footnote Keser Shem Tov #25:
The workings of a person’s soul are very deep and convoluted, and most people are not aware of what motivates them and why they act in certain ways. These motivations are usually based on deep-seated emotional needs that were formed in one’s early years, in one’s stage of ‘katnus’-- childhood/adolescence. Because one’s consciousness is constricted and limited during these years, these dynamics develop without one’s awareness, and sink deeply into the unconsciousness. It may only be many years later that one begins to become aware of these deep-rooted motivations and how so much of one’s behavior arises from this immature consciousness. The Baal Shem Tov teaches here that simply becoming more and more aware of these dynamics softens their grip on us and gradually releases us from our constricted behavior patterns revealing to us depth of soul that had previously been concealed. There is no other way to heal oneself, as the Baal Shem Tov concludes.)

Bessel Van Der Kolk writes in his book, The Body Keeps the Score:
Most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people “acknowledge, experience, and bear” the reality of life – with all its pleasure and heartbreak. “The greatest source of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves,” he’d say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He often said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel.
Healing, depends on experiential knowledge: you can be fully in charge of your life only if you can acknowledge the reality of your body, in all its visceral dimensions.