Why Lived Experience Matters to Me as a Therapist

Life is not polished or predictable. It's not the perfect, idyllic, IG and FB posts that flood our feeds. Life asks us to carry grief, navigate betrayal, juggle burnout, and face challenges that don't come with neat solutions. For many of us, the path winds through depression, anxiety, bone-deep exhaustion, or even the quiet struggles of moving through the world undiagnosed.

I know this because I've walked through it myself.

I've experienced loss that shifted how I understood the world around me, I've felt exhaustion of burnout and the weight of showing up when I was running on fumes. I've lived through complicated family dynamics and struggles that didn't always have a name.

These experiences don't define me but shape me in the way I listen, the way I sit with someone in their pain, and the way I hold space for all that can feel unbearable.

When people come to therapy, they often worry about being judged, misunderstood, or treated as a "case" rather than a whole human being. What I've learned as a human and therapist is that connection is built when someone feels truly seen.

Lived experiences makes a difference. It doesn't replace training or skill, but it adds depth. It means that when someone says, " I feel overwhelmed," or " I don't know how to keep going," I hear them as someone who understands how real those emotions and moments are.

Therapy is not about erasing the pain or pretending the messy parts don't exist. It is about having a place where you don't have to hide from them. A place where your emotions can all belong in the same room.

Lived experience isn't something you will see on a license or a degree. It isn't a treatment plan or modality. But it matters.

It matters because it helps me meet people as humans first. People who are trying, hurting, questioning, and searching. It matters because it reminds me, always, that we are all navigating what life throws our way, often with more strength than we realize.