Prior to meeting Michael the only emotions that I was capable of experiencing were happiness,…read morecontentedness, and anger. I was happy when I was running, I was angry when asked to drop what I was doing to help others or to talk on the phone with my girlfriend, and the feeling of being content with life filled the rest of the gaps.
I never questioned why I felt those ways; I simply accepted it as the truth. I assumed everyone felt the same way I did. I never once considered that those could be secondary emotions, protective emotions, hiding the deeper concepts that were at the time beyond my grasp. Michael helped me find those deeper concepts, and in turn, my primary emotions.
I have lost countless significant others and close friends throughout my life, I was never close to my father, and I was not being nearly as open and emotionally connected with my current girlfriend as I wanted to be, to name a few of my life complications. You would think that I would have eventually assumed that I was the issue seeing as how I was the one consistent factor in all of those scenarios.
However, my ego always got in the way and the walls that I had set up to protect myself made it easier and more natural to point the blame at everyone else. Michael helped me explore those secondary emotions that were consuming my life. Some of those experiences brought us way back to my childhood, but that allowed for me to find the root cause to my walls that were set up.
More importantly it allowed for me to then tear down those walls and accept responsibility, it helped me become a better person. It helped me become a better me. The change was immediate within my life, and I can honestly say that for the first time in my life I love myself. People close to me have told me consistently that I seem like a new man. They say I seem more sure of myself, more confident, and that is easily the truth.
I will say that I was extremely hesitant to try coaching with Michael at first. The whole coaching concept seemed like a façade to me. Also, my ego told me that I did not need help. What made me initiate the coaching with Michael and Nicole was a combination of knowing that they are phenomenal people who only wanted to try to help someone in need mixed with the realization that I had nothing to lose.
Coaching made me become way more confident with every aspect of my life, allowed me to tear down barriers, and accept responsibility for the results in my life even outside of physical therapy. It helped me become a better person. It helped me become a better me. The change was immediate within my life, and I can honestly say that for the first time in my life I love myself.
What I enjoyed most about that experience was not even the results that came from it, but the sense of knowing that Michael was doing these things for me because of how invested in me he was. I could tell that he cared for me as a person and that I was not simply another number to him. I felt beyond valued, and that allowed for me to be very open with him and speak my mind. I can honestly say that Michael and his wife, Nicole, are one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Without their help I would not be the happier, more true, me.
Benjamen Dullum
