The Heart Grove

10/11/2025

07/11/2025

Some days I need to step out of my home studio and work in my other offices, because, well… life with animals can get loud, chaotic and beautifully unpredictable. But truthfully, I wouldn’t change a thing about them.

These beings are woven into everything I do. They’re not distractions; they’re part of my pulse, part of my process. Through every deep session, every client story, every chart I sit with, my furry friends hold the space beside me. They absorb, they soften, they teach me grace when the work runs deep.

And then there’s her.
Queen Zeevi. My overlady, my saviour, my silent co-therapist. She’s been here, always, sharing in the energy of all of you who come through this space, who are online with me, and in her dna on my clothes when I'm in my clinic.

So today, we give thanks to the Queen herself.
For her calm gaze, her humour, her presence that reminds me that love, in its truest form, doesn’t need words.

Till tomorrow my friends down south.

Xx Annie

05/11/2025

Wind in my hair, salty air whipping around my body, and I’m reminded… life is messy. Unpredictable. It doesn’t need to be polished to be meaningful. If anything, the magic lives in the raw bits. The unfiltered. The moments where nothing is curated and everything is felt.

How often do you squeeze yourself into ‘put together’ when your body just wants to breathe? How often do you chase polished when the real aliveness is in the wild edges?

This Ta**us full moon isn’t here for perfection.
She wants presence.
Your natural state.
Unbrushed hair, salty skin, real emotions, and zero pressure to look like you have it figured out.

Let the wind mess you up. Let life move you. Feel the earth in your body and the breath in your chest. You don’t need to hold it all together to be worthy.

You’re here to be alive, not flawless.

28/10/2025

Being a therapist doesn’t mean I don’t feel and experience life deeply and often unhinged, overly emotional, and wanting to rage.

What it does mean is that I know how to feel into these places and put myself in my clients’ position. To ask myself the same questions I would ask them. To support my system outside of my mind and really get into the guts of what is happening in my body.

It’s a projection to think that therapists, with all their training, still have their s**t together. Honestly, we don’t. We’re human. We’re still experiencing life and trying to navigate it as best we can with the tools we have in our toolkits. What we do have is experience, and often a bunch of other therapists around us who understand the process and can hold us too. 💓

Today was one of those days where I found myself in a loop.
I knew the pattern. I felt the rage. But I wasn’t able to really express it.
And as a Reflector and a fifth line in Human Design, I often feel people don’t really see the real me, so I battle on, on my own, far further than I should.

I’m learning from this.
I reached out to a friend who also works in somatics because I knew I could just let it all out without censoring or feeling like it was too much for them.

What came from that was relief. It felt good to be seen, to be held, even if only for a moment.
To take my therapist hat off and trust that someone has me too.
To get wild and unbridled and allow the emotions to rage through my body in the most primal of ways.

So here's a truth. I know, deeply, how hard it is to reach out to people.
To ask for help. To not just try to fix it with this, that, or the other.

People say that talk therapy is outdated, yet sometimes being able to truly express and be heard is the therapy. Especially when you already understand what is happening but just want to be witnessed.

All types of therapy are needed, and none are better than another. They all serve a purpose.

So if you’re feeling like you need someone to rage to, to express the deepest and darkest parts of yourself and have that be OK, this space is for you. I AM for you, because...I don’t shrink from the uncomfortable.

I welcome it.

Xx Annie

22/10/2025

Nature allows us to understand ourselves better.

When we use kinder language, we become more gentle with ourselves and others. It helps us unlearn shame cycles and feel more connected and understood.

Like nature, it gives us permission to be ever changing.

This reminds me of how I often think of myself and others modeling the seasons in different stages of life.

For example:
❄️Someone may be in a “winter” stage and be more introspective and still.
💐Someone may be in a “spring” stage and be more creative, curious, and ready to grow.
☀️Someone may be in a “summer” stage and be more outgoing, radiant and expressive.
🍂Someone may be in a “fall” stage and are in a season of grounding, letting go and preparing for renewal.

Just as nature moves through cycles of growth, bloom, release and rest, we experience our own inner seasons. These may mirror the natural world but are also influenced by life transitions, hormonal changes and emotional rhythms. It’s a gentle reminder we’re not meant to feel the same in every season of our lives. 💛
Thank you chelsea.theenergeticblueprint for this beautiful audio. It made me stop in my tracks and smile. What a beautiful light you are to this world 🌻

16/10/2025

Yesterday I spent the day with my Mums in Business City group, sharing my love of Human Design through my lens as a therapist.

There’s something special about being in aura with people. Feeling the resonance. Watching faces soften as understanding lands. It’s one of my favourite things. I also love those moments when insights flow through me and I realise, again, how much I live this system every single day.

