When we think of the word “cardia,” we often think of our hearts.
In our modern age, we hear about cardiac muscles, cardiac arrest, cardiac treatment, and everything in between. It’s synonymous with the vital organ within our bodies.
But in its Greek roots, the word “kardia” means so much more. More than the literal physical organ that sustains our life, it is also the metaphorical intersection where our thoughts are born, our feelings are felt, and our choices are made.
It is home to our intelligence, our moral reservoirs, and what calls us to action (or inaction). It is the seat of secular faith and the equivalent of the innermost version of our self.
In the day to day push and pulls, the crushing pressures we shoulder, the emotional weights we carry, and the pain we endure, we can lose that sense of self.
In a life full of uncertainty, loss, and endings, it can be hard to know what we want or what presence we wish to hold.
Life is messy, and we have all faced times where we suffer feelings of worthlessness, emptiness, and panic. We may find ourselves so frightened of conflict that we agree to relationships that feel exhausting or shape us into a person we don’t want to be.
Our suffering becomes self-protective, but in this suffering, we are communicating an unspoken need for change, for ourselves, for others, and to feel at ease in the greater world.
People often come to therapy with the belief that they can no longer tolerate these negative feelings and hope that therapy will eliminate these painful emotions.
While I realize the want to escape from what feels overwhelming, my goal is to help you not suppress your emotions but use them to develop skills to co-exist and thrive with them.
In therapy, I will walk with you to help you explore inherited fears, ecosystemic trauma, and other cognitive distortions or labels you’ve been given.
I will help you when your go-to coping methods have collapsed, and you feel you can no longer keep intrusive thoughts, ideas, and feelings away.