Status Updates From Drama Free: A Guide to Mana...

On unquestioned loyalty:
Questions are a healthy way to understand systems, including families. It isn’t OK when you aren’t allowed to ask questions. Critical thinking is a threat to unhealthy systems, and questions make people think. So people often fight it when the system is questioned. But still, your loyalty is first and foremost to your own well-being.

Surviving v. thriving:
You survive when you don’t repeat a cycle. But you thrive when you create a new legacy and trajectory. Conscious awareness and efforts are what separate someone who thrives from someone who survives. You can consciously create a new life; and those who do are called cycle breakers.

Many clients enter therapy in the contemplation stage, and quite often people leave therapy in the contemplation stage. Considering change is more accessible than actually making changes, especially changes in our families. Contemplation can last for years. This may seem like a disappointing reality, but therapists have come to accept that it’s where we must sit with clients until they’re ready to take action.

Mantra:
“I am not a product of my environment. I am a product of the choices I make right now. Sometimes those choices are influenced by my environment; however, I have a choice about who I want to be. I can be different from my environment. This will not be easy, but I can do it.”