Emma the Social Worker, Santa Cruz, CA (2025)

08/07/2021

Repost from Faith Broussard Cade]
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I’ve been so tempted to pick apart myself and my performance this week. It’s been BUSY, y’all. First week of school. Establishing routines and bedtimes and dinner times and extracurricular activities. Planning Bean’s 7th birthday party. The prime guy has been here at least 15-20 times. I’m considering offering him some dinner once the pizza delivery guy gets here. We’ve eaten out more than I’ve cooked this week. There are boxes everywhere and I’m pretty sure there’s a load of laundry in the washer that’s growing all sorts of nasties and needs to be rewashed and sanitized…
AND I’ve crossed so much off of my to-do list. I’ve had back to back meetings. Client sessions. Paid bills. Responded to fifty-leven emails. Sent out client invoices. Shipped my daddy’s birthday gift. Scheduled doctor’s appointments. Taken Bean to the dentist. And hip hop dance class. And Tae Kwon Do. AND FINALLY finished setting up the baby registries.😩
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It’s been a heck of a week. And I’m planning to soak up every second of this weekend… enjoying my family, friends, and choosing not to dwell on everything that’s left undone. It won’t be easy, but I’m choosing joy and presence and mindfulness. Raise your hand if you’re with me!!🙋🏽‍♀️
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Faith Broussard Cade]

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08/05/2021

Santa Cruz Friends and Family: Don’t forget to join us on Friday to learn more about Behavioral Health Therapy]

We are a team of clinicians who bring a variety of lives experiences to our work, with a shared mission to create access to quality behavioral health care for ALL because inequity is too often a barrier to health. The mission and values behind Behavioral Health Therapy] are special, and they are why I joined the team, and why I’m stoked for all of you to come meet all of us! 🙂

07/28/2021

Join us! 🥳🤗🙃

Repost from
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Join us Friday, Aug 6th for a Community Gathering to connect with our team and other local businesses and community members. Learn what equitable and empathic care looks like while enjoying tasty apps, drinks, and good company. Hope to see you there!⁠
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Holly Hughes, LCSW⁠
Holly Hughes & Co.⁠
Book a free consultation:⁠
info@hollyhughesandco.com⁠
831-713-5609⁠
www.hollyhughesandco.com⁠
⁠

07/21/2021

Who are my fellow recovering codependents? 🙋🏻‍♀️ Super appreciate this breakdown and share from and grateful for the opportunities and tools to heal. 🙏🏻

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More healing stuff✨-
Reposting some resources I’ve made for you from my experiences navigating my own messiness. My original post is below. Love you so.

Last week, I made a post that read “focus on what you can control” and a lot of you asked: how?! I wanted to make a cute post about the basics, meditation, self care, etc etc but I knew in my heart for so many of us it’s so much deeper of a thing lots of us struggle with and either may not realize of may not be able to face. I have wanted to make a codependency piece for- read: YEARS, but I really felt I needed to be further in my own healing to make something without my own s**t clouding it. I STRUGGLED with accepting this. As someone who is fiercely independent I always reserved the word “codependent” for those who constantly NEED someone to help them. The “clingy” people. I was the helpER. I rushed to anyone in need, giving all resources until I had nothing left. I was the empath! The giver! Clearly, this was not me. LOL guess who the codependents are, they’re the helpers. They’re the ones who need to be needed to feel self worth. They’re the ones who place the value someone else gives them over valuing themselves. They are trying to fill a void. This was a hard hard hard painful maddening thing to come to terms with. And it hasn’t been easy to undo. I’m telling you because even if I’m still a working process I feel endless freedom. Noticing, accepting, these patterns and then reestablishing my boundaries, learning to love myself (ew), has made me a more content person. I still get caught up in it sometimes, but I have tools to check myself. I just want us all to feel self love and freedom from our traumas. We deserve it. I believe that now. xo

07/20/2021

I talked about having diabetes in therapy. I’ve had type 1 diabetes since I was 11, & I almost never talk about it. When I do, I say that it’s not a big deal, that I’m used to it. I even judge people that express feeling negatively about their own experience with diabetes. ‘They’re so bitter. Other people have way worse illnesses.’

