Healing Isn’t Linear - It’s a Spiral

When Progress Feels Like Repetition

Have you ever thought you’d finally “moved on” from something — only to find it resurfacing when you least expected it?You handle an old trigger better… then one day it catches you off guard again. Suddenly it feels like you’ve gone backwards. But you haven’t. You’ve simply moved deeper.

Healing isn’t a straight path. It’s a spiral. We revisit old lessons, emotions, and patterns not because we failed, but because we’re ready to see them from a higher perspective. Every time the spiral loops, our awareness expands a little more. We understand the pain differently. We meet ourselves with more compassion.

The Spiral Model of Growth

In holistic counselling and meditation teaching, we recognise healing as a layered process. Each cycle of awareness brings up new information from the subconscious. The body, mind, and spirit process emotions at their own pace, never faster than we’re ready for.

The nervous system, too, learns safety in stages. A past experience might resurface because the body now feels strong enough to release what was once too painful to feel. This isn’t regression, it’s readiness.

For practitioners, this spiral understanding is crucial. It helps us normalise our clients’ experiences, hold space without judgment, and remind them that revisiting pain doesn’t erase progress. In fact, it’s often the proof of growth, a sign that healing is deepening, not disappearing.

A Reflection for Self-Compassion

Try this short journaling practice when you feel frustrated with your healing journey:

1. Identify what’s come back:

Write down the pattern, emotion, or situation that feels familiar.

2. Ask yourself: 

What do I understand about this now that I didn’t before?” This question shifts the focus from shame to insight — it reminds you that you’re seeing the same lesson from a new vantage point.

3. Offer yourself acknowledgment instead of criticism:

You’ve grown through every cycle of this spiral — you’re not starting over; you’re spiraling upward.

4. Breathe into the word ‘enough.’:

Let it settle into your body. You are doing enough. You are becoming enough. You always have been.

Learning to Walk the Spiral with Grace

When we learn to honour the spiral rather than fight it, we soften into acceptance, both with ourselves and those we guide.

Through our Meditation and Holistic Counselling Programs, you’ll explore how healing unfolds across layers of body, mind, and soul, and how to help others navigate those loops of growth with compassion, presence, and clarity.

🌿 Learn more about our Meditation & Holistic Counselling Programs head over our course information page