Mindful Therapist Aniela Sârbu

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United States
Traverse City, MI
Mindful Therapist Aniela Sârbu

Welcome to Mindful Therapist!

Psychotherapist, Clinical psychologist
Compassionate Inquiry a trauma-informed approach
Somatic Therapy
Mindfulness coach

Healer of sensitive souls | Feminine awakening guide | Trauma-informed mindfulness coach | Conscious relationship guide | Here you will find a holistic counseling and wellness space for your emotional self-awareness, healing past traumas and attachment wounds, and mindful living with a heart-centered approach. My name is Aniela and I am your guide in your Personal Alchemy - a Journey to healing and transformation for your body, mind, and spirit. My approach combines the methods of Western psychology, psychotherapy (cognitive-behavior, psychodynamic, and psychosomatic therapy, and clinical psychology experience) with ancient Eastern wisdom practices such as yoga, mindfulness, compassion, and meditation practices of heart and awareness. I use Compassionate Inquiry as a heart-centered and self-compassion approach to help you navigate early childhood trauma and attachment wounds.

12/19/2025

Healing, growth, and real transformation
do not begin in the mind alone.

They begin in the body.
They begin in the nervous system. 🤍

So many of us try to change our lives, our relationships, our parenting
while our nervous system is still living in survival.

And a nervous system that is overwhelmed or guarded
cannot offer presence, patience, or connection—
no matter how much insight we have.

This is why I keep returning to this truth:
Regulation is not a luxury.
It is a foundation.

Safety is built through simple, human experiences:
• a hug held a little longer
• gentle movement that brings us back into the body
• deep breathing, humming, laughter
• rest that is respected, not sacrificed
• nature, warmth, stillness, and rhythm

These are not “small things.”
They are messages of safety.

A regulated nervous system allows us to:
– parent with patience instead of reactivity
– repair instead of withdraw
– listen instead of defend
– stay present in relationships, even during discomfort

Neuroscience confirms what our bodies already know:
we heal in safety,
we grow in connection,
and we transform when the nervous system no longer has to survive.

Healing is not about doing more.
It’s about feeling safe enough to be fully here.

May we choose practices that soften us.
May we honor our nervous system as the bridge between awareness and change.
And may that safety ripple into our families, our relationships,
and the generations that follow. 🤍

With care,
Aniela

BloomingHearts
healinginsafety parentingwithpresence compassionateinquiry

12/18/2025

Trauma Lives in the Body 🤍

Trauma doesn’t disappear just because time passes.
It lingers quietly in the body, often in ways we don’t even notice.

In my work, I see this again and again:
The body finds ways to cope long before the mind has words.

Small, rhythmic movements - rocking, rubbing your feet together, tapping your fingers - are not random habits.
They are self-soothing responses, guided by your nervous system’s wisdom.

When something overwhelming happens, your body does whatever it can to keep you safe.
Sometimes that means staying alert.
Other times, it means creating gentle repetition to signal safety.

These movements help release tension and tell the body:
“You’re okay now.”

This is why trauma healing must include the body.
We don’t just heal by thinking differently, we heal by feeling differently.

When you notice self-soothing behaviors, know this:
It’s not a flaw.
It’s your body regulating, softening, protecting.

Gentle somatic supports 🤍

• Slow, deep breathing (longer exhales calm the nervous system)
• Rhythmic movement: swaying, rocking, walking
• Compassionate body awareness
• A warm hand on your heart, belly, or thighs
• Journaling after the body settles

You don’t need to force healing.
You don’t need to fix yourself.
You don’t need to rush.

Your body is communicating.
Responding.
Repairing.

Little by little, your nervous system is learning that it is safe now.
And you deserve to feel that safety, in your whole being.

With care,
Aniela 🤍

🌿 www.mindfultherapist.us

12/17/2025

We are not meant to regulate alone. 🤍

The nervous system is relational. From the moment we are born, we learn how to feel safe, calm, and grounded through other people. This is called co-regulation.

Neuroscience shows that our brains are constantly scanning for cues of safety or threat, tone of voice, facial expression, emotional presence. When we are with someone who is calm, attuned, and emotionally available, our nervous system softens. Stress hormones decrease. The part of the brain responsible for empathy and clarity comes back online.

