I thought of the slogan, “Heal boldly, live grounded,” during the design process of my website last spring. I smiled and chuckled a bit at the play on words that had emerged from being in a creative headspace. It’s on brand for me to engage in wordplay to showcase the quirkiness and creativity of my neurodivergent brain.

If you’ve gotten to know me over the past ten years or so, it probably comes as no surprise to hear my gushing about the delights of drinking dark roast coffee. From my time as a barista to slugging my way through undergraduate and graduate studies, to working as a full-time therapist today, I love me some bold drip.

So, what does “Heal boldly, live grounded” mean?

Whatever you want it to mean!

Just kidding, I’m not going to give you the artist’s response here since you probably didn’t click on this blog for me to give you such an answer, so let me explain a bit while you hopefully sip on your own delicious coffee.

I value authenticity, and for me, integrating this value into daily life is a balance of healing and living.

To heal is to live and to live is to heal.

Amidst the play on words with the coffee jargon and unintentionally philosophical-sounding tone, the slogan carries a reminder for me to keep this balance at the forefront of my mind.

One thing I know about myself is that I can get really bogged down with the healing I’m searching for in life. I’ve had moments where I get so focused on the healing side of things that I forget to keep living.

Sometimes it turns into a spiral that has me wondering if I’m “ready” to live, waiting for the “perfect” timing to act. Have I “healed enough” to start a supervised private practice? Have I prepared enough to take such a leap? Am I ready enough? Am I enough?

The questions can become endless and quite debilitating. IYKYK.

My authenticity value would say, “I want to show up in the world today, just as I am right now.” “I want to live.” Lived experiences in past seasons of my life have helped me realize and accept that I was always enough, and it was never a question of whether I was enough.

My authentic self: the part of me who has spent many years searching for permission to exist; to be himself however he knew what that looked like along the way, without judgment or shame.

The wisdom I carry today has shown me that living authentically is vulnerable, and coming out of a worldview that often limits one’s self-expression, giving glory to God first while seeing oneself as “sinful” by nature, can feel especially terrifying at times.

Continuing with the coffee and therapy analogy…

I believe healing from this lived experience brews a very bold cup of reclamation, self-discovery, and self-acceptance.

Different coffee brewing processes exist for a reason. Precision matters for ensuring you don’t make the coffee too intense, too light, too bitter, too tasteless, and so on. The brewing process of your healing will likely need to be modified along the way.

Not everybody jives with the good old-fashioned Bunn commercial batch brew; not everyone wants to fumble around with an Aeropress, and maybe a pour-over method really works for you. Sometimes having someone who’s more experienced with various brewing methods guiding you towards which method works best for you can be helpful for a season.

This brings me to the “live grounded” bit.

For me, healing reconnects me to myself, the ground floor of everything that makes me who I am. It’s there where some of the more difficult parts of me still linger in the shadows, the exiled parts of myself that I’m trying to reparent, the parts of me that I’ve been able to bask with in the sunshine, and so much more.

Healing reconnects me to the single-origin nature of my authenticity, and from that unique place, I get to grow and live from the ground up. I get to grow alongside other humans in the very places I find myself living.

Sometimes, we need to uproot ourselves and find ground that contains soil better suited for the healing we need. Sometimes, the environment becomes unsuitable for growth, and recognizing the unsuitability of the soil can be difficult, sometimes impossible on your own.

If you’re finding my anecdotes and analogies resonating with your felt and lived experiences, welcome to Dark Roast Wellness.

I’m honored and privileged to be the therapeutic ‘guide’ who can help you discover which brewing method of healing is best for you. That might mean I need to be bold and tell you that you’re burning your coffee, that what is part of your brewing process or the environment in which you’re grounding yourself might be working against you. And maybe it’s fine-tuning what already is working for you.

If you’re feeling like your coffee is turning out too light these days, I can help you show up more boldly in your life.

Whether you’re reaching out for help with Religious Trauma, OCD, or trying to navigate an increasingly difficult world, all quirkiness and wordplay aside, I’m here to help you heal, grow, and live in ways that feel authentic and valuable to YOU.

At Dark Roast Wellness, let’s work together to help you heal boldly and live grounded.

Fill out my contact form and let’s get a free 15-minute consultation call scheduled!