Liz Danbury, Counselor

10/24/2025

Parentification: When a child takes on adult responsibilities.

✅Had to be the peacekeeper b/w caregivers
✅Had to be the emotional caretaker, confidant, counselor
✅Took on the burden of housework
✅Took Care of Siblings
✅Had Trouble Playing
✅Received Compliments for "being good" or "so responsible"
✅Have trouble trusting others to take care of you
✅Are super self reliant and hyper-independent

Sound familiar? We can help! 💝

Expanding Horizons Counseling
www.expandinghorizonscounseling.com

10/15/2025

The Quiet Triumphs

Be proud of the steps you took that no one ever saw,
the ones made in silence,
without recognition or reassurance.
Be proud of the nights you lay awake,
talking yourself out of giving up,
of the mornings you rose
when it would have been easier to curl up and disappear
beneath the weight of your own exhaustion.

No one saw you steady yourself
against the quiet ache,
or how you learned to carry it
with a fierce, fragile kind of grace.

Be proud of the small, unremarkable moments
that shaped you,
the promise you made to yourself to keep going,
the choice to forgive someone who never asked,
the courage to show up
to a life that didn’t look the way you thought it would.

Growth doesn’t always announce itself
in loud or obvious ways,
sometimes it’s just a soft exhale,
a single brave breath.

So hold your head high,
not because the world applauds you,
but because you know what it took to stand here.
Every unseen battle,
every invisible step forward,
every time you chose to heal instead of harden,
those are your quiet triumphs,
and they matter
more than anyone will ever know.

~ 'The Quiet Triumphs' by Spirit of a Hippie

✍️ Mary Anne Byrne

~ Art by Annacosysoul

10/14/2025

09/25/2025

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09/20/2025

🌞🌛

09/18/2025

Growing up, you may have learned to stay calm, agreeable, or ‘low-needs’ to stay safe. That’s why it still feels automatic.

The good news? You’re safe now, and it’s okay to take up space.

❤️

09/18/2025

We live in a culture that promises five easy steps that will help you change in 21 days — break a habit, start a streak, fix yourself with enough willpower. But trauma doesn’t work that way.

What looks like a ‘bad habit’ is often a survival strategy — something your body learned to protect you when danger left no other choice.

Shutting down, lashing out, numbing, perfectionism…these weren’t flaws. They were your body’s way of keeping you safe.

And this is why quick fixes fall flat. You can’t punish or discipline a trauma response into disappearing. If willpower were enough, you’d have fixed this already. Healing happens deeper — in your nervous system, as it slowly learns that safety is possible again.

Real change rarely looks dramatic. It shows up in small shifts — a breath that settles you, a night of rest without dread, reaching for connection instead of isolation. These aren’t ‘small wins” that accumulate over time. They’re your nervous system practicing safety — and practice rewires.

The climb may be slow, but here’s what makes it worth it: healing doesn’t just take away pain. It creates space for joy, for connection you can actually trust, for feeling at home in your own body. And that’s something no quick fix could ever give you.