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You feel it building. Something tight in your chest, pressure behind your eyes. You know the tears are there, waiting just beneath the surface, but they don't come. And then nothing. It's like standing at a locked door. You can hear what's on the other side, feel the weight of it pressing against the frame. But no matter how hard you try to open it, how much you want to let it through, the door stays shut. This is one of the most confusing experiences people bring to therapy.

You expect to cry. You expect the heaviness, the fog, the way your body feels like it's moving through water. What you don't expect is the rage that arrives without warning. Someone says the wrong thing at the funeral. Your partner asks what's for dinner. A stranger takes too long at the checkout. And suddenly you're white-knuckling the steering wheel, or slamming cupboards, or saying things you can't take back. Then the guilt lands. What's wrong with me? I should be sad, not

You've probably heard it by now, the idea that you're not one thing. That the part of you that's furious at your partner isn't the whole of you. That the anxious voice criticising every word you say is just that, a voice, not the truth of who you are. It's a relief at first. A part of me is upset. A part of me is scared. What comes next is the harder question: what do you do when you've named it? You notice it. You feel a flicker of distance between you and the feeling, like

You've been in therapy for a few weeks, maybe a few months. You came in looking for relief, some kind of shift, a way to feel less stuck. And for a while, something did feel different. A bit lighter, maybe. More spacious. Then everything got worse. The anxiety you thought was settling is suddenly constant. The old grief you barely noticed is now right at the surface, spilling over at the smallest thing. You're irritable, exhausted, overwhelmed. Parts of you that seemed quiet

You're not trying to be angry. You don't wake up thinking, today I'll pick a fight with everyone I meet. But it's there anyway. In the tight jaw when someone asks you a simple question. In the heat that floods your chest when you're stuck in traffic. In the way you snap at people who didn't deserve it, and then hate yourself for it later. It's not ordinary frustration. Ordinary frustration has an object and a proportionate response. This is different. This feels like your who

Someone gets close. Really close. Closer than you've let anyone be in a while. And then something shifts. You start pulling back, creating space, finding reasons why it won't work or why you need time or why they're probably not right for you anyway. You don't plan it. You might not even want it. But it happens anyway, this quiet retreat that feels both automatic and inevitable. When you're alone again afterwards, you wonder what the hell just happened. If that sounds familia

You know the feeling. Someone asks how you are, and you pause. Not because you don't want to answer, but because you genuinely can't locate anything resembling an emotion. You scan internally. Nothing there. Just flatness. Maybe a vague sense of tiredness, but even that feels distant. Or you're watching something that should move you. A film. A song. A friend crying. And you feel... nothing. You know you should be feeling something. You remember a time when you would have. Bu

You know you do it. You say yes when you mean no. You take on extra work when you're already underwater. You smooth things over, make yourself smaller, agree to things that don't sit right, all to keep the peace. And then you feel resentful. Exhausted. Like you're disappearing into everyone else's needs. You've read the books about boundaries. You've tried to be more assertive. You've told yourself, just say no this time. But when the moment comes, when someone asks for somet

Most people come to therapy because something feels stuck. They've tried to change, tried to feel different, and somehow keep ending up in the same place. They tell me they know what they're supposed to do, they just can't seem to do it. When I explain that we'll be working with parts, I get a few different reactions. Some people nod immediately, like something just clicked into place. Others look a bit uncertain, maybe worried they're about to be diagnosed with something ser

You've heard it a hundred times. Slow down. Rest. Take a break. You've nodded, agreed, maybe even tried. But when you finally sit still, when the pace drops and the noise quiets, something else arrives. It's not relief. It's not the peaceful exhale everyone promised. It's something heavier. Rawer. Sometimes it's rage. Sometimes it's grief that feels bottomless. Sometimes it's just numbness,like you're waiting for permission to feel anything at all. This is what I see in the t

There's a part of you that wakes you up at 5am, even when you don't have to. That checks your emails before you've had coffee. That says yes to more work when you're already stretched thin. That pushes through exhaustion because stopping feels dangerous. You might call it discipline. Or work ethic. Or just who you are. But underneath, there's something else at play. A part of you that believes rest equals failure. That staying still means falling behind. That the only way to

There's a part of you that has been running the show for a long time. Maybe it's the part that learned to stay quiet to avoid conflict. The part that says yes when you mean no. The part that keeps you performing, proving, earning your place in every room you enter. That part got you through something difficult. It kept you safe when safe was hard to come by. It helped you survive your family, your school, your first relationship, the version of yourself that didn't know how t

You've done the work. You've sat in therapy rooms. You've tried CBT, worked through mindfulness exercises, talked about the trauma until the words felt empty. And yet, something still feels stuck. Not wrong, exactly. Just... untouched. Maybe you understand what happened to you. You can name it. Contextualise it. But your body still tenses at certain sounds. Your relationships still follow the same painful patterns. Parts of you still feel young, raw, or frozen in time. This i