Lessons from Autumn: The Psychology of Letting Go

As the trees begin to shed their leaves, nature offers us a beautiful and powerful reminder: letting go is part of life. Just as the trees don't resist the fall, we too are invited to release what's no longer serving us…old beliefs, outdated patterns, or relationships that feel misaligned.

Autumn is a season of transition. It whispers to us to slow down, reflect, and prepare for inner stillness or the dormancy of winter. In this time of natural release, our nervous systems are especially receptive to the practice of letting go. But letting go isn’t always about big dramatic changes. Sometimes, it’s as simple as softening your grip and trusting that release creates space for new growth in its own time.

Try out this short and simple somatic practice in letting go:

1. Find a comfortable seated or lying position.

2. Take a few slow, gentle breaths, letting your exhale be just a little longer than your inhale.

3. Bring awareness to a place in your body that feels tight, heavy, or tense. Without judgment, just notice what’s there.

4. On your next exhale, imagine that sensation softening or loosening, as if the tension could melt or fall away like a leaf from a branch.

5. Repeat for a few breaths, noticing any shifts—subtle or strong.

This practice doesn’t force anything to change—it simply creates a compassionate space where change can unfold naturally.

Section 2: October’s Invitation: Exploring Shadow, Spirit & the Power of Darkness

October carries a special kind of magic. The days grow shorter, the air cooler, and the veil between worlds—both spiritual and psychological—grows thin. Traditions like Halloween and Samhain honor this space, a time when the outer world quiets and the inner world calls us inward.

With the increase in darkness, it’s common to experience shifts in mood or energy. For some, this may mean the return of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) symptoms like fatigue, low mood, or disconnection. If you notice these signs, know that you're not alone—and that this season is also an invitation to be more gentle and attuned to your inner world.

This is a powerful time for shadow work—a process of exploring the parts of ourselves we’ve pushed away or hidden, not because they’re actually “bad,” but because they once felt unsafe to express. Our shadow can hold things like anger, envy, fear, or even our deepest desires and gifts. By bringing gentle awareness to these aspects, we can create deeper self-compassion and wholeness.

Shadow work doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. It can begin with curiosity. It’s not about fixing or analyzing yourself—it’s about listening, witnessing, and honoring all that you are.

Journal Prompts for Gentle Shadow Exploration:

• What parts of myself do I tend to hide from others—and why?

• When do I feel reactive or triggered, and what might those moments be trying to teach me?

• What might I discover if I greeted my inner shadows with compassion instead of fear?

We encourage you to let October be a time to turn inward, to honor your rhythms, and to trust in the wisdom of darkness. Like the seed resting underground, you are simply preparing for what’s next. And, if you’d like some guidance navigating your darkness, we’d be honored to walk alongside you. Don’t worry we come prepared with tons of curiosity, compassion and a flashlight! Email us at info@bravecounseling.com to see how we can support you in doing your shadow work. 

Section 3: Therapist Highlight: Kaylie Willprecht

Meet the open-minded and relatable Kaylie Willprecht!

Kaylie (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado, but is originally from Minnesota. She is passionate about supporting people who are looking to reclaim their lives by addressing symptoms that have been limiting them -- she loves helping people thrive, not just survive. 

Kaylie's passion for supporting others and addressing trauma began during her military service. Driven by this calling, she pursued a Bachelor's degree in Developmental Psychology, followed by a Master's in Counseling. Currently, she is working toward her PhD in Clinical Counseling. Kaylie has experience in both inpatient and outpatient settings and is trained in prolonged exposure therapy, with a strong focus on trauma treatment.

Kaylie believes each person is unique and that therapy should embody that which is why she integrates various therapeutic methods and modalities including…

• DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy)

• CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)

• Prolonged Exposure Therapy

• Interpersonal therapeutic techniques

Kaylie is also a certified CAPS-5 administrator which means she is able to conduct the gold standard assessment for  PTSD. 

Kaylie specializes in helping people...

• Heal from early/developmental trauma (complex PTSD)

• Challenge negative thought patterns

• Identify values and boundaries

• Navigate developmental stages and transitions

Kaylie as a person↓

• Personality: Determined, Genuine, and Resourceful

• Interests: Running, painting, and cooking are her favorite hobbies

• Travels: She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and loves embarking on new adventures!

• Pets: 2 Great Pyrenees dogs

Balance is a Practice, Not a Destination

As holistic therapists, one of the most common things we hear in sessions is: "I just want to feel more balanced."

If you’ve ever found yourself saying something similar… 

• “I’m all over the place” 

• “I feel like I’m spinning,” or 

• “I just can’t seem to get grounded”

…please know this: You are not alone.

In fact, this longing for balance is deeply human. It is one of the most universal desires that brings people into therapy. When someone says they want to feel more balanced, often what they’re really saying is:

• “I want things to feel more manageable.”

• “I want to feel less overwhelmed.”

• “I want to feel less anxious and more grounded in my body.”

• “I want life to feel less like a constant sprint.”

Balance, then, becomes a kind of code word for relief from the constant push-pull of modern life.

And that’s completely understandable because we live in a world that normalizes burnout, celebrates overextension, and wires us from a young age to perform, achieve, and produce.

Yet, as common as this longing is, there’s an underlying misunderstanding many of us carry: the belief that balance is something we will eventually achieve.

Many of us think about balance like a final destination on a long road trip, or a box we can check once and for all. We find ourselves saying things like:

• “If I could just get more balanced, then I’d finally feel better.”

• “If I could just get this one thing under control — this job, this relationship, this schedule — then I wouldn’t be so stressed.”

But here’s the truth we gently and repeatedly offer in the therapy room: Balance is not a destination, it’s a practice.

So, What Actually Gets in the Way of Balance?

The biggest obstacles to balance aren’t usually external. Yes, life is busy. Yes, responsibilities are real. But what tends to sustain the imbalance are deeper internal patterns often rooted in old beliefs and shaped by unresolved relational wounding, trauma, chronic stress, unmet needs and early attachment experiences.

Underneath the chaos of a too-full calendar or the constant sense of urgency is often a nervous system and inner system stuck in survival mode, toggling between the various stress states (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop) which looks like constant shifting from overdoing, striving, and pushing to numbness, shutdown, and collapse. 

Let’s look a little deeper.  

Underlying behavior is emotion, or e→motion…energy in motion, and underlying emotion are our beliefs. So…the behaviors we see on the outside are being supported by beliefs and the energy they generate on the inside. 

Because our beliefs can be surprisingly hard to uncover and access, here are some things, manifestations of those beliefs, to look out for that could be getting in the way of you experiencing the balance you so deeply crave:

Mental & Emotional Mindsets - These are the internal narratives and habits of thought that perpetuate imbalance:

• Perfectionism – Never feeling like you're doing enough or doing it well enough.

• All-Or-Nothing Thinking – Viewing situations in extremes (e.g., "If I’m not thriving, I’m failing").

• Chronic Self-Doubt – Constant second-guessing undermines stability and confidence.

• Over-Identification with Productivity – Linking your worth to how much you achieve.

• Mental Clutter – Too many open loops, ideas, or decisions left hanging.

• Emotional Suppression – Avoiding or stuffing feelings down instead of expressing and processing them.

Behavioral Patterns - How you manage your energy, time, and space directly affects balance:

• Overcommitting – Saying yes to too much, leaving no room for rest or spontaneity.

• Lack of Boundaries – Difficulty saying no or protecting your own needs and time.

• Avoidance/Procrastination – Postponing what matters or needs to be addressed creates background stress.

• Disconnection from Body Needs – Ignoring or not feeling cues for hunger, fatigue, thirst, movement, etc.

• Poor Sleep Hygiene – Inconsistent or inadequate sleep.

• Screen/Device Overuse – Constant stimulation blocks mental stillness, inner reflection and time to integrate.

Physical Health Factors - The body is often a loud communicator of imbalance:

• Chronic Stress or Burnout – Long-term cortisol elevation disrupts nearly every system.

• Nutrient Deficiencies – Low iron, magnesium, B12, etc., can affect mood and energy.

• Hormonal Imbalances – Thyroid, adrenal, or sex hormones can disrupt mood and focus.

• Dehydration – Surprisingly common and can cause fatigue, brain fog, and irritability.

• Lack of Movement – Sedentary lifestyle affects mood regulation and energy flow.

Relational Strains - We are social beings, and our connections (or lack thereof) impact our balance:

• Unmet Emotional Needs – Feeling unseen, unheard, or undervalued in close relationships.

• Toxic or Draining Dynamics – Relationships that are not reciprocal and take more than they give.

• Lack of Authentic Connection – Superficial interactions can leave you lonely even when surrounded by people.

• Caretaking or Codependency – Losing yourself in others’ problems or needs.

Spiritual Disconnect - Even if you're not religious, the deeper sense of connection and meaning matters:

• Lack of Purpose or Direction – Feeling like you’re drifting without meaning or mission.

• Disconnection from Values – Living out of sync with what you deeply care about.

• Isolation from Nature or Awe – Rarely experiencing stillness, beauty, or something larger than yourself.

• Neglect of Inner World – No time for tuning inward, reflection, ritual, or contemplative practice.

Underlying Beliefs That Drive Imbalance - These are often deeply rooted and run sneakily in the background. Here are some common underlying beliefs (this is not an exhaustive list):

• “I’m too much”

• “I’m not enough”

• “I’m worthless”

• “I don’t matter”

• “I’m a failure”

• “I can’t be trusted”

• “I can’t trust anyone”

• “I’m bad”

• “I’m unlovable”

• “I’m stupid”

• “I don’t belong”

• “I don’t deserve”

• “I have to be perfect”

A useful tool to help you uncover your deeply rooted, sneaky beliefs is to first use an “If/then” statement, then add on this statement: “Say that’s true, then what does that say about me as a person, that I…______________” (fill in the blank with what comes to mind about yourself, no searching or digging).

Examples: 

1. “If I slow down, then I’ll get behind” + “Say that’s true, that I am behind, then what does that say about me as a person? If I’m behind…then I am useless.”  

2. “If I open up to them, they’ll use it against me” + “Say that’s true, that they use what I shared against me, then what does that say about me as a person? If they use what I shared against me…then I can’t trust anyone.”

In the examples above the core belief uncovered through the “if/then” statements is listed in bold. As humans we tend to hold beliefs about ourselves, other people, the world around us, and the future. Identifying and eventually healing and releasing these beliefs that are at the root of energetic dysregulation is KEY to feeling more balanced in day-to-day life. 

Give it a try and let us know how it goes! And, as you may come to find, it is challenging to get to the root of our imbalance, to the beliefs underlying a system that’s stuck in survival mode. If you find this challenging, you are not alone, and we are here for you. Just email us at info@bravecounseling.com and we will be in touch with ASAP to see how we can support you in feeling more balanced. 

Western Resistance to Practices vs. Achievements

It’s important to mention that as Americans, we’ve been raised in a society that rewards performance and output. From school systems to workplace culture to social media, most of us have been wired to believe that our value lies in what we do, how much we do, and how perfectly we do it.

In that system, goals are everything — clear, measurable, finite. So, when someone suggests a practice…something ongoing, without a finish line, it can feel slippery. Frustrating, even. You  might find yourself thinking:

"Wait, you mean I can’t achieve balance?"

No, you cannot. Because balance isn’t static. It’s dynamic. It breathes. It responds. It shifts with you. Just like the balancing poses in yoga (we’re looking at you Tree Pose) balance is something you return to again and again as conditions change, as your body changes, as your life changes.

Balance as a Somatic Practice

Understanding this shift, from achievement to practice, is one thing. Getting your body and nervous system on board is another.

Balance in a holistic sense means creating a regulated relationship between activation and rest. Between the sympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system (the energy of mobilization, doing, engaging) and parasympathetic branch (the energy of immobilization, slowing down, restoring, digesting life).

Many of us are stuck in nervous systems that only know two gears:

1. Go hard (fight/flight/fawn)

2. Crash hard (freeze/collapse)

A true practice of balance involves learning to notice these states in the body and cultivating new, more nuanced rhythms:

• Can I work and stay connected to my breath, my body?

• Can I rest without guilt?

• Can I move toward my goals without sacrificing and abandoning myself?

• Can I allow rest to be as sacred and productive as action?

How to Begin Rebalancing

Starting the practice of balance is not about fixing everything at once, it’s actually not about fixing at all. It’s first about connecting inwardly and listening. Here are some entry points:

• Name the Imbalance – Where do you feel it most? Body, mind, emotions, relationships, purpose?

• Slow Down – Even just 5 minutes of stillness can reveal more than rushing.

• Feel Your Body – Movement, grounding, or simply checking in helps you return to the present moment, being here now.

• Connect with Someone Real – Honest, vulnerable conversation rebalances more than you'd expect.

• Question Your Inner Narrative – What are the automatic thoughts that come up for you? Whose voice is telling you to keep going when you're empty?

• Return to What Matters – Values, presence, nature, art, faith, breath. What is most important to you in your life? Are these truly your values or someone else's?

Every Moment is a Portal to Practice

Balance isn’t a future you arrive at once everything calms down. Balance is right here, in the moment you take a breath before replying to that text. In the choice to go to bed instead of scrolling endlessly on your phone. In the decision to say “no” — even when it’s uncomfortable. In the willingness to pause and feel your feet on the ground, before moving forward.

Every day offers hundreds of these micro-opportunities.

Not to be perfect. But to return. To re-attune. To notice what you need.

If you notice that it’s difficult or impossible for you to engage with these micro-opportunities to practice balance, you are not alone! It’s like that some deeply rooted beliefs are getting in the way of you slowing down and making different choices. If you’d like support in uncovering, healing, and releasing your limiting beliefs, reach out to us at info@bravecounsleing.com and we will get in touch with you ASAP for a free consultation.

A Gentle Invitation

So if you’re someone longing for more balance, more ease, more groundedness…please know you’re not broken, and you’re not alone.

Instead of asking, “How do I finally get balanced?”

Try asking, “How can I practice balance today, in a small way?” and “What does my nervous system need right now to feel a little less overwhelmed, a little more supported?”

That’s the practice.

Not a checkbox, not a final destination…but a kind of coming home.

Over and over again.

With care and compassion,

The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team, aka holistic therapists who are practicing right alongside you

Welcoming September: An Invitation to Reflect & Rebalance

Hello Brave Ones,

Welcome to September, the beginning of the “ber” months and a natural turning point in the year. In many traditions, this is a time of harvest — both literal and metaphorical. We invite you to slow down and take stock:

• Where has abundance shown up in your life this year?

