We all live in stories. Every day we tell ourselves a story about the world we live in, and who we and others are within it. Most of us don’t even recognise that we are doing it, much less see that it is a story, and therefore one we can rewrite.

I once heard someone say, “whoever discovered water, it wasn’t a fish.” What he meant was that, when we are in something, we often cannot see it for what it is.

That is because our minds need to make sense of a world that is unfathomable in its total complexity, and once we have created a story about it, facilitated by influences from our parents, teachers, friends, and the culture at large that we live in, that story shapes our reality. Because it is familiar, we cling to it as if it’s objective fact – rather than a story.

Both inside and outside the office, I’ve seen it countless times, people who live in pain only because the pain itself is a familiar part of their story. Although it might be hard to believe, it is true that we often fear change more than enduring the pain of the familiar. So much so in some cases that we have convinced ourselves that change is impossible – which is also just part of the story.

That, in a nutshell, is what individual therapy aims to address.

We explore stories, we identify what beliefs and behaviours may have contributed to the challenges our clients face, beliefs and behaviours which keeps them stuck and serve as obstacles to the higher selves they wish to become. Then, we work to remove and replace them with what beliefs and behaviours may bring about meaningful change.