Sometimes in life, it feels like we’re not making progress.
Not in school, not at work, not even in therapy. We hit a wall—what’s known as a plateau. It’s that space where effort doesn’t seem to equal results. Where no matter how much you show up, things don’t seem to be moving forward. It’s frustrating. It can even feel like failure.
If you’ve ever tried learning a new language, you’ve probably experienced this: at first, you improve quickly. Then suddenly, things slow down. You forget words you thought you knew. It’s like your brain hits pause. Athletes experience this too—despite training hard, progress stalls. Muscles aren’t growing. Speeds aren’t improving. Nothing seems to be happening.
But something is happening.
In psychology, this phase is known as the “plateau” stage of skill acquisition. It’s not a step backward—it’s a necessary pause where your body, your brain, and your nervous system are integrating what’s already been learned. It looks still, but it isn’t stuck.
The same thing happens in healing.
Especially in therapy.
The Myth of Constant Progress
Not every hard moment needs to be turned into a lesson.
Not every struggle needs encouragement or reframing.
Sometimes, it just needs space.
Healing isn’t always about moving forward. Sometimes, it’s about staying still long enough for everything inside you to catch up. And that part? The part where you don’t feel like you’re making progress? That’s real. It’s frustrating. It can be exhausting to wake up each day and feel like you’re still carrying what you thought you’d already laid down.
And maybe no one says it out loud, but the world around you hums with the quiet insistence that healing should look like constant progress. Like a steady climb upward. Like steps on a staircase. That if you’re still hurting, you must be missing something—not trying hard enough, not letting go like you “should.”
But the truth is—this part of the journey is just as valid.
This Isn’t Stuckness—It’s Integration
You don’t need to justify where you are, or explain why it still hurts, or prove that you’re doing enough.
You don’t need to rush toward insight or clarity just to make others more comfortable.
Sometimes, what’s heavy is just heavy.
Sometimes, there are no neat words that make it lighter.
And that, too, deserves space.
There are seasons of healing that feel quiet, almost motionless—where the surface looks unchanged but deep down, something is shifting. You are integrating. Every moment of stillness, every deep sigh, every exhausted pause is part of it. Your body, your nervous system, your whole being is recalibrating in ways you may not see yet.
This isn’t failure. This is healing.
Healing Is Nonlinear (And That’s Okay)
In therapy, this plateau can feel like a loss of momentum. Like you’ve “stopped progressing” or you’re doing something wrong. But healing is rarely a straight line. It loops, pauses, spirals, and revisits. Sometimes, the real work is happening underground—beneath the surface of conscious awareness.
There’s a quiet kind of progress that doesn’t come with milestones or visible breakthroughs.
It comes with patience.
With nervous system safety.
With allowing your body and mind the time they need to absorb, reorganize, and heal.
And no one else gets to define what that timeline should be.
Letting It Be Enough
If this spoke to something in you, let it.
There’s no need to grab onto it or turn it into a goal.
Just let it be what it is—a small moment of recognition, a breath, a quiet yes to being exactly where you are.
You don’t have to fix this.
You don’t have to make sense of it.
You don’t have to be okay yet.
You get to be here.
And that is enough.
Want to Explore This More?
If you sense that unresolved trauma might be holding you back—keeping you from growing beyond your current success or keeping certain patterns on repeat—it might be time to explore what’s beneath the surface. Our offerings in Trauma Therapy, Anxiety Therapy, and Complex Trauma Therapy can help you begin to put words to what your body already knows. You might also find that EMDR Therapy, a powerful somatic approach, can support you in moving through the stuckness that often stems from trauma—especially when talking alone doesn’t feel like enough.
Wherever you are in your healing journey, know this:
You’re allowed to be in the pause.
You’re allowed to feel stuck.
And maybe—just maybe—one of the meanings of this is that your body is finally starting to feel safe enough to rest.
And if so, that, too, is a sign of progress.
If you are not a current client at our practice and you’re curious about how therapy might support you in moving through this season—or if you simply have questions—we’d love to hear from you.
You’re welcome to reach out here, and we can explore together what support might look like for you.