I'm addressed by that name more and more frequently lately and it's strange and surreal, but gratifying given the work I put in to earn the title. Several years ago I had nearly given up on being a mother of two, but here I sit in my new daughter's room as the mother of not only an amazing 12 year old son, but also a 12 week old baby. Change. I'm not content to stay in one place or mindset for the rest of my life. I want to grow and flourish and blossom into all that God created me to be. I want to learn all that I can, help as many people as I'm able, and move out of old mindsets that no longer serve me. If you're at a place in your life where you've seen who you are, but believe you can be more, ask God to open your eyes and show you not just what He sees now, but what He sees when He looks at you as you can be. (ISaiah 46:10).
You're stronger than you think, more capable than you've ever dreamed, and fully known and loved by a God who sees you (Genesis 16:13), not just as you are, but also as you can be.
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