Dr. Kimberly S Benson LMHC CAP CCTP

Dr. Kimberly S Benson LMHC CAP CCTP Specializing in psychodynamic psychotherapy for trauma, ptsd, disorders of the self and addiction. Dr. Benson works with Individuals, Couples and Families.

Today you are one step closer to a new you where you feel empowered and on a positive path to growth, well-being and connected to your true self. As an object relations and self-psychology therapist, Dr. Benson's goal is to help you uncover your true potential and lead a life that is worth celebrating. While difficult situations of the past cannot be changed, they can be worked on and processed to

understand and resolve challenges in your life by understanding your mind and developing your true sense of self. By applying complementary therapy approaches and techniques, Dr. Benson will help you unearth long-standing behavior patterns and negative perceptions that may be holding you back from experiencing a more fulfilling and meaningful life. Dr. Benson, whom is a long standing Sarasota Psychotherapist and Counselor, works collaboratively with other local therapists in Sarasota to offer comprehensive marriage, couples and family therapy as well. Dr. Benson specializes in the treatment of trauma, grief and loss, body images & eating disorders, anxiety, depression, phase of life issues, and disorders of the self. She is also an approved addictions provider for Major League Baseball. Providing Private individual, couples and family counseling via face to face, phone sessions and long distance skype counseling.

Sunday Warrior: You Hit Like a B*tch🌀 Quote:“When life knocks you down, get back up, smile, and say: You hit like a btch...
08/24/2025

Sunday Warrior: You Hit Like a B*tch

🌀 Quote:
“When life knocks you down, get back up, smile, and say: You hit like a btch.”*

🌌 Daily Reflection:
Life doesn’t fight fair. It waits until you’re tired, raw, and vulnerable, then throws its nastiest shots. Grief, betrayal, anxiety, failure—cheap punches meant to drop you. And yeah, sometimes they connect. Sometimes you end up flat on your back staring at the ceiling, wondering why you even try.

But here’s the thing—falling down isn’t weakness. Staying down is. Warriors aren’t made in comfort; they’re made in blood, sweat, heartbreak, and rage. Every scar is a receipt that says, “I survived that too.”

So today, don’t just crawl back up—stand up laughing. Taunt the storm. Dare life to swing harder. Because every hit that doesn’t break you, builds you. And when the world expects your silence, answer with defiance: “That’s all you’ve got?”

💭 Thought for the Day:
Fall seven times, rise eight—and mock the storm while you do it.

🖋 Reflection or Journaling Prompt (Optional):
Where in your life have you let a punch keep you down? What would it look like to stand up, spit blood, and smile back at it today?

đŸŽ”đŸŽ” Reflection Song: “Mama Said Knock You Out” – LL Cool J

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Title: When It’s Over, It’s Over🌀 Quote:“I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are...
08/23/2025

Title: When It’s Over, It’s Over

🌀 Quote:
“I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it’s over, it’s over.” — Anne Lamott

🌌 Daily Reflection:
I spend so much time replaying the past—wondering if I could have chosen differently, said something else, fought harder, or let go sooner. It’s a trap my mind loves: the illusion that if I analyze enough, maybe I can rewrite what already happened. But the truth is, I can’t. Every choice I made, I made with the tools I had at the time. I did the best I could with the awareness, courage, and limitations I carried. Hindsight can look like wisdom, but often it’s just another way to punish myself for not being further along back then.

The deeper grief underneath is this: I can’t go back. I can’t undo what was lost or return to the way things were. That ache—the longing to rewind time—isn’t about control, it’s about mourning. Mourning what ended, mourning who I was in those moments, mourning the dreams I thought would unfold.

And still, when I look around at who is in my life today, I know these are the people meant to be here. The right people. The ones who reflect where I am and who I’m becoming. If they stay, they are meant to. If they go, I have to trust that their leaving is also part of the unfolding. My work is to grieve each shift fully—what was, what could have been, and what will never be—and in that grief, make space for growth.

This is the paradox of living: nothing could have happened any other way, and yet I must keep choosing how to live now. My task isn’t to resist the endings, but to honor them. To let them carve me into someone capable of deeper love, stronger presence, and more radical acceptance.

💭 Thought for the Day:
I can’t go back. I can only grieve what was and honor what is, trusting that who and what remains is exactly as it should be.

🖋 Journaling Prompt:
Where in my life am I still resisting the grief of an ending? What would honoring that ending make space for in me today?

