Has Your Therapist Really Heard Your Story?

A sunset sky fades from orange to deep purple over a calm ocean. Bold cream text reads: “Did your therapist really hear you?” with a thinking face emoji placed beside the words. The design feels warm, reflective, and inviting, evoking curiosity and self-reflection.

When you think back on therapy you’ve had, or maybe therapy you’re in right now, what stands out?

Many people tell me they loved their therapist’s kindness, or they felt safe, seen, and heard for the first time in years. Others share a very different experience: sessions felt surface-level, not connected, or the real issues – trauma, heartbreak, betrayal, or childhood wounds – never seemed to get airtime.

💭 So here’s our challenge to you:
What did you most want from therapy, and did you get it? Be brave, and say it.

  • Did you wish your therapist had asked about your past?
  • Did you feel your trauma was addressed – or avoided?
  • Did you want more practical tools?
  • Or simply someone to sit with you and really listen?
  • Something else?

For Couples

If you’ve been in couples therapy, the answers can be even more layered:

  • Did you want the therapist to take your side – or to truly stay neutral?
  • Did you feel they understood the depth of your pain when conflict flared?
  • Did the sessions get stuck in communication skills, or did they help you reach the real wounds beneath the fights?
  • Is there more?
  • Did you and your partner walk out closer… or further apart?

So many couples tell me:
“We just wanted hope.”
“We wanted to feel safe again.”
“We wanted to know if love could be rebuilt.”


Why Your Answers Matter

I train and supervise therapists across Australia and internationally. Time and again, therapists ask: “What do clients actually want from us?”

It’s one thing to study models and techniques. It’s another to hear directly from the people therapy is meant to help – you.

Your words, even a single sentence – could change how therapists are taught, how they listen, and how they show up for the next person who sits across from them.


Share Your Thoughts (Anonymously if You Wish)

👉 Pop your response in the comments below. If you’d prefer, you can write “Anonymous” instead of your name.

I’ll gather these insights (without identifying details) and share them with therapists in training, so your voice can help shape the future of therapy.


✨ Whether you’ve had years of therapy, just a few sessions, or you’re considering it for the first time, your perspective is invaluable.

So I’ll ask again. And this time, I dare and care you to answer:
What did you most want from therapy – as an individual or as a couple? And did it feel like you got it?


📌 Please note: Comments are for reflection and learning, not a substitute for professional support. If you need urgent help, reach out to your GP, a counsellor, or Lifeline (13 11 14 in Australia).


You’re invited! Calling all Clinical Resource Therapists for Advanced Parts Therapy Training

@ResourceTherapytrainingworkshops #partstherapy @partstherapy
#ResourceTherapy is heart centred and healing therapy @ResourceTherapy

At the Resource Therapy Institute Australia we are dedicated to Professor Gordon Emmerson’s vision of sharing this healing heart centred therapy he has pioneered.

Those how know me, know I am not being one to blow my own trumpet, I am also Vice President of Resource Therapy International and Chris Paulin is Clinical Training Director. We have been helping Gordon and Anna run the annual Bali training since it began.

It has been a real honor to be offered the opportunity by Gordon and Anna to keep the Resource Therapy training workshops running in UBUD Bali.

Bali Resource Therapy Workshop group


We plan to make it an annual event, so every year around June/July you will find great fun and fabulous trauma informed parts therapy in a tropical paradise. Next year let us know if you’d like an opportunity to practice your training skills by running a day. Or perhaps you have a specialty Resource Therapy skill you’d like to offer as a specialist workshop. There is a thought of NLP and its applications with Resource Therapy. Please send me an email.

Here is the Ubud training on offer here https://resourcetherapy.com.au/bali/

The awesome thing is you get to learn while in a heavenly space, with lovely hotels and divine food. Happy to make recommendations! Just ask me for our local favourites.


Sometimes due to kids, work or life commitments an overseas trip for learning isn’t possible. This is why we offer training in Sydney. https://resourcetherapy.com.au/resource-therapy-foundation-training-online-philipa-thornton-sydney/

@ResourceTherapytrainingworkshops


This course is especially relevant to those who have completed their Clinical training is the Advanced Clinical Train the Trainer. Perhaps you did the training a while ago and like me took up some of the ideas but needed some more input on how to implement Parts Therapy into your practice. Or you found it useful with clients you used it with but felt as if you were missing some vital parts. You know safety is paramount in working as a trauma informed Resource Therapist and wanted to learn more on this. The Advanced Clinical & Train the Trainer is the answer.

This is a five day review of the Clinical and dive down further into using Resource Therapy with conditions like ADHD, Psychosis, Complex PTSD, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety and Pain Management. All totally applicable to psychologists, social workers, therapists and all other emotional healers out there.

Discover the Power of Parts Therapy
Discover the Power of Parts Therapy Resource Therapy Institute Australia

Find out more on this training here :https://resourcetherapy.com.au/resource-therapy-foundation-training-online-philipa-thornton-sydney/

https://youtu.be/9u0mTw09ha0

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