Repression

Repression is keeping a disturbing emotion, memory, or wish away from consciousness. The mind, as it were, pushes something it struggles to carry into an invisible place; the person no longer remembers or feels it. Yet what is repressed does not vanish; it often returns, at an unexpected moment, as an unexplained tension or a recurring pattern. This is why repression relieves in the short term but wearies in the long term. The coach opens room for the client to approach the topic they avoid, safely, without forcing and without judgment.