Going through, not around: Therapy and We’re going on a bear hunt

Many of us learn early on how to avoid what feels uncomfortable. We distract ourselves, stay busy, think our way out, or quietly endure. Yet life has a way of placing things in our path that cannot be sidestepped forever.

Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a book I loved reading to my children, and over time I came to see how clearly it speaks to this human tendency. Beneath its playful rhythm lies a simple and profound truth. The characters meet grass, mud, water, snow: each obstacle offering the same choice; turn back, go around, or find a way through. Again and again, the answer is clear. There is no shortcut. The only way is through.

Humanistic psychotherapy shares this spirit.

Rather than trying to fix, suppress, or eliminate difficult emotions, humanistic therapy invites us to meet them with curiosity and care. Feelings such as grief, fear, anger, shame, loneliness, or longing are not seen as problems to be solved, but as meaningful expressions of our lived experience. Like the landscapes in the story, they are part of the terrain of being human.

Often, what brings someone to therapy is not the feeling itself, but the effort of holding it at bay. Avoidance can quietly shape our relationships, our work, and our sense of self, leaving life feeling narrowed or stuck. Humanistic psychotherapy offers a safe, attuned space to pause and notice what has been asking for attention.

This is not about being pushed into anything. Just as in Bear Hunt, the journey unfolds step by step. At your own pace, with support, you begin to sense what it is like to stay present with an experience rather than brace against it. When emotions are met with understanding instead of resistance, they often begin to move, soften, and change naturally.

Somatic awareness - the gentle noticing of sensations in the body, plays an important role here. Feelings are not only thoughts; they are lived, physical experiences. By listening to the body alongside the mind, psychotherapy helps restore a sense of wholeness and groundedness.

In going through what once felt unmanageable, something shifts. The “bear” may still be there, but it no longer holds the same power. What was frightening or overwhelming becomes part of a wider landscape; one that includes resilience, choice, and connection.

Humanistic psychotherapy is an invitation to walk your own path with honesty and compassion. Not to rush ahead or turn back, but to meet each part of the journey as it comes; discovering, along the way, that you are more capable than you may have believed.