08/23/2025
Did you know that something as simple as fresh flowers can support trauma healing?
Our amazing coworker Rochell, a clinical diagnostician and beloved part of our work family, often brings flowers from her garden to brighten the clinic.
Why does this matter? In trauma work, healing isn’t only about words. Beauty, color, and even the presence of fresh flowers send powerful signals to the nervous system: “This space is safe. Life can grow here.” For those who’ve known chaos or deprivation, a simple act like fresh cut flowers becomes a corrective experience, proof that the world can also be gentle and nurturing.
Sometimes it’s the environment, not the intervention, that reaches people first. A vase of flowers may do more to soften defenses than a perfectly chosen therapeutic phrase.
Healing isn’t just about talking through the past, it’s about being surprised by kindness in the present. Rochell’s flowers interrupt old scripts of deprivation with something new: abundance.
Rochell’s act does more than decorate. It signals: “We matter to each other here.” In high-burnout professions like mental health, that relational glue protects against compassion fatigue. Her flowers become a message of belonging.
Thank you Rochelle for reminding us that beauty doesn’t need to last forever to be meaningful and that healing doesn’t erase pain, but small moments of growth and beauty still matter.