This is why being understood logically doesn’t help when we’re overwhelmed, but being felt does.

Co-regulation looks simple:
• a partner who stays present instead of shutting down
• a parent who breathes slowly while a child is melting down
• being listened to without being fixed
• a safe relationship where you don’t have to perform

This is the foundation of healthy parenting.
Children don’t learn regulation from words, they learn it from our nervous system.

And this is what a mature, conscious relationship offers: a space where both people can return to safety together, repair, and grow.

Healing happens in relationship.
Regulation happens through connection.
And safety is something we learn, together.

With care and presence, Aniela🤍

12/16/2025

When you’re stuck in a fear loop, your nervous system isn’t asking you to think differently.

It’s asking to feel safer.

Fear doesn’t live in logic.
It lives in the body.

When your system is in survival, reassurance doesn’t land and insight can’t settle. Regulation begins below the mind, gently and slowly.

Here are simple ways to support your nervous system when fear takes over:

• Look around and name 5 things you can see → remind your body: I’m here, now
• Soften your exhale (longer out than in) → safety travels on the breath
• Use temperature → hold something warm or splash cool water on your face
• Move slowly → rocking, walking, pressing your feet into the ground
• Speak kindly to yourself → I see you. I’m here. You’re not alone
• Reduce stimulation → less noise, less screen, softer light

You are not weak for feeling this way.
Your nervous system learned to survive.

Healing isn’t about forcing calm.
It’s about creating moments where your body can finally exhale.

🌿 Reflection:
What helps my body feel even 5% safer right now?

May you meet fear with softness instead of urgency.
Safety is built—moment by moment. 🤍

12/15/2025

The neuroscience of emotional regulation is simple, human, and deeply compassionate. - because it explains why we lose ourselves when we’re overwhelmed, and how we can return.

When stress hijacks the nervous system, your brain isn’t trying to sabotage you.
It’s trying to protect you.

Under pressure, the amygdala takes over, your threat-detection center, and your whole system shifts from reasoning to survival. The prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for patience, empathy, problem-solving, and emotional clarity, temporarily goes offline. You can’t think clearly, you can’t slow down, and you can’t “just calm down” no matter how much you want to.

This is why emotional regulation isn’t about willpower.
It’s about biology.

And this is the part so many people misunderstand:
Healing does not begin with harsher self-judgment.
It begins with soothing the body so the mind can return.

When you breathe deeper, ground your feet, relax your shoulders, or place a hand on your chest, you’re not doing something “small.”
You’re sending signals through the vagus nerve that tell your body, “You’re safe now.”
And the moment your body believes that, your prefrontal cortex comes back online.

Suddenly, you have access again to:

• empathy
• patience
• perspective
• curiosity
• connection

These are not moral qualities.
They are regulated-brain qualities.

This is why nervous-system work is foundational in parenting, relationships, and healing. You can only offer the presence and safety you have access to within yourself. A regulated adult creates a regulated environment. A calm nervous system becomes a place where children’s emotions can land without fear.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed, flooded, or reactive, remember this truth:

Nothing is wrong with you.
Your brain is doing what it learned to do under stress.

And you have the power, through breath, grounding, self-compassion, and awareness, to shift your body out of survival and back into connection.
This is where healing begins.
This is where healthy parenting grows.
This is where you find yourself again. Aniela🤍

12/12/2025

If peace feels boring, there’s nothing wrong with you.🤍
It’s not a flaw, it’s your nervous system speaking.

When you’ve spent years in survival mode - hypervigilant, alert, scanning for danger - your body learns to function on adrenaline. Chaos becomes familiar. Stress becomes normal. And calm… feels foreign.

This is not your fault.
It’s biology.

Chronic stress rewires your nervous system. The amygdala - the part of your brain responsible for detecting threats - stays on high alert. Cortisol becomes your baseline. Your system learns to live in readiness, not rest.

So when life finally slows down…
When someone is kind…
When the house is quiet…
When nothing is wrong…
Your body doesn’t always recognise it as “safe.”
It recognises it as different.

And different can feel uncomfortable.

That’s why peace may feel boring.
Why healthy relationships may feel slow.
Why stability can feel empty at first.
Your body is simply trying to adjust to a reality it was never taught to trust.