• What internal growth has come to fruition since spring?

• Are there areas — habits, thoughts, relationships — that feel ready to be pruned back or released?

As the days begin to cool and the light gently shifts, you may notice subtle changes not just in nature, but in your inner landscape too. These seasonal transitions can stir a sense of disorientation or dysregulation in the nervous system. It’s natural.

That’s why this month, we’re leaning into grounding practices and the theme of balance which is a timely reflection as we approach the Autumn Equinox on September 22nd-23rd, when day and night stand in equal measure.

The equinox is a beautiful reminder of life’s and our own inherent dualities:

• Shadow and light

• Rest and effort

• Outward growth and inward reflection

But here's something many of us need to remember:

Balance is not a place we arrive — it’s a practice.

It’s not a final state to “achieve,” but rather a dance we commit to daily. Think about balancing postures in yoga for a moment: you don’t hold them perfectly still. You're wobbling, adjusting, falling out, catching yourself, overcorrecting after you fall, and then trying again finding some semblance of balance. And that’s the point — you’re in the process of balancing.

Let’s move from concept to embodiment now — and explore what this actually feels like in your body.

Section 2: Somatic Practice — Experiencing Balance in Tree Pose

This month, we invite you to feel balance by practicing Tree Pose, a grounding and centering posture from yoga. Try this as a way to reconnect with your body, breath, and the natural wobbles that come with being human.

• Stand tall

• Come to a standing position with both feet directly stacked under ankles, knees and hips.

• Bring awareness to your breath. Let your arms rest gently at your sides.

• Imagine growing tall like a tree — crown reaching upward, feet rooted below.

• Find your footing

• Shift your weight slowly onto your left foot, feeling all four corners of that foot connect with the earth.

• Engage your core and gently lift your right foot off the ground.

• Place your right foot

• Bring the sole of your right foot to the inner ankle, calf, or thigh (avoid the knee).

• Use your hand to guide your foot into place, and press foot into leg and your leg back into your foot.

• Find a gaze point in front of you (something that is not moving) to help you.

• Grow your tree

• Bring your hands to a place that feels right to you today (perhaps heart center, or raise them overhead like branches).

• Notice and feel your breath. Stay here in tree pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

• Feel the micro-movements and adjustments in your foot, ankle, calf, knee, quad, glutes, core and spine are making — those little shifts are your body balancing. Feel the dance

• You might wobble. You might fall. That’s okay — gently return to the practice of the tree pose.

• Let go of “getting it right” and instead stay curious about the process.

• After 30 seconds to 1 minute (or more), release gently and switch sides.

Journal Reflection:

• Did you notice the ongoing adjustments? If so, describe them here.

• What did you learn about the practice of balance during this practice? Were there moments of stillness... and moments of effort? What else did you learn?

This is what balancing in life feels like too — not perfect, not something we ever achieve, but presence, attunement and responding.

• How can you take what you learned in tree pose into your current life and the shifting of the seasons?

In the next section, we’ll introduce you to one of our gifted therapists who can support you in this season of life transitions.

Section 3: Therapist Highlight: DaShelle Barco

Meet the creative and intuitive DaShelle Barco!

DaShelle (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado who loves helping folks get "unstuck" and arrive at the place of having the unwavering belief that your past pain and trauma does not define you.

In her career as a therapist, DaShelle has worked with a variety of people ranging from children and families impacted by domestic violence, folks in the prison setting, and people facing drug & alcohol addiction. DaShelle is well-versed in the private practice setting as well, and knows from personal experience that there is power in sitting 1:1 with people who initiate therapy for themselves.

DaShelle uses and integrates various therapy methods and modalities including...

◾️ Mindfulness practices

◾️ CBT

◾️ Insight oriented therapy

◾️ Supportive reflection

◾️ Interpersonal therapeutic techniques

DaShelle specializes in helping people...

◾️ Who are feeling stuck and uncertain about how to move forward

◾️ Develop a healthy view of themselves and improve their self esteem

◾️ Who feel that their past unresolved trauma is holding them back

◾️ Implement supportive tools and coping mechanisms that minimize and eventually eliminate exhausting symptoms and trauma responses

◾️ Who want to feel safe and enjoy life

DaShelle as a person↓

►Personality: Serene, Creative, Adventurous 

► Interests: Being in nature especially by water or on a trail during cool sunny days. Dashelle is a beginner gardener and a lover of fruits & veggies and is always creating new plant-based recipes! She also self-identifies as a fashionista 

►Travels: Scotland, Barbados, New York, Florida, and California and she's hoping to travel to Japan, Africa, and Jerusalem in the future 

►Favorite Foods & Drinks: Raw vegan wraps, nice cream (non dairy ice cream), fruit salad, fresh squeezed juices, fruit smoothies and coconut water

►Pets: A mini poodle named Diamond 

►Favorite Quote: "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but by all means, keep moving forward." -Martin Luther King Jr.

We offer FREE 30-45 minute consultations. If DaShelle, or any of our other amazing therapists catch your eye, let us know -- we will get you connected ASAP! 

With warmth, joy, and compassion,

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

P.S. If you’d like support with seasonal or other types of life transitions you’re going through, reach out for a FREE consultation. 

Click here to get in touch!

Meeting ‘The Heat’: How to Stay Present with & Process Intense Emotions

As summer is winding down, those of us located in Colorado know Fall is not just around the corner. We know that our Colorado summers tend to linger and we actually find ourselves facing some of the hottest days of the year. Instead of throwing your head back and crying out in distaste for this lingering heat, what might it be like to learn to use the heat intentionally to help you transform?

That’s right, just like the flames of the fire temper metal allowing us to shape and transform it into useful items, emotional intensity can do the same thing for us on a personal and collective level. Even though emotional intensity (or “the heat” as we like to call it) is often misunderstood, feared, and avoided, it is exactly what opens the door to healing and transformation.

As holistic therapists, we’ve been witnessing an interesting trend for years and year: people are willing to push through physical pain—to run marathons, work 12-hour shifts, or go through surgery—yet when emotional pain rises, we often retreat. Why? Why is emotional “heat” so much harder to meet?

The short answer: We were never taught how.
The long answer is layered with nervous system and attachment science, childhood experiences and patterns within the family origin, patriarchal American culture, and unhealed pain and trauma. But don’t worry, we got you, we’ll unpack this together.

Why Emotional Pain Feels Harder Than Physical Pain

When emotional discomfort or pain arises, it activates the limbic system, a very old, primitive part of our brain. The limbic system is a group of brain structures responsible for three main functions: emotions, memory, and arousal. It also plays a role in motivation, behavior, and social processing. The limbic system acts as a bridge between the conscious, intellectual functions of the cerebral cortex and the unconscious, automatic functions of the brainstem and nervous system.

If your early emotional experiences were unnoticed, unsupported, and/or unsafe, emotional discomfort can feel like a direct threat to your survival. Which is why, when emotional “heat” arises, many of us have tendencies to avoid it using a variety of different strategies (doom scrolling, drugs & alcohol, binging Netflix, intellectualizing, eating, sex, work, suppression, avoidance/procrastination, keeping busy all the time, etc.) 

Physical pain, on the other hand, is often more visible and accepted in our culture (for a variety of different reasons) so it gets noticed and addressed. A broken arm gets a cast. A headache gets Advil. But emotional pain? It’s murky. It lingers. It’s unacceptable within patriarchal culture. It brings up all the things—memories, meanings, unmet needs, and the questions: “Will the emotion take over?” which is essentially the aching wondering we all share, “Will I be okay?”

Attachment: Our Emotional Blueprint

From the very beginning, we’re wired for connection. As infant humans, we are born with… 

• An attachment system that’s wired and ready to go – our only focus when we are little is bonding with our caregivers

• All the emotions, but none of skills or abilities needed to regulate and stay present with our emotions

Our caregivers are meant to be our first co-regulators, meaning they are supposed to be attuning to and meeting our needs, soothing our cries, providing a steady and sturdy presence, and modeling how to handle emotional storms. This is how we develop our own self-regulation skills.

Unfortunately many of us had caregivers who couldn’t do that. Not because they didn’t love us, but because they themselves were dysregulated and never learned how to really be with their emotions. When a caregiver has unresolved pain and trauma, or is chronically stressed, they generally exist in a state of dysregulation which causes them to be emotionally unavailable. When a primary attachment figure is emotionally unavailable, children have to find ways to maintain connection to their caregiver, for survival reasons, which typically looks like kids learning to suppress, disconnect from, and/or escalate their emotions. 

Fast forward to present-day, we become adults who either shut down when emotions get big (a hypoaroused state in the nervous system)…or eventually blow up to finally be seen (a hyperaroused state in the nervous system).

Our Culture Teaches Us to Avoid Emotions

In American culture, emotions and emotional intelligence are often overlooked and dismissed as “soft”, whereas the “hard sciences” are funded and celebrated. Patriarchy and its right-hand man, capitalism, both play a role here. These systems thrive on productivity, independence, and control, not vulnerability, interdependence, or the acknowledgement and meeting of emotional needs. Since emotions don’t fit neatly into a 9-to-5 schedule, we get taught to suppress them, medicate them, or distract ourselves away from them until we burn out.

But, as holistic therapists, we are here to ask questions and speak truth. What about the human experience? Every single person on this planet (whether they admit it or not) has emotions. If emotions are biologically inherent and just so incredibly human, then why does our culture continue to treat them like a problem? What if, instead of continuing to use methods that wind up costing us in so many different ways, we commit to learning how to be with “the heat”?

If you’ve been wondering how to actually process your emotions and build your tolerance for facing challenges and intensity (aka the emotional “heat”), keep reading! 

Your Nervous System Isn’t Failing—It’s Reacting & Protecting

To support you in learning how to stay present with your emotions so that they can fully process and move through, we encourage you to think of emotions as energy in motion aka e→motion. When we’ve grown up with little to no guidance on how to be with and regulate our emotions and emotional intensity starts to rise inside, our bodies instinctively shift into a stress response (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or flop) because they are detecting a threat to our safety coming from within. This is biology, not weakness.

One of the best things you can do to help yourself in growing your tolerance for emotional intensity in order to fully process your emotions is learning your “go-to” stress responses as if you’re creating an internal map for yourself. Instead of judging yourself, you can learn to work with your nervous system. You can say, “Oh, I’m freezing right now. That means I need to re-establish safety and then take action” or “I’m in fight mode…where are my boundaries being pushed or crossed?”

There is SO MUCH incredible and interesting information on feeling your feelings, embodiment and nervous system regulation which we don’t have space to go over here and now, but, if you’d like additional information and support on learning and regulating your nervous system, email us at info@bravecounseling.com or click the “contact” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website and submit a contact form. We will be in touch with you ASAP! 

How to Stay Present in ‘The Heat’

Ok, ok so what do we *actually* mean when we say “regulating your nervous system” and “growing tolerance for emotional intensity”? We are talking about real practices you physically, psychologically and energetically do to help you stay present (aka grounded) when emotions get big. Here are some tools and practices to support you in “regulating your nervous system” aka your stress responses that are reacting to your emotions.

• Orient to your environment. Look around and name 5 things you see. Remind your body or even say to yourself: I am safe right now.

• Ground through the senses. Hold an ice cube, press your feet into the floor, or take a deep belly breath. Bring your attention right here, right now.

• Name what’s happening. “I’m feeling shame.” “This is fear.” Naming the feeling activates your prefrontal cortex and reduces overwhelm.

• Simply describe the sensations in your body. “I feel tension in my jaw.” “Oh wow, I feel heat in my face and a rush of energy into my chest.” Bringing your attention to, being present with, and connecting (even if it’s just a little bit for now) to your body allows energy (emotion) to continue moving until it processes.

• Place a hand on your heart or cheek. This activates the vagus nerve and tells your system you’re not alone. Developmentally, or looking through the lens of attachment science, connection = safety.

• Move. Shake, stretch, dance, or walk. Emotions are energy—they need motion to move through. 

Why Some Parts of You Feel So Intense

If we look through the lenses of Internal Family Systems (IFS), inner child work, and emotional/social/psychological/spiritual development we understand that we’re made up of many parts – like the part of us that got ignored and overlooked growing up, or the parts of us that had to learn the protective strategies of avoidance or lashing out. Some parts of us go into protective roles and others get “exiled” carrying old wounds, deep grief, or unmet needs. These parts don’t go away. In fact, they often get louder over time. Intensity is their way of saying, “Please see me. I need things. Please help me. ”

You are not broken for feeling intensely. That intensity is a communication from a part of you that has unmet needs from the past and wants healing. That’s a good thing.

Learning about and getting to know the different parts of you is a powerful way to get practice being the presence of various emotions while using somatic and internal tools aka emotion regulation. If you’re curious to learn more about experiential, embodied therapeutic methods like inner child work, parts work (IFS), somatic psychotherapy email us at info@bravecounseling and we will set up a free call with you to chat! 

Common Patterns That Interfere with Staying Present with Emotional Heat

Certain early life patterns turn up the volume on the emotional intensity we feel now present-day. These are a few examples of the experiences gone through in childhood as well as some protective patterns that had to be learned in order to make it through. 

• Suppression: You learned to hide feelings until they leak out elsewhere, explode, or implode.

• Anxious attachment: You had to escalate your emotions to get connection or attention.

• Avoidant attachment: You had to numb out instead of expressing what you felt because it wasn’t emotionally (or physically) safe to express.

• Disorganized attachment: You experienced caregivers as a source of both comfort and fear, which created inner confusion about how to seek support and feel safe in relationships.

• Caregiver neglect: Things had to get really bad emotionally and/or physically before an adult responded.

• Lack of modeling: You simply didn’t see adults managing emotions well, so you never learned how.

• Parentification: You had to become the emotional caretaker for a parent, which forced you to suppress your own needs and feelings to keep the peace or provide stability.

• No or inconsistent validation: Your emotions were sometimes acknowledged, other times dismissed or mocked—leading to chronic self-doubt about what you’re feeling and whether it’s “too much.”

• Chronic criticism or high expectations: You learned to self-monitor intensely, internalizing the belief that emotional expression was a weakness or failure.

• Unspoken family rules: There was an unspoken code like “we don’t talk about feelings,” “don’t rock the boat,” or “stay strong,” which led to shame or guilt around emotional vulnerability.

• Emotional enmeshment: A caregiver relied on you to meet their emotional needs, blurring the boundaries between their emotions and yours—making it hard to discern and stay grounded in your own emotional reality.

