Whole System Healing

Black-and-white thinking is a survival strategy. When our nervous system feels unsafe, the brain scrambles for clarity, and certainty feels like safety. So we reduce complexity into binary choices—right or wrong, good or bad…

Ironically, one of the ways I came to understand this was by thinking about the limits of thinking.

For a long time, I found myself caught between two approaches to healing. On one side, the top-down tools (mindset work, cognitive reframes, positive psychology, talk therapy), and on the other, the bottom-up work (somatics, nervous system regulation, attunement to sensation, and deeper body wisdom).

I kept asking myself: Which one is better? Which is the real way to heal?

Eventually I realized the question itself was rooted in black-and-white thinking. It’s not one or the other; it’s both. Neuroscience confirms it— our thoughts and beliefs shape our physiology, and our nervous system influences our emotions and perceptions. Trying to heal with only one part of the system is like reading half the map and expecting to find your way.

When I work with clients, I am better able to meet them as whole beings… with minds, bodies, and souls that are all in constant communication. That shift has made my work so much more true to the complexity of being human.