Honouring Our Journey: Key Lessons from 2024
As therapists, we're skilled at holding space for others' stories. Today, let's pause and hold space for our own.
This isn't your typical "year in review" post with highlight reels and achievements (though if you made it through another year of being a therapist in these times, that's achievement enough).
Instead, let's honour the real journey – the messy, beautiful, challenging evolution we've experienced as helpers trying to help ourselves too.
Key Lessons from the Trenches
1. The Permission to be Perfectly Imperfect
Remember that session where you struggled to stay present, your mind floating to your child's schooling experience or those overdue reports?
Here's what 2024 taught us: Our humanity isn't a professional liability – it's what makes us real, relatable, and effective therapists.
The plot twist? Our clients often felt more permission to be human when they saw us navigating our own humanity with grace. This year, I've shared more openly about my neurodiversity and challenges on social media and in client sessions. Their knowing responses reminded me that authenticity creates deeper connections.
2. The Wisdom of Empty Spaces
This year showed us (sometimes the hard way) that those gaps between sessions aren't just administrative time. They're essential spaces for our nervous systems to regulate.
Beyond our schedules, there's the question of our internal landscape: How spacious and open is it to hold everything with lightness? I've found that embodying The Four Immeasurables – loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and empathetic joy – alongside other therapists has transformed both my presence in the therapy room and my personal life.
Here are some quick tips to create spaciousness in practice:
Schedule buffer zones between sessions
Practice mindful between-session meditation
Honour your energy rhythms
Integrate movement breaks
3. Understanding Compassion Fatigue
It's not just about being tired of caring. It's about carrying the weight of multiple worlds – our clients', our families', our own – while trying to maintain professional composure.
2024's revelation: Compassion fatigue isn't a personal failure. It's a normal nervous system response to abnormal expectations of constant emotional availability. Through understanding our empathic responses, we've learned to adjust our empathy dial intentionally. This awareness allows us to shift from reaction to presence, embracing a stance of sustainable compassion.
4. The Reality of Being a Parent-Therapist
To all of us who taught parenting skills while struggling with our own parenting moments: We see you.
This year taught us that being a good-enough parent and a good-enough therapist is actually... good enough. The outdated template of the "perfect therapist" or "perfect parent" has given way to something more authentic. Instead of inheriting others' expectations, we've learned to discern what truly works for us – and to be at peace with our choices.
5. The Power of Professional Boundaries and the Liberation of "No"
Remember when we used to think boundaries were just about session times and cancellation policies?
2024 showed us they're about preserving our capacity to care, our ability to be present, and our right to a life beyond our helping role. We learned that "no" can be a complete sentence – not just with clients, but with:
Extra committee responsibilities
Volunteer requests
Last-minute consultations
The endless pressure to upgrade our credentials
6. The Power of Messy Actions
2024 taught me that growth doesn't wait for perfect conditions. Every step I took outside my comfort zone – launching a new niche, running webinars, facilitating meditation circles, building my online presence – started with wobbly first steps.
The real transformation came not from perfect planning, but from imperfect action:
Starting a website before feeling "ready"
Hosting workshops with a racing heart
Writing newsletters despite inner criticism
Building an Instagram presence one post at a time
Leading meditation circles while still deepening my own practice
Each "messy" action challenged a limiting belief:
"I'm not tech-savvy enough" became "I can learn what I need"
"I'm not expert enough" transformed into "I'm growing alongside my community"
"It's not perfect yet" shifted to "Progress over perfection"
The surprise? The very act of doing something imperfectly created momentum that perfect planning never could. My new niche and vision didn't emerge from careful calculation – they evolved through experimentation, adjustment, and the courage to keep going.
7. The Truth About Self-Care
We finally admitted that bubble baths and meditation apps aren't enough when the real issue is systematic burnout.
Real self-care looked like:
Learning finance literacy for the practice
Reflecting on our beliefs that drive us to overworking and stretching ourselves thin
Taking actual lunch breaks and doing yoga stretches
Setting up systems for sustainable practice
Looking Forward to 2025
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, let's carry forward not just the lessons, but the wisdom of our experiences.
Your Journey Matters
Every part of your 2024 journey served a purpose:
Those moments you thought you were failing? They were actually growth edges
The times you felt overwhelmed? They were invitations to reset boundaries
The days you questioned everything? They were pointing you toward authenticity
The moments you felt confused? They are opportunities to seek clarity and unfold your wisdom
Your 2025 Permission Slip
I hereby grant you permission to:
Take up space in your own life
Say no without a lengthy explanation
Prioritize your wellbeing without guilt
Build a practice that serves your life (not the other way around)
Be a therapist AND a human being
A Final Reflection: The Wisdom of the Lotus
As we stand at this threshold between years, I'm reminded of the lotus – that remarkable flower that teaches us perhaps the most profound lesson about transformation:
The lotus doesn't just grow despite the mud; it grows because of it.
Every challenge you faced in 2024 – the difficult clients, the boundary struggles, the moments of doubt, the professional growing pains – these weren't obstacles to your growth. They were the very soil from which your wisdom emerged.
Like the lotus, you:
Found your way through the murky waters of uncertainty
Rose through layers of challenge
Transformed the mud of experience into the nutrients for growth
Bloomed not in perfect conditions, but in real ones
Remained true to your essence while evolving
Released your unique fragrance into the world
And perhaps most importantly, like the lotus, you demonstrated that remaining untainted by life's challenges doesn't mean avoiding them – it means transforming them into something beautiful.
As you step into 2025, remember:
The mud is not your enemy.
The struggle is not a mistake.
The journey through darkness is part of your blooming.
Your path as a therapist isn't about escaping the complexities of human experience – it's about transforming them into wisdom, compassion, and healing, both for yourself and others.
May your 2025 be not just about reaching for the light, but about honouring the entire journey that brings you into full bloom.
Because just like the lotus, you don't have to choose between growing through the mud and remaining beautiful.
You can do both.
You already are.
