When the Click Happened: The Doorway Wasn’t Out of Her, But Out of the System

A client walked in quietly, withdrawn, and careful with her words.

 I asked gently, “How are you?”

 She said, “Good.”

But her voice held a tremble, her eyes couldn’t hide.

As she began describing a traumatic experience, the tears came. Not from pain alone but from being witnessed without interruption.

 I didn’t rush to fix.

 I didn’t ask probing questions.

 I just stayed.

And in that stillness, something softened.

That session wasn’t about changing her mindset.

 It wasn’t about reframing her narrative or challenging distortions.

 It was about holding space for a truth that had long gone unheard.

Through art therapy, she began to express what words couldn’t:

A tiny figure surrounded by a storm, cornered, invisible.

And then, a doorway appeared in her drawing. Quiet, almost hesitant.

That doorway wasn’t her escape from herself.

It was her way out of the system, a system that expected her to cope, stay silent, perform strength, and never need support.

In therapy, we often equate progress with self-improvement.

But what if the self isn’t broken?

What if the real work is freeing that self from what suppresses it?

That day, the “click” happened not because she changed, but because she realised:

She was never the problem.

Art therapy helped her see what logic couldn’t.

Externalising her inner world.

Creating space between her and the shame that didn’t belong to her.

Sometimes healing isn’t about fixing the self.

It’s about recognising the context and stepping out of what’s no longer fair, safe, or true.

What part of your story might change if you stopped seeing yourself as the problem?