Client Endorsements & Stories
“YOu’re always like magic!”
“There’s a Miracle Unfolding in my life right now and you are a BIg Part of that Miracle.”
“Your Methods may be unorthodox but they fucking work!”
“The world is blessed to have people like her (:”
“The knowledge and wisdom Brianna has shared with me changed me and my life for the better. She opened my eyes to different ways of viewing the world. She helped me process my trauma so that I could move forward with my life and feel free to be who I am. She made me feel like who I am is enough by fully accepting me for everything I am. She opened my eyes to a different view of myself. I learned I could accept myself in the same way. My self esteem has skyrocketed compared to what it was when I first started therapy (7 years ago). The way I view myself has completely changed. Brianna has had an incredible effect on my sense of self. I don't know where I would be without her!! The world is blessed to have people like her (: ”
“I can’t thank you enough or send you enough gratitude…”
“I can’t thank you enough or send you enough gratitude to communicate the echo of everything inside when we spoke on the phone last Monday. The Fool meaning, to your article, to exploring the LIMB academy, has been helping me piece together questions that have been plaguing me since February of last year.
I am deciding tonight if LIMB academy is the aligned fit for me after I finish work tonight. The universe has sent me echoes of my internal experience every day this week all the way from LA to South Africa to right here in my home town. Over and over. Thank you again for being the first of many voices of support in my life this week!
Everything you shared is growing this new life within me.”
Two weeks later…
“I did not realize that I never responded to your amazing and encouraging email. You (your words and courageous spirit) have walked with me these last weeks.
I also wanted to let you know that I am giving my two-week notice today. I have experienced a plethora of emotion over the last two weeks about and today as I write this, I feel excitement and peace. I have so much hope as I invite my body on the journey of my life rather than join the masses in abandoning themselves to a culture that, at its most gentle form, does not have their longevity or best interest in mind.
I am sending you light splayed around you by the prism of your creativity and love. Happy Tuesday!”
“You’re amazing!”
“You’re amazing! You have taught me that wisdom is humbling. So much is required of a wise person. Before they can say or do much, the wise person puts themselves in the other persons shoes and tries to understand from their perspective. Then, they exercise patience, kindness and understanding. The level of responsibility that is conveyed to wise people is disproportionate. You also helped me understand dysfunctional acts and mental processing and their relationship to trauma.
Those are the high points. We have known each other long enough for me to write War and Peace but I won't.”
“Our work together changed my life in ways that I can never repay.”
“Before I started working with Brianna, I was in the throes of situational depression and was experiencing a severe alteration of my daily life. I had trouble falling asleep, was late to work every day, had trouble concentrating, would get stuck in negative thought loops, and felt an intense loss of my own sense of self. It is difficult to describe but what I remember from this time was just...black suffocating darkness. During this time I also experienced medical issues and was going to appointments constantly so it felt like both my mental and physical self were simply deteriorating.
One day, I was in my little kitchen and was so overcome by sadness I collapsed onto the linoleum floor sobbing. Suddenly, my phone rang. In a moment that will be forever etched in my memory, I picked up the phone to hear a friend I hadn't spoken to in a while say, "Hi! How are you?" and I tried to tell her through tears what was going on. In her gentle way, she suggested I see a therapist and I told her I didn't know how to do that, who to call, if my insurance would cover it, how much it would cost...anything. In reality, I couldn't even summon the energy to google therapists or make a phone call. Everyday tasks overwhelmed me. To this day, I'll never forget what she did. She told me to get out a piece of paper--I got out a yellow sticky note. She told me to write down three things...1) look up therapists near me, 2) call the office, 3) ask if they take my medical insurance and are accepting new patients. Then, being the good friend she is, she even said she could do these things with me if I needed.
The next day, I made the phone call to Brianna's office and left a message. When she called me back and we set up our first appointment, that was the beginning of a whole new chapter in my life.
My life now is completely different than before I started working with Brianna. I'm on a path to a new career, have moved on with my family/personal life, and have a great deal more internal strength than I ever thought I had. I actively try to respect myself, love myself, and when something doesn't feel right, I try to take a step back and process the "why" instead of brushing it aside or immediately taking the blame. The empathy and kindness that I was trained to view as "weak" or "too sensitive" are now characteristics of myself that I value and hold to the light. I am better at standing up for myself, quicker to remove potentially abusive or manipulative people from my life, and more focused on my one true goal -- to listen to my gut. Trusting in myself is my daily practice.
Brianna pulled me from the black suffocating darkness, off the kitchen floor and back to a reality where I could connect with myself and flourish. While my main traumas were very much looked after during my time with her, I still do have moments where something ugly sneaks in ---negative self talk, a situation that feels toxic, an interaction with a family member that feels terrible. But when that happens, I have some very specific tools that I can rely on and practice thanks to the work we did.
When I feel a bit lost, I use the 5 minute rule. "In the next five minutes I will ... (name activity here)."
When I feel negative self talk or the beginnings of a panic attack, I use the 5 senses technique. "I see (name something), I feel (name something), I smell..." or simply ground myself in a mantra like "breathe..."
When I have an interaction with someone and it just doesn't feel right, I think about realities. "Are we both operating in the same reality?" "Who has power here? Why?"
When I immediately jump to a conclusion, I use the idea of "drilling down" (forget the fancy name for it!) and literally have a conversation with myself out loud. "I'm never going to succeed as a nurse." "What evidence do you have that makes you say that?" "I just failed this test." "What does failing one test mean to your career? (and on...you get the point!)
When I feel low, I use some of our cognitive therapy steps to get back on track. I take a shower. I put new clothes on. I get an almond milk latte. I put on lipstick. I stand like superwoman for a minute.
When I need to confront someone, I use her sentence starters (very helpful for someone like me who gasps for words in the face of abusive or difficult situations.) My favorite is, "I know this may not have been your intention but when you ______ it made me feel ______." Another is simply, "I'm uncomfortable with what's happening right now..." Another favorite was simply the permission to end an abusive or toxic conversation---something I never even considered doing before as I always just felt trapped and frozen.
While these are just some examples of the tools I now have, they represent a small fraction of what I gained by working with Brianna. She gave me the tools to get my life and light back. She confirmed that I was a whole, wonderful, non-broken human who had been ignored, misunderstood, used, abused, and labeled and gave me the strength to fight back and say "hey...here's who I am, here's what I will accept from others, and here's where I draw the line." She gave me a sense of reality and confirmation of what I knew deep within myself---that I was worthy, kind, smart, driven, and capable. Our work together changed my life in ways that I can never repay. I'm forever grateful to my friend for making me write those three things down on a post-it note, and to Brianna for helping me get my light back.”