While that is certainly true, managing a chronic illness on a daily basis for 25 years is actually kind of a big deal. So why do I keep insisting that it isn’t? Why do I work so hard to tell everyone how small & insignificant living with a chronic illness is?

Apparently, I have a fairly big fear of being a burden, of my illness being inconvenient for *other people.* It’s ‘fine’ for my illness to impact me; it’s my problem, my responsibility. But it can’t impact others; that’s not ‘fair.’ And: what if it’s too much for them? What if they’d rather not have to see or hear about it or - god forbid - be inconvenienced by it? What if they opt out of loving me bc my illness is too much trouble for them?

Living from this place of fear - from this belief that my illness could make me unlovable - is lonely, sad, & anxiety-producing. Every time something doesn’t go as planned related to my diabetes, I totally freak out. And *not* bc I’m worried about myself, but bc I am worried that people will be upset with me, that they’ll stop loving me bc my diabetes is inconvenient sometimes.

Living from this belief isn’t serving me. And so, my therapist & I worked on finding a new belief. He offered up the idea of community care, that we all have bodies that will struggle in a life & we all take care of each other. He also offered the mind-blowing idea that maybe the people that love me don’t want me to feel alone all the time in this; that, in fact, they don’t feel burdened or inconvenienced at all; that they might even *want* the opportunity to love & support me through my struggle. 🤯 And, he insisted: I am worthy of care & love & support from my people. We all are.

What beliefs aren’t serving you? Let’s find a truer, more beautiful one. ♥️

07/19/2021

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Thoughts from Emma Ledvina, Associate Clinical Intern, ACSW, with HH & Co.:⁠
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"What is therapy? ⁠
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I ask my own therapist this question on a fairly regular basis. “What are we doing here?” “How does this work exactly?” While I know that it is helping me, therapy still has a tiny bit of ✨magic✨ that makes it hard for me to put my finger on what exactly therapy IS. ⁠
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My therapist and I have talked about the “window of tolerance,” space to feel my feelings, finding my inner wisdom, learning how to regulate my nervous system, and a bunch more. Apparently, therapy is a lot of things. Here’s my current working explanation of therapy: ⁠
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Humans do things. Therapy is a space to help us understand why we do the things that we do, decide whether those things are serving us, and explore other options that might better serve us. I’ve learned that the “why” is often related to a value or a belief system about ourselves / other people / the world, some of which we may not even know that we hold. Whether it’s “serving us” could look like answering the question, is this belief system / behavior helping me to show up in the way that I want to show up for myself, the world, my relationships? Therapy is also the space where I explore: How *do* I want to show up? What does that look like? Therapy is what supports me in living and behaving and responding with intention - in knowing *why* I'm doing what I do - rather than just reacting to my feelings and other people’s behavior all over the place with very little (self)awareness or intention. ⁠
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How do you explain therapy to others? How has it helped you?" - Emma Ledvina, Associate Clinical Intern, ACSW⁠
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Emma has openings. Call for a free consult today:⁠
831-713-5609⁠
info@hollyhughesandco.com⁠
⁠

07/16/2021

Definitely something to think hard about. Is this system serving us? WHO is it serving? What is our role in changing it?

And absolutely: let everything that is oppressive and harmful burn. 🔥

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I am not one of those people who believes EVERYONE needs therapy because honestly EVERYONE does not.

A LOT of folks do but EVERYONE does not!

Therapy is not the answer for oppression and harm, truthfully therapy for many can perpetuate harm. The white western framework that is the foundation of our current mental and behavioral health system in inherently oppressive, classiest, & anti-black.

Furthermore this social environment contributes to a higher presence of depressive, trauma, & anxiety related symptoms.

So, naw—EVERYONE does not need therapy. These oppressive and harmful systems, policies, & practices need to burn!