If any of these ring true, know this: you’re not alone. And your emotional responses make sense in the context of your lived experience. Learning about the parts of you that had to adopt certain patterns or ways of being in the world can be incredibly transformative, but to do this you’ll need to build skills that help you stay present as you meet the “heat”. 

Transformation Requires Heat

Glass is shaped in fire. Metal is forged in flame.
You, too, are transformed by heat.

Emotional intensity—the heat—is not your enemy. It’s the gateway. The more you build space and tolerance internally for feeling discomfort, the more capacity you grow for joy, intimacy, consistency and peace.

But this doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a practice. A reparenting. A process of coming back into relationship with your body, your story, and your deepest self.

So, here we are at the end of summer, how will you meet the heat?

If you’d like some guidance and support in meeting your emotional “heat”, we got you. Just click on the contact tab in the upper right hand corner of our website and submit a contact form and we will reach out! 

Welcome to August – The Season of Intensity & Transition

Hello Brave Ones, 

As we step into the heart of August, we find ourselves held in a powerful space — the "dog days of summer" when the heat is high, routines are shifting, and nature herself is urging us to slow down, listen in, and realign.

This time of year carries a potent mixture of endings and beginnings. For many, the rhythm of summer is changing as students return to school and the energy of long, languid days begins to transition toward something more structured. The fiery nature of the end of the summer season can stir up both energy and agitation. It's a time of big emotions, quick tempers, and the urge to do — and yet, if we pause, it also offers incredible potential for transformation and purification.

In the somatic world, fire symbolizes not just heat and action, but also the inner discipline and friction that fuel growth. During the hottest days of summer, when the intensity can feel overwhelming, we’re reminded that challenge itself can be a catalyst. This seasonal heat mirrors the internal process of burning away what no longer serves us — old habits, limiting beliefs, stagnant energy. When we meet this intensity with awareness, we soften what is rigid, build resilience, and strengthen from the inside out. 

So this month, we invite you to ask yourself: “How will I meet the heat?”

Section 2: Using the Heat – Somatic Practices for Transformation

Let’s lean into one core theme this August: Tempering — The Transformational Power of Heat

In somatic therapy, we often work with the body’s internal and external environments to create change. August gives us both the literal heat of summer and the metaphorical heat of inner pressure and life transitions — which can bring discomfort, but also clarity and motivation when approached with awareness.

When we engage with this “heat” intentionally, it can become an ally in the healing process. Just as metal is tempered by fire, our nervous systems, emotions, and inner selves can be refined when we allow ourselves to stay with what’s uncomfortable — allowing energy to move and release, burning off what is no longer serving us without burning out.

Here is a supportive practice to try this month. You’ll need a quiet space, about 10 minutes, and curiosity.

Stay with the Spark Embodiment Practice:

1. Sit or lie down and bring awareness to your body. Begin by noticing the places in your body that feel warm, activated, or even slightly agitated.

2. Now, choose one area where you feel the most charge or heat (this could be tension in your chest, a fluttering in your belly, a restlessness in your legs).

3. Rather than trying to cool it down or push it away, gently ask:
   → “What are you trying to tell me?”
   → “What do you need right now?”
   → “What am I burning away?”

4. Just listen, sense and feel. Receive whatever comes, however it comes.

5. Self-soothe: 

1. Breathe into the space where you feel it most in your body

2. Feel your feet on the ground

3. Place your hand over that area and say to yourself, “I can hold this heat. I trust my body’s wisdom” or any other encouraging words that resonate with you. 

6. Stay with the sensation for a few minutes without judgment. Let the sensation change, shift, or soften naturally.

7. When ready, bring yourself back into the outside world, take a look around, stretch or move in whatever way feels needed or good to you and allow your brain to reorient. 

Section 3: Therapist Highlight

Meet the warm and welcoming Amanda Delt.

Amanda is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado and Oklahoma and she has over 12 years experience working with teens, adults, and couples.

Amanda approaches everyone she works with as a unique individual, meeting them where they are and tailoring a plan to utilize their strengths and best meet their needs. She is non-judgmental, comfortable and enthusiastic about helping you reach your goals -- (and she also gets how scary this can be!)

Amanda is trained in...

◾️ CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

◾️ TFCBT (Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) 

◾️ Solution-Focused Therapy

..and integrates the following methods:

◾️ Client-Centered Counseling

◾️ Motivational Interviewing

◾️ Psychodynamic Therapy

◾️ Mindfulness

◾️ Humanistic Therapy 

Amanda specializes in...

◾️ Life transitions

◾️ Couples wanting support in communication and/or an unbiased advocate in their relationship

◾️ Providing couples a safe space to express concerns and work through conflicts

◾️ Guiding people to gain clarity about and become their best selves

◾️ Helping people to focus on what they can control and cultivating mindfulness

Amanda as a person↓

►Personality: Calm, determined, and patient 

► Activities: Amanda loves spending time with her daughters and husband. She loves sports and watching college basketball & softball. She enjoys running with her Goldendoodle and traveling to new areas to see how other parts of the world live. 

►Quotes: "It's a good day to have a good day." - Bill Anderson and "Grow through what you go through." - Eric Butterworth

If you’d like some guidance and support in meeting your emotional “heat”, we got you. Just click on the contact tab in the upper right hand corner of our website and submit a contact form and we will reach out! 

The Healing Power of Play and Pleasure

As somatic and holistic therapists, we often sit with adults who long to feel more alive, connected, and joyful—but who also admit they don’t know how. Somewhere along the way, many of us lose touch with two essential states of being: play and pleasure. 

And before a part of you starts to discount and minimize these experiences, please know that these are not luxuries or optional indulgences. Play and pleasure are vital for our healing, growth, and wholeness. Yet, for many adults, the invitation to play or experience pleasure feels confusing, foreign, even threatening.

Let’s explore why that is—and how reclaiming play and pleasure can be a game changer!

How We Lose Play and Pleasure: Emotional Wounding and Survival Strategies

Humans are biologically wired for play and pleasure. From infancy, our bodies seek out joyful movement, curious exploration, and co-regulated connection. But for many of us, emotional wounding disrupts this natural flow.

When our early caregivers are emotionally unavailable, inconsistent, or unsafe, we unconsciously adapt. We learn to suppress our playfulness to prioritize connection or safety because ultimately we need to have our basic needs met before we can feel safe and settled enough to let go and play. In cases of attachment injuries, trauma, emotional neglect, or relational pain, play starts to feel dangerous, frivolous, or even selfish.

Many children in these environments step into roles they were never meant to play: caretakers, peacekeepers, perfectionists. This process—known as parentification—requires kids to meet their own emotional needs (and sometimes their caregivers’) at the cost of their spontaneity and innocence. Play becomes a forgotten language. Pleasure becomes associated with guilt or fear. The nervous system becomes hyper-attuned to survival, not joy, and the human becomes disembodied living primarily in their head.

The American Disconnection from Play

Even for children with more secure upbringings, the larger cultural container—particularly in the U.S.—does not support the longevity of play or pleasure. In early childhood, play is encouraged, even celebrated. But by middle school, the message begins to shift: "Grow up." "Get serious." "What are you going to do with your life?"

The U.S. school system prioritizes performance, competition, and linear productivity. Children are often expected to sacrifice recess for test prep, creativity for compliance, exploration for achievement and predetermined curriculums. By adolescence, many young people have deeply internalized the belief that play is no longer useful—unless it produces something.

As adults, we find ourselves in a culture that severely restricts socially acceptable avenues for play and pleasure. We’re told that to be a “successful” adult, we must work hard, pay bills, take care of others, and be responsible. Play and pleasure? They become things we have to justify—often pushed into the shadows as private indulgences rather than embodied needs.

Is it any wonder so many adults turn to secret or quick-hit sources of pleasure—compulsive sex, alcohol, drugs, doom-scrolling, binge-watching, overeating—to momentarily escape the weight of disembodiment and disconnection?

What the Research Says: Play is Essential, Not Optional

Thankfully, science backs what our bodies have always known: play is essential to being human.

Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, has spent decades researching play in both animals and humans. His work reveals that play is not just a childish behavior, but a deeply biological drive. In fact, play is seen across the animal kingdom, from dogs and dolphins to bears and birds. Brown notes that animals deprived of play display poor socialization, higher levels of aggression, and impaired adaptability—traits that sound uncomfortably familiar when applied to humans.

Importantly, play literally builds our brains. It stimulates the prefrontal cortex, improves emotional regulation, enhances problem-solving, and strengthens our capacity for empathy and flexibility. Play is nature’s way of preparing us for an uncertain future.

As Brown says, “we are built to play and built by play.”

And it’s not just mental. Play brings the nervous system into a state of flow—a unique energetic zone between challenge and ease, where we lose track of time and become fully present in our bodies. This flow state regulates the vagus nerve, activates the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, and helps heal chronic patterns of hypervigilance or shutdown.

In short: play is medicine.

Pleasure as a Somatic Practice

Similarly, embodied pleasure—the felt sense of joy, warmth, delight, sensuality—isn’t a hedonistic escape; it’s a healing state. When we allow ourselves to feel pleasure (in safe, titrated ways), we expand our internal energetic container—our nervous system becomes capable of holding more life force, more complexity, more intimacy.

For many trauma survivors, the path to healing requires not just revisiting and feeling through the pain, but retraining the body to feel safe in play, pleasure and joy. This is where somatic practices shine. By slowly reintroducing the sensations of pleasure and play, we rewire the body toward aliveness.

But let’s be real: play and pleasure can feel terrifying. Many adults experience anxiety, guilt, numbness, or resistance when invited to loosen the grip of control and enter the realm of play. That’s not because they’re broken. It’s because their bodies learned long ago that joy wasn’t safe.

So we go slow.

A Simple Embodiment Practice to Reclaim Play & Pleasure

Here’s a short somatic practice you can try to gently reconnect with the energetic state of play and pleasure:

The "Curious Wiggle" Practice (5 minutes)

1. Find a safe, private space. Sit or stand comfortably. Close your eyes or soften your gaze.
   

2. Take a few deep breaths. Inhale through your nose, exhale with a gentle sigh. Let your shoulders drop.
   

3. Start to invite a gentle wiggle into your body. Maybe your fingers wiggle first. Then your shoulders. Let the movement be spontaneous, curious—how would your body move if no one were watching?
   

4. Let the wiggle grow. Maybe it becomes a little dance. Maybe it’s silly. Maybe it’s subtle. Follow your body’s lead.
   

5. Add sound, if it feels safe. A hum, a giggle, a sigh. Let your voice join the play.
   

6. Notice what sensations arise. Does it feel joyful? Awkward? Energizing? Numbing? Just notice—there’s no right way to feel.
   

7. Finish by placing a hand on your heart or belly. Thank yourself for showing up. For exploring. For being brave enough to reconnect.
   
   

Final Thoughts: Reclaiming Your Birthright

Play and pleasure are not rewards you have to earn. They are birthrights that belong to you simply because you are human. In a culture that glorifies productivity and pathologizes rest and joy, choosing to play is an act of radical reclamation.

In therapy at Brave Embodiment, we don’t just talk about healing—we embody it. And that includes finding moments of laughter, silliness, dance, breath, color, sound, imagination, curiosity, and connection.

Because in those moments, healing doesn’t feel like work. It feels like being alive.

If this resonates, or if you find yourself unsure where to start, know that you're not alone. The journey back to play and pleasure is not linear—but it is worth it.

Let’s begin again—with joy.

If our approach of involving play, pleasure and joy in the healing process speaks to you, reach out to us! We’d love to give you even more information and holistic, somatic tools to support you on your journey to wellness. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper righthand corner of our website, submit a contact form, and we will be in touch with you ASAP!

Rooted in Joy: Healing Through Play and Pleasure

Healing in the Heat of Summer

As we step into the warmth of July, summer invites us into a season of expansion and joy. Longer days, vibrant colors, sun-soaked adventures, and a slower pace all create the perfect conditions for something we often overlook in our healing journeys: pleasure and play.

It’s easy to dismiss enjoyment and leisure as “nice-to-haves”—something to get to once we’ve finished the serious work of healing. But what if we told you that joy is not the opposite of healing, but a central part of it?

Many of us carry inner wounds from childhood—experiences where our need for joy, spontaneity, freedom, and emotional safety weren’t fully met. Inner child healing isn’t just about revisiting the past; it’s about offering our younger selves the nourishment they needed then, in the present moment. And one of the most potent ways we can do that is through play and pleasure.

Summer, with its built-in invitations for play—whether that’s swimming, dancing barefoot, making art, taking spontaneous road trips, or simply lying in the grass and cloud-gazing—gives us opportunities to reconnect with the essence of our inner child. Each time we say yes to joy, we create a reparative experience. We tell our inner child: You matter. Your joy matters. You’re safe to feel delight.

And this process works both ways. When we engage in the deep work of inner child healing—whether through therapy, journaling, somatic therapy, or conscious reflection—we often find our capacity for joy naturally expanding. We feel safer in our bodies. We give ourselves permission to savor life more fully.

So this July, consider this an invitation: 

Seek pleasure. 

Embrace leisure. 

Prioritize play. 

Not because you’ve earned it, but because it’s a vital part of your wholeness. Healing doesn’t only happen in stillness and shadow—it also happens in sunlight and laughter.

A Mid-Year Reset – Re-aligning with Intention and Inner Wisdom

It’s hard to believe, but we are now more than halfway through 2025. This moment—just past the solstice, just before the late-summer wind-down—is the perfect time for a mid-year reset.

For some people, January is a time when goals and resolutions are set with the best of intentions, but by July, life has happened. Maybe we’ve been wounded, perhaps we’ve grown…things have shifted as that is the nature of life – constant change. Our needs, priorities, and energy may look very different than they did at the start of the year.

This is a good time to pause, tune in, and ask yourself:

• How do I feel in my body and heart about the intentions I set in January?

• Are those intentions still aligned with who I am now?

• What’s asking to be acknowledged, released or reimagined?

• Is there a new vision emerging for the second half of the year?
  

Rather than forcing yourself to keep up with goals that no longer resonate, consider this a chance to reset based on who you are today. You might even notice that your body has been giving you cues—through fatigue, resistance, or excitement—about what’s truly aligned.

This doesn’t have to be an elaborate process. Sometimes all it takes is a quiet afternoon, a journal, and your willingness to listen inward. We invite you to allow your intuition to guide you, and do your best to trust that your inner compass knows the way forward. Remember, mid-course corrections are not failures, but signs of maturity and growth.

Let this July be a sacred threshold. A chance to re-center, re-align, and move into the rest of the year with clarity, gentleness, and a renewed connection to yourself and what matters most.

