Hello – I am a licensed therapist in Minnesota, with over 20 years of professional experience in helping those that are struggling with various depressions, situations of grief, PTSD, and other psychological traumas. You have already experienced some, if not much of your life, and have experienced many times of change. So, regardless of the degree to which you feel that this life has been good or bad for you, you already have many internal strengths upon which to build in overcoming the obstacles that are currently challenging you, whether you may be aware of this or not at this moment. With these strengths, it is my work in your therapy to also help you find the missing information that you may need, and then help you use new or refined skills to then empower yourself to continue onward into achieving positive movement in your own personal journey. And, a personal journey it truly is! While it is also true that any person, for their own part, does need at first to have at least some small individual wanting for the possible choices and changes that are needed in order to have a better life experience, so very, very often some shared good humor certainly also does help in the planning and implementing of all of the “getting there” that happens along the way. In my therapy I do try at times to find safe and appropriate humor in the moment, so that the whole process can be maybe more manageable, and also way less fearful. So, what I am saying to you is this: while you must make your own good and informed choices in therapy, the steps you then take to make your life better do not have to necessarily always be perceived as grim as you learn to walk to a better place. Also, sometimes in a life, there is some baggage that has accumulated that needs to be dealt with first, before deeper, more lasting changes can be considered. The process of therapy may have some challenging moments for sure, but one does not have to expect to relive past pain (there’s already been enough of that) as one moves toward psychological growth.