Nicole Lee Rocha, LMHC, LLC

04/08/2026

Our human brain 🧠 is hardwired to seek out relief from pain.

🖤physical pain
🖤emotional pain

Did you know 🤔relief of pain actually registers in our human brain as the BEST emotion?

So while our relapses may be messy,
damaging,
heartbreaking;
let’s also remember whatever the relapse behavior: Substance use Self-injury Disordered eating Codependency
…these patterns all offer relief from pain, where we decide when tha relief begins.
It’s often
a brief relief,
A chased relief,
Not a sustainable relief.

So let’s support ourselves during lapses and releases, and be reminded
❤️ we are simply human with our human brain that’s hardwired to seek out relief of pain
❤️ if our goal is recovery, may we be brave enough to ask ourselves what is the underlying pain we need to seek relief from?

This is real recovery ❤️‍🩹

💕And a gentle reminder: Messy healing is proof of genuine healing

Happy Healing Friends ❤️

some damage
doesn’t look like damage.

12/04/2025

🖤What ifs.

Did you know “what ifs” are a category of
Automatic Cognitive Distortions?

In other words, what ifs include an entire category of Easily accessible .untrue .thoughts. 🤯

Many of us experience these internally.
What ifs are so common, we needed a whole darn category to reflect how frequent this experience is for us all.

You’re not alone, Friend.

🖤 “what ifs” contribute to… Time travel/ fortune telling Made-up scenarios Negative outcomes

With majority of these thoughts being based in negativity,
Worry & anxiety,
Fear or panic,
not based in logic
(I can’t tell the future; can you?),
And not based in truth.

If the “what ifs” sound familiar to you;
let’s work on how to support our nervous system
to be present and access thoughts and feelings that are both true and safe. 😌

Healthy Healing Friends ❤️

08/14/2025

Neural Nostalgia. 🎼

Ever notice listening to our old playlists feels different than listening to the others?

Neural Nostalgia
refers to music we listened to from our teenage and young adult years
being closely tied to memories
and emotional connections.

This is one of the most powerful links 🧠our brain has between music and memories.

Mental health benefits include
🎧supporting mood
🎧reducing emotional and physical pain
🎧memory retrival, including for those who have repressed memories or dementia 😮

Here’s your emotional wellness reminder to
Turn up that old playlist 💿🎧🎼

05/14/2025

Mother’s Day. 🖤

If you survived it this year and carried both loss and love, I see you Friend. 🖤

This one’s for all those who survived Mother’s Day, and did our best to
Sit with loss,
Feel our grief,
Acknowledge what we didn’t have or
what could have been;
All while doing our best to
Connect to hope,
Recognize Gratitude,
Encourage Healing, and
Break Trauma Cycles so the pain ends with Us.

Happy Mother’s Day Friend.
You are Incredible.
You are Remarkable.
You are Enough. ❤️

To the broken hearted daughter who has never known her mom: May today be a day for you to grieve and know your pain matters. May that grief bring lasting and deep peace.

To the angry son, who has cut himself off because loving his mom made his life unpredictable: May you find the tenderness that young boy needed long ago. May that tenderness remind you, the little boy in you deserves love.

To the young mom, who is afraid of repeating the cycle: In your stillness, may you find each day a gift to give differently than what you got. May you enjoy the results for many years to come.

To the adult kids of an abusive mother: May you find peace for your heartache and protection from all the things people say when they are afraid of your story.

To the heavy hearted child who tried and it was never enough: May you resign from what takes and never gives back. May you rest in your enoughness.

To the many who are spending their first year without the mom they loved–may her memories, her gifts, be honored and held, so they spread to those she left behind.

To the mothers who did some hurting, and aren’t sure how to repair: May you find the words to comfort that younger mother in you, to hold her close, to let her breathe and know your love.

To all who need healing from Mother’s Day: May you see things for what they are, and what they are not. May this day be what you need to heal and find peace on your terms.

I’m so glad you’re here.

***Registration for online group @ Linktr.ee/natepost 🫶🫶

05/06/2025

“The Helper”

If we identify as being a
🖤helper,
🖤rescuer,
🖤caretaker,

Asking for help and support can be an extremely challenging task and a difficult change to initiate.

🤔Let’s talk why.
This pattern likely developed all the way back during our childhood. Many of us were parentified children It’s likely we may have grown up with emotionally immature parents who did not regulate their own emotions It’s likely we lived in spaces where we were expected to manage others’ emotions It’s likely we’ve lived with someone who needed extra care, thus resulting in neglect of our own needs (this could look like a chronically ill parent, or a special needs sibling)

Through these experiences,
we learned to
💔rely solely on ourselves,
💔minimize our needs,
💔Not ask for help

☺️Let’s be mindful: Begining this change and trying to ask for help, offers us reassurance that we are trying to heal and living in a safe space to do so.

Little by little Friends.
Happy Healing ❤️‍🩹

"The Helper" Asking For Help

04/07/2025

🖤Boundaries within Unsafe Relationships.🖤

We encounter this most within Families. 💔
Families have some of the strongest bonds and ties, despite

Dysfunction,
Abuse,
Neglect,
Mistreatment,
Disrespect,
Manipulation,
Triangulation,

And on and on.

The thing is,
Our boundaries are ours and ours alone to navigate and decide for ourselves. 🤔

If you currently maintain a connection with someone where the relationship does not feel entirely safe,

You are not alone Friend.❤️

❤️No judgment here.❤️
You are navigating a decision
that in an ideal world
You should have never been put in at all.

This boundary is yours
to keep,
change,
end, and
change again
whenever and however you feel works best for you.

Just remember: If someone ever puts us in a position where the choice becomes ourselves or them, not both collectively;

Let’s ask ourselves: would we ever intentionally do that to someone else?

I didn’t think so.

Keep going. Keep healing Friends ❤️

Love And Space Dust.