Mainely Therapy, Telehealth in Maine &, Saco, ME (2026)

01/23/2026

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately, feeling a lot, holding a lot.
Pushing myself to stay open and curious.
And this is where I’ve landed for now:

We attach to thin narratives
in order to feel protected.
They give shape to fear
and relief from uncertainty.

But thin narratives ask us to trade complexity for comfort and community care rarely survives that trade.

Rebuilding isn’t about choosing a better side.
It’s about widening the story enough to stay human under stress.
Widening our perspective enough to invite others in.
And closing the gap enough to reach for one another
when the times call for unity.

Who can you reach for through all of this?

What can help us with acts of kindness? Acts of grace? Acts of hope? 🩶

$Reflection- The story we’re telling and what happens when it fracturesMost of us are living inside a story about law and...$

01/09/2026

Reflection- The story we’re telling and what happens when it fractures

Most of us are living inside a story about law and order and what it’s meant to protect.
A story about safety.
About responsibility.
About people doing their jobs.
About what’s right and wrong.

That story didn’t come from nowhere.
It reflects real fears and pressures, shaped by change, political messaging, media influence and the real-world effects of political tactics and policy decisions.

And still, many of us are holding a story that explains intention without fully accounting for impact — because it’s easier to tolerate? Or something else?…….

You can believe in law and order
and still notice when political messaging and lived reality begin to diverge.

When conversations get saturated with emotion and counter-claims, it becomes harder to see what’s actually happening.

The noise doesn’t clarify reality.
It often disguises it.

Especially when conversations narrow around fear, blame, and who is deemed responsible for egregious acts.

Sometimes what’s being claimed tells a useful story,
but not a complete one.
Useful to reassure.
Useful to simplify.

Fear-based narratives often misdirect anger away from structural causes.

This doesn’t mean:
• Borders don’t matter
• Enforcement doesn’t matter
• Public safety doesn’t matter

I think it means the primary targets of enforcement
are not necessarily the source of the strain.

You can value order
and still notice what prolonged fear does to a person to a divided society.

You can respect leadership
and still see how constant uncertainty shapes daily life individually, collectively.

Between the story we’re told and the story we tell ourselves,there are human bodies living inside policy decisions.

This isn’t about discarding the story.
It’s about noticing where it fractures.

Because when fractures go unacknowledged,
harm doesn’t stop.
It just spreads.

Two things can be true at once:
A system can exist for a reason.
And the people living inside it can still be affected in lasting ways.

I’m sitting with these tensions not because I have answers, but because the consequences feel too real to ignore.

What we choose to notice matters. 🩶

11/26/2025

Are you self-aware… or self-monitoring?

So many of us learned to self-monitor early on — reading the room, shrinking ourselves, feeling responsible for other people’s reactions, or staying hyper-attuned to the emotional weather around us.

For some, this comes from past experiences.
And for others, that vigilance isn’t just from the past — it’s shaped by the identities they hold, the environments they move through, and the systems surrounding them today.
Your body learns what keeps you safe.

Self-awareness is different.
It’s slower, kinder, more grounded.
It helps your present-day self come online so you can notice your experience, not manage it.

I created a free trauma-informed worksheet to help you explore this shift with compassion.

✨ Download it — link in bio.

09/11/2025

🌿 September is Su***de Awareness Month 🌿

This month reminds us to pause, remember, and reach out.
Checking in—on ourselves and on others—can be a lifeline. A small act of care can create connection in moments of deep struggle. Throughout the years of working in mental health, I have consistently offered the line “Please, never suffer alone, nothing is too much unless it is you carrying it alone.” 💜

You are not alone. Help is here:

📞 Call or text 988 (Su***de & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7)

Let’s keep building a world where it’s safe to say,
“I’m not okay right now”—and to be met with genuine compassion and presence. May we carry that care for one another, and for ourselves, into every day. 💜

09/11/2025

We are weaker as a country torn apart.

Every time tragedy strikes, the blame game begins—“the left,” “the right,” this side, that side. But this is exactly how manufactured polarization works: it pulls us into fighting each other instead of facing what’s really happening.

In the past few months alone, it hasn’t only been public figures and their families killed in brutal attacks. It’s also been school shootings and other tragedies that devastate ordinary communities EVERY SINGLE DAY. Layered onto this grief is something more insidious: the steady stripping away of human rights, the silencing of voices, and the reduction of lives to headlines or talking points. Again and again, these stories are quickly swallowed by spin, false narratives, and politicization before the facts are even clear. And even when the facts are clear, we seem at a loss for how to respond so we react. Too often, that loss turns into anger—understandable, but easily redirected into more division.

We don’t cultivate change by tearing each other down. And this isn’t about “coming together” in some vague, feel-good way. At the very least, it’s about refusing to play into a system that profits when we turn on each other.

Lives are being lost every day in tragic ways. Reducing those losses to partisan talking points doesn’t honor the dead, it doesn’t make us safer and it does not create the change we need to thrive, let alone survive.

