Hello Resource Therapists and others who are interested in RT. Today I would like to share with you a client’s perspective on their eight Resource Therapy sessions. This wonderful client wrote to me volunteering her lived experience of a very tough time in her life, where they had turned a corner. Resource Therapy proved to be a pivotal part of their healing program.
It is always a privilege and an honour to help people and my thanks to the author who knows who she is and shares with us her inner self. Please meet Kristina ( name changed for confidentiality ).
My Resource Therapy Journey
My journey with resource therapy started when I was 40 plus years and 6 months into an 11 month recovery from a serious work and personal burnout. It has been a long and painful road and as a high functioning depression sufferer as well, I know that finding the right therapist and treatment techniques can be challenging.
I am a therapy lover, I believe strongly in the benefits it has to offer, but when you’re struggling with day to day functioning, finding the right mix of people and skills to support your recovery can feel like a heavy task. It was through a conversation with a GP who specializes in burnout that I found out about Resource Therapy, and so my amazing journey began………
What I love about Resource Therapy is the understanding I gained about my psychological make up. Understanding the different aspects of myself, when they formed and importantly, why? The process of naming each aspect and understanding its contribution and the role it plays, and then going through the process of reframing that aspect if necessary, pulling it apart to gain a deep understanding of its positive role even if at first you cannot see one, is at the heart of Resource Therapy.
I discovered 7 aspects of myself but there are probably a few more I haven’t met yet. What Resource Therapy guided me to do was to make sure each aspect knew each other and collaborated with the others, worked as a team and understood their role and strengths. It was quite funny to actually experience really clearly that there were parts of myself that literally did not know the others existed, let alone work collaboratively together.
Through the Resource Therapy process I laughed more than I cried, which was incredibly refreshing.
Gaining clarity that no single aspect of myself was an entire representation of me, that 1 or 2 or 3 aspects of myself could be contributing to any conscious thought or moment, was transformational. Additionally, I developed the skill of listening and being present with myself so I could hear which combination of my aspects were talking. I could tune in, listen and understand which aspects of me were talking loudly, being quiet or I could bring an aspect into that moment who wasn’t initially there. I cannot overstate how empowering this has been.
Through the Resource Therapy process, what I was able to cleanse myself of is hard to explain except to say, I feel lighter, free and so less afraid of what’s lurking in the shadows inside of me. In fact, I have embraced what’s inside me, all of it, including the impact of the emotional family trauma which started when I was 6 years old and has never really stopped.
What amplifies the Resource Therapy process is the practice of gratitude and compassion for oneself. Often when we start therapy we are in pain and those things are hard, but the Resource Therapy process leads you down that path anyway.
Wherever and whenever you start your Resource Therapy, the journey down the rabbit hole will transform and empower you in ways you will value for the rest of your life.
I will leave you with a summary of my personal outcome from my Resource Therapy journey. This and a beautiful vision of “all my selves” holding hands smiling on a giant big white fluffy cloud marked the closing of a chapter and marked my decision that my next Resource Therapy session would be my last.
I am about living a life in pursuit of what I value. Not what my parents value, not what society values, not what my friends or the people I work for and with value. I define my value and my values.
What I value is Love, Essence, Courage, Growth, Acceptance, Appreciation, Health, Celebration and Creative.
All parts of me contribute to my life, to who I am and to helping me live my values: Spirit of Kristina, Administr
ator, Pain and Judgy, 13, 23, Dominator and the White Fluffy Clouds. They all know each other, know that they work together and play an equally important role in loving who I am, and the pursuit of a life bursting with what I value. They know that individually they don’t define me, but together through both pain, joy and everything in between they support me, love me and collectively contribute to who I am.
I am not my mother and I am not my father, in spite of their influence and impact, I am no longer afraid of the contributions they have made to me, because they are contributions only, they are not the definition of me. I take their contributions as gifts that have helped me unfold into the person I want to be, not who I have to be. 
Everything I need for my life is already inside of me, starting with the love I have for myself.
I am rich in the love of a wonderful husband, beautiful children, family and friends. I am rich in adventures, experiences, knowledge and most importantly understanding and awareness of myself and compassion and love for myself and for others. I have created this, no one else, me. I will continue to create my life knowing that everything I need, I have.
That is my key.
My Life is an Adventure, Thriving and Rich in my values, daily I am in FLOW feeling Free, Fulfilled and Alive.
Kristina.
Wonderful Kristina and thank you for sharing!
