Denise’s Story

Denise was feeling stuck in her life, like the well of her encouraging presence had run dry. Using a model of therapy called Restoration Therapy, her therapist at Insight Counseling Centers helped her find new perspectives and truth that led to peace.

Denise’s Story Transcript

I like to say that I am an Insight Counseling success story.

Life before I came to therapy was okay, not good or exceptional, but it was okay. It was mainly because I had gotten stuck. I had been stuck for a few years in some thinking patterns and feeling some regret about certain life choices I had made. Honestly, that poem that talks about “hope deferred,” oh my gosh, I felt like I was at the bottom of the barrel, just about with feeling hope, so almost hopeless. I was going day-to-day, you know, still operating, doing what I needed to do, but the light wasn’t really on. 

My name is Denise, and this is my story.

I am a 59-year-old African American, a follower, believer of Jesus Christ. I work in a non-profit organization, and I’ve been doing that for almost 20 years. I came to Nashville as a student at Belmont College, graduated from there, and I’m just a lover of everything that is Jesus and everything that is art and beauty and music, and that’s really who I am. 

I actually had gone through some coaching over the years before going to therapy, and my coach actually mentioned that I might want to think about therapy because coaching can only listen to you and not necessarily tell you or give you advice of what specifically you may want to do. But I needed some more in-depth kind of… I needed therapy. So I said, “Okay,” and looked into Insight Counseling and was so pleased with what I found there. 

I personally went to the website because I’m a person who believes in having all the different facts. I looked you up on the website, and I actually read some of the various testimonials people gave. I went through the different counselors to see what their areas of expertise were, and that’s when I found Monet Shell. I was excited and grateful that Insight offered what they call a sliding scale based on your income. So, I was so happy that I could afford that, and I decided that I was worth the effort, I was worth the time, and I was worth the money. 

So, I got with Monet, and after the very first session, I knew she was the person I needed to be with. Every time I went, I had an “aha” moment with her. It may come afterward, after I thought about what she said or looking at my notes, but she introduced me to Restoration Therapy. Generally, I think it’s used for anybody in relationships, specifically for couples, but this wasn’t a couple kind of thing for me. It was a restoration really of myself. 

So, the whole thing of Restoration Therapy is you become aware, awareness, which leads to truth, what is truth, which then leads to peace. Personally, I understood that I needed that. I’m an encourager naturally, but over the years, I think my well has sort of gone dry, and I needed the therapy to help me understand what was truth to lead me to peace. 

I remember one session that we did where, after she introduced the whole thing, I remember that morning I had gotten up and sat on the side of the bed, and I was looking out my window, and there was this tree and this bird was in the tree. It was almost light, but you could still see the moon. So, I looked at it for a moment, then I turned back, and you know I was actually reading in bed. I got up and looked out the window again, and it looked like the moon had moved. I was like, “Oh my gosh, what happened to the moon? What happened?” And the moon hadn’t moved. It was like God said, “Aha, Denise, you changed your perspective. You got up and looked out the window,” which is different from when I was sitting. So that was like an “aha,” awareness, a truth, not only about the physical aspect that the moon hadn’t moved in that brief moment in time, but I had. Spiritually, for me, I understood in my thoughts, in my soup, in my spirit, I was changing. I wanted to see what truth was, and that led to peace for me. 

If you want to get past your block, then you should look at talking with someone. So, being able to speak with someone who you don’t necessarily know, but someone who operates under the principles Insight does, with confidentiality and being a safe place, I think is a good thing to do. If you want to hear what you’re really thinking and what really is going on inside you, you should talk to someone.