What’s your true happiness?
Let’s find out together.
Therapy for Individuals, Couples, and Families in Wichita, Kansas
You aspire to make more of your life.
There are a specific number of days behind you and an unknown number of days ahead of you.
You have done things to improve your life – your own unique ‘Pursuit of Happiness.’
Made more money and purchased the best of whatever you could buy.
Improved your body and health, your surroundings, and your character. Learned things meant to increase your skillset, grow your knowledge, or achieve personal growth.
You’ve even looked to others to increase your happiness – your parents, partner, friends, or social groups.
In some ways, you can see that you’re ‘happier.’
In other ways, you may also see that you’re ‘less happy.’
You have your own formula for what you think will bring you happiness. So far, it’s helped you achieve the things you want.
But it doesn’t feel like enough. All this seeking seems not to have resulted in enough ‘finding.’
You’ve definitely ‘felt’ things…
… like joy, elation, peace of mind, and even ecstatic pleasure. (We call those ‘good’ emotions and seek more of them.)
You’ve also felt sorrow, grief, fear, anxiety, anger, hatred, pain, and even some emotions you can’t name. (We call those ‘bad’ or ‘unwanted’ emotions and seek less of them.)
There have also been times when you felt unsure, unsettled, and uncomfortable – all the ‘uns’… more things you didn’t want to feel.
And whatever you’ve felt, determined a lot of the decisions you made… some great, others not so great.
There were times you rushed, headlong, into the future…
… sure of yourself, sure of your goals, sure of what you wanted.
But now you’re wondering if your choices will create the happiness, peace of mind, and security you hoped for.
The relationship of your dreams started great… there was even talk of marriage and children. But you’re no longer on the same page about anything, and the relationship is deteriorating – fast!
You have the job you always wanted, gaining professional success. But now you spend more time in the office than you do at home. The vacation leave continues to pile up.
There comes a time when you must stop.
Stop, just for a moment, and notice.
Notice what your headlong rush to the future is about – what’s the nature of the life that you’re living.
Have you stopped to consider if some of your goals will truly make you happy?
Have you stopped to consider the nature of happiness itself?
Good therapy is about just that.
It’s about honestly exploring the nature of your life.
From your current point of view, perhaps you can see how much your search for happiness was akin to rearranging the ‘furniture’ of your life without considering the nature of the room you’re arranging the furniture in.
Sometimes it is about moving the chair you keep banging your shins on over and over. Sometimes you can’t settle long enough to explore the nature of your life while you are tripping over the furniture.
And sometimes, the endless ‘furniture moving’ is just a distraction.
The aptly named “Serenity Prayer” speaks to this:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference…
Therapy helps you gain ‘the Wisdom to know the difference.’
Sometimes we need someone to share life’s wisdom with us.
But even more, good therapy guides you to the wisdom that is already present within you.
With wisdom, you can find and understand what true happiness means for you.
Hi, I’m Echo.
Echo Wentz, LMFT
Marriage and Family Therapist
Therapy is a journey of exploration, discovery, and wisdom.
It’s exploration to get to the root of what’s holding you back from a life you want.
It’s discovering and learning how to break the patterns that keep you trapped in behaviors that prevent you from moving forward.
It’s gaining wisdom to know what a fulfilling and happy life means for you and how to attain it.
Through our work together, we will begin by understanding the most foundational ways you are protecting yourself. For each of us, it is unique, but there are common strategies, like staying up in our heads to protect from the messy emotions that live in our bodies. Or by participating in an addictive pattern to give us a break from the sense of monotony in our lives.
As you lower your defenses, you will begin to discover that there is more to you than these endless protective actions. This is the beginning of discovering a deeper level of freedom and peace.
Because at a deeper level, we all have ready access to the qualities most of us long for the most. Qualities like Confidence, Clarity, Compassion, Courage, Calm, Connection, Curiosity, and Creativity – the “8 C’s of Self.”
What I Offer
Courage to take the next step…
It can take more courage than we feel we have to reach out in a new direction.
But people who have made that call before you felt reassured as soon as
they talked to me – that their new Brave Beginning was worth embracing.
You can begin by email, text, or phone: (316) 285-9441. The softest
startup can be the entry point to something unexpected and new.