People Are Sharing The Most Memorable Things Their Therapists Have Said To Them

3. “Something that took a few days for me to process was when my therapist told me: ‘Every adult in your life has failed you.'”

4. “I’ve been really struggling the last couple of weeks. I was talking to my therapist about how I feel like, at this point in my life, I should be able to just get over the (horrifically abusive) things that happened to me. She said, ‘I think you’re amazing! After everything you’ve been through, you haven’t given up, and you keep fighting.’ That’s exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.”

5. “‘There’s a fine line between being understanding and being a doormat, and you don’t know where the line is.’ I’m still grateful for those words.”

6. “Whenever I’d say ‘I don’t know’ in a session, my therapist would reply with, ‘Are you SURE?’ It helped me realize that, yes, I do know, but I’m just keeping it to myself. Now, I have a way easier time sharing with therapists and doctors, and I’m also better at communicating what I need in relationships. That very simple exchange with my therapist changed my life so much.”

7. “I’ll never forget when my therapist asked, ‘Why are you trying to please people who are dead?'”

8. “My therapist said, ‘Your parents tried really hard to fuck you over, and I’m not sure how you’ve managed to avoid the traps they set in your life.’ That took a while to process. As a kid, I tended to believe that everything that’d happened to me was ‘normal,’ because I wasn’t exposed to anything better. I was completely unaware that other kids’ parents didn’t have addictions because all of my friends had similar parents to mine. Our parents all got high together, drank together, and ‘parented’ all of the kids in the group. Therapy helped me recall so many deeply buried memories, but it also helped me appreciate life at a time when I didn’t really find much value when I looked in the mirror.”

9. “I was complaining about my teen kids being dismissive and unkind to me, despite the fact that I’m super kind to them. My therapist said, ‘Love flows downhill.’ I love my kids, but they can turn around and love their own people, who in turn can love their people, etc. Very little of the love comes back to you, and while that may be a huge generalization, my kids are all young adults now, and it’s still true. Kids don’t give, kids take. So if you have kids and expect them to fill your emotional voids, don’t. They won’t.”