emotional regulation Archives

Staying Sane in an Insane World

There are moments when the world stops feeling coherent. Not just chaotic, but unhinged in a way that settles into the body. People aren’t shaken simply because something bad happened. What destabilizes us is the erosion of predictability. The quiet loss of shared rules, upheld values, and the assumption of basic human dignity. When those foundations begin to fracture, the nervous system notices immediately.

Staying sane in an insane world does not mean becoming unaffected or detached. It means learning how to remain present without being overwhelmed. It means understanding that chronic exposure to harm, injustice, and instability changes how the brain and body function, and that this response is not a personal failure. It is human.

This piece is an invitation to tend the nervous system while bearing witness. To ground without bypassing. To make meaning without collapsing into despair. To stay connected to yourself, to others, and to your values, even when the world feels difficult to recognize.

Nervous System Support at Storm Haven

Nervous system support is not about fixing yourself or forcing calm. It is about understanding how your body learned to survive and helping it feel safe enough to rest. At Storm Haven, we see regulation as refuge. A place where the system no longer has to brace against the storm.

The Sky Within: Understanding the Psychological Layers of Life’s Storms

Opening Forecast | Where Storm Meets Haven When the Sky First Breaks The first time the sky broke open, you thought it was the end.Pressure had been building for months, an ache in the chest, a static hum in the mind, the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t sleep. Then the thunder arrived, louder than youContinue reading “The Sky Within: Understanding the Psychological Layers of Life’s Storms”

The DSM-5-TR and the Map That Forgot the Weather

The DSM-5-TR may map the mind, but it forgets the weather. Beyond its tidy criteria lives the living ecology of ADHD, autism, and AuDHD—the rhythms that shape daily life, not just diagnostic codes. This field guide steps past the manual’s margins into the real terrain of nervous systems in motion: the hummingbirds of hyperactivity, the cartographers of sensation, the phoenixes of rebirth. It’s not a list of symptoms—it’s a forecast of humanity in all its unpredictable, beautiful weather.

Protecting Your Energy During the Holidays: A Witch Therapist’s Guide

The Arrival The path to her cottage was narrow, half-claimed by the wild. Autumn had dressed the forest in its dying brilliance: leaves the color of garnet and copper crushed underfoot, the air thick with the scent of rain and woodsmoke. Moss, a deep velvet green that seemed to glow from within, crept up theContinue reading “Protecting Your Energy During the Holidays: A Witch Therapist’s Guide”

Living in the Storm: The AuDHD Reality Beyond Diagnosis

Beyond “Double Diagnosis” When most people hear the phrase “Autism and ADHD,” they picture two separate checklists stapled together—an overlap of symptoms, a double helping of challenges. But AuDHD isn’t a stack of diagnostic leftovers, and it’s definitely not “twice as disordered.” It’s its own ecosystem, a place where two rivers—Autism’s steady current and ADHD’sContinue reading “Living in the Storm: The AuDHD Reality Beyond Diagnosis”

🌙 Loving Her Through the Shifts: A Partner’s Guide to Hormones, Neurodivergence, and Holding Space

When Hormones Take the Wheel (And No One Left a Map) Let’s paint a familiar scene: Your partner walks into the room and suddenly—the air shifts. Maybe it’s subtle. Maybe it’s more like a hurricane rolling in mid-sentence. They’re tearful, irritable, zoned out, overstimulated, or withdrawn. You replay the last hour in your mind wonderingContinue reading “🌙 Loving Her Through the Shifts: A Partner’s Guide to Hormones, Neurodivergence, and Holding Space”

🌀 Welcome to the Matrix, Friend. We See You.

You wake up. Your phone is dead. So is your motivation.You blink, and somehow it’s 3:14 PM. You’re still in yesterday’s hoodie, halfway through a half-task you don’t even remember starting. 🌟 Managing energy with neurodivergence is possible—even in a world that worships hustle culture and 5 AM routines. And no, you’re not alone in questioning it.Continue reading “🌀 Welcome to the Matrix, Friend. We See You.”

Dear Neurodivergent Mom: You’re Not Broken—You’re Becoming (Wanda Maximoff Would Agree)

Welcome to the Fourth Trimester—A.k.a. The Westview of Motherhood If you’ve recently given birth and feel like your sense of time, identity, and reality are collapsing in on themselves—hi. You might be a new mom, and you might also feel like you’ve accidentally hexed your own life into a bizarre alternate sitcom universe where nothingContinue reading “Dear Neurodivergent Mom: You’re Not Broken—You’re Becoming (Wanda Maximoff Would Agree)”

Are You an Innie or an Outtie? (Or Both?)

Using Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Severance to Understand the Parts Inside You—and the Strange Magick of Becoming Whole Again Welcome to Lumon Industries (a.k.a. Your Brain) Let’s be honest: if your inner world sometimes feels like it was designed by a morally ambiguous tech company with suspicious lighting and no windows… you’re not alone.Continue reading “Are You an Innie or an Outtie? (Or Both?)”