The courage to believe in yourself

A fear not faced becomes panic, a fear faced becomes courage.

Braveheart (not his real name) is a young college student who is literally stuck in his academic journey.

He stopped taking exams, systematically avoiding all the oral tests, since they were the most feared.

This avoidance, although the most effective in the short term, proved dysfunctional in the long term, as it led to the arrest of his university career, fueling the negative self-belief that he was inadequate.

Recognizing that avoidance had become part of the problem was certainly the first step. The next was to acknowledge the negative self-thought and the emotions associated with it in order to begin nurturing positive self-thoughts that would allow one to begin imagining a new way of approaching the problem.

Only in this way was it possible to choose not to avoid the fear, but to face it, identifying what Braveheart truly needed in order to confront it without being overwhelmed by it.

Thanks to this inevitably tiring and at times painful journey, today Braveheart has finally given another exam.

Regardless of the result achieved (albeit excellent), the real success was facing his fear and courageously taking his life back into his own hands.

Replacing the cognition "I'm not up to it" with the cognition "I'm worthy" was the path that allowed us to change the previously predicted outcome of "I can't do it" to the outcome of "I did it." Only by behaving differently, today Braveheart also feels different things. We met when he was consumed by anxiety and a depressed mood. As the program continued, the anxiety decreased significantly, reaching physiological and functional levels, and his mood significantly improved. Today, after taking the exam, he was able to experience great joy again and finally say to himself: "I'm very happy and I can't wait to take the next one too."

An example of how psychotherapy can heal the wounds of the soul and restore meaning to one's life.

Braveheart's story is a reconstruction for illustrative purposes: it does not correspond to a single real person, and any identifying reference has been omitted.

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Believing in yourself is something you build, and in therapy you start right where that trust broke down: psychotherapy in Florence.