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The Competence Nobody Reads as Struggle
You're the one people come to when things fall apart. The reliable one. The one who gets it done, keeps it together, makes it look easy. Your life, from the outside, reads like a string of accomplishments. Good job. Good relationship, or at least one you're managing. Bills paid. Gym membership used. Inbox at zero most days. Nobody worries about you. And that's exactly the problem. Because while everyone else sees competence, you're running on fumes. You've been running on fum
Wade Eames
Sep 305 min read
The Drink That Isn't About the Drink
You pour the drink before you've even thought about it. Before you've sat down. Before you've taken off your shoes. It's automatic. By the time you register you're doing it, the glass is already in your hand. And you tell yourself it's fine. Just one. Just to take the edge off. Just to help me land after the day. But something quieter, something you don't want to look at too closely, knows it's become necessary. That without it, you're not sure how you'd make it through the e
Wade Eames
Sep 265 min read
Asking For Help Feels Like Taking Something
You're standing in your kitchen at 2am, staring at your phone. Your partner's away. You've got the flu, properly got it, the kind where standing up feels like a negotiation. The fridge is empty. Your best friend lives ten minutes away and you know, you absolutely know, she'd come if you asked. But you can't send the message. Not because she wouldn't help. Because asking for help feels like taking something. Like you're about to reach into her life and extract a piece of her t
Wade Eames
Sep 236 min read
What Happens Just Before You Wreck Something Good
Three weeks in and you're already looking for the exit. Not consciously. You don't sit down and decide to wreck this. But you notice yourself picking fights over nothing. Creating distance where there wasn't any. Finding reasons why this person isn't quite right, why this job won't work out, why this opportunity isn't what you thought it was. The thing you wanted is right here. And something in you is already planning the ending. If this sounds familiar, you're not weak-wille
Wade Eames
Sep 196 min read
Anger Is the Part of Grief Nobody Warns You About
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
Wade Eames
Sep 125 min read
"A Part of Me Is Upset" Is Where It Starts, Not Where It Ends
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
Wade Eames
Sep 95 min read
When Healing Makes You Worse
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
Wade Eames
Sep 65 min read


When the Anger Won't Settle
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
Wade Eames
Sep 25 min read
The Part That Pushes Away Before You Get Left
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
Wade Eames
Aug 295 min read
When Feeling Nothing Is a Firefighter: What Emotional Numbness Protects You From
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
Wade Eames
Aug 255 min read


What Actually Happens in an IFS Session
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
Wade Eames
Aug 215 min read
When the Part of You That Keeps You Safe Won't Let You Feel Anything
There's a moment that happens in the therapy room. Someone sits down, looks at me, and says something like: "I know I should feel something about this. But I don't. I just... nothing." They say it with frustration. Sometimes shame. Like the absence of emotion is proof that they're broken, or that they're doing something wrong. But here's what I see: a part of them that did its job so well, it never clocked off. The Part That Got You Through Emotional numbness isn't a defect.
Wade Eames
Jul 244 min read


What Happens When You Finally Stop Moving
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
Wade Eames
Jul 244 min read


The Part of You That Won't Let You Rest
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
Wade Eames
Jul 176 min read


When the Part of You That Got You Here Won't Let You Move Forward
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
Wade Eames
Jun 55 min read


IFS Therapy for Trauma: What Parts Work Looks Like When Nothing Else Has Worked
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
Wade Eames
May 226 min read
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