Mindful Therapist Aniela Sârbu

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United States
Traverse City, MI
Mindful Therapist Aniela Sârbu

Welcome to Mindful Therapist!

Psychotherapist, Clinical psychologist
Compassionate Inquiry a trauma-informed approach
Somatic Therapy
Mindfulness coach

Healer of sensitive souls | Feminine awakening guide | Trauma-informed mindfulness coach | Conscious relationship guide | Here you will find a holistic counseling and wellness space for your emotional self-awareness, healing past traumas and attachment wounds, and mindful living with a heart-centered approach. My name is Aniela and I am your guide in your Personal Alchemy - a Journey to healing and transformation for your body, mind, and spirit. My approach combines the methods of Western psychology, psychotherapy (cognitive-behavior, psychodynamic, and psychosomatic therapy, and clinical psychology experience) with ancient Eastern wisdom practices such as yoga, mindfulness, compassion, and meditation practices of heart and awareness. I use Compassionate Inquiry as a heart-centered and self-compassion approach to help you navigate early childhood trauma and attachment wounds.

12/30/2025

There is something sacred about these days. A threshold between years. A bridge between what’s left behind and what it’s coming. A time to honor what has ended, and what is quietly waiting to be born.🤍
Something about this time is sacred.
Not loud.
Not demanding.
Not asking you to rush toward resolutions or clarity.

This moment at the edge of the year is a pause, a soft inhalation before life moves again.

After months of movement, effort, survival, and becoming, the nervous system longs for stillness. Not as an escape, but as a place of integration. A place where what you’ve lived doesn’t need to be explained, fixed, or transformed yet, only felt, held, and allowed to settle.

This is a season where the body speaks more quietly, and if we listen, we can hear what truly matters beneath the noise. You may feel more tender now. More inward. More aware of what feels aligned, and what no longer does. This is not weakness. It is wisdom.

Stillness is not emptiness.
It is where meaning organizes itself.
Where the heart becomes accessible again.
Where the nervous system learns that it is safe to soften.
I write for all of you who recognize yourself in my words:
If you are feeling less festive and more reflective, less energized and more quiet, nothing is wrong with you. You are responding to a natural rhythm, one that invites rest, embodiment, and truth.
I feel you. I see you. I am you.

Let this be a time of gentle landing.
Of honoring what you survived.
Of acknowledging how much you carried.
Of allowing your body to exhale without expectation.

You don’t need to force intention yet.
You don’t need to rush into the next version of yourself.

What integrates now, slowly, quietly, honestly, becomes the ground from which the new year will grow.
May you allow this stillness to hold you. Aniela🤍

12/24/2025

This season is often wrapped in words like magic, joy, togetherness.
And for many people, it truly is. Many of us are loved, spending time with family, enjoying delicious meals in cozy homes.

But I want to pause here, for those who are moving through these days with a heavier heart. And there are a lot of people like this too.
I write these thoughts:
For those who feel lonely.
For those who grieve a loss.
For those with difficult family situations.
For those carrying trauma, illness, or uncertainty quietly in their bodies.
For those who are financially stretched, emotionally exhausted, or unsure how they’ll make it through the coming weeks.
For those who had a tough year and still fight uncertainty.
For those who long to ask for help but don’t know how, or don’t feel safe to.

If this is you, please hear this:
You matter too.
Your experience is valid.
Your nervous system is not broken, it is responding to what it has lived through.

This season can amplify what is already there. It can bring memories, comparisons, expectations, and pressure to feel a certain way. And when you don’t, it can feel isolating, like something is wrong with you.

Nothing is wrong with you.

There is no requirement to be cheerful.
No obligation to perform joy.
No timeline for healing, grieving, or “feeling better.”

If all you can do right now is breathe, rest, and get through the day, that is enough.
If your version of this season is quieter, slower, or lonelier, your path still matters.

From a nervous system perspective, safety does not come from decorations or traditions. It comes from being seen, from kindness, from knowing you don’t have to pretend. And if there’s no one there to tell you that, please receive these words: you are seen, you matter, you are loved, you are allowed to have your feelings!

Let this be a soft reminder:
You are not alone in how you feel, even if it feels that way.
There are many hearts walking alongside you, quietly, tenderly, doing their best.
You don’t have to shine this season.
You are allowed to simply be. 🤍

With love,
Aniela🤍

12/24/2025

When nobody is coming
stay.🤍

Stay with your breath.
Stay with your body.
Stay with the quiet knowing that you are still here.

