renee

I call us parents of kids with advocacy and support needs. Others call us parent caregivers. Whatever the label, it’s a full-time job—before you even add on your paying job, household management, and, well… everything else.

There were phases to my job:

Before diagnosis: I swung between feeling like I was failing my child (why was he so emotional all the time?) and briefly wondering if the judgmental voices were right—maybe I wasn’t disciplining enough. Thankfully, my child made it very clear each time that was not the problem (ha!)

I have a personal practice of finding connection—both with people and with nature. This connection isn’t just about appreciating beauty; it’s a key part of how I regulate my nervous system.

For me, it goes even deeper. Nature reminds me of my personal Truth (week 6 of our Zapped to Zen mindfulness program). It’s a grounding force that brings me back to the perfection within imperfection.

This past week, mindfulness in nature helped me find stability—even while engaging in social justice efforts, worrying about the personal impact of politics, and supporting a loved one through a difficult time.

This newsletter is going to have a different flavor.

If you’re paying attention . . . You may have noticed that I raised an autistic child who is now an autistic young adult.

I have called the young adult phase “the slow reveal.”
Young adulthood, in many ways, is a slow reveal for everyone. What will come together for them? How will they show up to life? Did you set them up, as best you could, so they could seize success if they chose to?

“She. She’s figured out
All her doubts were someone else’s point of view . . .

Are you locked up in a world that’s been planned out for you?

Are you feeling like a social tool without a use?”

These lines are from the song “She” by Green Day.

These lyrics still hit home for my inner 20-something. And as I turn 54 (what?!?), I realize I’m not stuck in that story—I’m evolving it. NOT stuck there, but living it forward because I’ve done, and I keep doing, my personal growth work.

“I’m not good enough” was what my what I tongue-in-cheek refer to as “#1 on my Top 20 playlist.”

As a person who strived to always be good enough, it was easy to be “locked up” in everyone else’s beliefs for what “good” looked like. I’d just try harder.

Personal growth can feel like déjà vu—old struggles resurface, making us question whether we’ve actually made progress.

I keep laughing at myself as I question what the lifestyle is that I want to live and getting overwhelmed thinking about the changes it will require. Right now, I want to disengage from handing money to the monopolies that rule our purchasing and communications—the ones that pushed us into faster lifestyles and more extreme and polarized emotional states–but it’s almost as if . . .

Yes, I am in the middle of a challenging time. Yes, I’ve had many of them in the last decade of my life. Yes, because I am a professional who also listens to other people’s hard times, I MUST be meticulous with my self-care so you get the best of me. So I thought the

It’s been a hard week in my personal life. So this newsletter serves a dual purpose of KISS (keep it simple, silly) and checking the box of talking to you. It started as a “how can I be helpful with limited time?” I am currently feeling some personal challenges that are gobbling up my time

Unlock the Power Within: Healing Through Parts Work and Mindfulness Buckle yourself in—I’m going deep fast! As a therapist (and lover of people), I have spent a lot of time in the past week talking, listening, regulating, reregulating, and hoping I have what it takes to live in this era of humanity. It’s been hard,

Ever felt torn about a decision? A part of me feels X, and a part of me feels Y? Parts work has been around for years. My initial exposure was through Gestalt therapy, then inner child work, then yoga therapeutics and trauma modalities started incorporating the work. IFS (Internal Family Systems) then made a big