You’ve been open about therapy being part of your life. Are you still working with a therapist?

Yes. When you have trauma, eventually it needs to be reprocessed. What I’m working on with my therapist now is building up my resourcing, so that when it’s time to reprocess the trauma, it’s not re-traumatizing. You don’t want to flood yourself revisiting that trauma because that can keep you from healing—you have to go slowly. My therapist defines trauma as too much too fast, or too little for too long.

How does the work you’re doing in therapy affect your life?li

The falling-in-love process has been overwhelming. The work is to be able to receive it and feel I’m worthy of the love. Hello, I’m worthy because I’m a child of God and worthiness is a birthright. But I can’t believe I’m being treated this well, after all these years. It’s taken me nearly 50 years to get here. It can be overwhelming. Love has to be constantly renewed and cared for. When you’re really vulnerable with someone, there’s something beautiful and incredible about that. When you’re vulnerable, you’re woundable. You have the capacity to be hurt. And when someone is vulnerable with you, you have the capacity to hurt them. That is an awesome responsibility. It’s something I don’t take lightly. It is an honor to be loved and to love. It’s a huge responsibility to have someone’s heart. – Lavern Cox