But here’s the beautiful truth that I want you to know or remember:
Your nervous system can learn safety.

With mindfulness.
With grounding.
With gentle breathing.
With small moments of presence.
With people who feel steady, regulating, and kind.

Every time you slow down, you send your body a new message:
“This is what safety feels like.”
“This is allowed.”
“I don’t have to be on guard anymore.”

Bit by bit, your system recalibrates.
Your brain learns that calm isn’t a threat.
Your body learns that stillness isn’t danger.
Peace becomes familiar - maybe even beautiful.

If you feel restless in moments of calm, please don’t judge yourself.
You’re not self-sabotaging.
You’re not “addicted to chaos.”
You’re healing.

You’re simply living in a body that is still catching up to a safer life.

And with time, practice, and compassion, peace will stop feeling boring…
and start feeling like home.
🤍 May you offer your nervous system the gentleness it never had. Aniela

12/09/2025

You cannot rescue someone who isn’t ready to rise.🤍

The more you try to save someone from their pain, the deeper they sink.
Not because they “want” to drown, but because rescuing takes away the one thing healing requires: their own agency.

As painful as it is, healing is not something you can do for someone you love.
They must choose it from within, when their nervous system, their heart, and their timeline are ready.

You can love them.
You can support them.
You can stand beside them.
But you cannot walk the path for them.

As a therapist, I see this heartbreak everywhere:
parents aching for their adult children, partners trying to carry someone’s relapse, friends holding together a person who keeps falling apart.

Here is what I want you to remember:

You are not responsible for someone else’s readiness.
You cannot want their healing more than they do.
You cannot pressure them into change.
You cannot love them so perfectly that their wounds disappear.

What does help?

✨ Let reality be the teacher.
Protecting them from consequences only delays growth.

✨ Offer support, not pressure.
Pressure creates resistance, shame, and avoidance.
Safety brings people closer to change.

✨ Hold healthy boundaries.
Boundaries are clarity, not punishment.
They protect both of you.

✨ See the person beneath the struggle.
Their behavior is a coping strategy, not their identity.

✨ Stop arguing with their readiness.
Your urgency cannot replace their capacity.

✨ Take care of yourself.
Watching someone you love suffer is its own kind of trauma.

And this truth:

People don’t change for partners, parents, or children.
They change when something inside whispers:
“I’m tired of hurting. I’m ready to try.”

When that moment comes, they won’t need judgment, they’ll need your presence.
Not fixing, your steadiness.
Not disappointment, your acceptance.

Until then, let them walk their path.
And let yourself breathe.🤍

Love can hold someone through their pain,
but it cannot heal them for you.

With care,
Aniela 🤍

12/08/2025

When Uncertainty Feels Unsafe 🤍

Your brain isn’t afraid of hard work.
It’s afraid of not knowing.

Uncertainty is one of the biggest sources of stress today.
It’s not change or effort that overwhelms us, it’s unpredictability.
Your brain can handle hard things, but it struggles when it can’t tell what’s coming next.

From an evolutionary lens, uncertainty once meant danger.
Today, it means:
• the unanswered message
• the job insecurity
• the financial unknown
• the relationship ambiguity

And when your brain doesn’t have information, it fills in the gaps with worst-case scenarios.
Your heart races. Your chest tightens. Your mind spirals, all in an attempt to feel safe again.

This isn’t weakness.
It’s your biology.

So what helps?

• Name the unknown. Vague fear becomes softer when put into words.
• Create small anchors: simple routines, lists, or breathing rituals that signal predictability.
• Come back to your body: a hand on your chest, a longer exhale, a moment of stillness.
• Seek clarity, not control. Clarity soothes the nervous system even when certainty isn’t possible.

Reflection 🤍

– What unknowns am I trying to control?
– What small structure can I add to my day?
– What helps my body remember that I am safe right now?

May you find calm between what is known and unknown.
May uncertainty meet your gentle curiosity.
And may your nervous system feel held by small moments of presence.

With care,
Aniela 🤍

12/05/2025

Raising children while healing your own past is one of the quiet revolutions of our generation.🤍
It’s work our parents didn’t have the tools or language to attempt. And yet here you are, growing while guiding a small human who depends on your softness and steadiness.

