Feeling overwhelmed, overloaded, or completely tapped out is more common than you might think, but it doesn’t have to be your norm. This blog explores how your nervous system reacts in moments of stress using the Polyvagal Ladder framework. Learn to recognize signs of dorsal vagal shutdown, sympathetic fight-or-flight activation, and how to gently guide yourself back to a state of calm and connection (ventral vagal). With practical tools and relatable examples, this post provides simple strategies to help you move through stress and create more moments of balance and self-compassion in your daily life.

Forgiving yourself; even when you don’t think you deserve it

I know, I know, you don’t need another person telling you what to do to help you on a day like today. But is it possible that those who are offering suggestions might actually be in the right direction? Not as a cureall but to support us in feeling just a little more like ourselves today? Small steps today might not seem like they help with the big goal, but the thing we know about our minds and bodies is that these small steps actually help us making the movement towards the big goal.

Authenticity is a big buzz right now, so many resources to be your "authentic self." But if you don't know where you lost it - how can you find it?

Without understanding what is underneath them, a New Year's Resolution can hold us back from growth.

What makes therapy work is the relationship you have with your therapist and finding the right method for you.

There are many ways to support yourself in calming down. The one that is most commonly used, is also the one that keeps us stuck in feeling dysregulated. If you are trying to calm down by telling yourself to calm down, it isn’t going to work…

What if you could use your anxiety to help you? There are many ways that anxiety is a superpower and helps us expand. It helps us foresee danger, gives us cues that something might be wrong, and challenges our impulses when they need to be.

Most of us struggle with change - here are 8 keys to help you manage change and become more flexible without being overwhelmed.

We all need seasons of rest – life requires it of us. It doesn’t have to be a huge loss or trauma that precipitates this. Sometimes your body simply says enough is enough. I cannot do it anymore. I need to slow down…

Being authentic seems like it should be easy. We aren’t taught how to be ourselves. We are taught how to be what other people need. So we adapt and become like chameleons.

One of the most common searches on Google in the new year is this question – how do I get rid of my stress? The short answer is one many people won’t like. You can’t. Life is full of stress, as a human being stress is a non-negotiable.

Self-compassion is a hard concept to grasp. There are many schools of thought when it comes to what self-compassion is vs. what it isn’t. The first thing to address is understanding the difference between self-indulgence, self-compassion, and self-pity.

Take time to learn more about perfectionism, where it comes from, and how it shows up. There is a short segment at the end of this video discussing how Brainspotting can support you in working through and out of your perfectionism.

4 tools to help you calm your body and mind when feeling anxious, stressed or down. Click here to learn how to implement these tools.

Attunement revolves around your ability to connect and sense what is happening within your client. Attunement in the general public can be knowing what your partner needs before they ask, sensing that a friend is down even if they put a smile on.

“Trust yourself” is a common phrase people use – telling you to follow your intuition or gut. Listen to yourself about what you should do next or where you should go. Trusting ourselves isn’t so easy when we haven’t been taught that we are trustworthy.

Making a change in our lives is not as simple as mainstream media would like to make us believe. We can know we need to stop people-pleasing or start setting boundaries. We can know that we should feel good enough about ourselves but still have the voice in the back of our heads that says we aren’t.

We need to learn to move from a place of motivation from criticism to motivation from self-compassion. People use self-criticism as a “motivator.” If we are our own worst critic then we will push ourselves farther. Unfortunately, that’s not the truth and in reality, actually holds us back.

This year looks a lot different from 2020 new year's. Patrice reflects on how this year's reflection looks different and working on embracing time & patience into 2021.