Exactly two years ago - to the day, I was speaking at another Mums in Business event. Life has changed in so many ways since then, yet this system, this tool that’s been part of my life for nearly seven years, continues to be a constant source of awe, healing, and connection.

Besides myself and Leoni, who is a Manifestor, these gorgeous women were all Generators. And as I said to them; You are the heartbeat of this world. The energy that keeps everything moving.

Back in February, I wrote this love letter to Generators, and it still feels so true:

So often I hear Generator types say, “Oh, I’m just a Generator…” as if it’s something ordinary, something lesser.
But I see you differently.

You are the fire that fuels movement, the energy that turns dreams into reality.
Without you, things simply don’t get done. Energy doesn’t move. The world feels stagnant.

When you follow your joy, you create magic, and not just in your own life, but in the lives of everyone around you.

You hum with a frequency that’s magnetic and encompassing.
When you’re in your bliss, you give the rest of us permission to be in ours.

From this completely open-centred being to you…I love you when you’re fully alive in your design, because it’s magnificent. 💛

xx Annie

09/10/2025

When I entered this professional space after the birth of my third daughter, it began in the body with Mama Movement Method, which was about physical healing, breath, movement. Then it cracked open the emotional. Eventually, it became spiritual. Always evolving!

Nine years later, I’ve built a practice that holds it all, with the body, mind, spirit, psychology, and TRUTH. And honestly, that’s why I can’t scroll past the noise anymore without saying something.

When I see post after post about “nervous system regulation,” I cringe, and not because regulation isn’t real, but because what’s being taught isn’t accurate. It’s buzzword spirituality dressed as science. It flattens complexity into quick fixes and it's just NOISE and content for the sake of content.

When I set out to study postgrad, I thought the academic world would talk at me, not with me. How wrong I was. Real nervous system work, that is research-backed, trauma informed and aware, as well as psychotherapeutic, is so layered, relational, and deeply contextual.

So, in my frustrations today, these slides are my response. My way of creating clarity instead of adding to the noise, but maybe I'm still adding to the noise..

Regardless, if we’re going to talk about the nervous system, we need to do it with integrity.

xo Annie

05/10/2025

We talk so much about dysregulation, but what about the feeling of regulation?

Each Human Design type has a different nervous system rhythm. When we’re aligned with our natural energy, the body softens. The breath deepens. There’s coherence.

Regulation isn’t stillness...it’s flow that feels true.

Here’s what a regulated nervous system looks may look and feel like through the lens of Human Design.

xx Annie
[ human design, human design reflector, human design deconditioning, human design system, counselling, somatic work, shadow work ]

03/10/2025

There’s a trend where people are creating images of themselves hugging their younger self. It looks wholesome, but when you see it through the lens of therapy and embodiment, it’s so much more.

From a psychotherapy perspective, it speaks to inner child work; meeting those younger parts of us with love, safety, and presence.

From a somatic perspective, it becomes a full body experience. The nervous system doesn’t just imagine the hug, it feels it. That can be profoundly healing, but it can also stir grief, longing, and emotions that haven’t yet been touched.

And through Human Design, it reminds us that our younger selves were never broken. They were always whole, perfectly designed for the path they’re here to walk.

This is why the trend is so powerful. It’s not just nostalgia. It’s therapy. It’s embodiment. It’s recognition of who we’ve always been.

Be gentle with yourself if you explore this...sometimes what surfaces is exactly what’s ready to be felt.

xx Annie Richardson • Counsellor, Somatic EMDR & Human Design Mentor

29/09/2025

Lately I’ve been sitting with something big. As a Reflector in Human Design, I often notice that what’s moving through me is moving through the collective too. And right now it feels like connection is shifting.

Relationships, friendships, business partnerships... they’re never perfectly balanced. Brene Brown said it years ago: sometimes one of us is at 80% and the other is at 20%. That’s okay. True connection has an ebb and flow.

But what happens when it stays one-sided for too long? When you’re always the giver? Or always the taker?

I’ve been there. I’m there now. Working more deeply in the therapist space, I find friends often come to me when they need something, but rarely ask how I am. Instead of being angry, I’m noticing it and creating structure. Boundaries. Saying: if you want me in your life, be curious about me too. Ask. Listen.

A friend recently called me out on this from the other side. She said, “You haven’t been there for me.... do you still want me in your life?” And I thought, thank you. Because yes, I do. And I had my head up my own arse. Sometimes that’s all it takes: HONESTY.

Connection doesn’t have to be 50-50 all the time, but it does have to be reciprocal. That’s what makes us feel safe. Seen. Heard. It’s what tells us we matter. And mattering matters.

What are you noticing in your own friendships and relationships right now? Are you feeling the same shift?

Monday Mindfulness with MATTER!

xx Annie