đŸŽ” Reflection Song: Unstoppable — Sia

🌑 Daily MeditationTitle: Growing With the WreckageQuote:“Perhaps this next chapter has more to do with who and what you’...
08/23/2025

🌑 Daily Meditation

Title: Growing With the Wreckage

Quote:
“Perhaps this next chapter has more to do with who and what you’re choosing to grow with, rather than what you’re letting go of.”

Daily Reflection
Let’s be real: some things don’t get “let go of.” They stay lodged in your bones—the betrayals, the goodbyes, the s**t you never got closure on. People will tell you to “release it” or “just move on,” as if trauma is a helium balloon you can cut loose and watch float away. That’s not how it works.

The truth is, we carry wreckage. And maybe the point isn’t to drop it, but to stop letting it own the driver’s seat. Growth isn’t about pretending you’re healed; it’s about choosing what you’ll grow with. Pain can rot you out, or it can turn into the fertilizer that feeds your roots. Both smell like death, but one creates new life.

This chapter might not be lighter. It might be heavier. But if it’s heavy with truth, with people who see you as you are, with practices that don’t bulls**t you—it’s worth carrying. Growth doesn’t mean freedom from the wreckage. It means you’re not hiding under it anymore. You’re building something on top of it.

Thought for the Day:
Stop trying to let go of everything. Grow with what refuses to leave.

Reflection Song:
Numb — Linkin Park

Hashtags:

đŸ’„ Bang! It’s FridayQuote:“Life’s short, we might as well set it on fire.”Daily Reflection:Some days you wake up calm, ce...
08/22/2025

đŸ’„ Bang! It’s Friday

Quote:
“Life’s short, we might as well set it on fire.”

Daily Reflection:
Some days you wake up calm, centered, ready for mindful breathwork
 and other days, Friday hits like a bass drop and you just want to throw glitter on your problems, flip them the bird, and dance in the chaos. That’s Bang energy. It’s messy, it’s loud, it’s unapologetic—kind of like the part of your psyche that’s done being polite and wants to burn through the week with a shot of espresso and a questionable decision.

Psychodynamically speaking (yeah, we’re still smart while being unhinged), this is the id breaking free from all the superego nagging. It’s the wild child inside saying, “We’re not here to be perfect, we’re here to live.” And honestly? Sometimes that’s the healthiest move. Friday isn’t about repressing the madness—it’s about giving it a safe runway to go bang-bang-boom without destroying the whole damn city.

Thought for the Day:
Let yourself be loud, messy, and alive. Don’t tame it—channel it.

Reflection or Journaling Prompt:
What’s one thing your wild side has been dying to do that your “responsible self” keeps shutting down?

Reflection Song:
Bang – JR

Hashtags:

🌑 Moody Master Daily ReflectionTitle: Patience? Please.Quote:“The day they were giving out patience, I left — it was tak...
08/21/2025

🌑 Moody Master Daily Reflection

Title: Patience? Please.

Quote:
“The day they were giving out patience, I left — it was taking too long.” - unknown

Daily Reflection:
Patience and I have always been frenemies. Everyone says it’s a virtue, but half the time it feels like slow torture. And let’s be real—patience isn’t pretty. It’s not some Instagram yoga pose with perfect lighting, pretending you’ve reached enlightenment while inside you’re screaming into the void. Patience is raw, messy, unhinged on the inside. It’s the inner turmoil people cover up with Facebook posts about “gratitude” and “trusting the process.”

You know what patience really looks like? Sitting in therapy for years, waiting for a therapist that didn’t implode. It looks like biting your tongue when everything in you wants to scream. It looks like holding back the firestorm, not because you’re Zen, but because you know burning it all down would cost you more than it’s worth.

And yet—patience matters. Not because it’s glamorous or graceful, but because it’s survival. It’s the ugly work of letting time do what rage can’t. Patience isn’t yoga. It’s pacing the floor at 3 a.m. It’s messy crying in the car. It’s raw, unfiltered, and real. And ironically, it’s the one thing that makes space for healing to actually happen.

💭 Thought for the Day:
Patience isn’t graceful. It’s chaos you learn to live through without blowing up your own life.

đŸŽ” Reflection Song: “Bitch” – Meredith Brooks

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🌑 Moody Master Daily ReflectionTitle: The Serenity Prayer, But Feral🌀 Quote:“Grant me the serenity to stop giving a damn...
08/20/2025

🌑 Moody Master Daily Reflection

Title: The Serenity Prayer, But Feral

🌀 Quote:
“Grant me the serenity to stop giving a damn about things I can’t control, the audacity to change the toxic messes I keep pretending are ‘fine,’ and the wisdom to finally block, ghost, or walk away without writing a whole damn essay about it.”

