Tiny Wins, Big Healing

How small breakthroughs in counselling add up to real change.  When people think about trauma healing, they often imagine big, dramatic moments—like crying breakthroughs, grand forgiveness scenes, or walking out of a session completely transformed. But here’s the truth I want you to know:
Healing usually starts small. And that’s not just okay—it’s powerful.

The Little Things Are Big Things

Showing up to your first counselling session even though your hands were shaking?

• That’s a win. Admitting out loud, “I’m not okay”?
• Huge win.  Making it through the week without shutting down, even though you really wanted to?
• Absolutely a win. Trauma has a way of making everyday things feel impossible—trusting people, saying how you really feel, even just getting out of bed. So when you start doing those things again, one small step at a time, it matters.

You Don’t Have to “Fix” Everything

Sometimes we get stuck thinking:

“I’ll be healed when I’m not triggered anymore.”

“I’ll be okay when I don’t think about it at all.”

“I should be further along by now.”But that’s not how it works. Healing doesn’t mean erasing your past—it means learning to live with it in a way that doesn’t control you. And most of that work happens in the tiny wins:

• Saying no when you used to say yes to keep the peace
• Feeling an emotion and not pushing it down
• Noticing a pattern and making a different choice

Those little shifts are your nervous system recalibrating.

Your brain building new pathways.

Your heart remembering what safety feels like.

Progress, Not Perfection

Healing isn’t a straight line. You’ll have days that feel light and open, and days where everything feels like too much. That doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re human. Celebrate the days you get out of bed.

Celebrate the times you speak your truth.

Celebrate the sessions where you just breathe and sit with whatever comes up. Because all of it counts.

Final Thought

You don’t have to wait for a huge breakthrough to know you’re healing.

Sometimes the fact that you’re still trying is the biggest breakthrough of all. Tiny wins add up.

Step by step.

Layer by layer.

Moment by moment. Keep going.