Dr. Glenn Francis

My being profoundly present with you when you share your difficulties encourages you to find more of what’s true in yourself. Feeling welcomed and safe, you are gradually able to be more authentically you. With this sincerity on board you are more able to deal realistically and truly with your life. Along the way of this happening, you find you are less afraid of your feelings, whether they are good or bad. The reality of what you feel – and of the thoughts you have, is just how life is showing up; the uniqueness of you. Self-criticism diminishes, and self-encouragement grows. There’s a sense of you finding yourself again, of rediscovering who you really are. Life is good, as it is, as you are; you had just forgotten it. Amidst trauma, amidst very difficult experiences in childhood or later, you gradually went down into the darkness of yourself. You felt alone there, in the dark. Now that you have encouraging company, you find yourself on a journey of return. This enables you to gradually acknowledge, and then come back toward all of the difficult places in yourself that you might have once avoided. The suffering of that avoidance begins to go away. In its place appears a kind of strength and confidence that you realize is your birthright of fulfillment, and self-love. The very first step of this process is acknowledging that you are suffering, and are too much alone with it. Reaching out is in itself a relief. Then finding yourself accompanied by someone who knows the dark and is not afraid to accompany you there is more relief, and more encouragement, and the dawning of light upon the path of yourself.