🌌 Daily Reflectuon:
Let’s get real — the original Serenity Prayer is adorable, like a motivational poster in a waiting room. But you? You don’t need a dainty prayer. You need a battle cry. Serenity isn’t about lighting a candle and whispering affirmations — it’s about slamming the door, tossing the key, and reminding yourself you’re not a therapist for broken people who never asked to heal.

This prayer isn’t about grace, it’s about grit. It’s about the version of you that finally says, “Actually, no. I don’t want to carry your emotional trash anymore.” It’s about giving serenity a set of brass knuckles and watching peace walk into the room with combat boots on.

Because peace doesn’t float down like fairy dust — peace shows up when you stop answering texts at 2 a.m., when you ghost the drama, and when you stop giving CPR to relationships that were dead 5 years ago. That’s serenity. That’s savage. That’s freedom.

💭 Thought for the Day:
Stop praying for peace. Start seizing it with both hands and a bad attitude.

đŸŽ” Reflection Song: Just Like a Pill — P!nk

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🌑 Moody Master Monday“To miss something is to hope it’s coming back. Guess what? It’s not. And if it does, it’ll be weir...
08/19/2025

🌑 Moody Master Monday
“To miss something is to hope it’s coming back. Guess what? It’s not. And if it does, it’ll be weirder, messier, and probably disappointing.”

Missing something is like waiting for Taco Bell to actually look like the picture on the menu. Spoiler: it never does. You think you’re longing for the past, but you’re really just chasing a ghost in yoga pants. People don’t come back the same, places don’t come back the same, and let’s be real—you aren’t the same either.

We romanticize “the good old days” like they weren’t also filled with panic attacks, questionable choices, and people who didn’t text back. Healing isn’t about sitting by the phone like a sad Victorian widow. It’s about admitting the past isn’t coming back, and even if it did, you probably wouldn’t actually want it.

💭 Thought for the Day: If it was so great, it wouldn’t be gone.

đŸŽ” Reflection Song: You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette
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08/17/2025

“Every human being has paid the earth to grow up. Most people don’t grow up. It’s too difficult
 They get older. But to grow up costs the earth.” — Dr. Maya Angelou, The Paris Review, Interview with George Plimpton (1990)

In one of her most revealing interviews, Dr. Maya Angelou shared this profound reflection on the true meaning of growth. She spoke not just of aging, but of what it costs to live with intention — to love, to fail, to succeed, and to take responsibility for your presence in the world.

It’s a timeless reminder that becoming who we are meant to be is a courageous act.

đŸ—ïž Read the full 1990 interview with The Paris Review: http://bit.ly/4m98GS3

✹ Sunday Moody Master Daily ReflectionThe Three Doors of ChangeQuote“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Conde...
08/17/2025

✹ Sunday Moody Master Daily Reflection

The Three Doors of Change

Quote

“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” – Carl Jung

Daily Reflection

The process of change is not a single leap but a passage through three doors: awareness, acceptance, and action. Each door opens us deeper into ourselves, demanding honesty, courage, and persistence.

Awareness is the first key. Without it, we remain trapped in unconscious cycles, blind to the very patterns that wound us. Awareness is both internal — noticing the voices, fears, and defenses within — and external — recognizing how those patterns shape our relationships and choices. To see clearly is painful, but it is the foundation of all transformation.

Acceptance is the next door, and it rarely opens easily. One moment, we embrace the truth of what we see, and the next, we recoil in denial. Acceptance means touching the grief, rage, and disappointment that awareness awakens. It means laying down resentment — toward ourselves, toward others — so that buried emotions may surface and be felt. This is where letting go begins, where we stop fighting the truth and start allowing it to shape us.

Action is the third door, the step that determines whether we remain in the trauma loop or step onto a path of healing. Self-destructive action — numbing through substances, codependency, or rage — only reinforces old wounds. But constructive action — therapy, movement, meditation, community, creative expression — rewires the brain and softens the false narratives we’ve carried for so long. Neuroplasticity is proof that change is possible, that new pathways can be built, and that freedom can be practiced until it becomes our way of being. 🌎

Like the lyrics of Sia’s “Unstoppable,” action reminds us of our power: “I’m unstoppable, I’m a Porsche with no brakes.” Constructive action gives us momentum, moving us forward even when we feel the weight of the past.

💭 Thought for the Day

Awareness opens the eyes. Acceptance opens the heart. Action sets you free.

đŸŽ” Reflection Song

“Unstoppable” – Sia

Address

715 N Washington Boulevard
Sarasota, FL
34236

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 9pm
Tuesday 8am - 9pm
Wednesday 8am - 9pm
Thursday 8am - 9pm
Friday 8am - 9pm

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