I have always had a heart for those who are hurting or wounded in some way. This no doubt grew out of my own struggles to know myself and heal from childhood wounds and insecurities. Graduate school, my own therapy, and thirty plus years of counseling individuals have given me the experience to hear people's deepest struggles and to show them the path toward healing. I find it meaningful to help someone make the connection between their current struggles and their experiences in childhood. As children, we grew and developed to adapt to our particular family and situation. This helped us survive but it limited us as adults. It is like we are running our lives with twenty or thirty year old software. Thoughts and beliefs that helped us survive, don't work in our adult settings. In a way, helping someone in therapy involves discovering their early software and leading them in ways that help them update their old software - old ways of thinking and behaving. While the software analogy is accurate, good therapy is more of a relational and personal experience. Therapy can help you open up new ways of feeling, thinking, and being in the world. There is hope, but it takes work and a strong desire to become unstuck and to grow.