Michaela Kozlik
Illinois therapist

So many of us have learned to meet our inner world with judgment, pressure, or avoidance. We push down feelings that feel inconvenient and silence the inner critic by trying to “think positive.” We numb the parts that feel too much - the sadness, the shame, the fear, believing they’ll just disappear if we stay busy enough. But deep down, you probably already know that doesn’t work. The harder we try to suppress our inner world, the louder it becomes. Internal Family Systems (

There comes a time in our lives when the body begins to speak more clearly than ever before. For years, we may have pushed through as we carried, cared, and managed. But when peri/menopause arrives, something shifts. The body, once easy to override, starts whispering… and sometimes shouting: slow down, listen, something in you needs tending. It can feel startling with the surge of emotions, the new sensitivities, the fatigue that rest doesn’t seem to fix. You may feel more

When you think of therapy, you probably imagine the “traditional” model: once a week, 50 minutes, sitting across from your therapist. And...