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Finding, engaging in, and living your purpose as a human being and as purpose may change throughout the seasons of life is important to your wellbeing and mental health. This doesn’t mean that purpose has to be a grandiose thing, just that it aligns with your values, goals, and is workable with your external circumstances. All of these things matter when we take into consideration that life will come with it’s normal roadblocks, bumps, and even amazing shiny opportunities tha

Perfectionism is tricky and is often a fear-based trauma response for a lot of people. At one point in time our brain found a way to keep us safe and now responds the same to things that mirror or mimic some of the same aspects in the original situation that was traumatic. The issue is that our brain struggles to see what is actually a threat and what may just be scary, difficult, or uncomfortable at times. That fear that is often associated with perfectionism and the need t

Expectations can be super tricky, but the majority of them definitely begin with you/me/us…we are typically the epicenter for why we have them and why we continue to place demands on others to meet them. We all have reasons why they are important to us…perhaps they are a trauma response, maybe we want the best for our kids and for them to be independent when they leave home, we could be really putting our relationships and connections with others as a super important componen

While there is often a very real reason why people pleasing happens, often avoidance, fear, and trauma. Our brains also latch onto things that work, and it’s likely that people pleasing, at least at one point in time, worked for you because in general people respond well to others who are agreeable or meet their needs. Therefore, there can be a lot of scenarios where this is the best option some people have, though it does come at a high cost. Often our own safety, needs, and

Boundaries can be super difficult…both in how others respond to them and the way in which they make you feel about yourself. They also are multifaceted; you must first create them, at times communicate them to others, and then maintain them…especially when people push them, attempt to move them, or ignore them entirely. However, they can be instrumental to your growth as well as to your wellbeing and emotional, physical, and mental safety. This can be even more impactful and

Staying comfortable and comparing yourself to others is a surefire way to keep you in the same place. We all choose to stay in false comfort sometimes. Sometimes this appears in the following things we say to ourself: · “I’ll start tomorrow.” · “ I have to do this for my kids instead, I just don’t have time.” · “It doesn’t really matter, I’ll never be as good as __________(insert other person/place/comparison).” · “I don’t know.” These statements allow u

We all carry things and many of us have not had the ability to choose what happened to us, how it happened, or the way in which we feel about it for all sorts of reasons. We do, however, have a say and decision making in what we choose to bring into today. The start to that process is by looking at what is weighing you down; the burden of emotions, events, and roles you fill. Our brains can tell us that it is far easier and much more comfortable to avoid this and use distract

Progress and consistency always overshadow attempts at perfection. Why? It’s because showing up for yourself, in physical, mental, and emotional ways, produce lasting change with compounded growth whereas striving for something unachievable produces self-judgement and often internalized negative self-talk. It’s important not to override your nervous system and any messages related to safety that you are getting, but also to work with those to determine if they actually meet t

A kind and trusted colleague pointed out the importance of vulnerability last week and that also includes transparency in business and entrepreneurship. So we got back to basics and highlighted ways that make Neuro-Roots LLC different and how we approach therapy. The biggest way people find Neuro-Roots LLC is often referral and it’s because we’ve had deep, honest conversations around acceptance, values, and belief in possibility as well as serving as a consultant for other cl

We all move in different ways, sometimes due to our neurotype and sometimes based on preference. Movement can be influenced by time, setting and surrounding, schedules, commitments, beliefs in ourselves, stigma, patterns, injuries, seasons, resources, and support systems among so many other things. When we move and engage in stimulation, it impacts our nervous system. When we look at stimming behaviors, they can appear (though not always and this certainly is not an exhaustiv

You matter…and that goes along with your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. The body and the brain work together and when you ignore one, the other or both, when events seem to bombard you and you can’t catch your breath, or when life seems unmanageable, things start to slow, feel overwhelming, or inevitably begin to break down. It can be difficult to prioritize your mental health, not only due to external resources in finding care, but also in allocating your own res

Emotions can be noticed, felt, and experienced differently based on your neurotype. Some of that affects processing and potentially causes a delay in emotional response, some may be in a felt sense of dysregulation and confusion about the emotions especially if sensory awareness and overwhelm is heightened, and other times individuals may just have overall difficulty with emotional identification and the ability to label the emotion and communication what is happening, especi

Strength…seeing that versus the deficit, weakness, or failure can be the difference between possibility and feeling stuck. If we don’t understand a behavior, whether that be in ourself or others, we can move to judgment and pathologizing. A good example is the often misunderstood info dump that can happen as an autistic person. For an autistic person, it can be a means of connection, deep vulnerability in sharing a special interest or part of who they are, and even at times a

Masking, like most things in life, has a few sides to it. Both neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals engage in masking, though the costs incurred of its use will vary dramatically as a result of your neurotype. Inherently, the use of masking is really about safety. At times that safety is for yourself with others and at times it is for safety with yourself (yes, you can also mask from and to yourself). This article highlights masking as avoidance of harm : https://pmc.n

Diagnosis is a big topic, a label can be really scary…but what is downright terrifying is not knowing yourself, judging yourself for your capability or capacity, and worse, having others pass along their own conclusions of you to you. Diagnosis isn’t right for everyone, but it can be empowering and allow you to make decisions for yourself based on what you know and how you need things to be. Your decision related to diagnosis may also be based on age, severity of what is goin

April is Autism Acceptance Month…that can be both a time of celebration and additional stressors as those who are either autistic or who support those who are autistic are critically aware of growth as well as continued stigma for those with autism. From the growth mindset, mental health in those with autism is becoming more holistic, inclusive, and aware…yay! At Neuro-Roots LLC we are foundationally based on the premise that taking a full approach where we see an individual

Thoughts vary along with the process in which we use to create them. Your neurotype may dictate the varying ways that you process information, thoughts, experiences, and how you both deliver those in communication and in connection with others along with what you seek in terms of gathering information and processing that which is already within you. Regardless of how we produce or process thoughts, they hold a lot of power and reframing them to align with our goals and values

Perception varies between individuals and is based on all of those factors that enter into the creation of perception itself. At times perception in general or specific perceptions that we have can be rigid or can allow for alteration and change over time. Both experience (nurture) and neurotype (nature) form intricate and unique perspectives that can further be perpetuated, adhered to, or dictated by emotions that drive such. Factors that funnel into perception can include:

What are Therapy Intensives? You may be familiar with the traditional model of therapy, a weekly therapy appointment often lasting between 45 and 55 minutes, then moving to maintenance where you decrease sessions. Depending on both your history and the issues you bring into the therapy container, this timeframe may be too short to get the progress, processing, and reframing you desire to produce sustainable growth over the course of a couple of months. Therapy intensives give

Awareness..definitely one of those things that we strive for in mental health and through engagement in therapy. It is a fundamental cornerstone to building new action, decision making, progress, and meeting goals. However, the second component that is absolutely necessary to meeting those goals is action based on that new awareness. If we only have awareness and our therapy journey continues to take us down the path of awareness and yet nothing else shifts based on that…we s