Alison Sullivan and Associates

Exercising courage builds a conscious relationship with authenticity.
Authenticity is being in aligned connection with who you actually are, right now. Not who you were, not who you are becoming or want to be.
Courage helps you grow into authenticity by helping you take the risks you need to, to see and feel into who you are even when the people around you don’t approve or understand.

If you’ve been a part of our social media community for a while, then you know I enjoy summer, I’m like a lizard on her heat rock during this time of year. It’s also the time of year when a lot of my flowers start to bloom so it’s an ideal time to talk about what blooming means in our personal lives.
Harnessing the power of summer to bloom requires three key elements: self-trust, courage, and authenticity. In our upcoming workshop, on June 30th we will dive into these concepts and explore how they contribute to the process of personal blooming. Through discussion, visualization, and personal reflection, you will gain insights on how to recognize when you feel trapped in a pattern of growth and healing. By the end of the session, you will have the tools to embrace a fuller expression of yourself by choosing to bloom.
Sign up today, link in bio and let’s bloom!

I’m reposting this from last summer because I’ve come to believe over the past year that this concept is a really important part of our human experience.
Once we decide to heal and grow, and we build some familiarity with the discomfort of that process, it can actually become comfortable. We can really get used to the idea of digging deeper, exploring more understanding more broadly. At some point though, that’s not healing anymore. That’s being attached to healing.
Although it is true that we are regularly evolving and growing there’s a blooming season as well. There’s a season where we express fully our growth and our healing. Where we need to lean into the vulnerability of all that we’ve learned to express that in our relationships in our work in our personal life, trusting in the process and outcome of that blooming season. It’s the fullest expression of who we are in that moment in time and such a brilliant demonstration of authenticity.
It takes trust, it takes courage and it’s worth it. Because I believe that part of our birthright is human being is getting to experience the fullness of who we are at any given moment time. Isn’t that what blooming is all about?

If you’re uncomfortable with change then this event is for you.
Together we will discover how to build a relationship with change that opens you to opportunities to consciously adapt to change mindfully direct change, and openly allow the rhythms of change to transform you in meaningful empowering ways.
Sunday May 19! 5-6:15pm. You can grab your ticket at the link in our bio or on our website under the workshops tab. Can’t wait to see you there!

The spring event is live! This is the second in a four part seasonal talk series this year. Come join me for an evening chat to learn how spring invites us to put action into our dreams and desires. Seating is limited! You can sign up below!

https://alisonsintegrativehealth.org/workshops

What does it mean to let life move through you?
☀️
When life is moving through you you are aligned with presence, witnessing awareness and non-attachment.
☀️
You’re not dissociated and you’re not anxiously clinging; rather you are connected to yourself and investing in the experiences of your life with curiosity, openness and loving kindness.
☀️
This cultivates flexibility, adaptability, as well as grit and endurance; all of which support a partnership with change and a meaningful sense of self.
☀️

Spring is a transition season that highlights the constancy of change. Just like nature, we are always changing. When we can learn to partner with change a few important things happen.
1. We decrease our fear of change and our resistance towards change.
2. We can amplify the positive impact of the change process
3. We can increase our awareness of curiosity which increases wonder, awe and joy.

So we’ll be sharing all kinds of information about how to partner with change over the next several weeks leading up to the next talk in our four part series this year.

Thank you Fredericksburg! I appreciate your support and your commitment to normalizing mental healthcare in our community! Even more exciting is that there are 7 finalists in the mental health category this year 🙌🏼. That means so many people nominated our local therapists and that is what sends a powerful message that mental health care is a part of primary healthcare. Voting is now open for the next two weeks, please consider voting everyday for anyone therapist in the final round to continue . I sure do love this town. 🩷

All this month we are focusing on

C O M M U N I T Y ✨

Who true community benefits
What cultivates community
How to understand your relationship with community
Why it matters to mental health

Because we need B O T H a connection with our authentic self A N D community around us. One without the other doesn’t benefit us holistically.

Do you have community connections?

We all want deeper connections, more peace and more joy, right?
And our culture can give the message that if we do more if we see more, if we buy more then we will have those things. That’s not really how we work though.
What actually supports us in developing deeper connections, and connecting with joy and peace is a conscious awareness of who we are, what values we hold, and what drives us. We find these things when we can process our experiences, learning from them and finding meaning in them .
Stillness is how we discover who we are, what matters to us, and what our experiences mean to us. I get it, it can feel scary to be still, and notice what’s happening inside us at first. Overtime it can become a powerful guidance tool.
Want to learn more? Join us on February 18 as we explore stillness and how to harness the power of it especially in winter.

Developing a consistent relationship with stillness is an effective way to experience all of these things and more.

When we take the time to just be, it helps us digest our experiences, sift through conflicts, and distill down what is most meaningful to us.

If you want to know more, please join us on February 18 for a discussion and meditation on harnessing the power of stillness and winter. To find out more check out the link in our bio.

When we build a relationship with stillness we learn how to recognize our wants and needs more consistently. If we then take actions that align with our wants and needs we create internal security. Internal security helps us loosen our grip on trying to control the people places and things around us, we can relax into flow knowing that we are able to care for ourselves.

What is personal power practically speaking?
I think it’s useful to understand your power as the intersection of responsibility and accountability.
Responsibility is owning that you are a decision maker in your life. Sure, decisions are influenced by a variety of factors both conscious and unconscious but you are still making choices.
Accountability is owning the impact of those choices.
Understanding how these concepts work together can support you in harnessing your personal power in ways that align with your values and beliefs.

