Nervous System Care & Healing

What if we saw creativity as not just a nice-to-have extra thing, but as an essential part of the human experience, the healing process, and the work of collective liberation?

We are all creative beings (yes, even if you think you’re “bad at art” or “not creative”). 

In this episode, I’ll explore the link between creativity, healing, & collective liberation.

01:48 Creativity can look so many different ways - from picking an outfit for the day to knitting a sweater to singing a song

04:33 Creativity is a part of healing - individual & collective

06:12 Creativity is a way to connect to Self

07:26 Creativity is a shared experience with community

08:34 Creativity is a means of pattern disruption, allowing the brain to build neuroplasticity

11:24 Creativity is an antidote to toxic perfectionism, challenging capitalistic standards of productivity

13:14 Creativity is a means of hope & world-building

15:48 How do you experience creativity?

The intention of this episode is to inspire you to be your most creative Self.

Quote: “Creativity is a stepping stone to world-building. It is the ability to look around us, to challenge the parts of the status quo that are not working, and to come up with something different and hopefully better.”

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado & Oregon (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy). Liz’s services are available online in CO & worldwide.

🌿 RESOURCE

>> Explore art as resistance: www.rebelyellcreative.com/library

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my weekly newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻

What is intuition, how does it work, and how can accessing our intuition help us live more joyful & fulling lives?

Join me & Nanae as we unpack these questions - with thoughtfulness & nuance. Nanae shares about her journey as a therapist & social worker who was completely skeptical about things like intuition, souls, & higher self - to actually becoming an intuitive & energy healer herself. 

If you’ve ever struggled with feeling stuck, in despair, or depressed - like something is off in your energy or in your life, but you can’t figure out why or where to go from here - I invite you to listen to this episode. You might enjoy the practical & insightful reflections that come up in this conversation.

Topics covered:

• How do you define intuition? 04:50
• What’s the difference between intuition & a conditioned bias toward something? 08:14
• Personal experiences that helped Nanae understand how intuition works 11:13
• Why listening to your intuition is not the same thing as feeling your emotions (& why it’s easy to mix up these two experiences) 17:37
• How intuition can help you live the life that you’re uniquely designed to live (aka: what we lose if we don’t use our intuition) 19:20 
• What if someone doesn't believe in intuition, higher self, or the soul? Would intuition still “work” for them? 23:23 
• How intuition can help us move through despair & depression 27:34 
• What’s the difference between mental health counseling & intuitive healing? What happens if we bring these two different paradigms in conversation with each other? 30:45 
• Practical ways to access your intuition - so you can live a more joyful & fulling life 36:39 
• How Nanae takes care of her nervous system as an intuitive healer: the power of breath 41:54

🌿 About the Guest

Nanae Ito (she/her) is a trained intuitive and energy healer with a background in social work and mental health therapy. At the heart of it, she is a teacher that makes spiritual truths about the Universe digestible and understandable to the every day person. She sees this knowledge as the key to reclaiming their inherent ability to resolve life's problems and create a life that they were uniquely designed for, on a soul level. She works mainly with people who are in states of despair, like depression and overwhelm, to direct them back to their own brilliance, power, and intuitive gifts.

🌿 Connect with Nanae

>> Visit Nanae’s website to sign up for her newsletter: www.kokokaratherapy.com

>> Nanae offers complimentary webinar Q&As to dive deeper into topics like intuition, creation and manifestation. Registration links are shared through her newsletter.

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado & Oregon (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. 

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

If you’ve ever criticized yourself for being “lazy,” “unproductive,” or “not trying hard enough”, you may be struggling to conform to capitalistic standards of productivity. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with YOU - it means you’re navigating a system that wasn’t built to account for your full humanity (like your body’s need for rest).

Under capitalism, we’re taught to base our worth on our productivity. Any hour spent resting, playing, or otherwise not working, is considered an hour “wasted.” This is an exhausting way to live - especially if you’re also navigating disabilities, neurodivergence, chronic illness, or anything that makes it harder for you to keep up with the (unsustainable) pace of capitalism.

In this episode, I share how embracing cycles, seasons, and a nonlinear relationship to time can help us deconstruct from capitalism & live more fully.

We’ll explore:

• how capitalism runs on linear time, while nature runs on cyclical time
• why it’s not realistic to expect ourselves to be constantly productive - we are humans, not machines
• why it’s important to honor cycles in nature & in our bodies
• examples of cycles that appear in nature & in cultural traditions: the 4 seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer); the phases of the lunar cycle; and the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac

Let this episode remind you: your life is not a productivity project. You deserve to live fully and freely, and in collaboration with your true nature - not against it.

🌿 Resources Related to Episode Topic

>> How Indigenous ideas about non‑linear time can help us navigate ecological crises

>> A Brief Economic History of Time

>> A brief history of (linear) time

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado & Oregon (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy).

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions, using Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems, to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻

If you experience the world through a highly sensitive nervous system - and often feel stuck in overstimulation, or more deeply impacted by stress compared to others - this episode is here to support you.

