There’s something we don’t talk about enough when discussing loneliness. We often describe it as the absence of people, yet you can be surrounded by people and still feel profoundly alone - and this experience can elicit much shame.

What loneliness is really about, I think, is the absence of witnesses. Someone who sees you. Not the version of you that’s easier to be around. Not the you who’s holding it together. You.

People often come to therapy expecting healing to come from words. The right interpretation. The insight that finally makes sense of everything. The moment when the therapist says the thing that unlocks the door.

Sometimes it happens. Words matter. Understanding matters.

What heals most isn't what is said. It's what happens in the space between two people, something harder to name and more fundamental than language itself…