Therapist Highlight: Jessica Genari

Meet the intuitive and encouraging Jessica Gennari!

Jessica is a Licensed Professional Counselor based in Colorado who is BCLAD (Bilingual, Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development) certified.

Throughout her career in counseling Jessica has worked with people facing substance use issues, co-occurring disorders, PTSD, trauma and stress, attachment, anxiety, and depression.

Jessica's approach is person-centered, empowering, creative and curious. She is passionate about supporting people in unveiling their own inner strengths, awareness and ability to optimize their well-being. Jessica is also devoted to providing tangible researched strategies in sessions.

Jessica uses and integrates a variety of therapy modalities including...

• EMDR

• CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

• DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)

• SFBT (Solution Focused Brief Therapy)

• ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

• Mind-Body Practices

• Guided Drawing
  

Jessica specializes in…

• Helping you uncover emotional patterns and the roots of those patterns

• Supporting you in interpersonal relationship building

• Stress and trauma

• Attachment wounding and repair

• Providing BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ affirming counseling

Jessica as a person↓

• Personality: Creative, intuitive, open, loving and empowering

• Activities: All things art, as well as, nature, hiking, running, biking and spending time with friends

• Travels: Jessica has lived in Italy and traveled to South America and Spain--she loves learning from other cultures and growing herself!
  

We offer FREE 30-45 minute consultations. If Jessica, or any of our other amazing therapists catch your eye, let us know -- we will get you connected ASAP! 

With warmth, joy, and compassion,

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

P.S. If you’d like support with your mid-year reset or inner child work this season, feel free to reach out for a FREE consultation. Summer is a beautiful time to deepen into your healing journey.

Clickhere to get in touch!

Summer Energy Got You Struggling with Consistency? This Meditation Is for You

Consistency Starts with Energy — Tap In With This FREE Practice

Hello Brave Ones, 

As we are exiting the month of June, summer continues to unfold. The summer season brings light, spontaneity, and the sweet call to play. While this season nourishes the spirit, it often nudges us away from the rhythms that support our deeper healing—routines soften, therapy gets rescheduled, and our inner work can take a backseat.

This is natural.
And it’s okay.

But if you're noticing feeling a bit more scattered, anxious, and overwhelmed —especially in your nervous system— it could benefit you to support your inner system around consistency. 

Click below for a FREE guided meditation created by Brave’s very own, Kim Massale. She designed this meditation to help you gently steady your energy, reconnect with your compassionate center, and follow through on what you’re wanting to do. This meditation can be used as a quick daily or weekly process to help keep you on track, and can also be helpful to those living with ADHD. 

No matter where summer takes you, this guided practice can support your nervous system in finding ease and rhythm. 

Click here to access our FREE Consistency & Overcoming Obstacles guided meditation.

If you found this meditation useful, be sure to follow us on Insight Timer by clicking "follow" on our teacher profile!

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

Click here to get in touch!

Consistency Isn’t About Discipline—It’s About Energy

You’re Not the Only One Struggling with Consistency

Let’s get one thing out in the open: SO MANY people struggle with consistency. And yet, when we’re in the thick of our own procrastination, overwhelm, or inability to follow through, we often feel like the only one. Like there must be something inherently wrong with us.

We wonder:

“Why can’t I just do the thing?”

“What’s wrong with me that I can’t stay motivated?”

“Why do I keep starting and stopping everything?”

If that’s you, we want you to hear this—you are not broken. You are likely dysregulated. And there's a big difference.

Where the Struggle with Consistency Really Comes From

Most conversations around consistency start with time management, discipline, or habits. But as holistic therapists, we’ve learned that humans are complex and therefore we must go deeper—into the body, the nervous system, and our lived cultural realities. 

We as humans are individual systems and we live within the system of our external circumstances and culture. Things like time management, discipline and habits aren’t bad things to pay attention to, but they are surface-level, so let’s go a little deeper and get curious about what supports, or allows for practices like time management, discipline and habits to happen.

1. The Nervous System

Inside all humans exists a central nervous system which is divided into two key branches: the peripheral and the autonomic. While the peripheral nervous system helps us consciously interact with the world around us, the autonomic nervous system operates largely beneath our awareness, managing vital functions like breathing, heart rate, digestion, and temperature regulation. 

But beyond these physical processes, the autonomic system is also deeply involved in our emotional life and energy levels—it plays a major role in how safe, calm, or overwhelmed we feel. When this system becomes dysregulated, often due to chronic stress or unresolved wounding, pain and trauma, we may find ourselves struggling with low energy, emotional volatility, or a persistent inability to follow through on our goals. 

So if you’re someone who has difficulty being consistent—not because you don’t care or lack willpower—it may be that your autonomic nervous system is in a survival mode that prevents access to sustained focus and motivation. When your body perceives stress—whether from trauma, emotional wounds, or ongoing pressure—it moves into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn states. This dysregulation makes it nearly impossible to stay focused, energized, or committed to routines. Learning how to understand and regulate your autonomic responses through practices like somatic therapy, breathwork, and grounding, can be a powerful step toward restoring balance and creating true, sustainable consistency in your life.

2. Unresolved Emotional Wounding and Trauma

Our past experiences shape our present patterns because those were the experiences we were having when our brains and neural networks were forming and developing. Those were the neural networks we needed at the time to survive the environment and circumstances that we were in. For example, some of us learned in childhood that taking action led to punishment, criticism, and rejection, so, present-day we might find that our subconscious often tries to “protect” us by sabotaging follow-through as a way to avoid the painfulness of those past experiences (punishment, criticism and rejection). This is just one example of how unresolved past wounding and pain drives present day behaviors.

Procrastination, avoidance, and lack of consistency are not conscious choices — they’re forms of subconscious coping. It’s helpful to connect this struggle with consistency back to what we discussed earlier: the nervous system. Dysregulated energy in the nervous system stems from these subconscious coping mechanisms, which are essentially stress responses. The shifts in our energy levels occur because the nervous system continues to rely on old protective patterns — neural pathways that once helped us survive. In response to perceived threats, our nervous system may quickly ramp up or shut down energy (hyperarousal or hypoarousal) to support these stress responses. Until the underlying pain, trauma, or emotional wounding is fully felt, processed and resolved, the nervous system will keep activating these ingrained patterns to shield us from discomfort and pain. This results in nervous system dysregulation, which disrupts our energy supply — and the energy instability is what makes it difficult to build and maintain consistency. 

3. The Hustle Culture of the U.S.

We’re living in a society that glorifies productivity and burnout. We’re constantly expected to be “on”, responsive, achieving, and producing. This hustle mode depletes the body, short-circuits the nervous system, and leads to things like:

• Adrenal fatigue

• Anxiety and depression

• Autoimmune conditions

• Chronic exhaustion

• Disconnection from purpose and pleasure

• Disembodiment 

When your energy is burned out or fragmented, how can you expect to show up consistently for anything, let alone your deeper goals?

4. Misalignment

Another important — and often overlooked — root of inconsistency is misalignment. From a holistic perspective, it’s incredibly difficult to remain consistent with things that are out of sync with your core values — the things that truly matter to you on a deeper level. When our actions, commitments, or goals don’t reflect what we genuinely care about, the nervous system often responds with resistance. This isn't laziness or self-sabotage; it’s a form of inner wisdom alerting us that something doesn’t feel right.

Take work, for example. If you're spending hours each day in a job that doesn’t resonate with your values, it’s natural to feel disengaged, uninspired, or even emotionally exhausted. Your body and mind may struggle to summon the energy or motivation to stay consistent, because that work isn’t nourishing you in a meaningful way. Over time, this misalignment can erode your sense of purpose and make consistency feel like an uphill battle.

As holistic therapists, we often invite people to explore whether what they’re trying to be consistent with is actually aligned with their deeper truth. 

• Are you working toward something that feels life-giving and purposeful? Or are you chasing something you think you should do — out of obligation, fear, or external pressure? 

When we begin to realign with our values and make space for what truly matters, consistency often begins to feel less like a struggle and more like a natural expression of inner coherence.

5. Emotional Avoidance

Another layer that can contribute to inconsistency — and one that often operates beneath our conscious awareness — is emotional avoidance. From a holistic perspective, we don’t just avoid tasks because they’re boring or time-consuming. Often, we’re avoiding the emotions that get stirred up when we engage with those tasks.

For example, let’s take something as seemingly simple as cleaning. On the surface, it might look like procrastination or disinterest. But when we look deeper, we might notice that the act of cleaning brings up a sense of futility — the realization that no matter how thoroughly we clean, the mess will always return. For some, this can evoke feelings of defeat, powerlessness, or even resentment. These are difficult emotions to sit with, especially if we’ve had past experiences where those feelings were overwhelming or invalidated. So, instead of facing them again, our nervous system kicks into protective mode — we distract ourselves, we delay, or we disengage entirely.

In this light, inconsistency becomes less about motivation and more about emotional safety. It’s not that you’re incapable of doing the task — it’s that doing the task touches something tender inside you. As holistic therapists, we often work with people to gently explore what emotions are being activated by the things they avoid. When we can name those feelings and begin to hold space for them, even in small ways, we often find that the task itself becomes more approachable. We’re no longer using our energy to protect ourselves from discomfort — and that opens the door for more grounded, sustainable consistency.

The Truth: Consistency Comes from Steady Energy

Now that we’ve taken a look at some of the common roots of inconsistency, here’s what we’ve seen time and time again:

Consistency doesn’t come from willpower. It comes from a steady flow of energy.

And that steady energy flow comes from a regulated nervous system, emotional safety, and alignment with your truth—not forcing yourself into a schedule or life that was never meant for you. 

When you begin to slow down, listen to your body, and heal at the roots, you start to feel a natural pull toward showing up—because it no longer feels like pressure. It feels like flow.

Myths About Consistency That Need to Be Burned to the Ground

Let’s debunk a few harmful myths that surround the topic of consistency:

• MYTH: “You’re lazy if you’re inconsistent.”

• TRUTH: Inconsistency is usually a sign of burnout, trauma, or dysregulation—not laziness.

• MYTH: “You just need more discipline.”

• TRUTH: Most people need more rest, safety, connection, and nervous system healing—not more discipline.

• MYTH: “If you really cared, you’d do it.”

• TRUTH: Many of us deeply care—and still can’t follow through when our energy is scattered or depleted.

Remember, energy flows where your attention goes. If your attention continues to focus on coping and “just getting through”,  then your energy is being used up just trying to survive emotionally or physically and there’s not much left for long-term goals or daily habits. 

How to Begin Steadying Your Energy (So Consistency Can Emerge Naturally)

If you’ve been struggling with consistency, here’s where we’d recommend you begin:

1. Regulate Your Nervous System

Start by helping your body feel safe.

Take some time to track your nervous system so you can learn its “go-to” stress responses. Then, do your best to get in the practice of coming alongside your nervous system with support. And remember, our nervous system doesn’t understand words it understands somatics i.e. body-based, physical, felt sensations.

Try: daily grounding practices (walking barefoot on the earth, placing your hands over your heart and belly while breathing deeply, etc.), vagal nerve stimulation (humming, cold water splashes, breathwork, etc.), movement to release energy in a hyperaroused nervous system (jumping up and down, pushing into the wall, dancing, etc.), movement to increase energy in a hyperaroused nervous system (lengthening your spine, planting your feet firmly on the floor, quickly rubbing your hands together, etc,), incorporating a daily embodiment practice (yoga, dancing, stretching, tia chi, etc.)

The purpose of these somatic tools is to gently guide your nervous system out of conditioned stress responses, allowing new neural pathways to form and teaching your inner system that it’s safe to face tasks and stressors from a place of presence and steadiness – therefore stabilizing your energy flow and increasing your ability to be consistent. 

2. Meet Your Inner Experience with Compassion

When you procrastinate or shut down, do your best to get in the practice of pausing and asking:

“What part of me is afraid right now?”

Then, respond to that part of you with kindness, not judgment. Healing emotional wounds that are being held internally makes room for sustainable action.

3. Create Spaciousness, Not Schedules

Instead of rigid routines, experiment with rhythm. What’s your body’s natural flow? Work with that, not against it.

4. Mini Practice: Steady Your Energy in 3 Minutes

Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes.

Place one hand on your chest, one on your belly. Inhale deeply through the nose, exhale slowly through the mouth.

Repeat this phrase silently:

“I am safe to move slowly. I am allowed to rest. My energy is returning to me.”

Visualize a soft golden light pooling in your belly. With each breath, let it grow steadier.

Stay here for 3 minutes. Notice how your energy begins to settle.

Final Words: This Is About Healing, Not Hustling

You don’t need to force yourself to be consistent, in fact forcing yourself to be consistent will likely only lead to less consistency. Instead, you need to nurture the conditions that allow consistency to emerge.

When your inner wounds are tended to with presence and love, your body will feel safer, and when your body feels safer your energy will stabilize —and consistency becomes a natural byproduct.

So no, you’re not lazy. You’re healing. And healing is one of the best things you can commit to in order to not only improve your consistency, but your overall well-being. 

If our approach to improving consistency speaks to you, reach out to us! We’d love to give you even more information and holistic, somatic tools to support you on your journey to consistency and wellness. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper righthand corner of our website, submit a contact form, and we will be in touch with you ASAP!

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

Click here to get in touch!

Welcoming Summer – A Season of Light and Expansion

Hello Brave Ones! 

Happy pride month and welcome summer! As we step into June, the arrival of summer brings with it a powerful energetic shift. The days grow longer, the sun brighter, and life often seems to move faster. The summer solstice will occur on Saturday June 21st marking the longest day of the year–when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at noon–and “the official start of summer” in the Northern Hemisphere takes place. 

Summer is ruled by the fire element in many healing traditions—symbolizing growth, joy, vitality, and outward movement. Spiritually and emotionally, this season invites us to expand, play, and connect, but that expansion can also bring up challenges.

Many people find that as their outer world becomes busier—with vacations, social events, and changing routines—their inner world may begin to feel overstimulated, scattered, or neglected. Because of this, emotions can rise to the surface more quickly and you may also experience bursts of inspiration and motivation, followed by feelings of burnout or disconnection.

This season asks us to balance our desire for movement and connection with the need for grounding, intention, and rest. Therapy can offer a supportive space to navigate that balance—but summer’s spontaneity can make it challenging to stay consistent which brings us to one of this month’s featured guides (10 Tips for Staying Consistent with Therapy this Summer) located in section 3. 

