In response to Walk Free's post entitled 'not sure how to title this' , (great thread), Mouse responded with something that I feel is so important, and we all know about it, I wanted to start a new thread because of it.

Mouse's comment, ''I had put the pain where it belonged'' really speaks to the heart of what good therapy is all about. It's about putting our emotions where they belong, assigning them their rightful place. So that we can heal from past hurts.

As most of us are struggling to 'put our emotions where they belong' I thought it might be nice to have a thread where we can share our 'expeditions' and 'explorations' and what conclusions we come to because of them. Our struggles in trying to understand our deep emotions and if they do stem from historical roots, can we make the connection?

And if and when you happen to succeed at 'putting an emotion where it really belongs' that would be wonderful to hear about those...

I'll share one of my own 'lightbulb' moments, one in which I was able to connect the dots....

I was talking to my t about something and I felt she was not 'hearing' me....this happened at the next session too....my anger began to build...the rage I felt was pretty intense....I was MAD! ANGRY! After a while I told her, ''I feel so alone so unheard so ANGRY that you are not HEARING me! It feels the same way as when my caretakeres did not HEAR me....'' It was such a significant insight for me at the time. I think most important was that I was able to connect the intensity of my current emotional experience to the days when I was a little kid experiencing the same exact feelings.

Once I had put my rage where it truly belonged I was able to separate the rage from 'back then' from the 'anger' that I was experiencing currently, and I was able to talk about it and process it. The 'historical rage' was no longer interfering; I had given it it's due and proper acknowledgement and returned it to its 'rightful owner' in its 'rightful era'