Our ability to adapt to threatening or challenging situations may be one of our strongest allies but also one of our worst enemies.
Sometimes it seems that there is almost no limit to our brain's capacity for protecting us, by absorbing experiences, 'dealing' with them and filing them away, either for later processing or so that they can be left where they will never be found again. In this way, people survive so many forms of abuse to which they are subjected, numb the searing pain of their deepest losses or put up with the everyday hurts and disappointments that blight their lives.
This is not necessarily right or wrong: we do what we do in order to get by (and, as children, often we don't have time to even think about what we are doing - we act instinctively).
The therapy room offers a safe place in which to strip away the layers we have placed on these experiences. At our own pace and in the company of someone who is there for us and who is not judging us, we can uncover the pain, face the shame and engage with reality. We no longer have to run and hide. We can do more than simply survive: we can find out who we might have been through all these years, who we really are and what we might become.
We no longer have to work around life's challenges and accept second-best. We can re-adapt to accept our real selves and not an inferior version of ourselves.
