Essential Journey Counseling PLLC

11/27/2025

We are here for you!

11/26/2025

🌥️ Not Acquiescing to Seasonal Depression 🌥️

Even if the season tries to pull you under… you don’t have to go.

Seasonal Depression is real.
Let’s start there.
For some, it’s a biological shift. For others, an emotional slump that creeps in when the days get shorter, colder, quieter. And yes—many of us grew up in environments where the response was simply:

“Push through.”
“Be strong.”
“Stop being dramatic.”
“Everybody’s tired.”

But you’re not in that era anymore.
You’re in your healing era.

And healing doesn’t mean you never struggle—it means you’ve learned to recognize the signs before you slide into the hole… and you’ve built tools to keep yourself from staying there.

🔍 Before you surrender to the heaviness, pause and ask yourself three grounding questions:

Am I exhausted?
Not emotionally—not mentally—literally sleep deprived. Exhaustion imitates depression in frighteningly accurate ways.

Am I hungry or undernourished?
Low energy, low mood, irritability, hopelessness… sometimes it’s simply your body whispering:
“I need fuel.”

Have I checked in with myself?

Have I spoken compassionately to myself today?

Have I prayed?

Have I breathed intentionally?

Have I journaled or meditated?

Have I reached out to someone wise who listens without judgment?

Sometimes sadness is a signal, not a sentence.
Sometimes depression is asking for attention, not surrender.

And—if you’ve done these things and the heaviness still lingers—that is not failure.
That is not weakness.
That is your cue to call in your support system:

Your therapist. Your mother. Your friend. Your counselor.
Your spiritual mentor. Your God.

You are surrounded, even when you feel alone.
And you deserve a life where you don’t merely survive each season… but live inside of it fully.

There is no shame here.
Just help.
Just support.
Just hope.

✨ Essential Journey Counseling is here to walk with you through this season and every one after. You don’t have to acquiesce.
You get to rise!!

11/25/2025

✨ Don’t Let Them Stress You This Holiday Season ✨

Yep… everyone is coming.
Nope… I still don’t have a date.
And no, I don’t have any new news to tell you.
Yes, I showed up with no cooked food—but listen, I brought the store-bought sides, my top-tier personality, and a board game. So I contribute. 😌

This year, I’m choosing peace.
I’m choosing to enjoy the people I love—without overexplaining, overexerting, or overreacting to differing opinions, old drama, or that one family member who always wants to talk politics. 🙃

This holiday season, protect your mental health:

✨ Take moments to step away and breathe.
✨ Go outside for an air break if the energy gets too loud.
✨ Don’t anticipate conflict—anticipate joy.
✨ Let people be who they are… while you stay grounded in who you are.
✨ Enjoy the memories being made, not the stress that tries to overshadow them.

Family, friends, and “chosen family” make this season meaningful.
So show up as your best self—present, peaceful, and unbothered.

Because the holidays are meant to be enjoyed… not survived. ❤️💛💚

11/19/2025

🌿 BEING A WITNESS… TO YOU 🌿

We talk a lot about being witnesses to others — their victories, their healing, their glow-ups, their milestones. But let’s pause and ask a question most people never consider:

When was the last time you became a witness to your own growth?

Not the growth others congratulate you for…
Not the growth shown in before-and-after photos…
Not the growth captured in a single moment…

But the kind of growth you only notice when you stop living inside the routine long enough to see yourself clearly.

Because here’s the truth:
When you’re the one doing the growing, you often miss the evidence.

✨ You lose weight — but don’t notice the new lightness in your walk.
✨ You break old habits — but barely acknowledge the mental victory.
✨ You handle conflict differently — but forget that the old you would’ve crumbled.
✨ You choose peace over drama — and don’t realize that’s emotional maturity speaking.
✨ You walk away from patterns you once lived in — and don’t celebrate the strength it took.

We become the last to know that we have changed… because we’re living the change.

But here’s your reminder:

It’s not arrogance to witness your own transformation. It’s awareness.

It’s emotional intelligence.
It’s self-respect.
It’s spiritual reflection.
It’s mental wellness.

To witness your own growth means to pause long enough to see:

• the softness where anger once was
• the patience where fear once ruled
• the boldness where doubt once lived
• the wisdom earned through tears, time, and truth
• the strength you didn’t think you had
• the peace you once prayed for becoming your baseline

And here’s the beautiful part — when you witness your own growth, you don’t just heal you…

You become a living mirror for someone else’s possibility.

Someone is watching your transformation and whispering to themselves,
“I can grow too.”

So today, take a moment:
Look at yourself… really look.
Who have you become in the quiet, in the healing, in the unseen spaces?

You are worth being witnessed — by you.

🌱 Keep growing.
🌱 Keep becoming.
🌱 Keep paying attention.
Your evolution is the evidence.

