a few guiding ideas:
wellbeing is our birthright
The human brain is miraculously adaptive. Unburdened by trauma or other system-wide ailments, we are designed to adapt and remain well, even in the face of challenges. Rather than endlessly improving ourselves, therapy is about rediscovering our natural ability to heal, adapt, and thrive.
Adaptive Information Processing Theory: Origins, Principles, Applications, and Evidence
2. challenge is inevitable (and okay)
No one is free from challenges, and we are not to blame for our limitations. Though the temptation to blame is strong (and perhaps necessary, on occasion), blame does not hold up to scrutiny. Usually, we harm others and ourselves because we are confused, overwhelmed, and ultimately, afraid. Accepting our imperfection and challenges opens us up to compassion, which heals us and our relationships.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
There is Nothing Wrong with You
3. healing is political
Broken systems create wounded people, and wounded people propagate broken systems. We are all conditioned by our families, environments, cultures, and histories, which means we may inherit the consequences of historical injustices and wounds. To heal, we must acknowledge and understand how we were harmed by the dysfunction that pervades our world. As we heal at the personal level, we also heal our communities.
The Inner Work of Racial Justice
4. difference is not pathological
Neurodivergent folks are often subject to abuse, covert and overt, because they challenge structures that privilege neurotypical experience. Difference is not inherently pathological, and struggling is not evidence that someone is deficient.
5. science helps us heal
Advanced thinking about mental health is made possible by research methods that create testable models, forward coherent theories, disprove harmful ideas, and help us understand what actually helps. Our methods in counseling should be examined as carefully as possible, in order to ensure that they work, and work as well as possible.
Learning Process Based Therapy
Clinical Mental Health Counseling
A process-based approach to psychological diagnosis and treatment
6. trauma is not a life sentence
Few of us will go through life without experiencing something that pushes us to (or beyond) our limits, but trauma does not have to define our lives after the fact. Just our bodies heal from physical injuries, our psyches heal, when given the right resources. Reconnecting with a sense of safety, befriending our inner parts, and rediscovering our authentic selves leads to lasting healing from trauma.