Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance (2022) by Lisa Olivera
Lisa Olivera, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Northern California, aims to help us identify the beliefs (or stories) that influence our confidence and sense of self-worth that can ultimately keep us disconnected from our Self and community. From a foundation of her own story, Olivera also weaves in stories developed from client composites to exemplify different variations of how stories may have been developed and/or how they may present, as well as to apply different therapeutic modalities and self-help exercises to help us along a healing journey wherein we confront, explore, and then re-write our narratives with more agency and empowerment in a way that feels aligned with our sense of Self and show up in the world exactly as you are.
How was this book recommended to me? I don’t remember.
Would I recommend this to my colleagues? Sure
Would I recommend this to my clients? Yes
How do I apply this content to my work: As a trauma therapist, I often approach healing by identifying a link between stories (negative beliefs, negative cognitions, automatic negative thoughts…whatever you want to call them) and trauma and then working through them with modalities such as EMDR, Polyvagal Theory, other DMT modalities, and/or weaving in other theories as needed, to help clear the negative beliefs and re-writing the narrative. Some of the other approaches I might use may facilitate comparable work from a different angle wherein we re-build our relationship with ourselves to increase enough safety to confront the wounds that have been created when our safety was threatened or otherwise compromised. This book speaks to the interrelationship/integration of these many angles. This book consistently highlights an important value that is embedded in my work with my own healing and offering support and co-regulation in the healing process of my clients: The only way out is through. The healing comes from within. We need to be able to tolerate the distress of confronting our beliefs and their origins in order to shift and ultimately release them.
If you live in WA state and feel like you need support with confronting stories or beliefs that are leading you to believe that you are not enough as you are so that you can release them and connect with your core sense of Self, contact me. Let’s schedule a free 15-minute consultation and see if we might be a good fit to work together.
