Hi, Friend.
The first time I decided to get therapy, I couldn’t afford it.
It was 2am, and I was feverishly Googling for JUST the right person to help me.
They needed to specialize in disordered eating, anxiety and body image.
They needed to focus on present-time solutions, not healing my inner child.
They needed to have a PhD.
[Trust me, I have loosened up significantly since then, but at the time, these criteria felt crucial.]
Well, I found her.
She was perfect.
She also charged $225 per session.
That was 10% of my MONTHLY pay cheque at the time.
I most definitely could not afford it.
I most definitely needed it.
I have decided to set it up as an experiment - if you know me, you know I like experiments. Framing something as a temporary trial run calms my brain. We set a deadline, we collect data, we assess and re-assess.
I was going to put $1,000 towards this.
Yes, it was going on my credit card, but I would be able to pay it off within a few months, teaching some extra yoga classes on the side.
That bought me FOUR sessions.
If I wasn’t going to see any improvement, I was going to quit right there and then, cut my losses and move on with my life, my binging, and my fucked up body image.
Easy.
I ended up seeing that therapist on and off for the next ten years.
So… yeah. It helped. I don’t know where I would be today, if I didn’t decide to TRY.
This is NOT me saying “if this is important to you, you should make it work!’" I had plenty of privilege at the time - not everyone can just set aside $1,000 to try out therapy.
This IS me saying… I know that while winter is free, and struggling with winter is free, getting help is usually not.
If there is a way for me to make help more accessible, I’d like to do just that.
Learn more here: https://www.solovieva.com/operationtigger
Hugs,
