Lauren Auer LCPC

Let go of the expectations you have on your healing journey.

Your journey is yours.

The magnitude of grief is directly relational to the magnitude of love.

You can’t have one without the other.

Can you hold them both?

You’ve come to the wrong place ….

It’s a hard reality that you ultimately have no power over the things by a your children may face, but you have every ability to be the support they need if/when they do. There is SO MUCH power in this.

I want to be my 4-year-old son when I grow up. He constantly reminds me of how simple life really should be.

What if we, as adults, did the same? What if we stopped playing the games that drain us—whether it’s toxic relationships, friendships that don’t feel right, jobs that leave us empty, or the harsh way we talk to ourselves? We could learn so much from our little ones.

Let’s walk away from what doesn’t serve us, without guilt, without hesitation. Because we deserve to feel good about our lives, inside and out.

Guilty!

Anyone else ?

My brain works in analogies.
Consider this one. Really sit with it. What is spilling out of you?

I would love to know how this sat with you in the comments ⬇️

They are your greatest teachers because their information comes from your subconscious.
Listen to them.

Small movements creates ripples

What is the next tolerable step ?

Do that.

Pretty much 🤣😂
At least I got 7 classes about cultural competency and theoretical orientation …

It’s really normal if your healing triggers people.

If you had a close friend that you frequently stay up late and have fun with, and that friend told you they were feeling the impact of the lack of sleep and financial strain their lifestyle was having on them, and therefore choosing to stop, it might sting.

This choice they are making is going to draw attention to the choices you are making, as it communicates that your actions are equally as irresponsible, even if this is fully not their intent in communicating this.

It might force you to evaluate your own sleep and finances before you are ready or willing to do so, and this could cause anger or strain on the relationship.

Make sense?

Heal anyway.

Takeaway so far : When you invest in yourself, you are investing in everyone that surrounds you.

is heaven.

Okay… now I’m turning my phone off again for a day filled with yoga, breath work, craniosacral, manifesting, journaling, reading, and movement.

Make sure you aren’t your own biggest obstacle.

The fear of failure can be so overwhelming that not trying at all feels safer. And paradoxically, the fear of success can also hold us back. Success brings change and the unknown, which can be intimidating, especially if we find comfort in familiarity, even if it’s not ideal.

Deep-seated feelings of unworthiness often drive self-sabotaging behaviors. When you believe you don’t deserve happiness or success, it’s easy to engage in actions that affirm this belief.

Sometimes, the struggle becomes a familiar terrain. Leaving this known struggle can be terrifying. Many trauma survivors feel a sense of security in their pain because it’s predictable. Change, even positive change, feels threatening.

Trauma leaves an indelible mark on our psyche, affecting how we perceive and react to the world. It can trap us in a state of perpetual alertness, making it difficult to move forward. Our nervous system’s response to past events can create a cycle of self-sabotage as a misguided attempt to protect us from further harm.

But here’s the truth: You are worthy of happiness and success. Embrace change. Break the cycle.
Your journey is worth it, and so are you.

I recently repotted this plant. For almost a year, several new leaves had popped up, but they weren’t unfurling.

This plant is quite large, so I had to bring a tarp into my office, pull the entire plant out, and break up the old soil and roots to remove a ton of rocks mixed in. It was a messy task, but after a few weeks, the leaves are finally starting to unfurl.

Here’s the metaphor (because everything is a metaphor with me): We can grow and be resilient on our own, but sometimes our environment holds us back. Even with the old compacted soil and rocks, this plant managed to grow new leaves, but it couldn’t thrive until I did the messy work of changing its environment.

If you feel stagnant or stuck, ask yourself if there’s something in your environment that needs a radical change to help you reach the next level. Sometimes it’s a huge, daunting task, but it might be the thing standing between you and true healing.

Where’s the lie?
😂

My promise as a therapist.

You are no broken or powerless. You are full of potential. No exceptions.

If your nervous system adapted to an environment where being hyper-aware of others’ moods was essential for feeling safe and in control, it’s likely that your nervous system struggles to distinguish when hypervigilance is necessary and when it isn’t.

This can lead to a constant state of alertness, even in safe environments.

Healing means letting yourself acclimate and adapt to safety.

When your mind is in an anxiety spiral it is really easy for other fears and anxious thoughts to get sucked into the vortex. Before you know it you are wondering if that email you sent two weeks ago to your boss should have had more exclamation points and if they secretly hate you.

Pause. Dump your brain out. Write all the junk in your head down to get it out of your brain and sort through each item asking these questions.

Chances are high that things are more manageable than you think.

Let me know if this helps!

It’s easy to find myself at times becoming cynical about things like breathing exercises, positive affirmations, and encouragement to be “kinder to myself.”

When things are heavy, it doesn’t feel like ‘self care’ can make a dent, and they surely won’t change the circumstances outside of my control, so why do it?
But I think there is room for some nuance here.

Those things may not be the ultimate fix, but could they move the needle a bit towards regulation?

They won’t make circumstances beyond me change, but could a slower breathing pace possibly help relieve a bit of body tension and reduce the inflation being stored in this moment?

They may not make depression or anxiety disappear but maybe a slight shift could be the thing that gets you out from under the covers and able to run a brush through your hair. A tiny building block.

No, it isn’t a fix, but it’s a step.

Keep going.

Pushing Through It Is KEEPING You Stuck Why Slowness is Essential for Emotional Wellness

The hurt may always hurt, but it doesn’t have to keep rippling more hurt to your interactions and relationships ( to others and to yourself)

This is Delilah. My four year old caught her and loved her and then set her free and said ☺️

Often the people that have done the least healing and have the least self awareness, will be triggered by the healing version of you. It’s like holding up a mirror to all the work they are choosing NOT to do.

And round and round we go.
I have two things to say
1- it’s really normal to be anxious about therapy. It’s part of the process.
2- if you are finding yourself in stuck cycles, give somatic therapy a try. Things like EMDR, Brainspotting, etc.
the stuckness goes deeper than logic so the therapy system needs to as well.

Where do I buy a fainting couch? Asking for a friend….

Pain is pain is pain is pain.
You feel what you feel. You just do.
Stop comparing or shaming yourself.

That inner voice that is really hard on yourself… who does it belong to? Where did it start ?

Flawless logic

Moving through is the only way through. Do what you need to grow capacity to get there , but please get there.

The struggle is real….