29/04/2025
What a powerful example of how a single experience can shape the beliefs and stories we carry inside us, sometimes for decades.
In a recent SBS Insight episode, a woman shared that she cheated on two high school exams... 44 years ago. It might seem like a small thing to some, and many in the comments said just that.
But for her, the emotional impact ran deep. She spoke of anxiety, panic attacks, imposter thinking, fibromyalgia, and a deep sense of shame.
The story she’s been carrying?
🌀 I don’t belong.
🌀 I’m not worthy.
🌀 I don’t deserve success.
And while her adult brain might know it's not a big deal now, the body still holds onto the shame and pressure maybe felt as a teenager trying so hard to be enough, for her mum, her siblings, teacher, herself.
This is exactly the kind of thing I see in therapy all the time, what we sometimes call “little t” trauma.
Moments that seem small from the outside, but shape the story we tell ourselves. And that story then impacts how we show up in relationships, at work, with our health, even how safe we feel in our own skin.
✨ EMDR therapy can help shift those old beliefs. Not to erase the memory, but to update the meaning it holds.
So instead of “I don't belong,” it becomes, “I made a mistake under pressure—and I’m still worthy.”
If you’re carrying a story that no longer fits, therapy can help you begin to lay it down.