Let your shoulders soften.
Let your jaw unclench.
Let the rush inside you slow down.
Nothing needs to be solved right now.
Nothing needs to be proven.

Feel your spine holding you upright.
Feel the weight of your body being carried by the earth.
You do not have to hold yourself together alone.
The ground is already doing that for you.

Place one hand on your heart.
One on your belly.
Let your breath move like a tide
in… receiving
out… releasing

You are safe.

If fear rises, don’t push it away.
Meet it like you would a frightened child,
with curiosity, warmth, and presence.
Say softly:
“I see you.”
“I’m here now.”
You are safe.

Your nervous system listens to gentleness.
It remembers the language of slowness, touch, and truth.
Each conscious breath tells your body:
The danger has passed.
I am no longer alone.
I am safe.

Come home again.
And again.
And again.

Home is not a place you arrive at once.
It is a practice.
A thousand small moments of choosing yourself
when the world feels too loud, too fast, too much.

Rest inside your own presence.
Let your body be the place you return to
when everything else falls away.

You are safe.
You have always been able to come back.
And you are here now.
You are home.
You are safe.
Always remember to find the way back to yourself.
When nobody’s coming
Come home to yourself.

Feel the feet touching the ground. You are safe.
Hold your head and touch your heart.
You are safe.
Support yourself with gentle words because your heart remembers that language.
You are safe.
Protect your energy with your breath. Deep conscious breaths. Let go of tension.
You are safe.
Aniela🤍

12/24/2025

If your nervous system could speak, it would whisper the truth you’ve been too busy or too overwhelmed to hear:🤍

“Spend more time with people who feel like peace.
Take more walks.
Let yourself slow down.”

Because the nervous system doesn’t heal through pressure, forcing, or pushing - it heals through safety, presence, and gentle consistency.

As a therapist, I see this every day: the body is always telling a story long before the mind catches up. When you’re surrounded by chaos, criticism, or emotional unpredictability, your system learns to stay on alert. Your breath becomes shallow. Your shoulders tighten. Your mind moves into survival mode.

And then stillness feels foreign.
Peace feels suspicious.
Slowness feels like danger.

But this isn’t who you are - this is what your nervous system had to become.

Healing begins when you intentionally choose environments that signal safety.
When you spend time with people who don’t activate your wounds over and over again.
When you walk outside and let your breath find its rhythm again.
When your body finally receives the message: “It’s okay. You’re allowed to rest now.”

Long walks regulate your vagus nerve.
Gentle people regulate your heart.
Presence rewires your brain.

None of this is small.
This is healing.

So if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or exhausted, let this be your reminder:
Your nervous system is asking for peace.

More slow mornings.
More grounding rituals.
More conversations with people who soften you rather than tighten you.
More movement that feels like coming home.

Healing is not found in intensity - it’s found in the quiet moments where your body can finally rest and you can breathe deeply.
Aniela🤍. www.mindfultherapist.us

12/19/2025

Healing, growth, and real transformation
do not begin in the mind alone.

They begin in the body.
They begin in the nervous system. 🤍

So many of us try to change our lives, our relationships, our parenting
while our nervous system is still living in survival.

And a nervous system that is overwhelmed or guarded
cannot offer presence, patience, or connection—
no matter how much insight we have.

This is why I keep returning to this truth:
Regulation is not a luxury.
It is a foundation.

Safety is built through simple, human experiences:
• a hug held a little longer
• gentle movement that brings us back into the body
• deep breathing, humming, laughter
• rest that is respected, not sacrificed
• nature, warmth, stillness, and rhythm

These are not “small things.”
They are messages of safety.

A regulated nervous system allows us to:
– parent with patience instead of reactivity
– repair instead of withdraw
– listen instead of defend
– stay present in relationships, even during discomfort

Neuroscience confirms what our bodies already know:
we heal in safety,
we grow in connection,
and we transform when the nervous system no longer has to survive.

Healing is not about doing more.
It’s about feeling safe enough to be fully here.

May we choose practices that soften us.
May we honor our nervous system as the bridge between awareness and change.
And may that safety ripple into our families, our relationships,
and the generations that follow. 🤍

With care,
Aniela

BloomingHearts
healinginsafety parentingwithpresence compassionateinquiry

12/18/2025

Trauma Lives in the Body 🤍

Trauma doesn’t disappear just because time passes.
It lingers quietly in the body, often in ways we don’t even notice.

