I was always aware that there was something holding me back, slowing me down – and yet I had already achieved so much …! A good job in a company that fulfills me in terms of content, management responsibility and the joy of leading and guiding others well. I’m committed to diversity – I came to Germany from Romania at the age of 28 – because I’m absolutely convinced that diversity is the key to success. In my private life, I had found happiness and was healthy. It’s a dream life, one that I’m sure some people envy. A superior once said: “They give you lemons and you make lemonade out of them”.

And yet … There were struggles that no one suspected I had. Something that limited me again and again, even blocked me and made many a day or project difficult for me, above all interfering with my development.

I couldn’t let go of this “nevertheless” – even though I wanted to get rid of it. Absolutely. I realized that there was a key here that was diminishing my self-worth. I wanted to free myself from it. I wanted to be free.

I poked around in the fog for years until one day enlightenment in the form of a formidable coach brought the sun into my diffuse emotional state. We dug through layer by layer to the source of my limitations, which were rooted in my childhood. What followed was an arc – not easy, but very exciting – into my emotional world as a girl with far too much responsibility at far too young an age.

When the fog had lifted, I wrote a letter to my parents and one to myself as a child at the end of the process. I read both out loud to my confidant, my husband, and burst into tears.

When I think of that moment, I usually still do, but the tears are not ones of sadness, rather I cry out of pure redemption and joyful emotionality. As much as the origin hurt me as a child, this push opened the very door that had been closed for so long. I now know how to spell the word L-I-B-E-R-A-T-I-O-N.

Today, my joy about my journey shines so brightly that I want to pass on what I was able to experience. I feel that my discovery is like a treasure that I’ve saved. Something like a sense of responsibility has developed in me to pass this gift on to others – maybe to you?. Because I believe that, like love, we should pass on our knowledge, because it multiplies when we share it. That is my motivation. And my great vision is that one day we will all be mentally healthy and free.