Healing is a Ripple Effect

When I talk about my mental health journey, or how BodyTalk helped change my life, I usually focus on me.

My story.

My diagnoses: anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD.

The revolving door of medications that came with those labels.

The breakdowns. The panic. The struggle to survive.

But there’s a part of the story I haven’t talked about much.

My mental health wasn’t just mine to carry.

The people who love me carried it too.

I’ve been lucky. I have an incredible support system.

Friends. Partner. Chosen family.

But this time, I want to talk about one person in particular:

My mom.

When the Person You Love Is Drowning

My mom is one of the funniest humans I know.

Sharp. Caring. Fiercely protective.

She’s the kind of mom who takes the most shit and gives the most love.

I’ve never doubted how deeply I’m loved by her.

But there’s a particular kind of heartbreak that comes from watching your child beg for her life and being powerless to stop it.

I’ve described my lowest moments as hopeless and helpless.

And I can only imagine my mom felt the same.

She couldn’t fix it.

She couldn’t protect me.

And that kind of stress doesn’t just go away.

The Stress We Don’t Talk About

In BodyTalk, we talk a lot about how stress manifests as illness.

How the silent, unseen moments build up inside us.

But we usually focus on the person who’s sick.

The one with the diagnosis.

The one asking for help.

What about the people who’ve been holding their breath beside us the whole time?

What about my mom?

My partner?

My friends?

The ones who watched the breakdowns.

Who held space through the numbness and the isolation.

Who stayed, even when I asked them to leave.

That’s a trauma we rarely acknowledge.

But it lives in their bodies.

Just like it lived in mine.

Healing Isn’t Just for the Person Who’s Struggling

I’ve battled mental health issues for as long as I can remember.

Not for a season. Not for a year. For most of my life.

By the time I hit my breaking point, my body couldn’t hold itself together anymore.

I felt like I was dying.

And in many ways, I was.

My mom lived that with me.

Every phone call.

Every spiral.

Every time I said I didn’t want to be here anymore.

She felt it all.

And her body held onto it too.

That’s why I believe healing doesn’t just start and end with the person in crisis.

It reaches everyone in the room.

And when one person begins to heal, the ripple touches those who carried them.

BodyTalk and the Ripple of Healing

BodyTalk teaches that our bodies hold on to what hasn’t been released, not just our own pain, but the weight we’ve absorbed from others.

I’m not here to fix my mom.

But I’m so grateful she’s open to BodyTalk.

Grateful she’s experienced it, both through me and through other practitioners.

Grateful that the people I love have found value in this work too.

Because healing isn’t just for the person who looks the most unwell.

It’s for everyone who’s been holding it all together.

Caretakers: The Ones Holding It All Together

If you’ve ever been in a caretaker role, you know it rarely comes with warning.

One moment you’re living your life, and the next, you’re trying to hold up someone who can barely stand.

People say things like:

“Put your mask on first.”

“Fill your own cup.”

“You need to look after yourself first.”

But when someone you love is drowning, that feels impossible.

You push your needs aside.

You hang on by a thread.

And you don’t even realize you’re sinking too.

BodyTalk pulled me out when I didn’t know how to move forward.

And now, I get to offer that same support to the people who once held me up.

Healing the Web

This journey hasn’t just been about healing me.

It’s been about healing the web I’m part of.

When one person suffers, everyone connected to them feels it.

I don’t know your story.

But I know what it feels like to live in survival mode.

And I know what it feels like to watch the people who love you carry that weight too.

BodyTalk is what helped me.

Maybe it could help you.

Or maybe it simply reminds you to look for something that goes deeper than treating symptoms.

Because healing doesn’t just ripple outward, it ripples back too.