Testimonials from Arlene’s Graduate Corner

Thank you for your sometimes tough and often tender love. You have been my teacher, my mentor, and always my friend. What do you say to someone who has changed your life? You have led me on the path – sometimes pulling, sometimes pushing, but never letting go. I am the man I am today for knowing you.

Thank you for saving my life. You believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. When I wanted to give up, you convinced me I would get better. I can’t believe this day has come. I’m graduating! You are the mother I wish I had, and you’ve taught me to be my own best parent. Thank you for teaching me to be a man. The man I am today. I feel safe, confident, and ready to be in the world for the first time in my life. You are my guardian angel.

The direction of my life changed dramatically with your help in incest therapy. I don’t believe I would be alive today without it. My time in therapy with you was the most difficult and growth-filled years of my life. I am a different person because of it. I am stronger, wiser, more courageous, and more compassionate than I ever thought I could be. Each and every day of my life I use the knowledge and the tools I gained in group therapy. Thank you, Arlene.

There was a time when I couldn’t confront my mother and father. I was so afraid to hurt them, disrupt the family system. You were patient and honest. It was pivotal to me when you said, “As long as you keep them off the hook, you leave yourself on it.” I finally realized that I deserved better, I deserved to live fully. I was tired of paying their dues. I confronted them and spoke the truth. The truth that I had been beaten for. Beaten to try to keep me quiet. Now, with your help I’m finally free! I have confidence and a sense of peace. I couldn’t have done this without you. You were the perfect woman for the job. Therapist, mentor, friend.

Patient. Wise. Advocate. You’ve been my champion. I never doubted your belief in me. With skilled and thoughtful precision, you guided me toward freedom and happiness–a gift I can never repay. I am truly, deeply and unendingly grateful for you. Thank you for giving me the gift of life.

My journey from childhood hurts took me far into a life of addiction and countless situations that were careless. Luckily I survived and got sober, a complete miracle in and of itself. The Twelve Steps provided a degree a serenity I had never known. However the ominous shadow of a childhood riddled with abuse and neglect still had its day to day repercussions.Your love and guidance enabled me to see I needed to go deeper. We went beyond the symptoms, and got to the core. I finally understood the price I paid, as an abused child. Little by little you helped me put everything back in its right place. I love you and I’m forever grateful!!!

I want to thank you for helping me to become my “true” self and to heal my wounded soul. I was such a mess when I first started coming to you. I couldn’t look people in the eye and I withdrew from life. I couldn’t function anymore and I felt useless. Through therapy with you, I have learned who I am, how to love myself, to trust myself and what I want for the rest of my life. The woman who graduated from therapy was a totally different woman than first walked into your office. Thank you for always being there for me through out these many years since graduating. Arlene, you are the best therapist and I consider you one of my dearest friends.

After 5 years of sobriety I had reached a place in my life where I was still unhappy, angry and I thought that love could never exist for me. A friend mine in AA, who once had the same issues, was honest enough to tell me she had been sexually abused as a child. She told me she had found an amazing therapist that had groups designed for overcoming trauma. Arlene, you, taught me how to re-parent myself and, ultimately, to love myself. Thank you for being an angel who has dedicated her life to helping and healing people, like me, who were robbed of their childhoods.

You helped perform the miracle of growing up. Thank you so much for all your love, help, support and wisdom. I would not have made it through the last 3 years without you. Thank you for my life and freedom.

Thank you doesn’t cover the gratitude I feel for everything you have done for me. You have helped me get my soul back. You helped me step up to a higher plane inside–a whole, new empowered life. I am a success today and I carry you and all the work in my heart into each new day. You helped me discover I have the heart of a lion. You have become a piece of my heart.

Last year I began working at a women’s residential chemical dependency rehab. Of course, over 60% of my clients presented with sexual abuse and trauma. One day, while in group, I caught myself sitting with my legs tucked underneath me, listening to a client read the first letter to their perpetrator. My peers have told me I have an assertive style to therapy. That I tell it like it is and don’t give into the “yeah but’s”. I think I learned that from you as you modeled it while I was your client. You forever have a place in my heart. You brought me out of my sleep and I respect and admire you very much.

I am living life, truly living life because of you and your love for me. I came to you a frightened little girl who hid behind everything and everyone. Now I am a woman who can stand out in front. You were my warrior, who selflessly taught me to be my warrior. I will love you ’til the end of my time, which because of you will not be soon.

Where do I begin? You saved my life and I will be forever grateful. You have a true gift of healing, and as far as I am concerned nobody does it better. I owe my sanity to you. You encouraged me to see things I never saw, and take risks I would have never taken. Each step was difficult, but in the end proved to be very rewarding. I am here today, feeling like a much different woman than I did when I first met you. Thank you for helping me re-discover my life, my family, and most of all myself. I am now at peace, something I have never been. Boy does it feel good.

Wow! I never thought I’d be moving on. Not from group. I didn’t really think I could be fixed. No words could ever say enough thank you’s. You heard me. You listened. You prompted and pushed me to speak up, to accept what I felt and to share it. To work through it and to let it go. You allowed me the opportunity to find and see my own beauty, wholeness and power. You are a friend to children. Even grown up ones.