I Want You to Know
Because I’m out here in the world, offering to be helpful to you, hoping to help you heal, there are things I want you to know about me. I want you to know that I believe your relationship to yourself is the most important relationship you have, that you are the expert on your own life, that you deserve to be lifted up, that therapy should be about creating more opportunities f
or pleasure and joy. I want you to know that I believe mental health is as important as physical health and as important as spiritual health. We take vitamins, eat healthy, move our arms and legs, and seek out medical care to tend to our bodies. We go to religious services, practice meditation, or seek out like-minded people to talk about how we can raise our consciousness to tend to our souls. And we can all benefit from support for our mental and emotional health. I want you to know that I believe that stigma against mental health issues is real and destructive and that it is up to mental health professionals to speak out against demoralizing, pejorative, demeaning methods of labeling and shaming people. I want you to know that I believe that black lives matter, that trans lives matter, that LGBTQIA rights are human rights, that women’s rights are human rights, that white privilege is real, and that I am dedicated on my personal time to confronting my own biases and fears of otherness. I want you to know that I believe that all beings are artists - we all make music, we all make art, we all create in some way. That I believe play and humor are vital to healing and to well-being. I want you to know that I’m a real human person, with real human moments, that I’m a healer and that I’m healing. And that my healing is part of what makes me good at what I do. I want you to know these things about me because I’d like a more authentic life and I’d like you to be able to lead a more authentic life. If you are seeking support for your own struggles through therapy and choose to work with me, I want you to know these things before you walk through my door. I hope that you’ll use what I share to inspire you to get support, to explore your own creativity, to seek out more opportunities for authenticity.