But first, section 2 where we honor Pride Month – acknowledging and celebrating the pain, the beauty, the resilience and the diversity of the 2SLGBTQQIPAA community. You’ll find simple, meaningful ways to celebrate, show support, and stand in solidarity, whether you’re part of the community or an ally.

Section 2: June is Pride Month

June is Pride Month – a time to honor the 2SLGBTQQIPAA community not only through celebration, but through deepening visibility, connection, and solidarity. Pride reminds us that even if we don’t personally identify, we all have a role in standing up for each other’s humanity, because no one is free until everyone is.

Since we are based in Denver we are sharing some details for the Denver Pride Celebration, however most cities and towns host their own Pride Celebrations so be sure to research details on your local celebrations as well!  

Denver Pride Celebration 

• Dates & Times: Saturday 6/28 11:00am - 7:00pm and Sunday 6/29 10:00am-6:00pm

• Info: Beginning in 1974, Denver Pride is an event produced by The Center on Colfax—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community year-round. Now the largest Pride celebration in the Rocky Mountain region, the event draws over 500,000 visitors and includes a parade, 5K, a gayborhood market, performances, DJ’s, a Latin stage, a family area – a really amazing festival! Proceeds from the weekend directly support vital 2SLGBTQQIPAA+ services like mental health care, youth and senior programming, and support for transgender and gender-diverse individuals.

• Click here for more info on Denver Pride 

Not in town on the 28th and 29th? No problem! There are events happening all throughout the month of June, some of which you can find here . And, if events aren’t your thing, here are some other ways to support the 2SLGBTQQIPAA community:

• Read a book: 

• “Gender Trauma” by: Alex Iantaffi

• “Beyond the Gender Binary” by: Alok Vaid-Menon

• “Gender Queer” by: Maia Kobabe

• “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by: George M. Johnson

• “Stone Butch Blues” by: Leslie Feinberg

• Volunteer:

• The Center on Colfax

• One Colorado

• Gay for Good Denver

• The Trans Continental Pipeline

• Support 2SLGBTQQIPAA Makers & Businesses:

• Courageous Space (Yoga Studio)

• Quince Coffee House

• Vibe Gym & Wellness

• Hamburger Mary’s

• Lady Justice Brewing

*This is not an exhaustive list, just a few ideas to get you started! We encourage you to do your own research and see how you’d like to contribute.*

Section 3: 10 Tips for Staying Consistent with Therapy this Summer

Summer’s spontaneous energy can easily lead to skipping self-care routines, including therapy. However, staying consistent through seasonal shifts can actually deepen your progress and help you integrate new awareness into daily life. Here are ten tips for maintaining your momentum:

1. Schedule Ahead: Book your summer sessions in advance to hold space for yourself before your calendar fills up.

2. Set a Summer Therapy Intention: Get clear on what you want to focus on during this season—it helps maintain purpose.

3. Consider Virtual Sessions: If you’re traveling or your schedule is packed, teletherapy can be a powerful alternative.

4. Make It Part of Your Summer Routine: Attach therapy to another summer ritual (like morning walks or post-hike journaling).

5. Communicate with Your Therapist: If your availability changes, work together to find new rhythms or creative solutions.

6. Use Your Therapy Time to Process Summer Themes: Socializing and social anxiety, relationship shifts, body image, family dynamics, or spiritual exploration—let it all in.

7. Practice Micro-Check-Ins: Between sessions, take 2–5 minutes to reflect on how you’re feeling emotionally/spiritually.

8. Track Your Emotional Weather: Keep a summer feelings journal to notice patterns or emotional highs/lows.

9. Create a Summer Self-Care List: What grounds and restores you? Keep a list handy when things get busy or chaotic.

10. Remember Why You Started: Revisit your original reasons for starting therapy—it often reminds us that these deeper patterns we are wanting to work on don’t just disappear because it’s sunny out – revisiting your motivations and goals will help renew your commitment to your inner work and therapy.

Even in the most expansive and active seasons, healing and growth thrives on consistency. Showing up for yourself—especially when it's inconvenient—is a powerful act of self-love which can create healing and growth in itself.

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

Click here to get in touch!

Beyond “Mental Health”: Tending to Your Inner Garden This May

As holistic therapists, we tend to approach the month of May—Mental Health Awareness Month—with mixed feelings.

Yes, we’re grateful that we have a month dedicated to destigmatizing emotional and psychological challenges. But, we also feel called to speak honestly: the term “mental health” itself is outdated. In fact, it can be misleading.

When we say “mental” health, we unintentionally reinforce the idea that emotional and psychological well-being is just in our heads—a purely cognitive, mental, or brain-based issue. This disconnects us from the deeper truth: our emotions, our trauma, our healing—they don’t live only in the mind. They live in our bodies, our breath, our relationships, our energy, and in the pace and rhythm of our lives.

True healing doesn’t happen in the mind alone. It happens when we return to wholeness and tend to ourselves and each other holistically.

We Are Not Just Minds With Bodies—We Are Embodied Minds

Modern neuroscience, trauma research, and ancient healing traditions all point to the same reality: the human experience is an embodied one. What we often call “mental health” is actually a whole-body process. We can’t simply think our way into healing (if we could, many of us would’ve done this already). Instead, we must feel, move, rest, connect, cry, and breathe our way into healing. 

If you’ve ever experienced anxiety and noticed your heart race or your gut twist into knots, you know this. Emotions show up in the body. Therefore, healing must also take place in the body, not just at the mental level. 

That’s why, in holistic therapy,, we don’t separate the mind from the body, or the individual from their environment. We understand that you yourself are a system and you exist within a system—that emotional wellness is woven into how you sleep, how you eat, how you relate to others, how you relate to yourself, how you breathe, how much sunlight you get, what kind of work you do, and how safe you feel in your nervous system.

Tending to Your Inner Garden

The month of May is a time when the earth bursts into bloom, reminding us of the rhythms of nature that we too are meant to live by.

In this spirit, as therapists we often use the analogy of tending to an inner garden. Imagine your emotional life as a garden inside of you. What kind of soil are your thoughts and feelings rooted in? Soil is the foundation for growth, so perhaps thinking about your own foundation…your childhood. Was the soil of your childhood nutrient rich and fertile? Or perhaps there were factors that got  in the way of your developmental years being nourishing. And now, present day - are you receiving enough sunlight—joy, rest, creativity? Are your roots nourished with connection, nutrition, movement, stillness?

There’s a beautiful quote by Alexander Den Heijer that says:

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

Too often in mainstream approaches to “mental health” focus on fixing the flower. Mainstream mental health pathologizes a person’s symptoms and rushes to suppress them. But rarely do mainstream mental health approaches ask: “What kind of soil is this person growing in? What’s happening in their environment, relationships, and daily rhythms that might be hindering their natural capacity to thrive?”

Holistic healing is about tending the soil, not forcing the bloom.

Tending to Each Other: Why We Need Each Other to Be Well

As holistic therapists, we have seen time and again that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. While the dominant mental health narrative in American culture often frames healing as an individual pursuit—“Go to therapy and figure yourself out”—this lens is only part of the story. Yes, individual therapy is incredibly valuable (we’re big fans of it!), but it is not the whole story. Humans are wired for connection, and it is within the context of relationships, community, and co-regulation that deep healing and transformation can truly take root.

Too often, "mental health" is treated like a solo project, as though the path to wellness lies entirely within individual self-awareness and boundary-setting. And while insight and healthy boundaries are crucial tools, they are not the only ones we need. What often gets lost in Westernized models of care is the understanding that we heal in relationship—in spaces where we are seen, heard, supported, and held with care.

Relational care isn't just an idealistic notion, it’s a biological necessity. Our nervous systems are wired for connection. From birth, we rely on caregivers to help regulate our emotional states because we are born with all the emotions but none the circuitry or skills to regulate those emotions. That need for co-regulation doesn’t disappear in adulthood—it just becomes less visible in a culture that values self-sufficiency and hyperindependence over interdependence. True nervous system healing requires spaces where we can feel safe with others, not just within ourselves.

Community and connection also help break cycles of silence—those invisible legacies we carry around trauma, shame, and disconnection. When we share our truths in safe, affirming spaces, we interrupt those patterns. We remember that we are not alone. And in being witnessed, we allow the exiled parts of ourselves to join, to be part of it, to feel connected which has a significant impact on well-being. 

A major challenge to truly engaging with the connection, relational and community aspect of healing and growth is an overemphasis on boundaries and an underemphasis on repair being taught in Westernized therapy. Boundaries are absolutely essential—especially with people who have caused harm or who are unsafe—but when we’re taught to cut people off at the first sign of discomfort or conflict, we risk reinforcing disconnection rather than healing it. There’s a difference between protecting yourself and abandoning the possibility of deeper, more meaningful connection.

Relational repair—learning to work through conflict, rather than around it—is one of the most transformative practices we can engage in. It asks us to stay present, to lean into discomfort with care, and to recognize that closeness often comes after rupture and repair, not before. Learning how to navigate relational repair can be uncomfortable, but it is also deeply liberating and humanizing. We were never meant to do this work or life alone.

Individual therapy can absolutely be the doorway to healing. It can be the first time someone feels safe enough to explore their inner world. But we cannot build a whole life of connection with just one safe relationship. Healing requires more than one safe person. It requires community, chosen family, soul friendships, and people we can be real with—especially when things get messy. 

In a culture that often individualizes pain and commodifies healing, we must return to what’s always been true: we need each other. Not in a co-dependent way, but in a deeply human way. Healing happens when we are held in community, when we experience safe connection, and when we learn—together—how to return to each other with more presence, compassion, and care.

What True “Mental Health” Support Looks Like

True support for emotional well-being honors the whole person. In our work as a holistic therapists, this includes:

• Offering a person information (psychoeducation) on what is happening in their brains and bodies when they are feeling a certain way and how past relational experiences and traumas can create unfinished stress responses that are being held within the body.

• Speaking the language of the body by supporting nervous system regulation through breathwork, movement, somatic awareness and somatic exercises.

• Exploring ancestral patterns or unprocessed trauma stored in the brain and body.

• Working with the rhythms of nature—resting more in winter, expanding in summer. Supporting folks to  learn and identify their own inner rhythms related to hormonal fluctuations and their own personal seasons of healing, growth and harvest.

• Integrating nutrition, sleep, and lifestyle into the therapeutic process.

• Encouraging embodied presence (the felt sense), rather than intellectual analysis alone

• Guiding people to experience or feel their own energy, the fluctuations of that energy and sensing the energy of other nervous systems and the culture around them.

• Cultivating self-compassion and slowing down enough to feel what you feel, helping your body learn to metabolize and digest the sometimes intense emotional energy that comes with various life experiences.

• Experiential practice of expressing needs, hurts, boundaries, and preferences and coaching and skill building on how to work through conflict not only within one’s self but with others as well. 

• Encouragement for you to participate in group processes and/or find a community you feel connected to and safe in.
  

This isn’t about chasing happiness or symptom relief. It’s about becoming more fully yourself and in doing so symptoms reduce and a sense of well-being, contentness and peace arrive. It’s about inhabiting your body, trusting your rhythms, and allowing space for all of you—grief, joy, fear, creativity, longing—to exist and be held with care and compassion. 

Mental Health as Wholeness

So this May, instead of asking “How’s your mental health?”, try asking:

• How’s the soil you’re growing in?

• Are you getting the light, nourishment, rest, and connection you need?

• What would it mean to truly honor your wholeness—not just your mind, but your body, spirit, and heart?
  

Healing isn’t linear. It’s seasonal. It moves like a garden—sometimes blooming, sometimes resting, sometimes shedding what no longer serves. When we honor this, we shift from treating symptoms to cultivating well-being.

Let’s reclaim “mental health” as embodied wellness—a return to our natural state of balance, aliveness, and connection.

Let May be your invitation to tend your inner garden.

Gently. Patiently. Holistically.

If our approach to “mental health” speaks to you, reach out to us! We seriously cannot wait to connect with you and walk alongside you on your journey to wellness. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper righthand corner of our website, submit a contact form, and we will be in touch with you ASAP!

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

Click here to get in touch!

Embodying Possibility & Self-Worth - A Free Meditation

Hello Brave Community!

Tax season has a way of pulling us into a swirl of numbers, deadlines, and pressure-- whether you're self-employed, sorting through receipts, or just feeling the collective intensity of this time of year. Even when it's over, the residue of stress often lingers in the body and mind, quietly tightening our thinking and dulling our sense of self-worth.

As holistic therapists, we've witnessed how this subtle tension can shape how we see ourselves and what we believe is possible. That's why this month's FREE guided meditation is devoted to you -- to giving your system a much-needed settling. 

Click here to access our post tax season Release Stress And Open To Self Love And Possibility meditation by Brave Embodiment Counseling's own, Kim Massale. 

This brief, soothing meditation begins by exploring how stress impacts the nervous system and blocks expansive thinking and self-love. From there, you'll be gently guided to release the stress your body is holding and reconnect with your worth and the energy of possibility. 

If you found this meditation useful, be sure to follow us on Insight Timer by clicking "follow" on our teacher profile!

Click here to get in touch!

Intro to May

Hello Brave Community!

May invites a sense of renewal -- longer days, blossoming flowers, and the rhythm of growth humming all around us. May lives at the crossroads of spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, a time of ripening.

Spiritually, this time of year often symbolizes fertility, nurturing, creative life force energy, and new beginnings. And yet, like most seasons of growth, this one brings complexity.

Mother's Day can stir a wide range of emotions -- grief, longing, joy, guilt, or even numbness. Graduation season, too, can evoke both pride and uncertainty, excitement and overwhelm. 

So how do we stay present when this month asks so much of our hearts?

We return to wholeness. 

May is also "Mental Health Awareness Month", though we prefer to reframe that: because the term "mental health" is actually outdated. It suggests that our emotional wellness is something that lives only in the mind -- when in truth, we are body-minds, as Dan Siegel beautifully names. Our emotions, thoughts, and experiences live in the tissues, the breath, the posture.

That's what holistic therapy is about: tending to the full human experience -- not just talking about it, but feeling and moving through it. And that matters now more than ever. 

If you've been struggling, or feeling ready to bloom, we want you to know that you're not alone and we are here for you as you navigate all that comes with the month of May ♡

Mini Body-Mind Reset

Here's a short but powerful practice to meet this month's energy with compassion and curiosity.

May Integration Practice: A Somatic + Journaling Moment

1. Ground (2 min)

• Place both feet on the floor. Gently press them down and notice the floor pressing back. Take three slow breaths, letting your exhale be just a little longer than your inhale. Allow your shoulders to drop. Let your belly soften. 

