Comfort With Identity

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Passage to the Real You

Something brought you to this page. I don’t know why yet. I do know that you are a unique individual. Sometimes individuality is exhilarating; sometimes it is frightening. We learn and create who we are. We also define ourselves in relation to family, the surrounding community, our biology, and our beliefs. This is truly creative, yet risky work. Sometimes it is confusing. We are challenged to reach our full potential. We are driven to be at one with ourselves and, in comfort and peace, to enjoy who we are in the community.

You may struggle with questions about gender identity, orientation, racial complexity, adoption, immigration, life and family trauma, or other life circumstances. The famous psychologist, Erik Erikson, confirmed this struggle in his research: “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” To get to that sense of identity we usually have to go, as the poet Robert Frost said, by the road less travelled by others. You may feel you travel a road alone and that no one else sees you. Around every corner is a new challenge to piece it all together. Creating the true self is important work. Your life is your gift to the world, and in our therapeutic work, I will be honored to assist and witness your passage toward more of your authentic self.

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute-
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated-
Begin it, and the work will be completed!
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. - Dr Seuss
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
– Dr Seuss

The only way through pain . . . is to absorb, probe, understand exactly what it is and what it means. To close the door on pain is to miss the chance for growth...Nothing that happens to us, even the most terribly shock, is un-usable, and everything has somehow to be built into the fabric of the personality. - May Sarton
The only way through pain . . . is to absorb, probe, understand exactly what it is and what it means. To close the door on pain is to miss the chance for growth…Nothing that happens to us, even the most terribly shock, is un-usable, and everything has somehow to be built into the fabric of the personality.
– May Sarton

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Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali. - Salvador Dali
Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali.
– Salvador Dali

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There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self. - William James
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.
– William James

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We know what we are, but not what we may be. - William Shakespeare
We know what we are, but not what we may be.
– William Shakespeare

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