Wounds 2 Wings Psychotherapy Services

Wounds 2 Wings Psychotherapy Services Wounds 2 Wings Trauma Yoga and Psychotherapy Services

Nicole Brown Faulknor, founder of Wounds 2 Wings;
Registered Psychotherapist CRPO ( #007596), CAPT;
Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F);
CEO of non-profit organization Wounds 2 Wings Trauma and Embodiment Association of Ontario (TEAO).

Self-Permission Nuggets: “My absolute favorite thing to do is speak life into people. We all thrive when we feel seen.” ...
07/24/2025

Self-Permission Nuggets: “My absolute favorite thing to do is speak life into people. We all thrive when we feel seen.” — 💙🙏🏾!

⬇️

The work we do on ourselves becomes our gift to everyone else.

What are Self Permission Nuggets? ⬇️
these little “permission” messages are a first step, encouraging those to dare to believe that your voice, body, and choices still matter.

✔️ Self-Permission Nuggets posts are small, encouraging messages designed to help people in a state of learned helplessness — that is, people who feel stuck, powerless, or unable to act on their own behalf because past experiences have conditioned them to believe they have no control.

These posts offer reminders and gentle affirmations that:

✅ It is safe to make choices for yourself.
✅ You have the right to say yes or no.
✅ Your body and your life belong to you.
✅ Small decisions are valid steps toward reclaiming your agency.

For folks who have lived in environments where choices were taken away — through abuse, oppression, or chronic disempowerment — Self-Permission Nuggets serve as bite-sized permission slips to rebuild trust in their own inner wisdom.

They’re meant to break through the freeze or stuckness of learned helplessness by:

🫶🏾 planting seeds of possibility
🫶🏾 validating even the smallest acts of self-care or self-advocacy
🫶🏾 normalizing the right to choose, act, and decide for oneself



———

“Why do I still feel so alone, even with people around me?” Because when you carry unspoken stories — the parts of you t...
07/22/2025

“Why do I still feel so alone, even with people around me?”

Because when you carry unspoken stories — the parts of you that hold your pain, your truth, your deepest needs — you can feel invisible, even in a crowded room.

This is a common experience for those living with Complex PTSD. It’s not just about being physically alone; it’s about feeling emotionally unseen, unheard, or unsafe to be fully yourself.

Honouring your truth, even in small ways — writing it, speaking it aloud, sharing with someone you trust — begins to loosen the ache of aloneness.

It’s not about forcing connection. It’s about reclaiming your right to be known — by yourself first.

What part of your story have you been holding back — and what might shift if you gave it a voice?


Love this Awareness ⬇️We often don’t know the difference between rage and grief because both come from the same wound ...
07/21/2025

Love this Awareness ⬇️

We often don’t know the difference between rage and grief because both come from the same wound — the experience of loss, betrayal, or deep hurt.—

Grief is the heart’s raw response to pain, while rage is often the body’s shield against feeling that pain fully. They’re both valid reactions, but rage tends to be louder and more acceptable in some spaces, especially when grief feels too vulnerable or unsafe to express.

We’ve also been taught — especially in trauma, oppressive systems, or family dynamics — that expressing grief openly is “weak,” while anger is “strong.” So we learn to show rage, or suppress both altogether, instead of recognizing grief as the root.

That’s why we often mislabel ourselves or others as “too sensitive” or “angry,” when really, the depth of our reaction is because something tender, sacred, or wounded is being touched underneath.

—-

Disclaimer: This space is not a substitute for therapy. The content shared here is offered for reflection, inspiration, and community learning — not as personal advice, intervention, or treatment. Every individual’s experience with trauma and healing is unique, and what resonates for one person may not for another. If you are seeking support for your mental health or trauma recovery, we encourage you to reach out to a qualified professional.

____
📸 .therapist

Sunday Self-Reflection: Real growth isn’t always loud or impressive — sometimes it’s quiet, frustrating, or unseen. But...
07/20/2025

Sunday Self-Reflection: Real growth isn’t always loud or impressive — sometimes it’s quiet, frustrating, or unseen. But every choice, every effort, every time you don’t give up… it counts.

Let these images remind you: even in uncertainty, you’re still becoming.

Where in your life are you growing quietly — even if it doesn’t feel like progress yet?



