Rhiana’s Story

Rihana’s life looked good on the outside, but internally, she was struggling. Major life changes piled up and childhood trauma resurfaced. When she stopped enjoying her favorite things, she realized it was time to ask for help. That decision led to meeting with a counselor at Insight Counseling Centers. What she learned made her feel like herself again.

Rhiana’s Story Transcript

It was 2021, and, you know, I will say my life was good overall, but I was going through a lot of really transformative changes at the time. It really started to take a toll on me, emotionally. I also knew that I had childhood trauma that I had been kind of suppressing, so I knew that I wanted to talk to someone or take on therapy. I think I just didn’t know how or when I wanted to do that. 

My name is Rihana Dennison. I’m 30 years old. I currently live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with my husband and cat. I currently work as an office assistant in Franklin, Tennessee, so I really enjoy getting to utilize my organizational skills there and really help out my company. 

I say in my free time I really enjoy spending time with my friends and family. I’m an aunt to an almost 3 year-old nephew, so he takes up most of my free time. I really enjoy hanging out with him. And then my husband and I love Disney World, so we’ve really try to take a chance to go there whenever we can. So yeah, a little bit about me! 

I think just going through those changes that year, I really realized that I do not know how to process this., and I really need some help, because I started feeling really depressed and unlike myself. I really just started not being interested in the things that I enjoyed, so I knew that I needed support just to really work through what I was experiencing. 

I’ve actually had the pleasure of working with three counselors at Insight. All of my counselors have been wonderful in their own ways. My current counselor, Amanda, is incredibly supportive and just validating. Like, I just feel so safe with her, and she always makes me feel like I’m being heard and seen, and she also keeps me accountable and on track in my growth. So, she does a great job. And we have, like, a crazy connection that I feel like is unbreakable, and I feel very lucky to work with her. 

Therapy has really helped me better understand myself, my emotions, and how to process things instead of pushing them down. I’m much more equipped to handle those difficult moments. And overall, best part is I feel much more like myself again. 

I definitely just really encourage people to, once they take the step, to really embrace the process and to give themselves grace during the process, because healing isn’t linear. And, you know, life always has its ups and downs. 

One thing that helps me too is being around people who are kind of on the same journey as me, so I have friends who are in therapy and who really understand kind of what I’m going through too. It’s nice to be able to kind of lean on them too. 

Just really embrace the process and know that, you know, they’re there to help you, and ultimately it helps you just navigate life a lot better.