Guiding Light Counseling, LLC

03/28/2026

You should never ignore your mental health

03/28/2026

Reflecting on Self Awareness today —

Many people think they're self aware. Maybe even most?
But self-awareness is a daily, moment to moment practice that involves checking in with your own heart, mind, and body.
And in a world where our attention is constantly being pulled in a million different directions, it's a practice that takes presence, boundaries, and the willingness to slow down.

Self awareness is learning how to read your own internal (and sometimes external) signals — the sensations you feel internally when you're feeling down, the way your body responds to someone's complimentary comment, the flurry of thoughts you have after a terse interaction — to begin to notice these seemingly small shifts, and to get curious about what they're telling you.

Self awareness is the ability to put space between who you are and these different sensations, reactions, feelings, and moments of rumination. (It's also becoming aware of how your past shows up in these moments and responses, too). Because when you recognize that you are not your feelings, reactions, or behaviors, the ability to respond in new ways to yourself opens up a whole new way of being.

I'll add here, self awareness is not:
Obsessing over how others perceive you,
or bypassing what's here by reframing or looking for the silver lining,
It's not constantly scanning for what you should fix,
or hiding behind logic, humor, spirituality, or competence to avoid feeling.

It's really learning how to become your own safe and consistent witness.
To be on your own side and to just notice —
without immediately fixing, changing, or pushing into the next moment.
Because when you can be fully and safely to present to what's really here,
the next step usually shows itself.

We had our first Regulate + Relate last weekend, and I'm going to be holding another one on April 18th.
If you want to come into a quiet space, slow down, tune in, and then meet some lovely people who are interested in authentic conversation and connection — come join us!
https://theeqschool.co/regulate-and-relate

03/25/2026

When we experience trauma, our nervous system is shocked and overwhelmed. Whether it’s a single traumatic event like a car crash or repeated events such as prolonged childhood abuse, we often feel helpless. The trauma happens too much, too soon, and too fast, preventing us from integrating and processing these memories. This leads to changes in our worldview, making us feel like the world is dangerous and we are unsafe, causing us to live in perpetual fear.
Trauma causes our brain to get stuck in danger mode, leading to significant changes in brain structures:
🧠 Amygdala: The fear center misfires constantly, blasting our body with stress hormones that harm us. This can alter the size and function of the amygdala and hippocampus.
🧠Hippocampus: Normally responsible for storing memories, the hippocampus struggles under trauma, leaving the memory “live” in our brain as if it’s still happening. It goes offline, unable to tell if we are safe or in danger, which keeps the fear alarm active.
🧠 Prefrontal Cortex: In charge of rational thinking and decision-making, the amygdala overrides the Prefrontal Cortex during trauma. When it’s offline, we struggle to manage emotions and think clearly.
🧠 The Vagus nerve, which plays a crucial role in regulating our parasympathetic nervous system, is the part of the nervous system that helps us calm down after stress. When trauma occurs, the vagus nerve can become dysregulated, making it difficult for our body to return to a state of calm, leaving us in a constant state of hypervigilance and anxiety.

ART can help calm the overactive amygdala, soothing the fear response through bilateral eye movements and vagal nerve stimulation. The goal of this process is to change how traumatic memories are experienced, which can be associated with improved engagement of brain areas involved in regulation and perspective-taking. Through this process, ART helps reframe perceptions and “positize” experiences, supporting a greater sense of safety and healing.

Find an ART-trained therapist near you. Visit www.AcceleratedResolutionTherapy.com

03/23/2026

Tired of feeling stuck? Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) can help!

https://sarah-scherr.clientsecure.me/

03/23/2026

One of the many reasons I love Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)! You get to go back and provide that healing to all your earlier selves.

Many ART clients have told me it is different than when they do inner child meditations or simply talk to their earlier selves.

Are you ready to heal your inner child?