2. Listen (2 min)

• If it feels okay, place one hand over your heart and one on your lower belly (or anywhere else on your body that feels okay).

• Ask yourself:
  What does this season bring up for me? Where am I growing? Where am I tender?

• Then, just listen and receive, with openness and compassion, whatever comes.

3. Journal (5-10 min)

Choose one of these prompts:

• "Right now my heart feels..."

• "If I could name what this season is teaching me, it would be..."

• "I am letting go of _______________. I am opening to _________________."

This simple practice invites your whole system -- mind, body, and soul -- to be part of your healing journey. 

And, as always, we are here to support your process ♡ Whether you’re navigating complex mother's day emotions, struggling to stay present, or just wanting to feel more grounded this season – you are not alone and we got you!

Email us at info@bravecounseling.com to schedule a FREE consultation with one of our highly-skilled, compassionate therapists today!

Therapist Highlight

Meet the good-humored and curious Elisa Clark!

Elisa (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, currently providing virtual services from the east coast.

Elisa has navigated a variety of jobs in administration, retail, childcare, jewelry design, and management while learning how she wanted to be of service in the world. This self-exploration ultimately led her to a Masters degree from Naropa University in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling.

After receiving her degree, Elisa worked in college and high school settings, community-based case management, and specialized treatment for first-episode psychosis in teens and young adults.

Elisa is passionate about collaborating with her clients in creating new narratives for themselves featuring empowered choices, nonjudgmental attitudes, and self-acceptance. She supports the people she works with in growing beyond their trauma with and increasing their freedom in day-to-day life. Elisa is unafraid to explore the unknown and is skilled at utilizing humor to reveal truths, test new perspectives, and connect with the present moment.

Elisa uses and integrates a variety of therapy modalities including...

• Transpersonal personal counseling

• Mindfulness training

• Narrative therapy

• mCBT

• Gestalt therapy

• Solution-focused interventions

• Enneagram

• Expressive arts

Elisa specializes in helping people...

• During times of transition and life pivots of all kinds (including career, identity, grief & loss, etc.)

• Cultivate a meaning-based, purpose-aligned life 

• Make space for present-focused awareness

• Develop their spirituality (if that's of interest)

• Utilize radical acceptance as a tool for change

• Challenge self-limiting beliefs and patterns

• Find the pause, to facilitate mindful responses to stressors

Elisa as a person↓

► Personality: Creative, Warm, and Curious

►  Activities: Mixing art with adventure, tending plants, and finding humor in daily life

► Favorite Quote: “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

We offer FREE 30-45 minute consultations. If Elisa, or any of our other amazing therapists catch your eye, let us know -- we will get you connected ASAP! 

♡ The Brave Embodiment Counseling Team

Click here to get in touch!

Unpacking Money Stress: A Holistic Approach to Tax Season & Your Relationship with Money

For many of us, tax season brings a familiar pit-in-the-stomach feeling: tension, overwhelm, maybe even dread. Whether it’s anxiety about what we owe, shame about how we’ve spent, or confusion about where our money actually goes, financial stress can feel like a storm cloud that follows us into every corner of life. 

As holistic therapists, we’ve noticed how deeply money stress touches the nervous system. It can feel like chronic low-grade fear, like grief, or even like numbness. It’s not just about numbers – it’s about beliefs, nervous system wiring, and the survival response we learned growing up. 

So, in this blog, we aim to slow it all down and take a compassionate look at where money stress comes from and how we can begin to heal it. 

Where Money Stress Comes From

Money stress isn’t just about how much you make or how well you budget. It’s often rooted in deeper beliefs and nervous system responses shaped by your upbringing, cultural messaging, and life experiences. 

Money Beliefs Start Early

Maybe you grew up hearing things like:

• “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

• “We can’t afford that.”

• “Rich people are greedy.”

• “If you were better with money, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

• “Money solves problems.”

• “We don’t talk about money.”

• “Don’t flaunt it.”

• “You’ll inherit this one day, so be careful.”

• “Protect the family legacy.” 

These messages often live under the surface and silently shape how we interact with money present day. And, keep in mind, not all messages that our minds and bodies absorb about money are explicit. Some are implicit like… 

• Feeling the tension between your parents as they argued over money

• Sensing the energy shift when you asked for lunch money to go out with your friends in high school

• Your caregivers being exhausted all the time due to working multiple jobs in order to get by

• Feeling the inauthenticity in your home environment and the distrust your parents had toward other people because they were wealthy and thought people always wanted something from them or were after their money.

Even if you’ve grown beyond those childhood moments intellectually, your body and nervous system might still be reacting to money as if it’s unsafe, scarce, something to be protected at all costs, or shameful. 

Money Stress Lives in the Body

Our nervous systems interpret money issues as threats to safety because in our modern world money is the thing that keeps a roof over our heads and food on the table. That’s why checking your bank account can trigger panic, or why financial conversations can lead to shutdown, avoidance and conflict. When it comes to money, it’s so important to remember that it’s not about selfishness, laziness or irresponsibility – it’s about nervous system regulation and safety. 

Common Limiting Beliefs That Drive Money Stress

Some common beliefs we tend to hear as holistic therapists include:

• “I’m just bad with money.”

• “There’s never enough.”

• “I’ll never get ahead.”

• “I don’t deserve wealth.”

• “Money doesn’t matter to me.” 

• “My worth is tied to my wealth.”

• “People only like me for my money.”

• “I’m not allowed to struggle or ask for help.”

• “I didn’t earn this, so I don’t deserve it.”

• “Being rich makes me a bad or selfish person.”

These beliefs tend to operate in the background, driving unconscious behaviors like:

• Avoiding bank statements and tax documents

• Restricting spending out of fear, even on things that matter

• Overspending or impulse buying to soothe stress

• Judging or criticizing others’ spending habits

• Feeling shame about debt or not having savings

• Saying, “I don’t care about money,” when the truth is: you do, but it feels painful to admit

• Always picking up the check to “earn” love or belonging

• Lying or omitting details about your background to avoid feeling judged or embarrassed when others find out you are wealthy

• Chasing high-paying or prestigious roles even when they are unfulfilling to you

How to Identify Your Money Beliefs

Here are a few reflective prompts to help you notice the stories you carry around money: 

• What’s the first memory you have about money? Take a moment, center yourself, let your mind go and see what memory it brings you (write it down). 

• What messages did your caregivers give you about money, directly or indirectly?

• What do you feel in your body when you think about looking at your bank account or doing your taxes?

• Complete the sentence: “Money is _______________.” (Then ask: “What makes me believe that? Or, how did I get to that conclusion?”

Common Ways We Cope With Money Stress

It’s important to name the coping strategies many of us humans have developed in relation to money with compassion. It’s important to not judge and remember that these ways of coping were tools your inner system once needed to get through the situation you were in. 

Here are some we see often:

• Avoidance: Not opening bills, ignoring bank accounts, procrastinating taxes, avoiding money topics in conversations, not budgeting, pushing off debt and financial conversations.

• Over-Control: Hypervigilant budgeting, never allowing “unnecessary” spending, feeling unsafe spending even on basic needs or joy, constantly thinking about money and worst-case scenarios.

• Emotional or Impulse Spending: Using shopping to escape,soothe or distract from emotional pain and also to reward yourself. Continuously spending money to create comfort for yourself rather than allowing yourself to experience discomfort. 

• Minimizing: Telling yourself money doesn’t matter when it actually does. Saying, “I didn’t get into this line of work for the money” denying the importance of money. 

• Externalizing: Criticizing others for how they spend, to deflect from your own discomfort. 

• Overworking: Working hard to feel like you’ve “earned” the wealth you inherited, or struggling to allow yourself to rest or receive support without shame. Equating busyness with security or value.

• Under-Earning or Undervaluing: Staying in underpaid jobs out of fear or loyalty. Not negotiating raises or charging what you’re worth. Believe you have to “suffer” to be good or responsible. 

• Giving Excessively or Performatively: Giving away, donating or using philanthropy as ways to ease emotional discomfort of being wealthy rather than creating real connection and change. 

• Codependence or Financial Enmeshment: Relying on others for financial rescue or stability. Staying in relationships or unhealthy family dynamics so you don’t get cut off financially now or in the future. 

• Rebelling Against Wealth: Rejecting money, choosing a simple life and making a point of not needing money even when it’s readily available to you. 

• Disconnection or Fatalism: Believing you’ll never get ahead, so why try? Being disconnected from long-term vision or future planning. 

Can you relate to any of these ways of coping? (Most of us can.)

Healing Your Relationship With Money: Holistic Tools & Practices

Healing your relationship with money is a process, not a quick fix. It’s about reconnecting with your body, reshaping your beliefs, and learning new ways to relate to money that feel grounded and aligned with your values. 

Here are some concrete tools to try:

• Money Mapping - This is a practice of tracking where your money goes – not to judge, but to understand. Look at your bank statements and ask:

• Where is my money actually going?

• How do I feel about these purchases?

• Which ones align with my values?

• Which ones reflect impulse, fear, numbing, or avoidance?

Quick Tip: Create categories like “soul-giving”, “survival”, “numbing,” and “auto-pilot”. This helps you move from shame to curiosity. 

• Somatic Awareness - When financial stress shows up, pause and ask:

• What’s happening in my body right now?

• Can I offer myself support – maybe a hand on the heart, a deep breath, or grounding through my feet?

You can’t budget your way out of a dysregulated nervous system. You’ve got to show your nervous system that you are in fact safe by engaging in regulation strategies that speak directly to your body and return your nervous system to safety or homeostasis – then, clarity will follow. 

• Values-Based Spending - Ask yourself:

• What do I actually value? What matters most to me at my core?

• Does my spending reflect those values?

For example, if you value connection, but spend little on social or community-based experiences, that might be an area to re-align. 

• Rewriting Money Beliefs - Once you’ve identified a limiting money belief, try writing its opposite. 

• Old Belief: “There’s never enough.”

• New Belief: “There is enough to go around; my needs will be met.”

If you find yourself having a hard time believing and feeling your new belief, try using a process-belief. You’ll know you don’t believe your new belief when your body resists it, argues with it, rolls its eyes at it, etc. A process-belief is a new belief “in process” i.e. it’s the interim belief that we can feel as true in our bodies as we make our way to our new belief. 

• Process Belief: “There were times in my life when there wasn’t enough and I am learning to trust that my needs will be met.”

• Create a Money Date Ritual - Set aside 15-30 minutes once a week to spend time with and tend to your money – review spending, check in with intentions, pay bills. Light a candle, play music…make it as gentle, nurturing and enjoyable as possible. 

Remember, the goal is to shift your relationship with money; it’s consistency over perfection.

Closing Thoughts

Tax season might always carry some stress – but it can also be a yearly invitation to tend to your financial well-being with compassion and care. 

You don’t have to be perfect with money to build a healthier relationship with it. You just have to be willing to get curious, stay connected to your body, and take one step at a time. 

Your relationship with money is just that – a relationship. And like any relationship, it can grow, heal, and become a source of safety and support over time. 

Many people struggle to rewrite their limiting beliefs on their own, because this “rewriting process” is not purely intellectual. Our bodies and nervous systems must be involved in order for us to untangle from the old beliefs and neural networks that support them, and then build new beliefs and neural networks. It can be incredibly useful to work with a holistic, somatically trained therapist when it comes to rewriting limiting beliefs and actually feeling different about money. If you’re ready to receive compassion, connection, support and guidance in rewriting your money beliefs, we got you – just click the “contact” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website, submit your contact form and we will be in touch ASAP!

April Reflections: Money Stress, Beliefs & A Gentle Invitation

Unpacking Money Stress: A Holistic Look at Tax Season

Hi Brave Community!

As spring settles in and new life emerges all around us, many of us find ourselves feeling tense. This time of year, aka “tax season”, often brings a spike in stress – tight chests, scattered thoughts, perhaps shame and panic. 

And, while it’s easy to blame numbers on paper or looming deadlines, the roots of this stress actually reaches far deeper. 

What if the real tension isn’t about money itself, but about the stories we’ve been told – and the ones we keep telling ourselves? 

Where Money Stress Comes From

Money is more than just numbers and math. It’s emotions. It’s history. It’s the messages our minds and nervous systems absorbed from our families and our culture. 

Maybe you grew up hearing, “We can’t afford that.” Maybe you watched your caregivers fight about money, work themselves to exhaustion trying to survive, or protect suspiciously and fiercely around their wealth. 

Over time, these early experiences become core beliefs:

• “Money is scarce.”

• “People are only after your money.”

• “I have to work hard to deserve ease.”

• “Money equals success.”

• “I’m bad with money.”

• “Wanting money makes you greedy.”

These beliefs don’t just live in the mind – they show up in our bodies, our behaviors, our choices – especially in moments like tax season.

Money stress isn’t just about taxes – taxes are the trigger that bring your money beliefs and subsequent stress responses to the surface. 

We also want to take a moment to acknowledge the very real distress and pain that can accompany having to let go of hard earned money when you disagree with how your tax dollars are being used. 

A Gentle Invitation

There’s nothing wrong with you for feeling overwhelmed right now and you are certainly not alone. This is a potent opportunity to pause, reflect, and meet your money stress with compassion and curiosity. 

Here are a few journal questions to help you gently explore:

1. What physical sensations arise when I think about money right now?

2. What was I taught about money growing up (directly or indirectly)?

3. What beliefs do I carry about earning, saving, or spending money?

4. What do I wish I believed about money?

5. If I could write a new money story, what would I want it to feel like in my body?

You don’t have to figure it all out right away. Simply bringing awareness to these patterns is a powerful first step. And remember, your body and beliefs are not fixed – they’re adaptable, responsive, and wise <3

As always, we are here to support your process. Whether you’re navigating money stress, emotional triggers, or just wanting to feel more grounded this season – you are not alone and we got you! Just email us at info@bravecounseling.com to schedule a free consultation with one of our compassionate and non-judgemental therapists today! 

Therapist Highlight: Marlys Hersey

Meet the genuine, spicy, and good-humored Marlys Hersey!

Marlys (she/they) is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Addiction Counselor in the state of Colorado.

Throughout their career in counseling Marlys has worked in a variety of settings including community mental health, intensive rehabilitation treatment, integrated medicine, and private practice.

Marlys strives to allow the people she works with the space to gain essential insight & awareness, and learn the skills needed to create new and different results in their lives. Marlys fosters partnerships with their clients to help you feel better, function better, connect more easily with others, enjoy your life more, and move towards your goals with clarity, humor, and grace.

