Nourished Energy

07/23/2025

My very sweet office neighbor saved this for me from their desk, calendar thinking I would appreciate it. I do! And he didn't even realize my birthday is July 19, so even more special ❤️

07/23/2025

Childhood is a time for exploration, development and safe holding. MANY people did not get the care they needed as kids from caregivers who struggled with their own unresolved trauma manifesting as mental health challenges and addictions. This is not about blame, it is about naming. Here are 5 things adults who did not get the care they needed as kids often deal with:
1) Fears around being "out-of-control" (hypervigilance)
2) Distrust - of others and self (trust is vulnerable)
3) Avoidance of feelings (feelings can feel terrifying)
4) Over-responsibility (taking care of others as a default)
5) Ignoring their own needs (hard to say no to others, put self first, stick with self-care routines)
Healing is laborious and non-linear, and DO-ABLE. Psychotherapy can help with 5 issues above. How?
1) Maybe in your therapists office you can learn to let down your guard and not control the process
2) Slowly you can learn to trust your therapist and yourself as you practice vulnerability - letting yourself be seen
3) You do not have to take care of your therapist and being in a relationship where you do not get to take on the role of caretaker is part of the healing
4) Your therapist can hold up a mirror for you to see where you take on more than is actually yours
5) In therapy there is space to explore self-care, the very act of coming to therapy - even when it is hard - is healing the false story from your childhood that you are not worthy of care

07/04/2025

Feels even more poignant today than when I posted 6 years ago...

When a story of freedom goes hand and hand with the tragedy of the genocide committed to obtain it, it feels hard to celebrate. Yet I can hold gratitude in my heart for the ways we have tasted various forms of freedom and liberation. The flame of hope still burns on this planet and I count myself as one who will fan it.

06/23/2025

Therapy isn't linear 💜

One week you feel clear and connected. The next, an old survival strategy resurfaces and you wonder if you’ll ever be able to move past it.

Healing isn’t linear. Growth doesn’t always move in a straight line. It spirals. It pauses. It brings to the surface what still needs your attention.

In NARM, we don’t see these moments as setbacks—they’re often signs that something deeper is ready to emerge and be integrated.

✨ Post-traumatic growth IS messy.
✨ It can bring doubt.
✨ It will likely be uncomfortable.

But every moment of awareness—even the difficult ones—is part of your healing. Reconnection is possible.

06/19/2025

On vacation in Colorado hiking at Red Rocks and happened upon this sign! Yesssssss!

06/13/2025

I am consistently in a self inquiry process around "what is the purpose of therapy". Lately it is boiling down to creating a space and opportunities for another to not run away from themselves. Humans are incredibly skilled at survival and cutting off pain - running away from ourselves - however doing so ultimately cuts us off from ourselves. Therapy is a place to find ourselves. I can only show up in my humanity offering space, witness and sometimes even tools for those I serve. It is up to each of us to find our own courage to face our fears and ourselves, if we so choose. 🙏💜

06/10/2025

I am now one of a just handful of NARM® Master Therapists in Michigan. I am incredibly proud and humbled. "The spontaneous movement in all of us is toward connection and health. No matter how withdrawn and isolating we have become, or how serious the trauma we have experienced, on the deepest level, just as a plant spontaneously moves towards the sun, there is in each of us an impulse moving toward connection. This organismic impulse is the fuel of The NeuroAffective Relational Model™."

06/04/2025

❤️🧡💛💚💙🩵💜🩷

Happy Pride month berry besties!! 🍓

Wishing you a month bursting with color, joy, and all the love your heart can hold 💖💛💚💙💜

06/01/2025

Loving this memory! My work has evolved quite a bit into relational and depth psychotherapy realms covering much more than food and body concerns, however at the heart of it is still supporting people in exploring what is getting in the way of what they truly want for their lives.

Over the years, I cycled through diets, cleanses, food restrictions and exercise routines. On the flip side, binge eating and compulsive eating plagued me as well. Healing is a process. A big part of the journey was remembering that food is just one of the many nourishing energies that sustain life.

I have deep gratitude for all the counselors, teachers and healers in my life. With the integration of new tools, I am now able to acknowledge old thoughts or feelings and say to them, "I see you, I hear you, I feel you, but I am choosing something else."

People talk about food being the greatest medicine. For me, however, acceptance, authenticity, vulnerability, humility, trust, connection and, most of all, love proved to be the real healing balms. Food is just food. - Jen, Founder of Nourished Energy

05/12/2025

Shame is often misunderstood and this podcast episode does a great job of diving into in a profound way. "When we consider shame in adulthood, the emotion becomes less of a noun or something that our younger selves were given and more of a verb, behaviors we can safely scrutinize and ultimately assert agency over." It might be hard to believe at first but we CAN shame ourselves less and feel more free, authentic and alive over time if we are willing to confront how are using shame to disconnect from ourselves in adulthood.

Transforming Trauma Episode 159: Letting Go of Shame That Isn’t Yours with Dr. Laurence Heller A podcast brought to you by the Complex Trauma Training Center For all its popularity as a talking point, shame remains one of the least-documented human emotions. While shame has become a hot topic for ...

05/09/2025

Love this memory and practice 💜🧡

Invitation to heart holding: Take one of your hands and put it softly on your heart region. Take your other hand and put it over top of the first, hold your hands there, gently and protectively. Notice your breath for a few moments, then let your attention move down into your chest, into the area surrounding your heart. Savor your own touch and be open to whatever comes up for you. 💜