When Life Breaks You Open: A Therapist on Healing What Still Hurts
Written by: Gather & Ground Wellness - Vancouver Counselling Clinic
If this past year has been difficult, it may have also revealed strength you didn’t realize you had. Surviving challenging moments requires adaptability, endurance, and courage. These qualities may not always feel accessible, but they are present. The very fact that you are reflecting on your experience, acknowledging the pain, and seeking ways to heal is evidence of resilience.
Looking ahead, healing does not require sweeping resolutions or sudden change. It asks for intention. It asks for small, steady acts of care: resting when tired, reaching out when lonely, allowing help where needed, practicing boundaries, honoring emotions, and choosing compassion over harsh self-judgment. These are the quiet, transformative actions that slowly rebuild a sense of safety and self-trust.
It is important to recognize that healing is not about becoming who you were before life broke you open. Instead, it is about becoming someone new—someone shaped not just by pain but by growth, insight, and self-awareness. The breaking open, painful as it is, creates space for deeper understanding and softer strength.
For anyone beginning or continuing a healing journey, know this: there is no rush. Pain unwinds at its own pace. Grief softens slowly. Trauma loosens its grip with time, support, and care. Each small step is meaningful. Each moment of awareness is progress.
Life will continue to bring challenges, but it will also bring opportunities to rebuild, reconnect, and reimagine. And with each healed layer, you move closer to a life that feels grounded, whole, and authentically yours.
May the year ahead offer gentleness where there has been pain, clarity where there has been confusion, and hope where there has been heaviness. Healing is possible—not because of perfection or strength alone, but because openness, courage, and compassion are already within you, waiting to be welcomed.
Phone: 604-418-8827
Email: hello@gatherandground.ca