As a mother of sensitive children, on my own journey of healing, facing my own struggles, and as a therapist who walks beside parents every day, I want to say this gently:

You are not failing.
You are not “too emotional.”
You are doing something profoundly hard and profoundly important.

Every time you choose calm over yelling, pause instead of reacting, or repair instead of shutting down, you are rewiring two nervous systems at once, yours and your child’s.

This is why it feels heavy.
This is why it feels overwhelming.
And this is why it matters.

You are the bridge where generational patterns soften and emotional safety begins. Your child’s future resilience and capacity for empathy grow from the work you’re doing right now, messy, imperfect, human.

You don’t have to be a perfect parent to raise a healthy child.
You just have to be a present, reflective, compassionate one.
For all of you parents who try the best to be a healthy space holder for your children, I see you! You are doing an amazing and sacred work. Keep walking this path even when you doubt yourself. Especially when you feel that way. Keep going!
With warmth,
Aniela🤍

12/04/2025

There is something extraordinary about sensitive children.
They feel deeply. Love deeply. Notice what others miss.
They move through the world with open hearts and nervous systems that experience life at a higher volume.

And while this sensitivity is a gift, it can also make childhood—and parenting—more challenging.

As a mother to two sensitive girls and as a therapist, I want to say this clearly and gently:

There is nothing wrong with your child.
And there is nothing wrong with you. 🤍

Sensitivity is not a flaw.
It is a nervous system designed for depth, empathy, creativity, and intuition.

Sensitive children don’t need harsher parenting.
They need:
🤍 Gentle attunement
🤍 Emotional safety
🤍 Respect for their pace
🤍 Validation
🤍 Protection from overstimulation
My message for all mothers to sensitive children:
You were chosen for this child for a reason.
Your heart, your intuition, your tenderness, your awareness - these are not accidents. They are part of the medicine your child came here to receive.
To every mother quietly wondering if she’s doing enough:
You are not failing.
You are raising a child who feels the world intensely—and that requires a different kind of strength.
Not pushing harder, but holding softer.

Your child doesn’t need fixing.
They need to be honored.

And some days—when I doubt myself with Maya—I write this as a reminder:
I don’t have to be perfect.
I just have to be here. 🤍

With compassion,
Aniela

12/03/2025

What Anger tries to tell us

We don’t like anger.
We fear it.
We fight against it.
We don’t like what anger makes out of us.

Most of us learned early in life that anger is not wanted.
It’s not agreeable. It’s not acceptable.
So, we learned to hide it - to silence it, to swallow it down, to turn it against ourselves.
We feel ashamed when it erupts, and guilty when we cannot control it.
We judge ourselves for being “too much,” “too emotional,” “too reactive.”
And because of that, we live under pressure - holding back the very emotion that might hold the key to our truth.

But what’s underneath the anger?
What is it trying to protect, to express, to defend?

Anger is not the enemy.
It is a messenger.
A signal that something inside of us has been ignored, crossed, or wounded.
In itself, anger is not good or bad - it’s simply energy asking to be understood.

Often, anger hides what feels too painful to face directly.
It can be grief that was never processed or accepted.
It can be fear wearing armor.
It can be the voice of a younger self who once felt powerless - now terrified to lose control or be hurt again.
Anger can mask shame, guilt, or deep loneliness.
It can be a cry for help that sounds like defiance.
It can be the way a sensitive soul protects itself from being seen too closely, from being hurt again.

Sometimes, anger is the only part of us that ever dared to say no.
The part that refused to be silenced when boundaries were crossed.
The part that fought to survive in environments where softness was unsafe.

Anger, when met with awareness instead of judgment, becomes one of the most powerful gateways to healing.
It shows us where we still feel unseen, unheard, or unprotected.
It invites us to honor our limits, to grieve what we lost, to reclaim our voice.

So instead of asking, “How do I get rid of my anger?”
Ask, “What is my anger trying to tell me?”
What pain does it protect?
What boundary does it reveal?
What truth does it hold?

When we listen to anger with compassion, it no longer needs to scream.
It softens.
And underneath it, we often find sadness, longing, tenderness - the very heart we’ve been protecting all along.
With care and presence, Aniela🤍

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Traverse City, MI
49686

Telephone

+16169908022

Website

http://www.mindfultherapist.us/

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