Marlys offers individual and couples therapy and is energized by working with folks who are motivated, open to collaborating, and 15 years or older.

Marlys uses and integrates a variety of therapy modalities including...

◾️ EMDR (Eye Movement and Desensitization Therapy)

◾️ IFS (Internal Family Systems)

◾️ SFBT (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy)

◾️ EFT (Emotion Focused Therapy)

◾️ Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Relapse Prevention

◾️ DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)

◾️ ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

◾️ LGBTQIA2S+ Affirming Therapy

Marlys specializes in helping people to...

◾️ Understand entrenched patterns and embrace various parts of themselves to reach a greater sense of wholeness

◾️ First understand their own behavior, and then learn and practice life-changing skills in emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, and distress tolerance

◾️ Explore their preferred futures, and work towards the creating the lives they truly want

◾️ Improve their relationships – including with themselves

◾️ Heal from trauma

◾️ Function better day-to-day and reconnect with a sense of joy and purpose

Marlys as a person↓

►Personality: Strong, Witty, Curious

► Activities: Hiking, biking, hula hooping, walking, traveling, reading, writing, improv, staring at the sky (day or night), hanging out and talking with friends, snorkeling, and kayaking.

►Fun Facts: Marlys currently lives in San Luis Valley (south central CO) and has lived & traveled all over the U.S. and to several other countries -- they're hoping to finally make it to Europe this year. She's had over 100 jobs, is an animal lover, (with a special thing for cats), and has been involved in cat rescue and TNR efforts for years.

►Favorite Quote: "Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced." - Soren Kierkegaard

Emerging from Winter: Clearing Emotional Clutter, Restoring Energy, and Embracing Spring’s Renewal

The Awakening Energy of Spring

As winter melts into spring (or…winter/spring/winter/spring as we do it here in Colorado!), many of us feel an inner stirring – a call to emerge from the slower, quieter months and reawaken to life. This transition can feel both energizing and overwhelming. Just as nature shakes off winter’s chill, we too must tend to our inner landscape to clear out emotional clutter, restore energy, and embrace spring’s renewal with balance. 

Clearing Emotional and Mental Clutter

Emotional clutter refers to the mental, emotional, and energetic buildup that accumulates over time – often without us realizing it. Just like a house gathers dust when left untouched, our inner world can become cluttered with unprocessed emotions, lingering wishes, unfinished stress responses, or mental loops that weigh us down. 

Winter’s slow pace and increased indoor time often brings introspection – which can be valuable – but, sometimes this inward focus amplifies old fears, regrets, or anxieties. Emotional clutter can also stem from:

• Unfinished Emotional Processing – Emotions that were pushed aside during the busier seasons likely surfaced when life slowed down during the winter months. But, emotions surfacing and emotions moving and processing are two different things. 

• Isolation and Stagnation – The longer nights and reduced social connection during winter can increase feelings of heaviness and mental fog. 

• Unexpressed Grief or Longing – Winter’s quiet can stir memories of what’s unresolved, and if we aren’t actively doing something with what’s unresolved then we can end up cycling around in the pain and the yuck throughout the winter.

• Internalized Conditioning and Beliefs – Messages from family, culture, or society – such as “I must always be productive”, or, “What I need isn’t important” – can create pressure and emotional heaviness. When we slow down during the winter and become introspective, these beliefs can surface.

• Unclear Boundaries – When we take on the feelings, expectations, or energy of others without clear energetic or emotional boundaries, emotional clutter builds. Winter has a way of naturally implementing more boundaries and down time (due to the weather), so it’s not uncommon to really begin to feel the effects of unclear boundaries have had on you over time. 

• Unfinished Business and Unresolved Conflicts – Unspoken words, lingering resentment, or unresolved relational dynamics can also surface during the winter when things are slower. Things that are unfinished and unresolved take up mental and emotional space inside, even when we try to suppress, forget or “let it go”. 

Spring’s energy invites movement, release, and renewal. Here are a few ways we can clear out stagnant emotions or built-up mental and emotional clutter:

• Journal for Clarity – Writing out thoughts and feelings can reveal what’s been lingering beneath the surface. This is a great first step in identifying what has built-up or what’s lingering and stagnant. 

• Name What You’re Releasing – Take your journaling a step further and clearly identify what is no longer serving you – maybe it’s self-doubt, resentment, or outdated beliefs – allow yourself to get clear on what you want to release this spring. 

• Bottom-Up Emotional Processing Work – Once you’ve clearly identified what you want to release, it’s time to take action by feeling your emotions all the way through so they can release from your mind, body, and soul. It’s important to get past the intellectual level of just thinking about your emotions and what you want to release, to actually feeling it all and feeling the release of it in your body. 

• Move Your Body – Physical movement (like stretching, yoga, dancing, somatic therapy, etc.) helps unlock stored tension and supports emotional flow. 

• Ritual - Doing something experiential like a fire bowl ritual creates another pathway and more support in helping your inner system release what is no longer serving you. Click here for simple fire ritual instructions.

• Create Space for Closure – If you’ve been avoiding a difficult conversation, project, or decision, now may be the time to address it and clear that mental weight. It could also be the case that some sort of protective response within you has been blocking you from creating closure – if that’s the case, try focusing on that protective response with bottom-up emotional processing work. 

Clearing emotional and mental clutter is less about “letting it go” and forcing your inner experiences to stop. It’s more about inviting spaciousness, making room for clarity, creativity, and a deeper sense of presence. By consciously releasing emotional clutter, you can create space for spring’s revitalizing energy to move freely within you. 

Navigating the Emotional Impact of Seasonal Shifts

As humans, we are deeply connected to nature, yet modern life rarely honors this. The shift from winter to spring is a powerful biological and energetic change – yet many of us are expected to maintain the same routine year-round. 

Navigating the seasonal shift from winter to spring invites both intention and compassion. While spring’s increasing light and warmth can feel energizing, this transition can also be jarring – especially since winter’s slower pace promoted rest and introspection. The body may need time to recalibrate, and emotions that were quieter in winter may surface as energy rises. This “thawing out” can bring feelings of agitation, overwhelm, or even grief, as unresolved emotions emerge alongside the season’s momentum. Recognizing this as part of a natural cycle can ease self-judgement and help you respond with greater care. 

If you’re curious to know more ways this seasonal shift can affect us humans, click here to check out a recent blog of ours on this topic. 

To support yourself during this shift, consider practices that bridge the stillness of winter with the movement of spring. Grounding techniques – such as breathwork, gentle stretching,mindful walking, or this grounding practice that’s part of our Quick Guides to Healing – can anchor you as your energy begins to expand. Balancing rest with activity is key; you may feel moments of excitement and productivity followed by fatigue, which is normal as your system adjusts. Tending to your nervous system through somatic practices, nourishing foods, and moments of quiet reflection can create steadiness amid change. Above all, honoring your unique rhythm – rather than forcing yourself to match the pace of American culture – allows you to emerge from winter with intention, resilience, and renewed vitality. 

**If you found our Quick Guide to Healing on grounding useful, click here to sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop and receive more FREE quick healing tips & guides!

Restoring Energy After Winter Burnout

Winter’s slower pace invites rest, but for many people, it can also result in a kind of “energy stagnation”. While spring’s longer days and warming temperatures naturally boost energy, this renewed vitality can feel uncomfortable if your body or mind is still in winter’s slower rhythm. 

As Newton’s first law suggests, “an object at rest stays at rest”, after months of being slower and more inward, your system may resist the sudden increase in momentum and you end up feeling “wired-but-tired”. This common spring experience arises when your energy feels scattered – as if your mind is racing while your body struggles to keep up. It’s often a sign that your nervous system is still adjusting. 

How to Restore Energy with Balance:

• Start with Gentle Movement – Instead of jumping into intense exercise or packed schedules, begin with stretching, walking, or light cardio to gradually wake up your system. You can add more over time.

• Embrace Morning Sunlight – Exposing your eyes to natural light in the morning helps regulate your circadian rhythm and increases energy naturally. Try going for morning walks before starting your work day. 

• Prioritize Grounding Practices – Breathwork, mindfulness, or time in nature can stabilize the “buzziness” that often accompanies spring’s arrival. 

• Replenish Depleted Nutrients – Focus on fresh, vibrant foods rich in B vitamins, magnesium, and antioxidants to nourish your body as it shifts gears. 

• Balance Rest and Activity - Do your best to schedule in downtime or nervous system resets (like a 5 minute “legs up the wall” practice) throughout your days during the months of March and April.  

Final Thoughts: Embracing a Balanced Spring Awakening

Spring’s renewal invites us to clear what’s stagnant, embrace fresh energy, and move forward with intention. By releasing emotional clutter, honoring your connection to seasonal rhythms, and replenishing your energy mindfully, you can step into spring feeling grounded yet energized (aka balanced!). 

Embrace this season’s awakening not as a race to catch up but as a gentle invitation to bloom – steadily, intentionally, and in alignment with your unique pace. 

What does your mind, body, and spirit need most this spring?

Not sure? That’s okay, we got you! If you’re ready to ready navigate seasonal shifts with intention, in a way that feels balanced, consider working with us. We are a group of holistic therapists with training in somatic and creative methods which can effectively support you in moving through times of transition with more control and less overwhelm. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website, submit your contact form and we will be in touch ASAP!

Welcome Spring with Fresh Intentions

Hello Brave Community!

Can you believe it’s daylight saving time again?! Yeppers, it’s true. This Sunday (3/9) we “spring ahead” by 1 hour and the number of daylight hours we get to experience increases. And just like that, we are exiting out of winter and sliding into spring.

As the seasons shift, so do we. The transition from winter to spring is typically very welcomed by many, but it can bring both uplifting and challenging experiences. Check out the bullet points below for a list of some ways the seasonal shift from winter to spring affects us humans.

Psychological Effects

• Increased Energy, Mental Clarity & Motivation - As daylight increases, so does serotonin, often leading to improved mood and motivation. The rising temperatures and longer daylight hours can lift brain fog and inspire new projects.

• Shift in Mindset - Moving from the introspective energy of winter to the outward-facing energy of spring can bring a desire for growth, exploration, and social engagement.

• Restlessness, Anxiety & Impatience - After months of slower energy, the sudden shift can bring feelings of urgency and frustration. The transition can be unsettling, particularly for those sensitive to change, as the stillness of winter gives way to movement. 

• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Relief - More sunlight often boosts serotonin, helping to alleviate symptoms of winter depression.

• Spring Cleaning Impulse - The psychological need to declutter both physical spaces and mental/emotional baggage is heightened. 

Physical Effects

• Changes in Sleep Patterns - More daylight can disrupt sleep schedules; adjusting your evening routine can help.

• Increased Energy Levels - For some people, exposure to more sunlight can help regulate circadian rhythms, improving sleep and overall vitality. 

• Seasonal Allergies & Detoxification - The body naturally shits into detox mode, which can manifest as increased elimination (sweating, digestion, even mild skin breakouts). Spring allergies may also arise due to pollen and environmental changes.

• Fluctuating Appetite & Cravings - As your metabolism adjusts, warmer weather often shifts food preferences from heavy, warming foods to fresh, lighter meals like greens and fruits; listen to what your body needs.

Emotional Effects

• Mood Swings/Emotional Ups & Downs - Spring can evoke a mix of renewal and overwhelm, especially if there’s pressure to “wake up” and be productive.

• Hope & Excitement - The promise of new beginnings can bring feelings of optimism and inspiration.

• Heightened Sensitivity - Just as nature awakens, emotions can feel raw and intensified, especially old wounds or unresolved grief from winter's introspection.

• Increased Social Desire - Many experience a pull toward community, relationships, and outdoor activities.

Spiritual Effects

• Awakening & Rebirth - Many cultures and spiritual traditions see spring as a time of renewal, symbolizing growth, and fresh starts.

• Deeper Connection to Nature - The return of greenery, flowers, and wildlife can rekindle awe, gratitude, and mindfulness. 

• Inspiration & Creativity - Spring's beauty often sparks artistic expression, new ideas, and a desire to create. 

• Purging & Letting Go - Just as nature sheds the old to make way for the new, there's a natural urge to release outdated beliefs, habits, or emotional weight. 

• Increased Desire for Movement - This time of year people often feel more drawn toward getting outside, moving their bodies, yoga, walking, gardening, etc. 

What shifts have you already been noticing within yourself?

What ones have yet to arrive? 

Which shifts do you desire for yourself? 

If you are someone who...

• doesn't like setting New Year's resolutions

• goals just don't make sense to set in January during the middle of winter

• is noticing increased energy and motivation now that spring is here

...check out the next session for a short but powerful intention setting journal ritual!

A Simple Spring Intention-Setting Practice

While January is often seen as the time for resolutions, spring – nature’s season of renewal – may actually be a more natural and sustainable time to set new intentions for the year ahead. With longer days, increased sunlight, improved energy, and a sense of possibility, this is a great time to reflect on what you truly want to cultivate in your life and 

Rather than forcing strict goals, try this gentler approach. Start by journaling:

• Reflect - What feels most alive in you right now? What do you feel drawn to?

• Refine - What’s one small shift that could support growth this season?

• Root - What daily practice or ritual can ground this intention in your life?

Feel free to set 1 intention using these reflect, refine and root journal prompts, or, set several different intentions pertaining to different areas of your life. 

Looking for an embodiment practice to help you feel grounded amidst the mania of spring? We got you!

We are rolling out our new bimonthly newsletters where we will cover a holistic mental health topic in the first one and offer a link to one of our Insight Timer guided meditations (embodiment practices) in the second.

So, stay tuned! Our second newsletter with a spring-themed embodiment practice will be coming to you at the end of March!

Therapist Highlight: Sophia Tornabene

Meet  the marvelous Sophia Tornabene.

Sophia is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker originally from Brooklyn, New York who is currently based in Colorado.

Sophia believes that our stories do not define us, but they are a part of us. In many ways she has come to realize that when people feel seen, heard, and valued they are able to fully embrace themselves and show up authentically in all aspects of their lives.

Her therapeutic philosophy is rooted in understanding how your intersecting identities impact the way you think and how you navigate through life and its challenges.

Sophia believes having a warm, supportive, and accepting therapeutic space allows for deeper self-connection, curiosity, and exploration and therefore is essential to healing and growth. Sophia sees you as the expert on your experiences, and it is her role is to meet you where you are and tailor her approach to meet your needs.

Sophia uses a variety of therapy modalities including...

• EMDR

• Parts Work

• Attachment theory
  

Sophia specializes in working with...

