Processing Grief through The Stages of Alchemical Transformation

The trauma repetition compulsion is the unconscious drive to recreate past painful experiences, often in relationships, behaviors, or emotional responses. The nervous system seeks familiarity - even when it’s harmful - because we conflate predictability with control and familiarity with safety. With awareness and identification of your patterns, there is a strategic way to stop these behaviors and make meaningful, adaptive change.

In trauma therapy, it’s tempting to get excessively focused on the trauma itself. But overly identifying with what happened to you can keep you stuck in the past and the familiarity of that painful story. Change requires 1. the courage to let go of the old, 2. the flexibility and adaptability to pivot, and 3. the creativity to envision a new future. It’s important to place the appropriate emphasis where it belongs: a balanced approach helps us provide the deliberate and compa

People tend to come to therapy when certain behaviors have become problematic. True change starts when we explore deeper into what's motivating these actions. Only until we look at our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, experiences and the meaning we have been making can we transform from within.