In my work, I see this again and again:
The body finds ways to cope long before the mind has words.

Small, rhythmic movements - rocking, rubbing your feet together, tapping your fingers - are not random habits.
They are self-soothing responses, guided by your nervous system’s wisdom.

When something overwhelming happens, your body does whatever it can to keep you safe.
Sometimes that means staying alert.
Other times, it means creating gentle repetition to signal safety.

These movements help release tension and tell the body:
“You’re okay now.”

This is why trauma healing must include the body.
We don’t just heal by thinking differently, we heal by feeling differently.

When you notice self-soothing behaviors, know this:
It’s not a flaw.
It’s your body regulating, softening, protecting.

Gentle somatic supports 🤍

• Slow, deep breathing (longer exhales calm the nervous system)
• Rhythmic movement: swaying, rocking, walking
• Compassionate body awareness
• A warm hand on your heart, belly, or thighs
• Journaling after the body settles

You don’t need to force healing.
You don’t need to fix yourself.
You don’t need to rush.

Your body is communicating.
Responding.
Repairing.

Little by little, your nervous system is learning that it is safe now.
And you deserve to feel that safety, in your whole being.

With care,
Aniela 🤍

🌿 www.mindfultherapist.us

12/17/2025

We are not meant to regulate alone. 🤍

The nervous system is relational. From the moment we are born, we learn how to feel safe, calm, and grounded through other people. This is called co-regulation.

Neuroscience shows that our brains are constantly scanning for cues of safety or threat, tone of voice, facial expression, emotional presence. When we are with someone who is calm, attuned, and emotionally available, our nervous system softens. Stress hormones decrease. The part of the brain responsible for empathy and clarity comes back online.

This is why being understood logically doesn’t help when we’re overwhelmed, but being felt does.

Co-regulation looks simple:
• a partner who stays present instead of shutting down
• a parent who breathes slowly while a child is melting down
• being listened to without being fixed
• a safe relationship where you don’t have to perform

This is the foundation of healthy parenting.
Children don’t learn regulation from words, they learn it from our nervous system.

And this is what a mature, conscious relationship offers: a space where both people can return to safety together, repair, and grow.

Healing happens in relationship.
Regulation happens through connection.
And safety is something we learn, together.

With care and presence, Aniela🤍

12/16/2025

When you’re stuck in a fear loop, your nervous system isn’t asking you to think differently.

It’s asking to feel safer.

Fear doesn’t live in logic.
It lives in the body.

When your system is in survival, reassurance doesn’t land and insight can’t settle. Regulation begins below the mind, gently and slowly.

Here are simple ways to support your nervous system when fear takes over:

• Look around and name 5 things you can see → remind your body: I’m here, now
• Soften your exhale (longer out than in) → safety travels on the breath
• Use temperature → hold something warm or splash cool water on your face
• Move slowly → rocking, walking, pressing your feet into the ground
• Speak kindly to yourself → I see you. I’m here. You’re not alone
• Reduce stimulation → less noise, less screen, softer light

You are not weak for feeling this way.
Your nervous system learned to survive.

Healing isn’t about forcing calm.
It’s about creating moments where your body can finally exhale.

🌿 Reflection:
What helps my body feel even 5% safer right now?

May you meet fear with softness instead of urgency.
Safety is built—moment by moment. 🤍

12/15/2025

The neuroscience of emotional regulation is simple, human, and deeply compassionate. - because it explains why we lose ourselves when we’re overwhelmed, and how we can return.

When stress hijacks the nervous system, your brain isn’t trying to sabotage you.
It’s trying to protect you.

Under pressure, the amygdala takes over, your threat-detection center, and your whole system shifts from reasoning to survival. The prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for patience, empathy, problem-solving, and emotional clarity, temporarily goes offline. You can’t think clearly, you can’t slow down, and you can’t “just calm down” no matter how much you want to.

This is why emotional regulation isn’t about willpower.
It’s about biology.

And this is the part so many people misunderstand:
Healing does not begin with harsher self-judgment.
It begins with soothing the body so the mind can return.

When you breathe deeper, ground your feet, relax your shoulders, or place a hand on your chest, you’re not doing something “small.”
You’re sending signals through the vagus nerve that tell your body, “You’re safe now.”
And the moment your body believes that, your prefrontal cortex comes back online.

