Your Healing Journey: A Relationship with Self

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This journey is not about fixing yourself—it’s about deepening your relationship with yourself. Growth is non-linear, and healing isn’t about erasing the past but integrating all parts of you with compassion and awareness.

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This is a 3 to 6-month process designed to thoroughly explore each phase. Some individuals may need longer, while others may integrate these insights more quickly. The goal is not just symptom management, but lasting transformation. The ultimate goal is self-compassion, releasing past burdens, and fostering the ability to forgive oneself and move forward with acceptance and emotional freedom.

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This process serves as a primer—a way to reconnect with yourself so that you’re prepared for deeper therapeutic work if needed. Some individuals may benefit from EMDR, CPT, exposure therapy, or other trauma-focused modalities after this journey. Processing trauma requires emotional safety and self-awareness, and this work helps lay the foundation.

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Each session (typically spanning 1 to 3 sessions) includes:

• Wellness Check – Sleep, irritability, mood swings, relationship/support network, and current stressors.

• Successes & Challenges Check-In – Reflecting on progress and difficulties since the last session.

Ongoing Progress & Adaptation

• Weekly sessions for the first 30 days to 45 days.

• Bi-weekly sessions for the next 30 to 60 days.

• Gradual transition to every three weeks or monthly for maintenance.

• Continuous check-ins on progress, strengths, and evolving needs.

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Phase 1: Understanding Your Story & Emotional Landscape

• Deep Listening & Exploration – Your lived experience, identity, past influences, and current struggles. Who are you beyond your pain?

• Mapping Emotional Crisis – Identifying symptoms, intensity, and patterns in emotional overwhelm.

• Support Systems & Stressors – Who and what contributes to your well-being or distress?

Understanding Your Experience

• Exploring your lived experiences, stressors, support system, and contributing factors.

• Identifying emotional symptoms and assessing their severity.

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Phase 2: The Core of Self-Beliefs & The Inner Critic

• Core Beliefs Exploration – What do you believe about yourself and the world? Are these beliefs serving you or keeping you stuck?

• The Henchman: Shame, Guilt, Regret, Resentment – The voices that keep you locked in a cycle of self-loathing and/or rumination. These emotions must be released, whether through talk therapy or alternative means. If you feel you can’t speak it, how can you express it? (Journaling, movement, breathwork, rituals, creative outlets).

• The Mirror of Self – Facing yourself fully, with honesty. This is about truth-telling with self-compassion—accepting every part of you while knowing you can evolve.

Identifying Core Beliefs

• Examining foundational beliefs about yourself and the world.

• Recognizing how these beliefs shape your emotions and behaviors.

Identifying & Interrupting Negative Patterns

• Unpacking Negative Self-Talk & Thought Loops – How do you speak to yourself? What narratives keep you stuck?

• Identifying and addressing Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) that contribute to self-doubt, low motivation, and emotional distress.

• Building Emotional Agility – Learning how to shift from reaction to conscious response.

Unpacking Self-Loathing & Negative Self-Talk

• Identifying and challenging negative thoughts about yourself.

• Recognizing self-sabotaging patterns.

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Phase 3: Recognizing Trauma Response & Nervous System Dysregulation

• Trauma Responses & Nervous System Awareness – Recognizing fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. Where do these patterns show up in your body and life?

• Exploring your triggers and stress responses.

• Building Emotional Agility – Learning how to shift from reaction to conscious response.

Ongoing Exploration

• Explore mindfulness & awareness techniques to modulate reactions to the stress or trauma response.

• Explore if nervous system is chronically activated & its impact.

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Phase 4: Facing “The Henchman”-Guilt, Shame, Regret, & Resentment

• The Henchman: Shame, Guilt, Regret, Resentment – The voices that keep you locked in a cycle of self-loathing and/or rumination. These emotions must be released, whether through talk therapy or alternative means. If you feel you can’t speak it, how can you express it? (Journaling, movement, breathwork, rituals, creative outlets).

Understanding Emotional Barriers

• Examining the emotions that keep you stuck in cycles of self-loathing.

• Exploring ways to process and release these barriers—whether through talk therapy or alternative methods when words feel inaccessible.

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Phase 5: Identifying Strengths & Coping History

• Recognizing resilience and past coping strategies.

