There is a former shelter client that I worked with for eight months while she was in the shelter. At the beginning of her shelter stay this client was really struggling with just surviving and making it through each day. She reported not feeling a lot of joy or excitement about life and feeling very overwhelmed. We met every week and this client was very diligent about coming to sessions even when she didn’t feel like it or when she was having a rough day or week. Little by little I began to see this client healing.
She began to come in with a little spring in her step. She signed up for college courses and found a part-time job. For the first time in a long time, she began to feel some independence and confidence. Toward the end of her stay at the shelter, the client came into a session and said that she wanted to write a list of all the things she had accomplished during her stay. We spent the whole session talking about how far she had come and she had a whole page full of positive things that she had accomplished. She was in awe and so proud of herself. Tears of happiness just rolled down her cheeks as she recognized everything that she had done. I congratulated her and let her know that she was the one that made all of those positive things happen in her life. She later told me that she framed the list and put it up in her bedroom at her new house so that every night as she was going to bed and every morning as she woke up she could look at that list and remember how far she had come.
There is so much healing power in each and every person and this client is powerful proof of that.
