The Intersection of My Path as a Client and Therapist

Last week, I shared a bit about my personal journey during the pilot episode of UnBoxed Healing: DePathologize This!  My own mental health journey is something I’ve been pretty open about. Breaking the stigma around mental health is important to me, and I think it's important to show that even those of us in the helping professions are still healing too.

Healing isn’t a neat, straight path. It can be messy. It's uncomfortable. And it’s rarely as simple as we’d like it to be. I know what it feels like to sit with the discomfort of not having all the answers, to feel uncertain, and to confront parts of myself I’d rather not face.

I have been a client in therapy for more than 2/3 of my life. I was put into so many "boxes'; given labels and diagnoses and medications that never really seemed to help. I found meaning as a young person in being the friend that everyone could talk to about their problems. Because I wouldn't judge. Because I understood.

Fast forward through a shit ton of turmoil, bad decisions, trauma, and graduate school. In the early stages of my career, I found myself facing overwhelming moments of self-doubt and personal struggles. My instinct to be the one “holding space” for others started to interfere with the need to continue doing the work on myself.

My own process has mirrored a lot of the work that I have done with clients. There have been moments of clarity and breakthroughs; small shifts that helped me reframe my understanding of myself. And there have also been times of deep frustration, resistance, and confusion. Healing is rarely linear. It’s not about fixing everything quickly. It’s a winding road that takes us deeper, again and again, in ways that are often hard to predict.

I started to shift away from the modalities and practices I had been taught in graduate school. I was tired of being pathologized and I was tired of feeling forced to put my clients into boxes. That's why I started learning more about brain-body modalities and alternative therapies.

I learned more about what I always felt was true. That my role isn’t about “fixing” anyone (spoiler alert: you are not broken). It’s about being a partner in the healing process. Things started to come full circle. I learned that the parts of myself that had been pathologized were actually the parts that had helped me get through some really hard stuff.

The way that we view mental health in our society often leads to the misconception that healing is something that happens, and then it’s done. But the truth is, healing is ongoing. It’s a journey that doesn’t have a clear endpoint. For me it’s about navigating life’s ups and downs with curiosity, more compassion, and a deeper sense of understanding.

As a therapist I’ve become even more committed to this process, both for my clients and myself. Healing isn’t about achieving perfection. It’s about meeting ourselves where we are, learning from each step, and growing in ways we never imagined possible.

I share this part of my journey because I am not immune to the struggles that I help my clients with. By embracing growth and acknowledging my own humanity, I feel better equipped to walk alongside others in their healing journey.