At a meeting I was at recently, the phrase being broken was brought up. As I contemplated this idea, I was reminded of my 15 years of working with at-risk-youth. Many of them came to me hurting on the inside with behavior that expressed their pain on the outside. Parents, Teachers and Administrators just wanted me to fix them, quickly. As if I had a magic wand. But it is hard to mend and takes desire and work.  I liked to use this analogy to help others understand the complexity of mending a broken soul or heart.   If you dropped a plate of good china (my clients were always special to me) and it breaks in half, it is fairly easy to mend if it is a clean break and you have some good glue. If it breaks into 3 parts….it is still fairly easy to fix. But If a beautiful piece of china has not been cherished and well cared for but instead broken and chipped for many years…..it is not an easy task to repair the damage. It takes time, support, caring, respect and learning new positive coping skills to replace the survival skills a hurting soul has learned just to make it in this world. Most of us have been wounded along the way. One way, which really helps me is to go for a long walk. I can exercise out the feelings while working though my issues. What strategy has helped you to heal? I would appreciate comments from those of you who know me. If you would like to carry on this discussion or talk about other issues, please feel free to set something up on my website.