Codependency therapy across Wisconsin.

Codependency is what happens when your sense of okay depends on someone else being okay first. People-pleasing, over-functioning, the inability to say no, the inability to notice you have a preference, the slow disappearance of you inside a relationship. It tends to look from the outside like generosity. From the inside it looks like exhaustion.

Almost everyone I see for this grew up taking care of an adult who could not, or who would not. The pattern made sense then. It usually does not make sense any more, and yet it is hard to put down because it is most of how you know how to be in a relationship.

How we work on it

This is slower work. We listen for the pattern. We practice, in the room, noticing what you actually want, which is often a piece of information you have not had access to in years. Person-centered work is the spine. Cognitive behavioral tools come in for catching the people-pleasing in the act.

Boundaries are not walls. They are the line where you end and the other person begins. Most of the people I see have to learn where that line is for the first time as an adult.

What to do next

If this read like a description of where you are, the next step is to schedule the consultation or intake session. Slowly is the speed of this work; the consult is no exception.

Schedule a free 15 minutes consult →