April Showers Bring May Flowers

It’s Spring! And that means heavy rains and winds return. Much like the storms we’ve spoken of in recent weeks, however, with April showers, we get May flowers. That’s why, as part 3 of our 4 part Spring series on Forgiveness and Renewal, we’re shifting focus from forgiveness and the role it plays in not only helping us deal with our own struggles to the importance of renewal, why we all need it, and how we can best seek it.

It’s my privilege to author this week’s blog, which is focused on renewal and the methods we can use to help you change your life and better cope with the issues you face. So many of my clients come to me because what they most want, what they most need, is change. That’s really what renewal is all about. When we struggle with forgiveness, trauma, and depression, and when we seek better ways to cope better, that’s what renewal is. That’s healing.

How can forgiveness lead to change and healing?

Seeking change, and indeed, seeking healing, helps you to take back your power. It means you can make progress in coping with and dealing with depression, trauma, addictions, and the emotional wounds we often struggle the most with! That’s the part of forgiveness we often don’t think about. By forgiving someone who hurt you and forgiving yourself, you are taking back your power. The person can’t continue to hurt you if you forgive them.

How do people heal from emotional wounds?

Own it. It might sound like a simple phrase, but it’s so much more. The first step in healing from those wounds is admitting what was done: being able and willing to dive into it, Open it up, and heal from it.

How can EMDR help with healing from emotional wounds, and is the process easy?

EMDR is often used to help clients deal with pain from emotional wounds. I’ve been a practitioner for many years. You can read more about that in my bio, here. But the process isn’t necessarily easy. Tapping into and processing past traumatic experiences, is indeed the crucial part of the EMDR process. And with that, it involves some necessary discomfort, as you are revisiting the most difficult and distressing experiences of your life. However, the entire process operates within a safe controlled environment, which ensures these experiences never become overwhelming. Indeed, it can change your life.

What do I do if I struggle with bipolar or major depression, and I struggle to find a way forward?

One of the key aspects for people with bipolar depression and major depression is how they send negative self-messages. This often leads to low-self worth or low self esteem. You might find you feel like you’re not good enough or not worthy; this is usually related to a perceived self image that isn’t accurate, but one built up through negative self-messaging. It often stems from ridicule or not feeling  good enough. Working on changing negative self-messages that relate to core-issues can help you turn those negative thoughts into positive, true ideas about a person’s core values and beliefs.

If I struggle with depression or perfectionism, how can I go about changing my core beliefs?

Similar to depression, perfectionism, a desire to be perfect, is often rooted in a desire or belief that being perfect will lead to being liked, accepted, or praised. Self-talk of worthlessness  or not being good enough can often fuel this perfectionism. Internally, it’s about seeking out a feeling of love vs. receiving no love. In therapy, we work on helping you to change your core beliefs that aren’t true (and fuel depression and perfectionism) to ones that are true. It’s really about how to change your thinking, and it has to do with what we call the activating events, the beliefs about it, and the consequences.

If you have struggled with depression, perfectionism, OCD, or anxiety and feelings of worthlessness, we also partner with Dr. Marc Ettisohn, as we’ve discussed in a recent blog. Together with psychiatric care, therapy can have a profound effect on changing people’s lives. Renewal and healing are just around the corner! There is hope! Please feel free to reach out to our trained staff if you have any questions or are trying to figure out if therapy is right for you. Renewal and healing may seem out of reach, but they can be achieved!