Body-Led Mental Health

09/01/2026

What Would Dolly Do?

A few days after Dolly Parton passed, I was sitting at a conference in Dallas when an entire room of clinicians was asked to talk about our favorite Dolly songs.

The room erupted.

Stories. Laughter. Music. Memories.

Later, driving around Dallas, I noticed enormous Texas flags flying at half-mast. And I kept thinking about what happens when millions of people who have never met somehow grieve—and remember—together.

There’s actually a name for some of this: **collective effervescence.** That feeling of connection we experience when we sing, move, laugh, celebrate, or even grieve together.

And Dolly gave us a whole lot of opportunities for that.

But what I’ve always admired most about her wasn’t just what she accomplished. It was how much she shared once she did.

So I wrote about Dolly, our nervous systems, those giant Texas flags, the books that will keep arriving in children’s mailboxes, and the little sticker on my water bottle that will keep reminding me to ask:

**What would Dolly do? 💗**

New on *Body Led Mental Health.*

I was at a conference in Dallas on Friday, just a few days after Dolly Parton died, when we were asked to turn to the person beside us and talk about one of our favorite songs of hers.

08/27/2026

I'm at the airport now heading to Dallas to present at the **IAEDP Dallas/Fort Worth 2026 Summer Workshop!**

I’ll be closing out the conference with:

**The Hormonal Conversation: How Stress and Cycles Shape Eating Disorder Symptoms, Physiology, and Psychology**

One of the conversations I keep coming back to in eating disorder treatment is this: **we cannot separate what is happening psychologically from what is happening physiologically.**

Hormones, stress, nervous system state, sleep, hunger, sensory changes, and the menstrual cycle can all change how someone experiences their body—and sometimes, how accessible our therapeutic tools even are.

I’m excited to spend time with other eating disorder professionals talking about how we can bring more of the **body** into the conversation.

And I’m especially excited to learn from the other presenters throughout the day. Dallas, I’ll see you tomorrow! ❤️

08/25/2026

One of my favorite therapy memories actually started with someone **overhearing a session through the wall.**

My client and I were laughing hysterically. Later, the person who heard us stopped by and basically said, *“If therapy can be like THAT…I might actually be willing to try it.”* 😂
I’ve never forgotten that.

Yes, therapy holds grief, trauma, tears, and really hard things. But **laughter, joy, playfulness, and connection belong there too.**

Sometimes healing is learning that your body can hold more than one thing at once.

You can grieve **and** laugh.
You can struggle **and** feel joy.
You can do deep work **without every moment feeling heavy.**

I wrote more about why I think laughter belongs in the therapy room in my newest Body-Led Mental Health article:

https://bodyledmentalhealth.substack.com/p/waityou-also-laugh-in-your-therapy

08/20/2026

Imagine if trees spent as much time trying to look like each other as we do.

We compare our size, our shape, our curves, our skin, the way we’re aging—and all the ways our bodies seem different from the ones around us.

But imagine walking through a forest and wishing every tree looked exactly the same.

We don’t look at a wide trunk, crooked branch, exposed roots, or changing leaves and decide that tree is doing something wrong.

Those differences are what make a forest look like a forest.

Maybe we could offer our bodies a little more of that same permission—to grow, change, age, take up space, and be different from the body standing next to us. 🌲

08/18/2026

“What if the problem isn’t inconsistency? What if the problem is a lack of context?”
Our bodies aren’t static. Hormones, sleep, hunger, stress, and nervous system state can all shift how we feel, think, and respond.'

Learning our patterns doesn’t mean controlling them. It means having enough context to replace “What is wrong with me?” with “Oh. That makes sense.”

Read more at Body: https://bodyledmentalhealth.substack.com/p/when-the-body-becomes-predictable

08/11/2026

What if your mental health isn’t just in your head? What if the way you’re thinking and feeling today has something to do with how your body is doing today? Poor sleep, pain, hormones, hunger, stress, illness, or a nervous system that hasn’t had a chance to settle can all influence the story our brain starts telling us.

There’s a phrase I come back to over and over in therapy: Story follows state. Sometimes we spend so much energy trying to change the story in our heads when the body underneath it is asking for our attention first. My newest Body-Led Mental Health article digs into why sometimes the place to start with our mental health isn’t actually our mind.

Check out my latest blog here: https://bodyledmentalhealth.substack.com/p/story-follows-state

07/31/2026

07/30/2026

Maybe you’re not broken. Maybe you’re just cycling.

07/29/2026

Have you ever felt like you're suddenly wobblier in yoga… or like your balance is just off at the gym?

It may not be your imagination.

As progesterone rises after ovulation, it may influence joint stability, proprioception (your body's awareness of where it is in space), and ligament laxity. For some people, that can mean feeling less steady, needing to slow down, or making small adjustments to movement.

Your body isn't failing you—it may just be asking for a different kind of support during this phase of your cycle. 🌙

Have you ever noticed your balance changes throughout the month?

07/28/2026

"There has only ever been one body trying to survive, adapt, protect, and make sense of the world the best it can."

I wrote those words because they've been sitting with me for a long time.

The longer I do this work, the harder it becomes to separate "mental health" from "physical health." I don't see people as minds carrying bodies around. I see one beautifully interconnected system that's constantly communicating.

This article is probably one of the clearest explanations I've written about why I've started describing myself as a one-system therapist—and why that shift has changed the way I understand hormones, trauma, chronic illness, ADHD, eating disorders, sleep, and so much more.

I'd love to know what resonates with you after you read it. 💛

https://open.substack.com/pub/bodyledmentalhealth/p/im-not-a-mind-body-therapist-im-a?r=4mhj0g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true