Our lives rarely move in straight lines. We return to familiar places, repeat ways of relating and encounter old fears and longings. Yet returning to the same place doesn't mean that nothing has changed. We may meet it differently because we are different.  This is close to how I understand psychotherapy. Change isn't about erasing our history or becoming someone new, but becoming more curious about the patterns we find ourselves returning to and understanding what they once did for us. Perhaps change is not about breaking the circle, but discovering that when we come around again, we don't have to meet ourselves in quite the same way.