Essential Journey Counseling
Helping you see the growth you’ve earned… and the life you’re becoming.

11/13/2025

🎄✨“Permission to Be Merry: Even When the World Feels Heavy”

It’s that time of year again — the “season of joy.”
But if you’re being honest, it feels a little complicated this year, doesn’t it?

The world is in chaos.
People are struggling.
Prices are high. Hearts are heavy.

And here comes Thanksgiving… then Christmas… gently whispering “be merry.”

For many, that whisper feels almost disrespectful — like how dare I smile when so much is broken?
But maybe — just maybe — this is the exact time joy is needed most.

What if the permission slip you’re waiting for…
is already signed by grace itself?

What if laughter, holiday lights, warm food, shared stories,
and the sound of someone’s genuine “thank you”
are the medicine the world forgot it needed?

The truth? The world’s heaviness doesn’t erase your right to joy.
It reminds you how sacred joy truly is.

So this season, you don’t have to fake happiness —
but you also don’t have to deny yourself a moment of it either.

Find small reasons to smile.
Give thanks for breath, for laughter, for light in darkness.
Joy isn’t ignorance — it’s resistance.

Essential Journey Counseling invites you to give yourself permission to celebrate —
not because everything is perfect,
but because you’re still here to try again.

11/05/2025

📝Shame... what are you ashamed of, and why?

This post is simple.

Say it out loud.
Not to hurt yourself — but to release yourself.

The moment you speak it, you take its power back.
You own the moment.
You begin the work of seeing past it, forgiving yourself, and throwing it in your universal trash can. 🗑️

Then… you begin again.

You’re stronger than your silence.
You are allowed to start over.

We’re proud of you. 💛
— Essential Journey Counseling

11/05/2025

🌱 Who You Become in the Process Is the Prize

Whew… let that sit for a moment.

I heard this recently, and it hasn’t stopped echoing in my spirit.

We often chase the thing — the win, the goal, the moment of success that others can see and applaud.
But the truth is… the real win isn’t what you achieved.
It’s who you had to become to achieve it.

Think about it — the fortitude, the mindset shift, the emotional maturity, the grit, and the grace it took just to keep showing up when nothing was working.
That process — the refining fire, the stretching, the silence, the tears — that’s what shaped you.

And let’s be real — none of that feels glamorous while you’re in it.
It feels hard.
It feels like waiting on prayers that seem unanswered.
It feels like wrestling with yourself to not give up, to still believe, to still become.

But here’s the thing:
What’s forming inside of you during those moments is far more valuable than what’s forming around you.

Because once the prize fades — and it always does — you’re left with something more eternal:
You.
The deeper, stronger, wiser, truer version of you.
The one who can handle the promise because they’ve grown into the person who can sustain it.

So yes… the process may have been long, the waiting may have been heavy, but don’t miss the miracle:
You didn’t just win something.
You became someone.

That’s the real prize. 🪞✨

Essential Journey Counseling
We help you honor the version of yourself that’s emerging — because healing, growth, and becoming are the real milestones.

11/04/2025

🌒 "Show Up as a Stranger and Find Out Exactly Who You Are"!!

Sometimes, the only way to find yourself again is to forget everything you were taught about who you are.
Forget what your name has been attached to.
Forget the titles.
Forget the way people expect you to move, speak, dress, and show up.

Because when life has worn out the version of you that once worked — that people applauded and you tolerated — there’s a call for reinvention.
And that reinvention starts with becoming a stranger to your own story.

It’s a quiet but radical act:
to walk into your own life as if you’ve never lived it before.
To question the “why” behind every “should.”
To meet your own reflection and ask —
“Who are you if no one’s looking?”
“Who are you when no one is clapping?”
“Who are you when you stop performing and start breathing?”

See, becoming a stranger isn’t about losing your past —
it’s about shedding the weight of everything that no longer fits.
It’s the sacred act of making space for a life that’s waiting for you.

And here’s the thing —
when you show up as a stranger, you start seeing life again.
Colors are brighter.
Moments are deeper.
You feel both small and infinite at the same time.

You begin to realize:
The world wasn’t asking you to be perfect — it was asking you to be present.

So, take one step —
away from what was,
toward what could be.
You are always one decision away from a completely different life.

11/04/2025

🌱 The Power of Words in Shaping Your Reality 🌱

Let’s talk about poverty speech. Not just the lack of money — but the lack of belief, possibility, and self-permission that seeps into our words.

Words like:
👉 “I can’t afford to dream.”
👉 “That’s just how it’s always been.”
👉 “People like me don’t get those chances.”

Those aren’t just sentences — they’re seeds. And when we plant them long enough, they grow roots deep in our minds and choke out the fruit of abundance, creativity, confidence, and joy.