Suddenly, you have access again to:

• empathy
• patience
• perspective
• curiosity
• connection

These are not moral qualities.
They are regulated-brain qualities.

This is why nervous-system work is foundational in parenting, relationships, and healing. You can only offer the presence and safety you have access to within yourself. A regulated adult creates a regulated environment. A calm nervous system becomes a place where children’s emotions can land without fear.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed, flooded, or reactive, remember this truth:

Nothing is wrong with you.
Your brain is doing what it learned to do under stress.

And you have the power, through breath, grounding, self-compassion, and awareness, to shift your body out of survival and back into connection.
This is where healing begins.
This is where healthy parenting grows.
This is where you find yourself again. Aniela🤍

12/12/2025

If peace feels boring, there’s nothing wrong with you.🤍
It’s not a flaw, it’s your nervous system speaking.

When you’ve spent years in survival mode - hypervigilant, alert, scanning for danger - your body learns to function on adrenaline. Chaos becomes familiar. Stress becomes normal. And calm… feels foreign.

This is not your fault.
It’s biology.

Chronic stress rewires your nervous system. The amygdala - the part of your brain responsible for detecting threats - stays on high alert. Cortisol becomes your baseline. Your system learns to live in readiness, not rest.

So when life finally slows down…
When someone is kind…
When the house is quiet…
When nothing is wrong…
Your body doesn’t always recognise it as “safe.”
It recognises it as different.

And different can feel uncomfortable.

That’s why peace may feel boring.
Why healthy relationships may feel slow.
Why stability can feel empty at first.
Your body is simply trying to adjust to a reality it was never taught to trust.

But here’s the beautiful truth that I want you to know or remember:
Your nervous system can learn safety.

With mindfulness.
With grounding.
With gentle breathing.
With small moments of presence.
With people who feel steady, regulating, and kind.

Every time you slow down, you send your body a new message:
“This is what safety feels like.”
“This is allowed.”
“I don’t have to be on guard anymore.”

Bit by bit, your system recalibrates.
Your brain learns that calm isn’t a threat.
Your body learns that stillness isn’t danger.
Peace becomes familiar - maybe even beautiful.

If you feel restless in moments of calm, please don’t judge yourself.
You’re not self-sabotaging.
You’re not “addicted to chaos.”
You’re healing.

You’re simply living in a body that is still catching up to a safer life.

And with time, practice, and compassion, peace will stop feeling boring…
and start feeling like home.
🤍 May you offer your nervous system the gentleness it never had. Aniela

12/09/2025

You cannot rescue someone who isn’t ready to rise.🤍

The more you try to save someone from their pain, the deeper they sink.
Not because they “want” to drown, but because rescuing takes away the one thing healing requires: their own agency.

As painful as it is, healing is not something you can do for someone you love.
They must choose it from within, when their nervous system, their heart, and their timeline are ready.

You can love them.
You can support them.
You can stand beside them.
But you cannot walk the path for them.

As a therapist, I see this heartbreak everywhere:
parents aching for their adult children, partners trying to carry someone’s relapse, friends holding together a person who keeps falling apart.

Here is what I want you to remember:

You are not responsible for someone else’s readiness.
You cannot want their healing more than they do.
You cannot pressure them into change.
You cannot love them so perfectly that their wounds disappear.

What does help?

✨ Let reality be the teacher.
Protecting them from consequences only delays growth.

✨ Offer support, not pressure.
Pressure creates resistance, shame, and avoidance.
Safety brings people closer to change.

✨ Hold healthy boundaries.
Boundaries are clarity, not punishment.
They protect both of you.

✨ See the person beneath the struggle.
Their behavior is a coping strategy, not their identity.

✨ Stop arguing with their readiness.
Your urgency cannot replace their capacity.

✨ Take care of yourself.
Watching someone you love suffer is its own kind of trauma.

And this truth:

People don’t change for partners, parents, or children.
They change when something inside whispers:
“I’m tired of hurting. I’m ready to try.”

When that moment comes, they won’t need judgment, they’ll need your presence.
Not fixing, your steadiness.
Not disappointment, your acceptance.

Until then, let them walk their path.
And let yourself breathe.🤍

Love can hold someone through their pain,
but it cannot heal them for you.

With care,
Aniela 🤍

Address

Traverse City, MI
49686

Telephone

+16169908022

Website

http://www.mindfultherapist.us/

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