Therapy isn't about flipping our lives upside down. It's about exploring, getting curious, and creating the conditions where real change might happen — if and when we're ready. It's about understanding our motivations, desires, and our real selves. Change threatens what we know, what we've built, what feels familiar — even if what we know isn't authentic or comfortable. Our adaptations and defenses have been carefully crafted and cemented over a lifetime. They're not flaws. They're ingenious survival strategies. They've kept us safe, functional, and adaptive (even when it doesn't feel that way).

We all have expectations and secret agendas of what we believe should be happening for us. From what we think our morning coffee should taste like (come on, burnt pot!) to how we imagine that big date going down (cue butterflies and fireworks). But here's the thing: expectations can be sneaky little buggers. Sometimes, they set us up for a major disappointment when reality doesn't quite match our perfectly crafted mental picture. We've all been there. The clash between what we expected and what actually happens can leave us feeling frustrated, defeated, self-righteous, and entitled.