Slow is Not the Same as Stuck

 



Slow is Not the Same as Stuck

By Niki Gent

In a world that values speed, productivity, and efficiency, it’s easy to believe that slowing down means falling behind. In our sector — community services, mental health, trauma recovery — this mindset shows up everywhere: in the urgency of systems, in the pressure to ‘fix’ clients, and even in our internal narratives about how healing should look.

But here’s what I’ve learned — both from my clients and from my own personal growth:

Slow is not the same as stuck.

We tend to think of progress as a straight line: goal set → plan made → action taken → success achieved. But real human development doesn’t work like that. Especially when trauma, loss, or chronic stress are involved.

Progress often looks like stopping. Sitting. Breathing. Coming back to your body. Grieving what’s been lost. Re-evaluating everything you thought was true. Sometimes it even looks like going backwards — repeating old patterns, questioning your choices, doubting your strength.

But that’s not failure. That’s recalibration.

We need to stop expecting people to race toward healing. We need to stop using speed as a measure of success — in therapy, in case work, in leadership. Slowness is often a sign that someone is paying attention. That they’re working through the layers instead of skipping over them.

And yet, we’ve built systems that reward rapid results. We write funding reports that focus on “outcomes achieved” rather than relationships built. We measure service effectiveness by how many boxes were ticked — not by whether someone left our service feeling more human than when they arrived.

So let me say this to you — whether you’re a client feeling pressure to be better already, or a practitioner wondering if your work is making a difference:

💬 Just because it’s slow doesn’t mean it’s not working.
💬 Just because you can’t see the changes yet doesn’t mean they’re not happening.

Healing often looks like:

  • Saying no for the first time

  • Crying for the first time in years

  • Sitting with a hard feeling instead of running from it

  • Asking for help and not apologising for it

  • Resting — not as avoidance, but as resistance

One of the most courageous things we can do — as people and as professionals — is to stay with the slowness. To honour the rhythm of the person in front of us, even if it’s inconvenient. Even if we don’t understand it. Even if it means we don’t get to write the glowing progress report we hoped for.

Because slow work is often the deepest work.
It’s not surface-level compliance. It’s transformation.
And transformation takes time.

So next time you feel stuck — or someone tells you that you are — pause and ask:

Am I actually stuck?
Or am I just moving in a way the world doesn’t know how to measure?

You are allowed to move slowly.
You are allowed to be deliberate.
You are allowed to rest, recalibrate, and re-enter when you’re ready.

You are not broken. You’re just unfolding.
And that takes as long as it takes.


About the Author,

Niki has worked in Child Protection, Family Law, Juvenile Justice and NDIS for over 20 years.  Having worked extensively with families, government departments, not for profits and privately owned large and small businesses, Niki understands the needs of families, the pressures of compliance, quality and sustainability, and the need to work smart, be resilient, and know who we work for and who we work with.


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