Counseling

I think I'm done with counseling. I almost can't believe it. In seven months my therapist has helped me achieve what 28 years of religious education failed to do: to begin to understand the nature of my own personal happiness. And, to stop hating myself.

I feel that I still have a long way to go, and I have no doubt I'll seek counseling again in the future. But for now, I just want to keep applying what I've learned. Including:

1) Feelings are not good or bad; they are informative.
2) The more information, the better.
3) It's important to find a balance between emotion and rationality (rather than becoming too one-sided).
4) Identifying the "risks" of certain actions is helpful for understanding/overcoming inhibitions
5) "I don't know" doesn't mean "I don't know."
6) There is a difference between thoughts and judments and feelings
7) I don't need someone else to tell me the right way to be/feel/speak (aka There is no rule book for life/love)
8) Manipulation is manipulation, no matter how well-intentioned
9) There is a difference between knowing how to care about someone and actually liking the person
10) It's not so important what I believe as it is why

Those are just a few things I can come up with off the top of my head. Truly, I can hardly remember the wreck I was less than a year ago.

So yeah, I'd just like to say I have a testimony of psychotherapy. I know it's true. ;)