Join me & April in a soothing conversation on:

• What is the HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) nervous system & how does it differ from non-HSP nervous systems? | 05:52
• How to care for your highly sensitive nervous system: Calming Portals & Tending Practices | 08:11
• How lifestyle shifts can support your HSP nervous system | 14:12
• Why April wrote the book: Big Feelings, Big Joy | 22:47
• How April tended to her nervous system while writing this book | 28:18
• The HSP community: HSP traits show up across cultures, races, genders, sexualities, ages, and identities | 32:10

April shares practical tools that you can begin to practice today, to help your nervous system shift from overstimulation to calm, regulation, and joy. 

Let this conversation remind you:

>> Your sensitivity isn’t a flaw. Though there are challenges that come with being highly sensitive, HSPs also experience unique gifts & strengths. 

>> When we’re proactive & intentional about taking care of our nervous systems, it’s easier to access the joys & best parts of being highly sensitive.

>> Your sensitivity doesn’t make you “weak” or “fragile.” Due to a phenomenon called “differential susceptibility,” your nervous system has a deep capacity for joy & resilience.

🌿 Resources for Highly Sensitive People

>> Big Feelings, Big Joy (Book): www.bigfeelingsbigjoy.com/book
>> Tending Practices

🌿 About the Guest

April Snow, LMFT (she/her) is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and consultant who specializes in working with highly sensitive people to help calm the storm of overload, guilt, and self-doubt to allow their innate sensitive strengths to shine through. April supports HSPs around the world through her Sensitive Circles community, Sensitive Sessions workshops, Sensitive Stories podcast, and her latest book: Big Feelings, Big Joy.

🌿 Connect with April

>> www.sensitivestrengths.com
>> www.instagram.com/sensitivestrengths  
>> www.tiktok.com/@sensitivestrengths

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. 

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters
>> IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

The nervous system communicates in different “languages,” and one of those languages is sensation - like muscle tension, heart rate, breathing patterns, and other internal bodily experiences. 

The nervous system can also communicate through other languages - like emotions that you feel, thoughts that you think, images that you see in your mind’s eye, or an inner voice that you hear.

In this episode, I share a gentle practice to help you soothe & resource your nervous system - focusing on the language of sensation. 

Across time, this practice can help expand your brain & body’s capacity to access calm, joy, and contentment. Please follow along as you feel called, adjusting or pausing as needed to make this practice work for you. Enjoy. 

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy).

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions, using Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems, to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻

How are our lives shaped by the experiences of our parents, grandparents, and ancestors? How can we honor our family's stories - of migration, survival, assimilation - without having those stories define/limit our future?

Why do some people feel disconnected from their cultures/lineages… and how can reconnecting with our roots help us heal & feel a sense of belonging? 

Join me & Denise in a heartfelt conversation, where we discuss:

• the importance of community-based spaces for healing & education
• how our nervous systems carry the experiences of our ancestors - even if we don’t consciously know what those experiences were
• how adverse childhood experiences (like neglect, bullying, or not feeling loved) shape our lives - but that doesn't mean the future is set in stone
• how the need to survive, assimilate, & blend in can disconnect us from our cultural roots - why it’s never too late to reconnect
• how nature, food, music, stories, art - and anything else that calls to you - can reconnect you to ancestors

We share some of our personal experiences as first / second-generation immigrants, navigating multicultural upbringings in the U.S.

If you’re curious about intergenerational healing, this episode is for you.

Remember: understanding the past can help us find meaning in the present... and your ancestors are rooting for you. 

🌿 Resources Mentioned in Episode

>> You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation, by Julissa Arce

>> ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8882933/

🌿 About the Guest

Denise Jauregui, LCSW (she/her/ella), is the founder of Cultivando Wellness, a bilingual mental health practice and education organization rooted in the belief that healing is deeply connected to culture, community, and the systems that shape our lives. As a first-generation daughter of Mexican immigrants, her work explores the intersections of intergenerational trauma, migration, identity, and belonging. Through psychotherapy, speaking, consultation, professional education, and community-centered gatherings, Denise partners with individuals and organizations to cultivate more culturally responsive, connected, and affirming spaces.

🌿 Connect with Denise

>> Instagram: www.instagram.com/cultivandowellness 

>> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisejauregui

>> Continuing Education for Therapists: www.cultivandowellness.com/continuing-education-offerings 

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. 

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

If your nervous system can’t tell the difference between being chased by a bear and checking the news (or checking your email, or receiving a text that says “we need to talk”)… you’re not alone. You’re among the many people who feel overwhelmed by the pace & intensity of modern life, and you may be experiencing sensory burnout & overload.

In this episode, I explain what “sensory rest” is, and why it’s a necessary antidote to burnout.

We’ll explore how sensory burnout is caused by the systems & environment around us:

• auditory overstimulation through noise pollution
• visual overstimulation through screen exposure
• constant transitions that disrupt attention, including ads & algorithms
• extreme temperatures through climate change

Then, I’ll share a simple plan for sensory rest:

• Minimize sensory input
• Minimize transitions
• Be intentional about screens & technology use
• Create soothing sensory rituals

This episode brings a holistic, ecological, systemic lens to the topic of nervous system burnout, and will leave you with practical ideas to support your mind, body, and spirit. 

