Hi, justatoaster, welcome to PC!

What interesting questions you ask. For myself, I like to think of factors, attributes, skills, abilities, etc. as being wonderful tools for my use rather than as "limiters" of any sort. That I was born with the attribute to be "shy" does not mean I have to act that way. That I did act that way in my youth, is more a "habit" because it was "easy" rather than what I consider negative "finger pointing" -- once shy, always shy, give it up, you ARE shy.

I am only Perna and Perna is too complicated and diverse to be wholly known, especially from the "outside." :-) My "goal" in life is to learn as much about Perna as possible and because I AM Perna, I get to say what is true and what is not.

I used therapy, first as support as I was a confused little thing :-) but then as a tool to help me in my figuring out who I was and where I had been/was going, etc. I think the "effectiveness of therapy" is only related to what one wants in therapy, what one brings to it and how one uses it individually. My T wasn't big on what her training or outside indices said about us and what we were doing, it was more what I "wanted" and was doing. I still remember the day we had a session and right before I left I said, "I don't think we talked about what we should have" and my T looked thoughtful and then said, "I think you're right" and that was the end of the session :-) From then on I understood that my T wasn't running/in charge the session, I was, she was just along for the "ride" and to help if/when she could.