I had to feel REALLY safe with my therapist before I really was able to delve into the big, deep emotions from the past. I am talking YEARS of therapy before I could talk about/feel the hardest stuff.

For me, talking about talking about it always helped. Talking about why it was hard to talk about, what my fears were, etc.

And sometimes T would ask me what the "easiest" part of the hard thing was, and that at least gave me a tiny starting point.

I think we want to heal QUICKLY because we want to feel better...AND I think it just takes as long as it takes. We have to be patient with ourselves. We have all of these defenses in place for a reason, and even when we intellectually "get" that we don't need them anymore, it can take a lot longer before we believe it deep down.