1)

2) .Alchemist

3)

4)

5)

6)

Self-Permission Nuggets: ⬇️ these little “permission” messages are a first step, encouraging those to dare to believe ...
07/18/2025

Self-Permission Nuggets: ⬇️
these little “permission” messages are a first step, encouraging those to dare to believe that your voice, body, and choices still matter.

✔️ Self-Permission Nuggets posts are small, encouraging messages designed to help people in a state of learned helplessness — that is, people who feel stuck, powerless, or unable to act on their own behalf because past experiences have conditioned them to believe they have no control.

These posts offer reminders and gentle affirmations that:

✅ It is safe to make choices for yourself.
✅ You have the right to say yes or no.
✅ Your body and your life belong to you.
✅ Small decisions are valid steps toward reclaiming your agency.

For folks who have lived in environments where choices were taken away — through abuse, oppression, or chronic disempowerment — Self-Permission Nuggets serve as bite-sized permission slips to rebuild trust in their own inner wisdom.

They’re meant to break through the freeze or stuckness of learned helplessness by:

🫶🏾 planting seeds of possibility
🫶🏾 validating even the smallest acts of self-care or self-advocacy
🫶🏾 normalizing the right to choose, act, and decide for oneself



———

Self-Permission Nuggets: Becoming aware may not be about diving deep right away — it’s about noticing, pausing, and sta...
07/14/2025

Self-Permission Nuggets: Becoming aware may not be about diving deep right away — it’s about noticing, pausing, and staying curious.

Self-awareness isn’t a weapon to beat yourself up with. It’s a light — and it’s meant to guide, not burn.

So when you start noticing the patterns, the reactions, the ways you may have passed on what you never asked for…

Remember this: you couldn’t have done better until you knew better.

Blaming ourselves for what we did when we didn’t yet have awareness isn’t healing — it’s harm in disguise.

But growth only sticks when it’s rooted in grace. So go gently with yourself. You’re not just healing your story — you’re rewriting it.

What are Self Permission Nuggets?

⬇️

these little “permission” messages are a first step, encouraging those to dare to believe that your voice, body, and choices still matter.

✔️ Self-Permission Nuggets posts are small, encouraging messages designed to help people in a state of learned helplessness — that is, people who feel stuck, powerless, or unable to act on their own behalf because past experiences have conditioned them to believe they have no control.

These posts offer reminders and gentle affirmations that:

✅ It is safe to make choices for yourself.
✅ You have the right to say yes or no.
✅ Your body and your life belong to you.
✅ Small decisions are valid steps toward reclaiming your agency.

For folks who have lived in environments where choices were taken away — through abuse, oppression, or chronic disempowerment — Self-Permission Nuggets serve as bite-sized permission slips to rebuild trust in their own inner wisdom.

They’re meant to break through the freeze or stuckness of learned helplessness by:

🫶🏾 planting seeds of possibility
🫶🏾 validating even the smallest acts of self-care or self-advocacy
🫶🏾 normalizing the right to choose, act, and decide for oneself



———

🗣️ Self Development may be Well-Worded Avoidance. Many people can articulate trauma, name their attachment style, or ...
07/12/2025

🗣️ Self Development may be Well-Worded Avoidance.

Many people can articulate trauma, name their attachment style, or quote every popular psychology book, yet still remain stuck in reactive patterns, dissociated relationships, or internalized shame. Why? Because self-development without self-awareness becomes performative — a cognitive bypass of the body’s deeper truths.

In modern society, we’ve been conditioned to equate knowledge with wisdom, and information with transformation. We live in an age of hyper-intellectualization — where reading, theorizing, and academic understanding are often praised as the ultimate tools for personal development. But knowing is not the same as embodying.

Self-awareness demands feeling, not just analyzing. It asks us to be present in our discomfort, to recognize our triggers in real-time, and to attune to the emotions we’ve learned to numb or avoid. And in a society that rewards productivity over presence, and image over authenticity, this type of embodiment is radical.

So yes — you can read 100 books. But if you can’t pause when you’re anxious, notice where your body clenches when you feel rejected, or sit with grief without fleeing into distraction, then you’re accumulating facts, not healing.

Self-awareness is the gateway. Without it, self-development is just well-worded avoidance.

