Counseling service

Thankfully, by coincidence the appointment I had scheduled with the counseling service a while back ended up being immediately after my plastic surgery consult.  This gave me an opportunity to debrief on the mixed messages I got from the plastic surgeon.  After talking with the counselor, she said she could see that my self image isn't 100% tied to my appearance, and that is something positive I have going for me.  She also said that the people who do better are the ones who go into surgery thinking, I'm going to look okay in clothes. (Meaning that many people have unreasonable expectations for how reconstruction will look.)  She also told me that reconstruction is definitely painful.  All of this is really hard to face but I told her I that I definitely do better when I have as much information as possible ahead of time.  She gave me some online resources, including The Happiness Trap.  She was very pleased that I'm already doing meditation. I connected really well with this counselor and I'm very grateful for the timing of this appointment.