To be fully alive

on reclaiming our humanity in a content-driven world and a gift from me to you

I said in last week’s letter to you that I’d offer 5 more ideas and thoughts to ponder this week, but honestly…I just don’t want to.

I’m sure I could muster up some ideas from the far corners of my mind and share them with you, but they wouldn’t be true or real or relevant or alive in the way I’d like anything and everything I share with you to feel.

This letter has always been about quality over quantity; about honoring the cyclical nature of creation and art rather than succumbing to the capitalistic and unsustainable “content machine” that has become the norm for those trying to build a community on the internet; and about showing up for you as a human first, and therapist second.

The truth is I’m tired of content for content’s sake, and I have a sneaky feeling you are, too. I’m bored of carousels on instagram about nervous system dysregulation and trauma healing. Not only is all the content starting to look and feel the same, but it’s also starting to feel more and more problematic and, dare I say, actually harmful and antithetical to it’s original intent.

I can’t help but wonder how much of the content from “experts” we’re consuming these days are really just ChatGPT regurgitating old ideas in new, more “digestible” ways. To be fully transparent, I have found ChatGPT useful and helpful in some circumstances, but my concern is that we are using this cognitive, data-driven tool to explore and define something that only humans can fully embody and understand: our lived experiences.

Our lived experience comes from, you guessed it, living. Being with. Feeling connected to all 5 senses at once. As far as I know, robots and AI don’t have lived experiences nor can they, so why are we using them to try and help us better understand what it means to be a thriving and fully alive human being?

A gentle reminder: we cannot and should not try to consolidate our lived experiences into 5-10 little images and graphics to be posted on the internet. Similarly, therapists and mental health practitioners cannot and should not try to define trauma healing and nervous system dysregulation through oversimplified tiktoks and reels.

The content I see out in the world today is more or less what marketing and capitalism has always been: scaring people into believing they need the thing you’re selling. 5 signs your partner might be a narcissist. 7 ways to know you have ADHD. 10 ways to heal your nervous system. The problem with all of these “resources” is two fold: they leave us with even more questions and anxiety, which leads us to seek answers outside of ourselves; and they make us feel even more disconnected and unworthy of our own inner trust.

By disconnecting the lived experience of embodying the work of healing from the cognitive understanding of what trauma is and just simply “how to do the work,” we have willingly contributed to more anxiety, depression, loneliness, and overwhelm than ever before. We don’t trust ourselves because how can we when we’re constantly bombarded with more cognitive awareness without the integration of bodily wisdom and inner knowing? How can we when there is a lack of spaces and communities that actually encourage deeper connection to Self and others?

No doubt there is a major imbalance in today’s world; an imbalance that I am certainly not immune to. I have sacrificed my integrity for “views and engagement” more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve been the person who has created the reels and the tiktoks and the instagram posts that lack nuance. I’ve tried to use ChatGPT to expedite the process of making content for social media only to feel the “no” from my body loud and clear.

I have struggled and continue to struggle with how to show up as both a human being and a therapist in today’s world (check out my post The Bad Therapist for more on this). I have unconsciously diverted from my original intentions and integrity on this many times, but the thing that always brings me back to center - my guiding light as I navigate the murky waters of sharing and creating and building a community on the internet - has always been this:

I want to feel alive.

Anything that makes me feel less than fully, unapologetically, and whole-heartedly alive and human is not for me. Anything that tries to neatly place the human experience - my own and others’ - into a neat little box is simply not welcome here. Any rules or expectations or algorithms that urge us to forgo our own humanity can respectfully fuck right off.

Despite all I’ve shared about AI and the internet above, I’m actually extremely hopeful and excited about our quickly evolving internet landscape. Because whether we choose to utilize it or not (and I hope you will), we humans have a built in BS-meter for authenticity and originality.

Unlike AI, we have a heart and soul that, when listened to, are forever helping us to orient toward deeper connection with other living and breathing beings. Our mirror neurons and sensorimotor capacities guide us towards the environments and communities that provide safety and support.

Put simply, until we take our last breath our bodies are always guiding us into more aliveness.

If we continue to feel into what is deeply nourishing for our bodies, we will be guided back to spaces and communities (online and in real life) that foster authenticity, self-trust, and true belonging.

My hope has always been that All Parts be a safe little corner of the internet where we can explore what being alive feels like, one breath at a time. A place where our lived experiences can be safely explored, processed, and integrated, whether through 1:1 work, through practices shared in the All Parts Home, or through the words I share here on substack. A place where we can embrace our humanity and all that it entails.

I’m so excited to continue to build this little corner of the internet with you in 2025 and beyond. Endless thanks for being here, endless thanks for being you, and endless thanks for giving me the space to be me.

With so much love,

The fully alive part

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A gift, from me to you

The past 6 months have been spent cultivating and re-working All Parts Therapy & Wellness to more wholly reflect my education, philosophy, and embodied knowledge around mental health, healing, and embodiment. It’s consisted of more logistical, left brain things like rebuilding and rebranding a website, but mostly it’s felt like a lot of sitting in white space and asking myself the hard questions:

• What makes me feel alive?

• What do my people (and the broader world at large) need right now?

• How can I ethically and safely support others through these processes?

I’ve realized the answer to these questions will forever be evolving and changing, but for now I’d like to offer you a free PDF that incapsulates much of what I’ve learned over the last 10 years of being emerged in the world of somatic psychology and integrative health.

Reconnecting to Self: A roadmap to presence & embodiment

In this free resource I cover:

• Calming the mind so you can feel grounded and at peace amidst life’s chaos

• The road to building inner trust to navigate challenges with confidence and ease

• Tools for realignment to your authentic Self to live a more intentional, joyful life

You can download this free gift below. I hope it serves you in the way you need.

*note: this resource and any resources I share are never intended to be replacements for therapy and more personalized medical and mental health care. If you are in need for more support, please reach out to book a free 15-minute consultation. You don’t have to move through life’s challenges alone.