Let us pause and make space today for our tender hearts and for those of us who are carrying the unbearable. Let us commit to a cause that we care about or help a neighbor or connect with our shared humanity.

08/30/2025

This morning I caught myself on autopilot again. Scrolling, pushing through, running on old energy. And underneath it all, the familiar weight of stuckness.What shifted me wasn’t more thinking — it was movement, breath, presence. I realized (yet again) that trying to just push through only keeps me circling in the same loops.Getting unstuck doesn’t start in the head.It begins in the body — not stagnant and stuck, but steady, alive, and renewed. From there, I can anchor, rise up, stretch beyond the confines of the mind, opening into possibility 🌱

07/25/2025

A reflection-
I shared a quote earlier, one that really moved me.

And underneath it I wrote: “Anyone else?”

It brought me back to my time working in a counseling center, where our leadership approached the work from a systems perspective. That lens came with complexity and nuance- the real, human kind that comes with shared work and shared weight.

We learned to pay attention to the energy brought into the system and the energy depleted from it.

When one person is carrying a heavy burden, it doesn’t stay contained—it shapes the whole system. We were encouraged to share vulnerably in staff meetings. (Definitely not for everyone—those meetings got deep.) But whenever someone opened up, we were invited to follow with:
“Anyone else?”

It wasn’t just a question. It was an offering. A hand outstretched.

A way of saying: Don’t leave me alone out here. And also: You don’t have to stay alone over there.

We don’t have to be or feel the same to relate. But the act of joining—even in the smallest way—can make all the difference.

Perhaps it’s not sameness that heals, but the willingness to reach. The trust it takes to cross through the aloneness that stigma and shame so often create.

In stepping toward each other, we meet the silence. We move from the weight of isolation to the act of tending—to each other, to our stories, to what’s been carried.

And in that shared space, something shifts. Not everything is fixed. But we are no longer alone.

So I’ll ask again—not just a question, but a door left open: Anyone else?

06/26/2025

Updates from Mainely Therapy! 🌿
We’re excited to share a new collaboration with - joining forces to expand access to compassionate, whole-person mental health care in Southern Maine. Together, we’re working toward a model of care that honors the connection between physical and emotional wellbeing—one that’s relational, accessible, and rooted in trust.

We’re also pleased to welcome Shannon Hayes, LCPC-C, to our team. As a pre-licensed clinician practicing under supervision, Shannon brings genuine warmth, curiosity, and strong clinical insight to her work. She offers individual therapy for adults (18+) and couples counseling, with a focus on anxiety, OCD, trauma, and veterans’ support. Shannon will be seeing clients in our Kennebunk office, located within Mainely Primary Care.

While Shannon will be based in Kennebunk, I also continue to offer sessions through in Portland—a collective committed to LGBTQIA+ affirming, interculturally humble, and trauma-responsive care. It’s been an important part of my own clinical work, and I’m proud to remain connected to that community-rooted space.

Mainely Therapy continues to grow with care and intention—removing barriers, deepening relationships, and offering therapy that feels human, connected, and deeply respectful of lived experience. Together, with our partners and our clients, we’re building something spacious, steady, and intentional.

Stay tuned for more offerings in the near future as we continue to expand our integrative and embodied approaches to care.

In gratitude,
Jessica Browne
Founder, Mainely Therapy

06/18/2025

I created these flyers with care, given the current sociopolitical climate — where many are navigating fear, instability, and systems that often target people simply for who they are.

They include ICE detention prep checklists, a rights card, and grounding tools for survival moments. They’re meant to be practical and accessible — not a solution, but a small act of care.

As a therapist, I believe in supporting the whole person — not just symptoms. That means acknowledging the impact of immigration enforcement, racism, and systemic violence on mental health. It means offering tools that speak to both safety and dignity.

If these can be helpful to you or your community, please use and share freely. Because mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s shaped by systems, by safety, by community — and by the world we live in. ❤️

Please note- Reference sources include the ACLU and ILRC. Content shared for education and care — not legal advice.

05/07/2025

Spots are open for my upcoming Somatic Reparenting™ Virtual Group Session.

This 90-minute small group is designed to help you reconnect with the parts of yourself that needed more care- through a supportive, inner-focused practice.

🌿 Ready to join?
Sign up here- https://forms.gle/K13SXeCyzRJX2gnQ7 or visit Mainely Therapy LinkTree
Space is limited

.somer_nicole

05/06/2025

In the space between the trigger and the truth, there’s a moment we sometimes miss.

That moment right there is powerful.

Not because you’re doing it perfectly-

but because you noticed.
And in that noticing, there’s a choice.

This choosing- is your superpower.

✨ To soften instead of shut down.
✨ To hold instead of abandon.
✨ To meet yourself with presence, not pressure.

Your body translates.
Your nervous system responds.
But you get to choose what comes next.

Let’s meet ourselves there—
where presence begins and the pattern ends.

🌀 Download the worksheet "Holding- A Companion in the moment" In my Linktree.

Mainely Therapy

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