Issue One
Hey, I’m really glad you’re here.
If you’re reading this, it means you wanted something a little deeper and to help you either in general or between sessions.
Embark exists because so many people are exhausted from trying to “do healing right.”
So often, that looks like managing emotions instead of understanding them, pushing through instead of slowing down, or performing growth instead of actually feeling safe.
This newsletter is about taking power back and gaining knowledge and understanding of ourselves. I wanted to create something different.
A community and safe place.
What Embark Is Really About
At its core, Embark is about recognizing patterns and making steps towards change and growth.
These patterns are the ones you keep repeating.
The ones you don’t notice until you’re already knee-deep in them.
The ones your nervous system learned a long time ago, before you had language for them.
It’s about understanding:
why your body reacts before your brain catches up
why certain relationships drain you in ways you can’t quite explain
why “just calm down” has never worked
Because clarity doesn’t come from forcing change.
It comes from understanding what’s already happening.
A Foundational Technique
In each newsletter, I’ll share a technique that can help you get through difficult moments. For this issue, we’re starting with a foundational one:
The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Exercise
When emotions spike, your nervous system isn’t looking for insight — it’s looking for orientation.
The 5-4-3-2-1 technique helps bring attention back into the present moment by engaging the senses.
Let’s move through it slowly, name:
5 things you can see
4 things you can physically feel
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste
This technique isn’t meant to fix the problem.
It’s meant to help your body settle enough for clarity to return.
Grounding comes before processing.
Regulation comes before insight.
This Isn’t Therapy — But It Is Therapeutic
This newsletter does not replace therapy, but it is grounded in the same belief that makes therapy work:
You make better choices when you understand yourself.
That understanding can come from insight.
Sometimes it’s from validation.
Sometimes it’s simply having language for something you’ve always felt but could never named.
If you’re here, you don’t need fixing.
You need context.
Inside Embark Insiders
So what is Embark Insiders?
It is a member site connected to our main website meant to be a hub of information, connection, and an overall safe place to reflect.
Here I will continue to store archived newsletters, provide extras, allow you guys to communicate in a safe way to one another via the community reflection, and provide a media resource library so you always have access to any tools or information you may need or want.
There is also a section for you to communicate directly with me if you would like a specific resource or for me to include something different in our little hub.
Practice Notes
Behind the scenes, Embark continues to grow and I am excited to share this with all of you:
Embark Insiders has opened as a free community space — a place designed to feel calm, thoughtful, and pressure-free. It’s meant to hold connection and resources between newsletters, sessions, and content.
EMDR training is underway.
Trauma-informed work has always been central to Embark, and this phase is about deepening that work responsibly and ethically.
Community Reflection
Each month inside Embark Insiders, there’s a simple reflection prompt — something to sit with, respond to, or process on your own time.
Our first community prompt:
What’s something that’s been helping you feel a little more grounded lately?
There’s no right way to engage here.
Quiet awareness counts just as much as sharing.