• Folks navigating relationships (dating, friendships, familial)

• Young adults & college students

•  People wanting to develop their confidence

• People wanting to overcome people pleasing

• Life Transitions

• Attachment wounds

• Emotional connection and understanding

• Anxiety
  

Sophia as a person↓

• Personality: Heartfelt, wise, down-to-earth & passionate 

• Activities: Pottery, skiing, hiking, and exploring new cities & restaurants

• Travels: Iceland, France, Italy, Nicaragua, & Spain. Visiting Thailand and Tokyo are currently at the top of her bucket list!

• Pets: Two adorable kitties named Zucchini and Zeppole

• Quotes: “We seek connection, predictability, and dependability to root us firmly in place. But we also have a need for change, for the unexpected, for transcendence.” - Esther Perel 

Self-Love Part 3: Embodying Self-Love in Daily Life

Self-love is often spoken about as an abstract concept – something we should aspire to, but unfortunately, it can feel out of reach in the realities of everyday life in our modern world. We might read about it, hear affirmations about it, and even intellectually understand its importance, yet struggle to truly feel it. The challenge isn’t just knowing that self-love matters – it’s embodying it. 

As holistic therapists, we see self-love not as a destination but as a practice, something we intentionally cultivate in big and small ways each day. It’s about shifting from an idea to a lived experience that influences how we care for ourselves, relate to others, and navigate challenges. 

Moving From Concept to Embodied Self-Love

Self-love isn’t just about bubble baths and positive affirmations (although they have their place!). It’s about how we treat ourselves in every moment – how we listen to our needs, how we speak to ourselves internally, and how we honor our well-being. 

To move from concept to embodiment, start by asking:

• If I truly loved myself, how would I show up differently today?

• What would change about the way I make decisions, set boundaries, or rest?

• How can I bring self-love into my body, not just my mind?

Bringing self-love into the body can look like grounding techniques, mindful movement, or even placing a hand on your heart and taking a deep breath when you feel overwhelmed. Small, repeated actions create new patterns of self-relationship. 

Integrating Self-Love Into Relationships, Work & Daily Habits

Self-Love doesn’t exist just because we want it to. We have to actively engage in practices of self-love to begin feeling it and it doesn’t exist in isolation – it extends into every aspect of life. 

Here are practical ways to embody self-love in key areas:

Relationships

• Practice communicating your needs without guilt. Self-love includes believing your feelings and boundaries matter. 

• Notice when you seek external validation and pause. Can you validate yourself first?

• Surround yourself with people who uplift and respect you. Letting go of toxic dynamics is an act of self-love. 

Work & Purpose

• Give yourself permission to take breaks and honor your limits instead of pushing through exhaustion.

• Challenge your inner critic by offering compassionate self-talk and encouragement instead of harsh self-talk

• If possible, align your work with what nourishes you rather than just what’s expected of you

Daily Habits

• Nourish your body with food, movement, and rest that feels good – not just what you “should” do

• Create small moments of joy – listen to music you love, step outside for fresh air, or engage in a creative practice

• Set gentle boundaries with social media or news consumption to protect your energy

If you notice that…

• Guilt continues to come up 

• It’s difficult for you to believe that your feelings and needs matter

• No matter much you validate yourself, you continue to seek external validation

• You’re too afraid let go of one-sided or toxic relationships

• Your inner critic just won’t quit no matter what you try

…these are indicators of having an inner block (unresolved wounding and stress responses) and emotional processing work is needed. 

Handling Setbacks With Self-Compassion

Unfortunately, self-love isn’t always linear. There will be days when doubt, old patterns, or self-criticism creep in. The key is not to use these moments as evidence that you’re failing, but as opportunities to practice self-compassion. 

When setbacks happen:

• Acknowledge your feelings without judgment

• Speak to yourself as you would a dear friend. Would you shame them for struggling, or offer kindness?

• Remember, self-love is a practice, not perfection and not a destination. Each moment is a chance to begin again. Reset as many times as you need to, no one is counting. 

Journal Prompts: Creating Your Personal Self-Love Commitment

Journaling can help anchor self-love in a tangible way. Here are some prompts to explore:

1. What does self-love mean to me, beyond what I’ve been told it “should” be?

2. How do I currently show love to myself? Where do I hold back?

3. What’s one loving thing I can commit to doing for myself daily?

4. What is something I can say to myself (quote, mantra, affirmation) when I face challenges?

5. How can I bring self-love into my body, not just my thoughts?

Self-love is not a finish line – it’s a way of being in relationship with yourself, every single day. The more you practice it in small, meaningful ways, the more it becomes your natural state. 

What’s one self-loving action you can take today? (hint hint, you might have already done it by taking the time to read this blog!)

If you find yourself struggling to integrate these daily self-love practices, we are here for you! We are holistic therapists in Colorado with training in somatic and creative methods which can effectively support you unraveling the patterns that are holding you back from truly embodying self-love. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website, submit your contact form and we will be in touch ASAP! 

Self-Love Part 2: The Somatic Connection – Healing Through the Body

As holistic therapists, we’ve seen firsthand how the body holds onto our unprocessed emotions, unresolved stress, deep-seated patterns of protection or defense, and layers of wounding. Because of our culture, we often get taught to think of healing as something that happens in the mind – through insight, positive thinking, or talking things out. But true healing and transformation must also happen in the body and soul. Our nervous system, muscles, breath and posture all play a role in shaping how we feel about ourselves. This is the somatic connection: the profound way in which healing occurs through the body. 

You can tell you have unresolved pain and wounding being stored in your body when you know you need to relate to yourself with compassion and love, but for some reason you just can’t get yourself to do it…instead your body wins out and you end up continuing the same old patterns of self-criticism, distraction, and shame. 

How Emotions Are Stored in the Body

When we experience emotions, they don’t just disappear if we don’t fully process them. Instead, they get stored in our nervous system, muscles, and fascia. When we suppress anger, grief, or fear, our body adapts by tightening muscles, holding tension, or altering our breathing patterns. Over time, these stored emotions can contribute to chronic pain, fatigue, digestive issues, and a persistent feeling of being disconnected from ourselves. 

One of the most overlooked consequences of unprocessed emotions is their impact on self-worth and self-love. When we carry unresolved pain and stress responses, our nervous system remains on high alert, interpreting the world (and ourselves) through a lens of survival. When we are in survival mode that’s the focus; there isn’t any attention or energy for anything else other than getting through. In this state, self-criticism becomes second nature, we struggle to feel worthy, loveable, or at peace in our own skin and life feels like a continuous struggle. 

 

The Role of Body Awareness in Healing Shame and Self-Criticism 

Shame, like other emotions, is a body-based emotion. It often manifests as a collapsing of the chest and solar plexus, a tightening of the throat, a shrinking inward, and an urge to isolate or hide. Shame is the feeling that “this part of me is not connectable” that “no one wants to know or be with this part of me.” 

When we live in a chronic state of self-criticism, our nervous system reinforces the belief that we are not enough or there’s something wrong with us as we are. Healing this pattern requires more than just changing our thoughts – it requires reconnecting with the body in an energetically compassionate way. 

Developing body awareness is a crucial step in healing shame. When we gently tune into our sensations, we begin to notice where we hold tension and self-protection. Instead of judging our body’s reactions, we can learn to approach them with curiosity and care. By doing this we experientially show our nervous systems and the shameful parts of ourselves that they are deserving of connection, that no emotion, thought, or behavior will cause disconnection or abandonment. This shift allows us to replace self-criticism with self-compassion – an essential foundation for self-love. 

Building New Neural Pathways with Somatic Practices

Somatic practices help us rewire our nervous system and build new patterns of self-connection. Through movement, breathwork, and mindful body awareness, we can build neural networks that support self-compassion instead of self-judgment. 

When we repeatedly engage in practices that signal safety and self-acceptance to the nervous system, our brain forms new pathways. This is neuroplasticity in action – the ability of our brain to change based on our experiences. Over time, the more we embody self-compassion aka live in a kind, accountable, and loving way the more natural it becomes. 

A Somatic Practice for Accessing Self-Compassion: The Self-Love Body Scan

This simple yet powerful body scan helps access self-compassion by guiding you to connect with your body in a gentle, loving way. 

1. Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and begin:

2. Ground Yourself – Feel the support of the surface beneath you. Let your body be held. 

3. Breathe with Intention – Take slow, deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. With each breath, imagine softening into yourself. 

4. Scan Your Body with Curiosity – Bring your attention to your feet. Notice any sensations – warmth, tingling, tension. Without judgment, simply observe. Continue scanning up through your legs, torso, arms, and head.

5. Offer Kindness to Each Area – As you move through each part of your body, silently say: “I see you. I honor you. I’m here with you.” If you feel resistance or discomfort, place a gentle hand on that area and breathe into it.

6. End with Gratitude – Place both hands over your heart. Take three slow breaths and whisper (out loud or internally) words of appreciation for who you are (including messy parts!).

Because this practice is experiential (not just about thinking) it helps rewire the nervous system to associate the body with safety, rather than shame or self-judgment. Over time, it nurtures self-compassion and deepens your connection to yourself. 

Healing Through the Body

The mind-body-soul connection reminds us that healing is not just about changing our thoughts – it’s about embodying self-love. If you could think your way through to a more loving relationship with yourself, you would have done it already. When we release stored emotions, bring awareness to our body, and engage in compassionate practices, we transform our relationship with ourselves. We learn that we are not broken – we are carrying unprocessed experiences that are ready to be met with love. True healing happens when we listen to the body, honor its wisdom, and allow ourselves to feel safe, seen, and held within our own being. This is the path to deep, lasting self-love. 

If you’re ready to release the inner blocks that are getting in the way of feeling your self-love,  consider working with us! We are holistic therapists in Colorado with training in somatic and creative methods which can effectively support you unraveling the patterns that are holding you back from truly loving yourself. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website, submit your contact form and we will be in touch ASAP! 

Self-Love Part 1: Understanding Self-Love – More Than Just a Buzzword

Self-love is often marketed as bubble baths, spa days, and positive affirmations. While these can be wonderful acts of self-care, true self-love runs much deeper. It’s not just something we think about or do – it’s something we feel, embody, and integrate into every part of our being. 

As holistic therapists, we see self-love as an ongoing relationship you have with yourself – one that requires patience, awareness, and healing. It’s about how we speak to ourselves in difficult moments, how we honor our needs and limits, and whether we can sit with our pain without judgment. 

But how do we move beyond the idea of self-love and into the felt experience of it? 

The Difference Between Thinking vs. Feeling Self-Love

Many people think they love themselves because they intellectually understand the concept and agree that it’s a “good thing to do”. They might say, “Of course I love myself – I take care of my health, I do things that make me happy.” But self-love isn’t just about what we do; it’s about what we feel energetically and in our bodies. 

True self-love feels like:

• A sense of safety, steadiness and belonging from within yourself

• Gentle warmth in your chest when you acknowledge your worth

• A softening in your body when you meet yourself with compassion

• The ability to experience joy and pleasure without guilt

• A willingness to embrace your imperfections without needing to “fix” them

If these feelings seem distant or fleeting, it may be due to unconscious barriers formed through societal conditioning and past experiences that are blocking your ability to fully receive self-love (we all have these blocks!)

How Conditioning & Past Experiences Block Self Love

From an early age, we absorb messages about our worth or value from family, culture, media, and relationships. Many of us internalize beliefs like:

• “I’m only lovable if I achieve or perform well.”

• “Taking care of myself is selfish.”

• “I have to be perfect to deserve love.”

• “My emotions are too much for other people.”

These subconscious narratives shape how we relate to ourselves. If we’ve experienced ongoing criticism, neglect, or rejection, we may develop an inner voice that mirrors those experiences, making self-love feel unnatural, uncomfortable, or sometimes near impossible.

Healing these barriers requires a holistic approach – one that integrates mind, body, and soul. 

A Holistic Approach to Self-Love: Mind, Body & Soul

To access authentic self-love, we must engage in healing and growth work on all four levels of ourselves:

• Mind - Becoming aware of negative self-talk and shifting it with curiosity rather than force. Instead of “I’m not good enough” try asking, “Where did this belief come from? And, how does having this belief help or protect me?” 

• Body - Noticing how self-love (or lack of it) feels physically. Do you tense up when you receive compliments? Do you numb emotions through distractions? Practices like breathwork, movement, and touch (self-massage, placing a hand on your heart, etc) can help rewire how you experience self-love in your body. 

• Emotion - What are your tendencies when emotion arises? Do you get urges to turn away from it? Does a part of you tell you that emotions are weak and pointless? Do you accept your emotions as part of being human and wait for the crucial messages about your needs to come through? Getting into a practice of meeting emotions with compassion and curiosity can help you gain more access to your core self that exists in a state of calm and compassion i.e. love. 

• Soul- Connecting with something greater than yourself, whether through nature, meditation, creativity, or spiritual practices, can remind you that you are inherently worthy – simply because you exist. You don’t have to do anything or become something else in order to have value, you already do because you are a living, breathing soul.

Reflection Exercise: Identifying Your Barriers to Self-Love

Take a few moments to reflect on the following questions. Journaling your responses can help uncover subconscious blocks and patterns. 

1. What messages did I receive about love and worthiness growing up? What did my family care about most or was valued in my family?

2. How do I speak to myself when I’m struggling or make a mistake?

3. Do I feel comfortable receiving love, praise, or care from others? Why or why not?

4. What emotions arise when I try to practice self-love? Do I feel resistance, guilt or discomfort?

5. If self-love felt natural and easy for me, how would my life be different?

As you explore your responses, notice what emotions or sensations arise in your body. If discomfort comes up, notice where in your body you feel the discomfort and see if you can offer the discomfort kindness and breath rather than pushing it away. Awareness is the first step to change. 

Final Thoughts

Self-love is not a destination but a practice – a way of being with yourself that evolves over time. Some days, it feels effortless; other days, it requires deep inner work. The key is to keep showing up for yourself, with as much gentleness and patience as you would for someone you deeply love. 

Remember, you are already worthy. The healing and growth journey is simply about remembering that truth and removing the inner blocks to believing it. 

If you’re ready to dive deeper into your journey of self-love, consider working with us! We are holistic therapists in Colorado with training in somatic and creative methods which can effectively support you unraveling the patterns that are holding you back from truly loving yourself. You, just as much as anyone else, deserve love and the relationship you have with yourself is the longest relationship you will ever have so it’s worth investing in. Just click the “contact” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website, submit your contact form and we will be in touch ASAP!