The size of change

To continue on the topic of small movements, I observe how hard it is, both as a therapist and as a client, to not strive towards "BIG CHANGES". It's been a long process, still in progress, to let go of that idea that things have to shift visibly within the first session. Part of it comes from the fact that most people come in with that expectation, and that therapists usually have a history of over-responsabilization as children that make us susceptible to such expectations.

As I work on my part of this dynamic, I can see profound changes taking place. In some cases, I find myself honoring the possibility that the person's journey to fluidity might take their whole life. In others, I find myself looking for "the smallest step", either in the client or in myself, and really appreciating it. And in general, I'm much more sensitive to "system overload" (both my own and others'), and because of that, much more discerning in what I choose to expose myself to (most TV shows have the ability to completely disregulate my nervous system if I don't give myself time to come down and titrate) and what I expose my clients to (I'd be very reluctant nowadays to jump straight into process work as I might have done in the past).

The truth is, a lot of us are in constant overstimulation or functional freeze. Those states make it really hard to feel things, and so we add more stimulation on top of everything, when really we should be restoring our ability to feel by helping our system come down.

Do you notice when your system is overloaded? What do you do to regulate yourself? If you're a therapist, how do you respond to the pressure of "results"?