How does someone face their fears? Not so much the external fears like spiders or darkness....but internal fears? Maybe its emotions that you have buried deep that seem dangerous to express or look at? Maybe its thoughts or feelings that you have about yourself that you are afraid to examine/face?

I used to think that it was best to let sleeping dogs lie... That we have built up these elaborate defense mechanisms for a reason. But for me these fears... have led to anxiety... have caused problems in relationships with others... have used countless hours of wasted energy to keep them at bay...

So you decide to face them.... you find a great T and you start to work through them ... but now you find your subconscious is conspiring against you... your defenses are on high alert, you dissociate when things get hard, you push your T away when things get too close...

one T says you have to move towards the mess... push towards the pain...

So for those of you who have faced a fear....talked about feelings about yourself or something that happened to you..(not necessarily feel like you are healed but got through one issue)... How did you do it? 20 seconds of courage comes to mind but that is just to blurt out a feeling... to tell of an incident... how do you work through it with T... if anyone wants to share something it would really help me... just looking for understanding of ways to push past your fears of facing yourself... facing feelings you've buried for a very long time...how did you know you were at a place that you had worked through it?