Chapter 10: The Call of Life

Ansel discovers healing is not only about learning new skills. Healing is also about unlearning the habits that once kept him safe. Fear taught him to shrink. Anxiety taught him to perpetually anticipate disaster. The mask taught him to perform calmness instead of feeling it. These patterns were built over years, layered up, each one a response to pain or uncertainty. Now, therapy asks him to loosen his grip on them, not all at once, but layer by layer.

Unlearning strangely feels harder than learning.