Anita is a confident corporate woman with strong leadership qualities. She identifies as an achiever and has received two promotions in four years. In her current job profile, she manages teams, travels when needed and works hard to break barriers in the corporate space.

She first came in for therapy because she felt unwell. She had visited several doctors and been through complete check-ups, but nothing came up in her reports. Still, she did not feel any better. She had severe migraines, felt constant fatigue and could not get herself to connect with people any more. This was taking a toll on her professional life as well. 

In therapy she often referred to a loss of  ‘mojo’ — she believed she had lost her joy. Our conversations always centred around her work and she spoke very little about her personal life.

When I enquired about her family, she replied quickly and then changed the subject of conversation back to work. The few glimpses into her personal life were that her own mother had never worked, even though she had been well educated. Another revelation was that Anita was divorced. She had no children but had been through two miscarriages while she was married. She was finally able to admit that she wanted children but her spouse had forced them to give up on the idea. 

I asked her, “Where do you feel the pain?”
 She said, “The anger is dark and black, sitting on my head and my abdomen hurts.”

“If not work, what would you identify with?” I probed.

She said, “Being a mother.” 

And then we dug deep.