We expect healing to be a straight line: progress that moves forward and never back. But the truth is, healing rarely looks like a ladder — it looks more like a spiral.
The Myth of Linear Progress
Clients often tell me, “I thought I was over this. Why am I back here again?” That moment of being stuck feels like failure. But it isn’t. What we’re experiencing in those moments is regression, a natural return to earlier patterns when the nervous system feels threatened.
Your nervous system doesn’t care about perfection; it cares about safety. When something in the present echoes an old wound, the body may react as if it’s back there again.
What Regression Really Means
Regression is not the absence of growth — it’s growth revisited. Each time you circle back, you bring new awareness, tools, and strength with you. A place that once felt like quicksand may now be a puddle you can step across.
A Reframe That Helps
Instead of asking, What’s wrong with me? ask, What is this moment inviting me to practice? Healing is less about erasing the past and more about weaving it into the story of who you are becoming.
Key Takeaway
Feeling stuck is not the end of your journey; it’s part of the terrain. Each “step back” is really an invitation to integrate more fully and strengthen the pathways forward.
