Do you want to learn how forgiveness works? I am an only child. I also recently became a mom. This was a big deal in my family. A confluence of events had led me to believe having a child just wasn’t possible for me.
I had gotten used to the lingering sadness that took up space in my mind and heart. What I never realized (until the birth of my daughter) was the sadness that my parents were experiencing. If I never had children, they wouldn’t have grandchildren.
This awareness was such a powerful reminder of how we become so wrapped up in our own emotional experience that we fail to recognize or empathize with the feelings of our loved ones.
As a psychotherapist and family counselor, I help my clients learn to recognize and validate their own emotional needs. I also want to teach the importance of having compassion and empathy (even if it seems hard) for those that we love. By regularly practicing empathy and compassion, we are creating deeper relationships that are more easily sustained. We also experience greater trust and have an easier time exercising forgiveness when we feel hurt by those we love.
