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Ex-Prison Inmates
Prison changes people. Of course it does.
Even if someone has never been inside, they usually have a very loud opinion about it. That is part of the problem. Ex prison inmates are often dealing not only with whatever brought them there, and whatever happened while they were there, but also the community’s projections, fear, judgment, and refusal to let them become anything other than the worst thing they’ve done.
Feelings of isolation, shame, anger, difficulty integrating, employment stress, rejection, and the constant sense of being on the outside looking in. There can be a deep fear of being judged before being known. Or of never being known at all. Of being reduced to a category rather than seen as a person.
Underneath That:
There is usually trauma, stigma, and social exclusion. Prison is its own world. Most people have no real understanding of what it does to the body, the psyche, the nervous system, or the way you move through society afterwards. And yet plenty still feel qualified to judge.
I do not hold that stigma.
I am not saying actions do not have consequences. I am saying a human being is bigger than their record. Bigger than one chapter. And if the goal is reintegration, then people need spaces where they are not immediately treated as dangerous, broken, or beyond help.
The work here is often about footing. Community. Regulation. Identity.
A more cohesive sense of self. A life that is not entirely organised around the fact of prison. Not pretending it never happened, but not living forever inside its walls either.
People cannot build a new life while being told, over and over again, that they are only their past. I’m interested in the person in front of me, and what becomes possible from here.
Book a free introductory call
If you’re considering therapy with me, the next step is to book a free introductory call.
This call is a no-pressure way of getting to know each other a little. You can ask questions, get a feel for how I work, and see whether we are a good fit for each other. Therapy is a relationship, and fit matters.