Your Story Counseling Services, LLC

11/19/2025

Honesty can be hard sometimes. It starts with being honest with ourselves.

11/09/2025

10/12/2025

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10/09/2025

We often feel shame about the things we have hidden. Bringing them into the light in a safe space will help take away their power. We can help - call today for an appointment. 330-687-4439

HOW?

Notice your defenses:

You overexplain to stay liked.
You criticize others for traits you secretly carry.
You chase light to avoid being seen in darkness.
You rationalize your feelings instead of letting them move you.

Symptoms of disowning your Shadow:

You feel flat, numb, or creatively blocked.
You can’t rest; achievement replaces worth.
You overreact to others’ flaws.
You crave intensity or chaos to feel alive.

Practice meeting it:

When you feel triggered, pause and ask, “What truth in me is trying to surface?”
Journal what you envy or judge; that’s your unconscious calling.
Create space to feel anger, desire, or grief without labeling it wrong.
See it, don’t suppress it. Integrate it, don’t act it out.

Whisper:
“I will no longer exile the parts of me that scare others.
I am light and Shadow; both holy.”

09/23/2025

Some kindnesses are so powerful they move you to tears. Not because they are grand or loud or monumental, but because they arrive exactly when the weight is too much to bear.

A stranger who waits with you on the curb whilst your hands shake. A friend who texts "I'm here" without needing a reply. The colleague who says “take a break for a moment - I’ve got this.” These moments often don’t cost the other person a thing; and yet, they are priceless.

Because they don’t come to fix you; they come to make room for you. And in that room - spacious, gentle, unthreatening - you find, often without meaning to, that you can finally fall apart. That you don’t have to keep holding it all together. The armour you’ve worn for so long starts to slip, not because someone pries it off, but because - for the first time in a while - you’re not bracing for harm.

It’s the safety of it.

The tenderness.

The sense that someone is holding a bit of the weight with you, even if they can’t take it away.

And that gentle moment; that safe space, that permission - being allowed to crumble without judgment - can feel like relief.

Yes, some kindnesses are so powerful that they move us to tears. But maybe it isn’t the kindness itself that makes it powerful.

Maybe it’s how much we need it.

*****

For anyone who's ever said (or been told) "don't hug me, you'll make me cry." ❤

Becky Hemsley 2025
Beautiful artwork by the brilliant Lisa Aisato

09/19/2025

It's not at all easy, but you will come out better for the journey.

What It Means

1. "You can't heal abandonment by making sure no one leaves."

Chasing permanence in others will never resolve the wound. People are human; they will leave, fail, disappoint, or move on. If your healing depends on controlling them, you will always be fragile.

2. "People will come and go."

This isn't a threat; it's reality. Love doesn't guarantee forever. The cycle of life, change, and endings is a natural part of life. The wound becomes unbearable when you equate their leaving with your worth.

3. "Healing is staying when you want to run..."

The wound taught you to flee through numbing, avoidance, or silence. Healing is reversing that reflex. It's staying when your nervous system screams to bolt.

4. "...breathing when you want to numb..."

Numbing seems safer, but it only deepens the fracture. A single conscious breath is more radical than an entire lifetime of avoidance. Breath is presence.

5. "...and loving when you want to hide."

Hiding feels safer, but it isolates the very part that needs love the most. Healing is giving that fragment compassion instead of exile. It's choosing loyalty over fear.

Practical Application

1. Pause the Chase

The next time you feel panic about someone leaving, stop. Remind yourself: "This is about me staying."

2. Practice the Breath

When the urge to numbness rises, take three slow, deep breaths. Feel the body. Anchor in presence.

3. Stay With the Fragment

When you want to run, place a hand over your chest or belly. Whisper: "I won't leave you."

4. Reframe Love

Choose love not as performance, but as loyalty; to yourself first, then to others.

09/03/2025

Let’s play the “name game” instead of the “blame game”.

08/25/2025

You are worthy! Don't let anybody tell you differently.

08/11/2025

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Kellyflack.com