Complex with Kimberley Wilson How can you let go?
Feb 4, 2026
Dr Charlotte Cooper, psychotherapist and clinician, offers concise clinical perspective on letting go. She explores what the phrase really means and why it can be so hard. Conversations cover grief, identity loss, sunk-cost traps, the balance between acceptance and action, practical small steps to change, and rituals to mark transition.
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Letting Go Often Looks Like Grief
- Grief frames many letting-go processes: it's coping with loss and adjusting the life you expected to a new reality.
- Charlotte links mourning to change, growth and crying as part of surviving a rupture in life.
Accept Reality Then Make A Practical Plan
- Accept where you are while planning concrete steps to change: acknowledge current reality and line up practical supports.
- Charlotte recommends making a plan, getting support, and defining measures of progress rather than only aiming for insight.
Identity Fear Makes Letting Go Feel Like Loss Of Self
- Fear of losing identity makes letting go terrifying even when the thing held is harmful; the void that follows can seem like annihilation.
- Charlotte reframes the void as potential, but notes fear narrows perception to disaster.