Resistance as protection

Resistance in therapy gets a bad wrap.

As a client-centered trauma therapist I have always understood that ambivalence and resistance are normal parts of the therapy experience.

I understand that facing our past, our struggles, the most shameful and cringey parts of self is not easy.

But starting my journey of working with parts and dissociation has helped me appreciate and understand resistance in a whole new way.

Resistance is not just you wanting to be difficult, or not being invested in healing, or being lazy, although all of that may play a role. The important part is if it does play a role understanding what that role is and why that role developed.

It almost always developed as some form of protection in childhood, that role, whatever it is, was developed to protect you from something worse, from something you didn’t have any other way of managing or handling or surviving.

So that resistant part of self deserves some love and compassion for protecting you when you didn’t have any other way of protecting yourself.