When I return to that sixteen-year-old carrying a truth she never asked for, watching another girl walk away... I don’t try to rewrite the story. I name it. A betrayal. Not because it was rare, but because it was so expected. So systemic. So ordinary that we hardly know how to name it as pain.

And still I carry something else—a promise. To believe.

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In somatic psychotherapy, the therapist doesn’t just ask "What happened?" We ask, "What did your body do when you were met with disbelief?" We follow the sensation, the image, the impulse. Not as pathology, but as intelligence. Because these are not symptoms. They are strategies, wisdom shaped by context. And somatic therapists know that individual... See more

But belief is not agreement. It’s not certainty. It’s proximity. It is staying near when someone’s story unsettles us. Belief says: I don’t need all the evidence to recognize the pain you are in and what this is costing you to say. I’m not here to judge your story. I’m here to hold what is heavy in your heart with you.

Belief is a feminist act. A r... See more

But what binds so many is this: at some point, they turned to another woman for understanding and found distance instead. A friend who didn’t believe them. A mother who didn’t want to know. A therapist who redirected too quickly. The original wound matters but what breaks them open is often what came after. The silence. The shift. The withdrawal.

This is how patriarchy enforces itself in the relational field not just through what men do to women, but through what women have been taught to do to each other. Doubt. Downplay. Discredit. Normalize harm.

Journal Prompts for Reflection

• When was the first time I wasn’t believed—and how did my body respond?


• Where have I softened another woman’s truth to make it more comfortable to hear?


• What story did I turn away from because it landed too close to something in me?


• Do I confuse neutrality with care? Distance with discernment?


• What would it mean to offer b

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