‘My Therapist Told Me to Sleep with a Teddy Bear. I Had No Idea How Much It’d Change My Life.’

Almost everyone who’s ever lived has faced some kind of hardship or trauma. As good mental health takes higher priority, more and more people are speaking out about their experiences. With that may come meetings with a therapist, to sort through blocked out memories or traumatic events. Rachel Weinhaus is a 46-year-old woman who shares an unexpected secret with HuffPost Personal. She explains that her therapist suggested she sleep with a teddy bear, and how that suggestion has impacted her life.

Non- Sentimental

First and foremost, she states that she is not a sentimental person. She also didn’t sleep with a stuffed animal as a child. She explains that if she had, she likely wouldn’t still have it today anyway. When her therapist suggested the idea, she thought it was crazy and didn’t give it a second thought. However, when her therapist suggested it again, she reluctantly agreed to give it a go.

Weinhaus received a letter in the mail, which she immediately threw away without a moment’s hesitation. However, her husband, being slightly more sentimental than she, “often intercepted” her attempts to throw things out. He took the letter out of the trash. The letter was actually an important piece to the puzzle that made up Rachel’s life, traumas, and forgotten memories.

Becoming Connected to a Therapist

The letter informed Rachel that she was part of a lawsuit, in regard to sexual assault claims. She attended the University of Southern California. During her time there she went to see the campus gynecologist and was sexually assaulted. It turned out she was nowhere near one of the only women that had happened to. Hundreds of women came forward. As a result, the school was ordered by a judge to pay over $1 billion to countless women. The claims and evidence spanned over decades and many reparations were owed to the women and students of USC.

USC partnered with an organization called Praesidium. The organization offers resources to people who’ve undergone abuse. The partnership in place, helped to connect the women who’d been assaulted with a therapist. Rachel didn’t feel she needed the help but went anyway.

After a year of working with her therapist, her suppressed memories began bubbling up. She explains that although she was sexually assaulted by the doctor, that experience was not immediately on her mind. Instead, it had brought to the forefront of her mind a more pressing sexual assault she’d endured. She had been molested by a boy in her neighborhood when she was a small child.

Working with a Therapist

After she made these inner connections from memory to memory, her therapist suggested she try sleeping with a teddy bear. Her therapist said that hugging a stuffed animal would make her more present in her body. In doing so, she may further be able to address, rather than suppress her past traumas. Rachel asked her sons if she could borrow one of their stuffed animals for a night. She was apprehensive but willing to try the therapist’s recommendation. She was entirely convinced that it would do nothing for her. Her hope was to prove to her therapist that this was not the treatment method for her.

Implementing a Therapist’s Suggestions

The first night one of her sons agreed to let her use his Pug. She said he was missing an eye and part of his tongue. The following morning all she’d felt was a sense of discomfort with the toy lodged up under her arm pit. Feeling more disappointed than she’d expected, Rachel ordered a “super-duper soft and cozy looking teddy bear“. The only fair thing to do, was to try again with a positive outlook, and a comfier snuggle buddy. She ordered 3, because she thought her sons would try endlessly to add her new teddy to their stuffed animal collections.

The teddys had arrived and Rachel shares that on her first night, while hugging the bear, she said out loud to herself, “I’ve hit an all-time low.” Amazingly, after a few weeks, things began to shift. Rachel found herself indulging in more self-love. She felt “comforted and less alone”, stating, “ I felt love for the little girl I once was. I held on to the bear for her ― for me.”

Seeing Positive Results

As things progressed Rachel found it easier to dive further into therapy, she began opening up more and unlocking many of the difficulties she faced as a child. One of the other difficulties she’d encountered growing up was that her mom, a famous therapist, hadn’t been so keen to see the abuse that her own daughter had endured. During one particular session she was severely impacted by the realization that her assaults, and traumas, had been more damaging than she’d previously thought. That night, with the most genuine sentiment, she hugged her teddy tight. Although her therapist continued to work with her, Rachel found that her stuffed snuggle buddy, did in fact provide her a sense of comfort and relief.

As we all learn more about importance of addressing our mental health, we also learn helpful tools. Such as, hugging teddy bears, writing letters to our younger selves, or other things that may seem silly at first thought. Working on ourselves is a never-ending journey that requires hard work emotionally as well as an open mind, being receptive to new or outside the box concepts. Seeing a professional therapist, while daunting, can be incredibly meaningful and have a really positive impact on our overall outlook in life.