🌿 RESOURCES

>> To view research mentioned in the episode, click here

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy).

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions, using Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems, to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻

The term PTSD, short for “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder,” implies that trauma happened in the past (and is over now).

But for so many people, trauma is not a thing of the past - it’s an ongoing, collective, and systemic experience.

In this educational conversation, Dr. Diana Ali & I unpack this question: How do we heal, when trauma is still happening in the present? How do we regulate our nervous systems… even if the environment/circumstances around us remain unsafe?

Topics:

• There are many trauma therapy modalities - how do we decide which one to use? | 04:12
• How do we heal if the trauma isn't over? (& an alternative to the term “PTSD”) | 05:47
• The limitations of Western psychotherapy & why a decolonial approach to therapy matters | 08:20
• How body-based approaches to therapy can support survivors of ongoing trauma - like war, genocide, and systemic oppression | 12:53
• Intro to Havening: resourcing the nervous system through physical touch | 16:08
• Intro to Ashira Active Meditation: intentionally guiding the nervous system through different states of activation (fight, flight, & freeze) in order to release stuck energy & complete processing | 32:10
• The neuroscience behind ancient, collective, community-based healing practices 42:38

🌿 RESOURCES

>> Dr. Samah Jabr’s work on decolonial mental health: www.drsamahjabr.com

>> Chronic traumatic stress disorder: www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/14/mental-health-palestine-children

>> Ashira Darwish’s work on Ashira Active Meditation: www.ashirapremrachana.com

>> Havening Techniques: www.havening.org 

🌿 About the Guest

Dr. Diana Ali (she/her) is a clinical psychologist with 20+ years of experience working with survivors of complex trauma. She uses a variety of trauma therapies including EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, the DBT-PTSD protocol, Brainspotting, the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM), Havening techniques, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Diana is certified in Ashira Darwish’s “Ashira Active Meditation” Protocol, a community-based intervention involving a series of somatic release practices that were developed for working with survivors of ongoing, chronic trauma. She has been honored to be able to offer Ashira Active Meditation workshops to Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

🌿 Connect with Diana

>> Therapy in CO & CA: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/diana-ali-ventura-ca/757844 

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. 

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

Community is essential for our nervous system health - especially in times of systemic turmoil, injustice, and grief. In this episode, I discuss why it can be difficult to find community in our individualistic Western society; and why community is a two-way street, where we learn to give AND receive.

Through the concept of “love languages,” we’ll explore how to build community in ways that align with our needs, capacity, and available resources. I end with a reminder that our nervous systems are wired for connection, and that our ancestors lived & survived through community.

01:31 Why does community matter, especially in these times?

05:48 How do we define community?

12:52 The Love Languages of Community

14:28 Quality Time

17:39 Gifts

20:39 Acts of Service / Solidarity

25:15 Our Nervous Systems, Our Ancestors

Quotes: 

“What I like about collective care is that it disrupts despair and it disrupts isolation. It's like lighting one candle and then spreading that light to an entire room of candles. We remember that we're not alone, that we have each other, and that a better world, a more just world, a more loving world, is absolutely possible because we're here and we're participating in its creation.”

“I can’t do all the good the world needs — but the world needs all the good I can do.”

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy).

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions, using Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems, to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻

Nervous system regulation is the capacity to shift states - from dysregulated, overwhelmed, and disconnected, to regulated, grounded, and connected. It’s a skill that we can develop & strengthen across time, and that allows us to build healthy relationships - with self, others, & the world.

This episode shares options for nervous system regulation - self- & co-regulation - so you can add ideas to your nervous system care plan.

Topics covered:

• What is self-regulation?
• What is co-regulation?
• Why we need BOTH self-regulation & co-regulation practices: experiences of healthy connection & co-regulation teach our nervous systems how to self-regulate
• How childhood experiences impact nervous system development (& why none of us are “doomed” by the past - our nervous systems are malleable, and capable of change, healing, and rewiring across time)
• Nature offers opportunities for non-human relationship, connection, & co-regulation - which is helpful if you don’t feel safe to co-regulate w/ other humans

RESOURCES

>> To view research mentioned in the episode, click here.

🌿 About the Host

Liz Zhou is a neurodivergent therapist of color, coach, & speaker based in Colorado (MA, LPC, she/her). She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves. Her specialties include: Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, Psychedelic Integration, & Nervous System Intensives (deep-dive, accelerated therapy).

🌿 Connect with Liz

>> Join my email newsletter, where I share insights on how to understand your brain & take care of your nervous system: Liz’s Neurodivergent Letters

>> Follow on IG: www.instagram.com/liz.holistic.therapist

>> To work 1:1 with Liz: learn about Nervous System Healing Intensives here (focused sessions, using Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems, to help you heal deeply & connect with your authentic self) 🌻