Andrew J Heinz Counseling

12/17/2025

Discernment.
Learning to figure out how to make the best call in the moment.

It's a skill.
It's involves attunement and connection to yourself; being present to your own needs, and aware of what's within your control and what isn't.
And it's not easy. It takes practice, and it takes making mistakes and then reflecting on your lived experiences and how they impacted you, so that you're able to learn from them and apply those learnings to new situations.

Discernment requires self-honesty; being able to own what is yours in a dynamic with another person. To be able to recognize your own limits, your triggers, and to be able to take responsibility when your baggage is at the heart of the conflict you're navigating.

Discernment also requires self-trust. It requires trusting yourself to be able to walk away when you need to, and knowing that you can handle the emotional discomfort that comes from sharing your limits.
It requires listening to your own intuition when something doesn't feel right, or when it feels deeply right and making the call that might not be popular with others.

It takes time, practice, self-attunement, and humility to be willing to improve your discernment; to deepen your self-trust by improving your judgment over time.
It's learning how to be in the present moment; not simply acting out of fear of repeating the past, but learning how to notice what's different this time, too.

Discernment is a practice, and it requires on-going presence and connection to your own heart and body.
Do you trust your ability to discern what's right for you?

If you're interested in improving your connection to self and ability to discern what's right for you, the new cycle of my year long program begins in January, working with Cycle Breakers - those who are working to heal and shift old patterns, and are looking to practice new ways of relating to self & others in a small group of like-minded people. Many people in this year's cohort name this as one of the biggest learnings —
how to stay connected to and trust their own intuition and hearts.
https://theeqschool.co/cycle-breakers

11/04/2025

"Through You"

09/16/2025

This was a prevalent and salient topic in our most recent emotional self-management workshop, and it can be hard to wrap your head around at first, but hear me out.

If you want to get better at emotional self-management, and if you want to get better at feeling & processing your emotions, you have to learn how to shift the focus away from the story about the other person, and onto you and your needs & feelings.

It’s easy to get caught in a state of rumination and spinning out, focusing on how disrespectful or terrible the other person is.
That’ll keep the anger pulsing, the heart pumping, or the tears pouring.
But focusing on *them* doesn’t help *you* process the event or emotion.

Start by attuning to the sensations you’re feeling and allow them to exist. Validate that they are there for a real reason.
Quiet the narrative about the other person/people.
Give yourself space to feel your heart pumping, or to let the tears fall.
Notice and meet your feelings with compassion.
Allow your fear, anger, sadness, anxiety - let it be present in your body. Don’t try to rush it away.
Ask yourself what it is you’re needing? What is the hurt that was triggered in you by this situation?
Is it a lack of safety?
It is wanting to feel seen and heard?
Is it not feeling important?
Is it feeling disconnected?
Is it not feeling safe to be yourself?

Meet that unmet need and that feeling with validation.
The feeling is real. It matters.
Meet it with safety. With self-compassion.

Then, THEN allow yourself to come back to the situation at hand.
It will give you more information for communicating your needs and what’s happening within you, and will help you view the situation from more grounded and less reactive space.

Can you apply this to current world event feelings? Absolutely.

And if you're looking for more support with what to do after - how to separate out what's yours and theirs, and how to communicate more effectively — the Relationship Management Workshop begins Oct 23rd, where we'll learn lots of tools and practices together in small community (max 12 people).
This is the LAST workshop of 2025! It will sell out, so register soon!

https://theeqschool.co/relationship-management-workshop

09/10/2025

Hi everyone!

I’m excited to share that I’ve officially launched some new resources on my website today!

andrewjheinz.com

Somatic Foundations: The Four Pillars for Healing Anxiety & Trauma
- Manual & Workbook (FREE download)

Repair Protocol for Healing Rupture Guide
- $11.00

I’m really encouraged by how these came together and even more resources are on the way soon.

Hope you enjoy - and please share with those you feel may benefit. 🤍

Warmly,
Andrew

08/25/2025

Check out my new blog post: “The nervous systems role in anger, shame and grief.”

The Nervous System’s Role in Anger, Shame & Grief

08/15/2025

08/12/2025

If we don’t trust ourselves on a deep & foundational level, we look outside for certainty. We grasp for control in an attempt to find grounding and safety.
We need things to go or look a certain way, for others to behave just so, or to know ahead of time what might happen so that we can plan for what to do.

Some people will say, “I trust myself to do it correctly, I just don’t trust that they’ll do it right.”

What these people are missing is that good leadership and teamwork (yes, in partnership, families, and friendship, too) requires room for flexibility.
Innovation and creativity allow room for mistakes and new ways of thinking so that we can learn from them, and find solutions that we don’t already know.
It allows other people to step up, to utilize their strengths, which may be very different from yours. It allows them to also engage in the relationship, project, or activity as an active participant with agency; to have a stake in the outcome. And they might get there via a route you’d never take.

And this is uncomfortable. It often requires the discomfort of not getting somewhere as quickly as we would like.
It requires the vulnerability of not appearing perfect or being the one with the answer.
It requires allowing space for mistakes to happen; sometimes resources are lost or feelings get hurt.
But this is how we learn, grow, and see each other more deeply.
This is how we build something together, where more people are invested in the outcome because they had a stake in its creation.

The next time you find yourself incredibly impatient with someone else or wanting to micromanage or control an outcome, ask yourself, “What am I afraid might happen?”
“What would really happen if we take a little longer? What would that mean about me?”

See if you can bring safety, attunement, and acceptance to this fear inside yourself.
And see if you can allow just a little more wiggle room.

The 12 month Cycle Breakers Program begins September 2nd.
If you're working to deepen your self-trust and soften your need for control, that's one of the things I hear most from participants in this program — and boy does it feel grounding, nourishing, and healing to learn how to turn inward and trust what you find.
Small group, lead by me. Space is limited and we're filling up!
https://theeqschool.co/cycle-breakers

08/12/2025

💛💛💛

08/12/2025

https://andrewjheinz.com/resource-articles/f/safety-stability-and-security

The Foundation of Secure Attachment

08/07/2025

Thank you to Liz Newman Writer