Resistance isn’t the problem, it’s the path.

Supporting dedicated health & wellness professionals to find ease and effectiveness by working with (not against) client resistance.

support stuck clients to get what they came to us for and have them stick around long enough to do that, all without burning ourselves out.

As we befriend our clients’ resistance, we are more able to

About the Resistance Therapist

I’m Virginia - a therapist and one of the most “resistant” people I know.

With over 13 years of professional training and experience, I have come to deeply respect the resistance that lives in each of us. I created this project as a space for you to understand and befriend resistance as your greatest ally, whether in your work with clients or in your own personal journey. And for those who (like me) find yourselves here for both purposes, you are doubly welcome.

Learn more about my approach →

Resistance is not the enemy of growth, healing, or anything else our clients are looking to accomplish.

Yes, on the surface resistance is about not wanting to do something. But when you look closely, what we call “resistance” actually functions as a compass, pointing directly to deeper wants and needs.

But as Carl Jung said: what we resist persists, and our clients’ resistance itself is no exception to that rule.

So when we fight against our clients’ resistance, not only does it not stop, but the “no” gets stronger.

That's because in our battle against resistance, we have only paid attention to what it means about what our clients don't want to do (whether it’s working out, “going deeper” emotionally, or changing their habits). We see resistance as a threat to our clients’ progress.

We (however unintentionally) fail to understand the real message of resistance, which is to tell us something about what our clients do want. And their resistance won’t stop until we get what it’s saying.

This approach might be a good fit if you are a dedicated health & wellness professional and:

You notice that clients aren’t getting all that they could from your services.

You feel some clients staying stuck in spite of meeting with you regularly. You also might be feeling stuck yourself, knowing that you’ve done everything you can think of and the needle just doesn’t seem to be moving for them. You wonder why clients don’t do the things that you know would help them and sometimes even doubt that some of your clients really want to change.

You wish that you (and your clients) could enjoy the process more.

You find yourself working really hard, especially with certain clients - even sometimes to the point of feeling resentful that they aren’t putting in the same effort as you. You are predictably exhausted after certain client sessions and wonder where the joy went.

You have issues with clients sticking around.

You’ve had some clients ghost you or drop out of working with you part way through their process. Perhaps you have more client turnover than you would like. And the hardest part is that you don’t totally get why (and maybe even secretly fear that it’s because you’re not as good as you thought).

You want to feel confident working with client resistance.

You know that it’s hard for you when clients don’t seem to be making progress or engaging in their process with you. Maybe you also want to go beyond just working with more obviously motivated clients or only being able to know how to help people when they are in that mode. You want to believe that client resistance isn’t the problem, but don’t know what that really means in practice or where to go from there.

Most importantly - you are intrigued by the idea that befriending resistance could not only move your clients forward in their process, but make your work more easeful, effective, and fun.