“I Forgot Who I Was”: How Therapy Helped Leila Reclaim Herself

Everything Looked Fine, Until It Wasn’t

At 26, Leila’s life looked solid from the outside.

She had a steady job in marketing. A cute apartment. Friends who checked in and a routine that worked. But inside, she felt numb, like she was moving through her life without actually living it.

The spark she used to have, the curiosity, the energy, the sense of direction was gone.

Worse, she couldn’t figure out when exactly it had disappeared.

There were no panic attacks. No dramatic breakdowns. Just this creeping sense of “I don’t know who I am anymore.”

She came to Renue after one especially hard Monday, where she stared at her laptop for hours and couldn’t make herself care. Therapy, at first, felt like a last resort.

Slowing Down to Hear Herself Again

In her sessions, Leila began naming what she hadn’t allowed herself to feel: burnout, emotional fatigue, and a quiet grief for all the versions of herself she’d abandoned to stay “on track.”

Her therapist gave her space to pause. To stop performing. To ask better questions — not just What do I do next? but What do I actually want?

They worked through the patterns: overachievement, people-pleasing, fear of disappointing others. She practiced saying “no” without guilt. Resting without shame.

She stopped trying to earn her worth through productivity. She started building a life that felt like hers again, not just one that looked good on paper.

Becoming Real Again

A few months later, Leila didn’t feel “fixed” — she felt real.

She started painting again. She made peace with not knowing all the answers. She set boundaries that once terrified her — and felt more connected, not less.

“I didn’t need to change who I was,” she said.
“I just needed permission to be her again.”

At Renue, we believe healing isn’t always about solving — sometimes, it’s about remembering who you’ve been all along.