• Assessing what has and hasn’t worked.

What are some challenges you have overcome in the past?

What strengths have helped you navigate difficult moments?

How have your coping mechanisms evolved over time?

Are there past coping strategies that no longer serve you?

Phase 6: Developing Self-Awareness & Recognizing Blind Spots

• Understanding personal patterns and unconscious defenses.

• Gaining insight into behaviors and emotions.

What patterns do you notice in your emotional reactions or behaviors?

Are there recurring challenges or themes in your relationships or personal life?

What feedback have you received from others about your behaviors or mindset?

What parts of yourself do you struggle to acknowledge or accept?

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Phase 7: Establishing Emotional Health & Wellness Goals

• Defining your vision for emotional well-being.

• Setting realistic, personalized goals.

What does emotional wellness look like for you?

What areas of your life feel balanced, and which need more attention?

What small, achievable steps can you take toward emotional well-being?

How will you know when you are making progress?

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Phase 8: Shaping a New Narrative & Self-Compassion Practices

• Customized Positive Affirmations & Reframing Self-Talk – Not just generic positivity, but affirmations that directly counter your negative beliefs.

• Self-Reflection Statements – Rewriting your inner dialogue from judgment to understanding.

• Releasing the Past Version of You – The Henchman will try to keep you staring at an outdated mirror image of yourself. What happens when you let go?

Creating Affirmations & Positive Self-Reflection Statements

• Developing personalized affirmations based on strengths and growth areas.

• Reframing self-perception and fostering self-compassion.

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Phase 9: Sustainable Self-Care & Long-Term Emotional Wellness

• Designing a Personalized Self-Care Strategy

  • Exploring self-care as a vital tool for emotional regulation.

  • Tailoring a sustainable self-care plan.

• Customized Self-Care Strategy – Beyond bubble baths—what truly replenishes your mind, body, and spirit?

• Creating an Emotional Health Roadmap – Setting meaningful, personalized goals.

• Checking in with Support Needs – Ongoing reflection on session frequency (weekly → biweekly → monthly), ensuring continued progress at your pace.

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Phase 10: Cultivating Lasting Transformation & Empowerment

• Embracing New Identity & Empowerment – Embracing your evolved self, stepping into your strengths, and fostering long-term growth.

• Sustaining Change – Reinforcing positive behaviors, mindset shifts, and emotional regulation.

• Living with Purpose – Moving forward with a sense of clarity, acceptance, and intentional living.

How have you changed since beginning this journey?

What insights have been most impactful for you?

What practices or strategies do you want to continue long-term?

How will you support yourself in maintaining emotional wellness?

Interventions & Therapeutic Framework

Throughout this process, I integrate various evidence-based approaches tailored to your stage of change, self-awareness, severity of concerns, and personal goals. These include:

• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) – Cultivating psychological flexibility and values-based living.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Interventions – Emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

• Psychoanalytic Approaches – Understanding unconscious influences and core relational patterns.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Identifying and reframing cognitive distortions

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Beyond Talk Therapy: Preparing for Deeper Work

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Reminder, as previously stated this process serves as a primer—a way to reconnect with yourself so that you’re prepared for deeper therapeutic work if needed. Some individuals may benefit from EMDR, CPT, exposure therapy, or other trauma-focused modalities after this journey. Processing trauma requires emotional safety and self-awareness, and this work helps lay the foundation.

Just as medication alone doesn’t heal the mind, talk therapy is only one piece of the puzzle, only one piece of emotional healing. If true healing is the goal, it often requires a deeper mind-body connection. Depending on your needs, integrating holistic approaches—such as somatic therapy, nervous system regulation techniques, acupuncture, soundwave therapy, yoga, meditation, somatic experiencing, movement practices, or energy work—may be essential for long-term balance and well-being.  For deeper nervous system regulation and mind-body integration, additional holistic approaches may be beneficial. This process prepares you for deeper work, and some individuals may need modalities like EMDR, CPT, or exposure therapy for more intensive trauma processing.

 

Integration & Ongoing Reflection

Healing isn’t about a finish line—it’s about continuously showing up for yourself. Regular maintenance check-ins ensure you’re supported as you evolve.