The Story of the Legacy Leaf

At Fulshear, you will often hear us talk about each young woman and how important is it for them to understand that they are each on their own journey. We all experience life in our own unique way and want to encourage each young woman that comes to Fulshear to find her authentic self. We aim to teach our clients to understand that their journey is not the same as everyone else’s, and they should explore their own core meanings. They learn that they are all going through their own challenges and struggles, and have some similarities along the way.

This brings us to the Legacy Leaf. At some point during each young woman’s journey, they learn of a tree located in our transition office. When each client arrives to Fulshear, they spend the beginning months at the ranch and then transition to the apartments. They visit our office located near the apartments daily. It doesn’t take much time to learn about the significance of the tree located on the wall in one of the group therapy rooms.

It is interesting to see how each young woman embraces the meaning and understanding of this tree. Each leaf on the tree represents a journey. Each leaf contains one thought, feeling, or expression and represents each young woman’s “core meaning.” The emotion that each young woman has as she places her leaf on the tree is something indescribable. For our young women, there is a sense of pride, acknowledgment, joy, and nervousness. They place their leaves on the tree at the end of their journeys here at Fulshear. They are leaving their legacy, their mark, on Fulshear — a moment they will never forget.

This is the story of Karina. Like many of the young women that come to Fulshear, when Karina first came to us she struggled with building healthy and meaningful relationships. Karina worked hard to build confidence in her identity and had to learn her own self-worth. She spent her time at Fulshear exploring how she could make an impact on the world around her. She recognized that it is healthy to have a voice and to speak up when creating new relationships. Her leaf quote states, “I am chosen to be a positive influence and inspiration to others around me through my transparency, integrity, honesty, and compassion.”  The transformation of Karina is clear in her statement, which is her “core meaning.” You can hear more about Karina’s story by clicking here.

Like Karina, Colson struggled with building healthy relationships when she came to Fulshear. Our approach to attachment taught Colson how to build trusting relationships. When a young woman struggles with attachment, it can lead to unhealthy ways of building relationships, and substance abuse for self-medication. Part of Colson’s journey was accepting herself as she was and understanding how she could create healthy attachments. When Colson left Fulshear, she was able to celebrate milestones in her recovery, as well as having learned to build relationships in ways she had not done so before. You can learn more about Colson’s story by clicking here.

Conclusion:

Here at Fulshear, we are working every day to build healthy, strong, and influential women. Each leaf on the Legacy Tree is a journey. For many of these women, they never believed they would make it to the point of placing their leaves on that tree. Many of these women didn’t have the confidence to embrace the future and the next chapter in their journeys of life. Placing their leaves on the tree symbolizes taking control of their future, understanding there are many challenges ahead, accepting their core meanings, and giving them the confidence to continually focus on the path ahead.

– Elizabeth Willis