Holidays can be complicated for folks because of cultural differences, familial dynamics, religious beliefs and many other factors.
If that’s feels true for you today, I see you. Allow yourself to be where you are and feel what you feel. Doing that will help open space within you to explore an authentic connection to yourself and to create an authentic connection to the holiday, whatever that means for you.
Over time, practices like that can help you to detach from conditioning that isn’t aligned with who you are with more clarity and more peace. While also helping you to feel more confident in yourself as you are, even if that looks different than the majority culture or from your family.
Being you is the foundation for joy, connection and love.

What are you harvesting.

When I think about harvest season metaphorically, I think about heart centered seeds. Heart seeds of dreams, values and hopes. Harvest season rewards us with evidence of those heart centered energy investments. It confirms our hopes and fuels our dreams.

We celebrate fruition.



Unless you are experiencing a disappointing harvest in your garden or life. One with depleted blooms, injured or diseased crops, crops that either never germinated or died earlier in their growth cycle. Those harvest seasons tempt us to avoid reflection or even connection in any sense with what contributed to a harvest we didn’t want or expect.

If you want to explore how to become more intentional about what you’re harvesting, check out the rest of my latest blog. Link in bio! And on our website!

✨New month
✨New theme
Fall encourages you to begin the journey inward, to release what you have processed, outgrown and no longer need. It invites you to explore the shadows within, the parts of you that you may try to hide but that ultimately when understood and accepted, allow you to bloom more fully into yourself.
So we’re diving into the shadows with you this month. No worries, we have a flashlight.

Reflection supports you in integrating your experiences which leads to, self trust, self knowledge, wisdom and discernment.
Rumination provides more immediate comfort in that it’s likely familiar, predicable and can feel like it insulates you from vulnerability.
We’ll be unpacking these concepts and more this month as we gear up for the fall and winter, seasons of letting go and going within.

Often in therapy clients understandably ask how am I going to do that? I think it is human nature to want to know the blueprint, with all the details. However, getting clear on the vision first is what opens up the plane of possibility for so many different blueprints, many different ways to arrive at the vision. The vision of what you want opens up the pipeline of dreaming, of desire, of creating hope and inspiration. Spending time imagining what you want is not only restorative it’s energizing, because it is the energy of creation.

Many times we get stuck wishing for what was or wanting to hurry up and get to whatever is on the way. Especially this time of year.
Summer is still here but it’s winding down, fall and the increased pace, pressure is arriving but not yet in full swing. The in between.
The in between is about transitioning, letting go an leaning in. It is an invitation to nuance, to both/and, and to partnering with presence.
These invitations support us in developing a relationship with surprise, with awe, with and with wonder. Because in being with in between, you can notice what is unknown, what is possible or new or even newly configured. It’s the energy of becoming; which is the heart of possibility.
How can you partner with the in between?

Avoidance is not synonymous with rest.
We need rest, to restore, rejuvenate and to imagine.
Avoidance, especially when it becomes chronic, can actually be depleting. It shrinks, numbs and limits us.
Start checking in with your body to begin to discover the felt sense of both. Doing that will help you to let go of avoiding and lean into rest.

Daisy Duke is taking it from the office to the streets 💕

Our Burnout group starts next Tuesday! Invest in yourself by joining us weekly for the next 4 weeks to learn about what burnout is and how to heal in and avoid it.
Link to sign up in bio!

Swipe to see some the signs of burnout!
If you’re thinking, it’s summer who cares about Burnout?
We do, which is a part of why we are offering our Burnout 4 week group this summer.
Burnout can happen to you at anytime. Learning to understand what it is, how to treat it AND prevent it; empowers you to flourish in the context of your life.
Sign up today! Link in bio!

Sometimes we need to trust that we’ve healed enough, repaired enough, and grown enough. And then we need to let go and allow ourselves to bloom.
It’s easy to get attached to growing and healing, because at some point, that too can become comfortable.
Non attachment supports us in knowing when it’s time to bloom into our growth.
Want to know more? Check out this month’s blog. Link in bio!

✨ New Group ✨

Our fantastic MSW intern, Megan has designed a four week group to help you - Understand what Burnout is Learn to read the signs of burnout
AND Gain tools to help you get out of Burnout and even prevent it!
Group begins July 11! Sign up, participation is limited. Link in bio!

Practicing interpersonal vulnerability reinforces that:
You are safe
You belong (especially to yourself)
You matter
You have power
In the wake of trauma, we armor up by using control, avoidance and numbing to protect ourselves from pain. Vulnerability can feel unsafe, it is the pathway home to your power and your healing.

Thank you Fredericksburg!
Your continued support of this work and your faith in me is humbling.
I love this community and I love this work.
Thank you. 💕

Sometimes it may seem as if you have to turn away from yourself, your wants, and your needs to keep a connection with another that you care about.
Boundaries are the key to be able to hold on to yourself and stay in connection with others.

It’s been awhile since we talked about our practice philosophy.
We are an integrative mental health practice, which to us means, we view the mind body as one system.
We know that food impacts mood and good digestion is key.
We know that emotion lives in your body.
We incorporate mind body interventions in our work.
And…
We also understand systemic oppression is real and impacts mental and physical health.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month 🍀
We think mental health matters everyday and use this account to provide important integrative mental health information, concepts, strategies and tools.
Why?
In short because we rise by lifting others. Sharing our knowledge and experience supports everyone, so we all benefit.
And of course, I’m always looking for opportunities to post pics of Daisy Duke, aka, The Duke, aka Mrs. Beasley.
If you’ve read all the way down to this part of the caption; thank you. And today’s mental health tip is, bet on yourself. You’re a good bet.