A therapeutic alliance between you and your therapist is created over time. This is a professional working relationship that goes both ways with an end goal of helping you. It is different from friendship. It may not happen instantly, especially as many emotions can flow during the therapy sessions. Gradually, we hope you will feel more and more at ease in our sessions. We hope your body and mind will both feel the somatic sensation of being regulated together, even when it’s time to face tough thoughts and feelings. 

Learning the right word to describe an emotion is a useful step in identifying what it is we are feeling. Once we recognize what it is we feel, we gain the power to express that feeling accurately. When we can express the feeling, we are taking an important step in owning the feeling and deciding what to do next.