Schedule a free consultation through the link!
https://sarah-scherr.clientsecure.me/

03/18/2026

Can be very challenging for people

03/18/2026

Accurate

For many of the people I work with, this is a big issue.

How do I stay connected to me when other people's thoughts, judgments, opinions, and insecurities are being projected onto me?
How do I stay safe?
How do I not take those on?
How do I make them stop?

And the truth is, for many folks who didn't have their worth reflected back to them regularly, and whose autonomy was not encouraged and respected (or resulted in rupture) —
this balance between us and another person when we're in disagreement can be really hard to navigate.

It can feel unsafe on a deep level, because we are inherently relational beings.
And so a couple of things are necessary to help you begin to deepen your self trust.

One, is actually getting to know yourself.
What does feel deeply right to you?
What helps you feel like yourself?
What feels expansive and grounding, not just self-protective?
This comes through slowing down, through trial and error, and through compassionate self-attunement and daily reflection.

And then second is actually putting yourself in situations where you can learn what it feels like in the body to be around safe others who can respect you as an individual, mirror back your goodness, and maintain connection without enmeshment or blending.
Where getting to be you doesn't threaten your connection to others.
Your body needs to have this lived experience to learn how to be in safe relationship with other people, and to learn on an embodied level that boundaries are helpful.
And it can happen in all kinds of different relationships!

If you're in Portland, this Saturday we'll be meeting in person in the Pearl for a Regulate and Relate Workshop —
come slow down, tune in, and connect with wonderful folks in the EQ community!
https://theeqschool.co/regulate-and-relate

03/16/2026

03/10/2026

Do you ever feel like a part is resisting the changes you are trying to make?

03/08/2026

Do you have emotional overwhelm or emotional availability?

Being emotionally available for your partner is not the same as being emotionally merged with them.

When someone confuses availability with absorption, they take on their partner's feelings as their own and work urgently to resolve them. It looks like love and in many ways it is. But it is not sustainable, and it often prevents the other person from actually processing what they are going through.

Real availability is being present and regulated enough to hold what someone is feeling without needing to make it stop.

Save this and share it with someone who recognizes this pattern.

03/07/2026

A familiar pattern, even a painful one, often feels safer to the brain than an unfamiliar one. Recognizing this helps you understand why "peace" can feel so foreign at first.

03/07/2026

New Insights on Trauma, Somatic Symptoms, and Dissociation
A recent study has explored the relationship between trauma, physical (somatic) symptoms, and dissociation. The research revealed that seven common physical symptoms are strongly linked to dissociation, where the mind blocks trauma out of awareness.
This is significant because it confirms that dissociating from trauma affects not only your mental health but also your physical well-being. If you're experiencing unexplained physical symptoms and your doctor can't find a cause, unresolved trauma might be at the root of your unexplained symptoms.

What Happens When You Store Trauma in the Body?
Trauma and emotions can get trapped in your body through dissociation and other reasons, settling in your muscles, nerves, and tissues. When you go through a traumatic event, your mind and body respond together. But sometimes, they don’t fully sync up afterward. This disconnect can lead to lingering emotions, which appear as physical symptoms that don't seem to have a clear cause.

The Ripple Effect of Chronic Stress
Stress is meant to be a short-term reaction, but when it becomes chronic, it overwhelms your system. This constant flood of stress hormones spreads throughout your body, leading to symptoms like irregular heartbeats, brain fog, muscle tension, and more. Your entire physical health can suffer from unresolved, ongoing stress.

How ART Helps
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) focuses on identifying and addressing these stored emotions and physical sensations. Through eye movements, ART helps desensitize and reprocess these emotions in a way that positively reshapes how they are stored in the body. This process doesn’t just target the rational mind, but goes much deeper; offering a holistic, long-lasting impact.
As ART works on these deep-rooted emotions, you’ll not only notice changes in the traumatic images but also experience relief from the physical symptoms tied to those memories.

Find an ART trained therapist near you visit
www.acceleratedresolutiontherapy.com

PMID: 34635928