You learned to be hard on yourself for a reason.

Maybe you’re the person who holds everything together. You notice what other people need, adapt quickly, and have gotten very good at being who the moment requires.

But somewhere along the way, it became harder to know what you need, what you want, or who you are when you’re not taking care of everyone else.

Shame has a way of turning painful experiences into conclusions about who we are. Therapy can give us space to get curious about those conclusions, understand where they came from, and begin separating what happened to you from what you’ve come to believe about yourself.

There is a difference between understanding what shaped you and believing it defines you.