Truth Is:Both may be very normal after trauma. Neither means you’re doing anything wrong.Being stuck usually needs gentl...
07/10/2025

Truth Is:

Both may be very normal after trauma. Neither means you’re doing anything wrong.

Being stuck usually needs gentle support to unfreeze. Being scared usually needs safety and encouragement to try.

More simply put, being scared is about fear of what might happen if you move.
Being stuck is when it feels like you can’t move at all, even if you want to.

Like, “Being scared” may be when you can move, but your body and brain are telling you it’s not safe to. It’s that nervous, shaky feeling when you’re about to do something new or hard—like opening up in group, trying a breathing exercise, or trusting someone again. Your system is trying to protect you from getting hurt.

and…

“Being stuck” may be when it feels like something inside you won’t move—like your body, your thoughts, or your emotions are frozen. You might know something isn’t working for you anymore, but you just can’t seem to change it, even if you want to. It’s like having your feet in quicksand—you’re not choosing to stay there, but it’s hard to get out without help.

“Being stuck” is when it feels like something inside you won’t move—like your body, your thoughts, or your emotions are frozen. You might know something isn’t working for you anymore, but you just can’t seem to change it, even if you want to. It’s like having your feet in quicksand—you’re not choosing to stay there, but it’s hard to get out without help.

“Being stuck” is when it feels like something inside you won’t move—like your body, your thoughts, or your emotions are frozen. You might know something isn’t working for you anymore, but you just can’t seem to change it, even if you want to. It’s like having your feet in quicksand—you’re not choosing to stay there, but it’s hard to get out without help.

Beyond Understanding: Why Intellectualizing Alone May not Heal Trauma 💙Intellectualizing your healing—analyzing and unde...
07/09/2025

Beyond Understanding: Why Intellectualizing Alone May not Heal Trauma 💙

Intellectualizing your healing—analyzing and understanding your trauma logically—can create a false sense of progress, but it bypasses the body’s lived experience of pain and survival. The nervous system doesn’t respond to thoughts; it responds to felt safety. Until the body learns, through somatic experiences, that it is no longer in danger, the survival responses remain active and healing remains incomplete.

Disconnection to Connection: The first quote may be very aligned with our “Self-Permission Nuggets” theme because it cha...
07/08/2025

Disconnection to Connection: The first quote may be very aligned with our “Self-Permission Nuggets” theme because it challenges one of the biggest modern myths around empowerment: that healing or self-protection means complete disconnection from accountability.

💙🙏🏾!

______


📸 we love quotes

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Kitchener, ON

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Monday 7am - 10am
Friday 8am - 1pm
Sunday 7pm - 9pm

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Wounds 2 Wings Psychotherapy Services

About Nicole Brown Faulknor

Nicole is a Yoga Instructor, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and Child and Youth Counsellor as well as a member of both the Colleges of Registered Psychotherapist in Ontario and the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Therapy with over 18 years of professional experience working with marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed communities, individuals, families and children. She has worked extensively with individuals and communities suffering from mental health, addictions, systemic poverty and profiling in order to therapeutically improve relationships with government programs and services.

In 1998, she graduated from Mohawk College with a Diploma in Child and Youth Counselling, received her Bachelor degree from the University of Waterloo in 2001 in Social Development Studies with two certificates, General Social Work and General Social Work (Child Abuse) and a 5 year Master's equivalency diploma from the Ontario Psychotherapy and Counselling Program in 2018 where she is currently at part-time instructor.

Using a psychodynamic approach that is rooted in the therapeutic relationship built between client and therapist with individuals, adolescents and group, this model of psychodynamic psychotherapy, seeks to reveal the unconscious, dynamic content of the mind, in an effort to alleviate mental tension which can manifest in a variety of symptoms that distort and disrupt our sense of self and well-being. By uncovering the hidden roots of our unwanted thoughts, emotions and behaviours, we can consciously change how they experience the world and ourselves. In addition, Nicole uses a body-centered approach, which may be known as somatization. With this approach it may be possible to recognize the intimate relationship between the physical body and the psychological well-being of a person. This practice maintains the view that the body is a resource for self-discovery and psychological healing. Bodily awareness and movements are used to explore and treat psychological symptoms and issues. This work can be both very subtle, involving only awareness of bodily sensation, or utilize physical movement and manipulation.