07/09/2021

Super grateful to work Holly and Behavioral Health Therapy] 🙏🏻♥️

Repost from Behavioral Health Therapy]
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A note from Holly:⁠
Closing out the week with so much gratitude for family, friends, and colleagues. ⁠
My musings this week took me toward some really validating ideas about toxic positivity. About ten years ago, I had a period in my life when everything that I knew and trusted completely fell apart. And as I struggled with all the pain and adapting, I also struggled with finding space where I could feel my feelings, breathe, be angry, and just be so sad. ⁠
Coming through that time was the most meaningful confirmation for me that it is so important to not conflate having strong or charged emotions with not being okay. I was super okay and super solid when I dropped head and heart first into the feelings. I was much less okay when I buried them, felt shame for having them, or numbed out with maladaptive coping. ⁠
It's such a myth that we can't know joy and optimism in the midst of painful feelings. We can. And by engaging in some sort of spiritual bypass, we miss the really good stuff. The deep growth stuff. ⁠
I set and share intentions every day to focus on connection, hope, and joyful moments. And I also experience fear, worry, and grief quite often. Here's to remembering there is space for all of it.⁠
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Happy weekend to you all~ ⁠
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Photo cred ⁠

07/05/2021

Repost from
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Instead of filling this “day off” with hustle, anxiety, and to do lists. I plan to actually rest. We’re headed out of our usual space so I cannot be tempted to busy myself. I have a book borrowed from and I’m even packing some paints to make some stuff *just for myself* 😱 I will jump in the lake and cleanse myself of all the s**t I’ve been carrying from last month. Inhaling refreshing, restoring, and rejuvenating ahead, and exhaling the bulls**t. Remember as always rest is not a break from the work, rest IS part of the work. We need to feel grounded and whole to move through what is ahead of us. Love to each of you. 💕

06/23/2021

This is a tool that I learned in Al-Anon that I use often; the little acronym that prompts me to pause before I open my mouth to speak.

Talking is obviously important in our day to day lives, and speech is a powerful tool for information sharing, for connection, and for sharing our experiences.

There are also many reasons that I speak that are not necessarily born of kindness and wisdom. I speak to try to manipulate or control others, to try to get them to do what I want. I speak to persuade others of my viewpoint and/or to tell them that they are wrong. I speak because silence is uncomfortable. I speak because I want attention. I speak because I think what I have to say is important, and maybe more important than what someone else is saying.

Pausing before I start speaking to consider why I am talking helps me to be more aware of what my purpose is, and then to make choices about whether I want to open my mouth. (Sometimes. This is *definitely* a practice, and not something that I do perfectly.)

What is your relationship with talking look like? Do you talk when you’re uncomfortable? Do you try to manipulate or control others? (🙋🏻‍♀️) Do you see a value in practicing pausing?

06/23/2021

Love these questions, for a potential partner *and* for ourselves. 🙏🏻

Repost from .holistic.psychologist
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We get a lot of messaging from parents, from tv shows + movies about dating. Usually, we’re told to seek a person based on their finances. Or their job/interests. Or the family/community/background they come from. Mainly, the messages are highly appearance driven.

Because most of us have long been disconnected from our authentic selves, we don’t actually learn to build + create a life with another person.

Most of us are unconsciously looking for someone to complete us. To love us unconditionally, no matter what. To change for us (make *me* comfortable). To give us the love we desperately needed from our parent figures. To take away our fears, our insecurities, + to meet all of our needs.

An impossible task.

We aren’t thinking about creating safety, security + confidence within ourselves.

Eventually, resentment grows. Humans will be humans— + humans were never meant to meet all the needs of another. When people say “they showed their true colors,” what often is happening is the facade is falling down. The illusion we projected onto another person doesn’t match up to the reality. And so we go on searching...

Building a life with someone involves looking within. It involves asking *ourselves* all of the questions on these slides.

It takes work + relentless self compassion.

It takes facing yourself. It takes humility. It takes constant communication even as the fear, past trauma, + shame creeps up in daily life (+ makes us want to run away + hide.)

Building a life with someone means learning to love yourself. Then, creating a space for another person to learn the same.

There are no right or wrong answer to these questions. That’s why it’s building your life, together. You choose

Emma the Social Worker

08/07/2021

08/05/2021

07/28/2021

07/21/2021

07/20/2021

07/19/2021

07/16/2021

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06/23/2021

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