(615) 227-9278

Individual Therapy

What to Do When Your Life Has Grown Too Small

David Whyte in his poem Sweet Darkness says:

“You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
Except the one to which you belong.”

Deep in your heart, you long for freedom and rest.

Yet real freedom eludes you.

You’ve crafted an identity that’s in line with society’s demands.

You may have even earned your fair share of society’s rewards – money, power, applause.

Your small-minded self tries to ensure its survival by controlling what it can. But your curated self cannot deliver sustainable well-being.

There is a larger Self within us that is connected to everything.

Lasting freedom is available – but only if you make the heroic leap (or quiet drop) to identifying this Self as your source.

Therapy Offers the Possibility of Transformation

Transformation is the process of releasing your consciousness from the confines of the small self.

As long as you are caught up in the machinations of the egoic self, you suffer due to feeling trapped in a world too small for your consciousness.

So, you see the dilemma:

Everything about our capitalist culture is about achievements of the individual self – how you look, what you do, how much you make…

It is all too small to fulfill your consciousness, which longs for wholeness.

This is why you feel disconnected and empty inside (no matter how successful you become).

You have been set up to feel this way.

Are You Ready to Break Free?

Our culture breeds addiction, depression and anxiety by disconnecting you from your source.

Have the familiar landmarks of your career, relationships and carefully assembled identity lost their power to orient you in life?

You’ve worked hard to create the life you have yet something is missing.

The known world no longer resonates inside you.

This is not a failure but a summons from your inner guidance, an invitation to growth.

Does this sound familiar?

  • A persistent feeling of loneliness, even when you’re with others
  • The sense that you’re trapped in patterns that once served you but now hold you back
  • Relationship difficulties where you find yourself repeating the same conflicts or running when things get deep
  • A growing awareness that your achievements and acquisitions no longer bring fulfillment
  • Anxiety, depression, or grief that feels impossible to move through alone
  • The impression that your childhood experiences are still shaping your adult life in ways you can’t control
  • A yearning for authenticity, meaning, and real connection

These are not indications of some deficiency in your character.

Rather, they are signposts marking the point where the identity you’ve constructed and the ways you’ve learned to navigate life no longer serve your deeper needs for connection, meaning, and wholeness.

Learn to Say “Yes” to What Brings You Alive

David Whyte, in the same poem, further says:

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.”

As we work together, therapy becomes a journey and exploration into the fullness of who you are, beyond the limits of who you’ve believed yourself to be.

By establishing a protected space where the noise and urgency of daily life recede enough for deeper listening to become possible, exiled and forgotten parts of yourself surface.

The experience of being met with authentic presence becomes the foundation for all our work together.

We can’t make healing happen. It’s not something we do.

We’ll create the conditions under which healing can occur.  It’s a natural process that unfolds in the context of loving relationship and authentic connection.

The conditions for healing are not unlike those required for the natural restoration of a disturbed landscape: the right balance of attention and restraint, of intervention and trust in the inherent movement toward wholeness.

Drawing from more than three decades of immersion in contemplative practice, body-centered awareness, and the intricate work of accompanying others through their dark nights and dawning recognitions, I offer a presence that holds both your suffering and your capacity.

In our therapy sessions, you can expect:

  • A compassionate, non-judgmental space where all parts of your experience are welcome
  • Guidance in slowing down the habits that carry you past the present moment, discovering the spaciousness between impulse and action where your freedom lies
  • Support in recognizing and interrupting the automatic patterns that keep you stuck
  • Somatic practices that restore your connection to the body’s innate wisdom
  • Exploration of how your earliest relationships shaped your nervous system, influencing how you respond to both threat and nurturance
  • Practical mindfulness tools and exercises that can gradually transform your relationship with yourself and others through daily tending
  • A balance of deep listening and skillful intervention, knowing when silence serves and when a word might illuminate what remains hidden

My approach is informed by Hakomi Therapy, humanistic psychology, somatic awareness, and extensive meditation practice.

Rather than imposing techniques, I meet you where you are in the moment, responding to what emerges with presence and skillful care.

As Viktor Frankl wisely noted, “The space between stimulus and response is where our freedom lies.”

Together, we’ll grow your capacity to inhabit that space more fully, allowing you to respond to life with intention rather than reaction.

Discover the Transformations Available to You

When clients commit themselves fully to this journey, remarkable transformations emerge – not as sudden dramatic change but as a gradual restoration of what has always been present beneath the accumulated layers of adaptation and protection:

  • Authentic presence in relationships – The ability to stand in your truth without defensiveness or apology, reducing conflict and deepening intimacy in connection
  • Body-mind integration – Feeling comfortable in your own skin again, breathing easier, with less tension and more vitality in your daily life
  • Freedom from limiting patterns – Recognizing and releasing the subconscious patterns from your past that have kept you stuck in cycles of suffering
  • Reduced anxiety and depression – Developing a new relationship with difficult emotions that allows them to move through you without defining you
  • Clarity of purpose – Connecting with what brings you genuine meaning and fulfillment beyond external achievements
  • Improved relationships – Transforming family dynamics, developing healthy boundaries, and creating space for more authentic exchanges
  • Self-acceptance – Embracing all parts of yourself with compassion instead of harsh judgment, recognizing that your shadows hold as much truth as the ‘shiny’ parts
  • Resilience in the face of loss – Befriending grief as part of life allows you to move through inevitable losses with more grace
  • Present moment awareness – The ability to fully experience life as it unfolds rather than being trapped in regrets about the past or anxieties about the future

The clients who benefit most from my approach are those who understand that transformation requires practice beyond our sessions together – daily moments of connecting in deeper awareness.

You will receive tailored practices for cultivating your capacity to be present, hacking your old patterns, and tuning into what is vital and alive in you.

This work isn’t always easy.

But those who commit to it discover something profound:

Beneath your struggling ego lies a natural state of wholeness that has been there all along, waiting to be recognized and lived.

Are you ready to begin this journey?

I offer in-person sessions in Nashville and virtual sessions for clients throughout Tennessee.

To schedule a consultation, please contact me or call (615) 227-9278.