Poverty mindsets are built in quiet moments — in what we tell ourselves when no one is watching.
But guess what? You can replant your garden. 🌻

Start by noticing your words.
Change “I can’t” to “I’m learning to.”
Change “I’m broke” to “I’m building.”
Change “It’s too late” to “It’s my time.”

Every new sentence you speak creates a new possibility in your life.
At Essential Journey Counseling, we help you speak differently to your mind, body, and spirit — to transform weeds of limitation into the fruit of self-worth, clarity, and healing.

You are more than what you think… and far greater than what you’ve said.
Speak life. 🌿

✨

11/03/2025

💭 “We Didn’t Forget the Men.”

In a world that often forgets to ask, “Brother, how are you — really?”
We want to pause and say… we see you.

Times are hard. Expectations are high. The weight of provision, legacy, and manhood feels heavier than ever.
And while the world tells you to “be strong,” “don’t complain,” and “just figure it out,” — we know what that silence costs.

💔 Where Are You in Your Manhood Right Now?

Do you still feel like you matter when the bills don’t balance?

Do you feel unseen, unappreciated, or even unqualified to lead?

Do you feel disconnected — from your family, your work, your purpose, your faith?

Have you stopped “feeling” altogether because survival is all that’s left?

These aren’t just questions — they’re realities many men are living through quietly.

And we’re here to say: you don’t have to do it alone.

💬 Men’s Groups | 🧠 Male Therapists | 💍 Marriage Counseling | 🌿 Retreats

At Essential Journey Counseling, we haven’t forgotten you.
We’ve built spaces for men, with male therapists, men’s groups, marriage counseling, and retreats designed to help you:

Reconnect with purpose

Heal emotionally and mentally

Rebuild confidence and clarity

Reclaim peace in the middle of provision

Because your worth isn’t in your paycheck — it’s in your presence.
And sometimes, the strongest thing a man can do is ask for help.

10/29/2025

🥣 When One Person Is Hungry — We All Are!!!

In these delicate times, many in our state and neighboring communities face more than just emotional and mental burdens. Many face food scarcity — a silent but urgent crisis that affects not just individuals, but families, neighborhoods and the whole fabric of our society.

At Essential Journey Counseling, we believe that mental, emotional, and physical well-being are interconnected. Hunger doesn’t only starve the body — it weighs on the mind and spirit, too.

We’re committed to being a beacon of support — not just for therapy, but for whole-life care. To that end, we’ve gathered a list of organizations in our area that can help you with food needs today, right now. If you or someone you know is facing food disparity, please reach out — you’re not alone.

RESOURCES LISTED BELOW:

Nonprofit food assistance in NC:

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina (704-376-1785): a major food bank serving Charlotte and surrounding counties, distributing millions of pounds of food annually.

Feeding Charlotte (704-654-9667): focuses on food rescue (fresh, viable food that might otherwise be thrown away) and redistributing it to people in need.

Nourish Up (704-523-4333): serves Mecklenburg County with grocery distribution, home delivery and a large network of food pantries.

Hearts & Hands Food Pantry (980-292-0357): local pantry in Charlotte providing emergency food assistance and options for pick-up or delivery.

Zealous Empowering Nurturer (ZEN) (704-966-9562): Charlotte-based nonprofit combining community gardening, nutrition education and fresh-food distribution to address food insecurity.



Read more at:

More than a quarter-million North Carolina residents may also be in danger of losing WIC benefits if the government shutdown continues.

10/28/2025

🌍 “What Would It Look Like If You Gave Your Entire Self to Something?”

Let’s be honest — most of us have never truly given it all.
Not the “good ole college try.”
Not the “best of my ability.”
Not even the “take one step and God takes two” effort.

I’m talking about that full-bodied, soul-quaking, all-in, no-turning-back kind of commitment. The kind that leaves nothing left — no excuse, no energy, no plan B.

Have you ever done that?
Have you ever leaned so far into your purpose that falling wasn’t an option — only flying?

When you look at the people who history remembers — the ones called crazy, obsessed, relentless, one-of-a-kind — they all have one thing in common: they didn’t stop at “enough.” They gave their entire being to something larger than themselves.

And that’s the question for today:
💭 What would it look like if you did?
What if you pushed past what you thought was your best — past comfort, past logic, past fear — into the place where your truest self actually lives?

Maybe your version isn’t fame or fortune.
Maybe it’s raising a child.
Healing.
Building a dream no one believes in but you.
Loving when you’ve been broken.
Creating when you’ve been emptied.

There’s something sacred about total surrender — not weakness, but willingness.

So again…
Have you ever truly given your entire self to something — or are you still waiting for permission to become who you were created to be?

✨ Essential Journey Counseling
Helping you rediscover the whole you.