You are not "broken". You don't need to be "fixed". You aren't "damaged". My heart breaks when clients come to me saying these words. 💔

When did this dialogue start? Did it start when you experienced a traumatic event? Did it start because your behavior changed after that traumatic event? Did it start as a child because you were constantly told negative things about yourself?

What really happened was you were "hurt" in some way either physically,mentally or emotionally. Then the subconscious created coping mechanisms to protect you from more hurt. From the outside, these coping mechanisms may appear to be "self-sabotaging" or "destructive" when in reality they are "self-preserving". The subconscious has one job and that's to keep you alive by protecting you.

One of the first things I tell clients is to thank the behavior/the coping mechanism even if it has lead to addiction because it has kept you alive till now. A client struggling with addiction once told me "When I was high , it was like a warm hug I never got". Please remember this the next time you encounter someone struggling with addiction.

That hurt you experienced, then turns into a deep wound otherwise known as trauma. Dr. Gabor Maté would say, "Trauma is not what happened to you but what happens inside of you because of what happened to you."

You aren't broken, you are wounded. You don't need fixing, you need healing.

You can't change the past but you can heal by reframing it and gaining new perspective about old events. In my opinion this is where Hypnotherapy can be profoundly life changing.