Shay

“Many times, our clients know what to do in a given situation. Therapists help explore the barriers that lie between knowing and doing. It isn’t our job to tell our clients what to do or how to do it. For one, that method assumes we have all the right answers (and we don’t). Our job is to provide support and compassion. We support people in finding their conclusions about how they want to live their lives. We don’t force them on to our preferred paths.”
― Nicole Arzt, Sometimes Therapy is Awkward

“Without emotions we wouldn't store memories, because it's the emotions that make them salient. Without emotions we would remain unmoved by others, who in turn would remain unmoved by us. We would be like ships sailing past each other.”
― Frans de Waal, Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are

“Laugh all you want, but I think learning to love yourself in a country where you're told that you're the plague on the economy, that you're nothing but a prisoner in the making, that you life can be taken away from you at any moment and there's nothing you can do about it - learning to love yourself in the middle of all that? Hell, that's a goddamn miracle.”
― Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

“The literature says this is normal for traumatized people. Experts say it’s all part of the three P’s: We think our sadness is personal, pervasive, and permanent. Personal, in that we have caused all the problems we face. Pervasive, in that our entire life is defined by our failings. And permanent, in that the sadness will last forever.”
― Stephanie Foo, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma