Two Inner Truths: When What We Think and What We Feel Don’t Match.
People often arrive in therapy with a clear, rational understanding of their situation. They can explain what has happened, why it shouldn’t be affecting them now, and why—on paper at least—things are “actually fine”.
And yet, something doesn’t feel fine.
This is because, for many people entering therapy, two truths are operating at the same time:
the conscious story of how things are, and the quieter, often less-recognised truth of the body or as we might say, felt truth.
Therapy is, in large part, about helping these two truths come back into relationship with one another.
The Mind’s Truth and the Body’s Truth
The mind deals in logic, narrative, and meaning. It keeps track of facts, timelines, and explanations. From this perspective, a person might know they are safe, capable, and no longer in danger.
The body, however, speaks a different language. It communicates through sensation, tension, breath, heart rate, and emotional tone. The autonomic nervous system is constantly scanning for cues of safety or threat, not based on reasoned thought, but on learned patterns and past experience.
So it is entirely possible for someone to be sitting in the objective safety of their own home—familiar, secure, locked—and yet feel:
on edge
easily startled
restless or unable to relax
unable to fully settle
From a rational standpoint, this makes no sense. From a bodily standpoint, it makes perfect sense.
The body is telling its truth.
When Two Truths Are Misaligned
When our rational understanding and our somatic state don’t match, we often experience a vague but persistent sense that something isn’t right. People describe feeling:
disconnected
not quite themselves
uneasy for no clear reason
as though they’re “functioning” rather than living
This misalignment can be deeply confusing. The mind may attempt to override the body—telling it to calm down, stop overreacting, or move on. Alternatively, people may begin to mistrust themselves altogether, unsure which internal signals to believe.
Neither approach leads to resolution.
What’s missing is connection, not control.
The Role of Therapy: Building Awareness and Trust
One of the therapist’s key roles is to help a person gradually become more aware of their internal landscape—especially the signals coming from the autonomic nervous system.
This is not about analysing the body or fixing it. It is about learning to notice:
how safety and threat are experienced internally
what happens in the body during moments of stress or ease
how past experiences may still be influencing present reactions
As awareness grows, something important begins to happen. The mind starts to listen to the body, and the body begins to receive signals of safety from the mind.
Trust starts to flow in both directions:
Mind down: the conscious understanding of present-day safety gently informs the nervous system
Body up: bodily signals are respected as meaningful information rather than problems to eliminate
Restoring Alignment and Wholeness
When these two truths come back into alignment, the system functions more holistically. People often describe feeling:
calmer without forcing it
more grounded and present
more confident and embodied
more like themselves
This isn’t about becoming someone new. It is about returning to a sense of internal coherence—where thoughts, emotions, and bodily states are no longer pulling in different directions.
Importantly, this process is gradual. The nervous system learns through experience, not instruction. Therapy provides a relational space where safety can be felt, not just understood, allowing the body to update its expectations over time.
Therapy as Reintegration
Seen in this way, therapy is not simply about insight or coping strategies. It is a process of reintegration—bringing the different layers of our experience back into conversation with one another.
When mind and body can work in harmony, life requires less effort. Decisions feel clearer. Relationships feel safer. There is a growing sense of being at home in oneself.
For many people, this gentle alignment of inner truths is one of the most profound and lasting outcomes of therapeutic work.
