The Need for Stabilizing Forces in the Health + Wellness Space
If I’m being honest, I’d prefer to live in a European beach town with my dogs until the world feels normal again (whatever normal means).
Until the U.S. feels stable. Until I feel safer.
And, as a clinician, writer and founder, I’ve made the conscious decision to stay in this country—not out of obligation, but out of necessity.
Why I’m Here for the Long Haul
For many, the pandemic cracked open the foundation of our society, exposing fractures in health, trust, and care. For me personally, those three years were an accelerated classroom of grief, resilience, and awakening—offering more life lessons than I’d gathered in my entire 43 years on the planet.
During the darkest time of my life, profound moments shaped and prepared me —collective grief hanging thick in the air, the quiet erosion of my physical and mental health, the death of my father and rescue pup, Olivia Chewton John, a sudden divorce, the decision to close the wellbeing firm I spent 3 years building, and so much more.
In that space of uncertainty, I found a new kind of clarity. I learned to be a steadying presence in the midst of societal devolvement and emotional turmoil. To hold a safe space—not just in therapy rooms or on meditation cushions, but in the everyday chaos of people trying to survive. It’s not glamorous work, and it’s not always easy. But I’ve learned that, as humans, coming together in love and protection is all we truly have.
It feels sacred in a time of general spiritual malaise. So, in a time when many are understandably seeking refuge elsewhere, I feel prepared to remain grounded and present for those around me who are reeling. I feel the ability to be stabilizing in a world that feels anything but stable.
Here’s what I’ve learned — an offering to those feeling the weight of uncertainty, fear and panic in current times:
Together is stronger, healthier and safer.
If you need help, ask for it.
If you feel equipped to provide help, provide it.
Neighbors and nature make challenging seasons exponentially more bearable
Our breath is the single most important tool for the chaos our bodies are feeling
Plant medicine and expanded states of consciousness can help us rise above the noise to something more meaningful and grounding
Returning to simplicity is always the way
Invest in your wellbeing like you invest in popular escape routes — luxury, convenience and comfort. You will have no need for luxury or status when you feel grounded, stable and healthy again.
Calling the Healers — Let’s Do This
If you consider yourself a healer—a therapist, a coach, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a spiritual guide, an energy worker, anyone working in the depth of the wellness space—this is your moment to do your best work.
To my fellow practitioners, healers, and health workers: we need rooted and capable individuals now more than ever—those who can be both mirror and anchor, who can tend to individual pain while resisting the pull of despair. Healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in communities, in neighborhoods, in the slow return of trust and connection. If you, too, have the capacity, let us choose presence as a form of resistance. Let us choose to stay and help rebuild something more whole.
Our friends and neighbors are not simply stressed. They’re scared. They’re watching their rights, their resources, and their realities slip out from under them. They’re watching masked, unidentified law enforcement agents detain people off the street with zero accountability. They’re watching their retirement funds disappear, their healthcare dangle by a thread, their sense of stability unravel by the day.
This is not the time for professionals in mental health and wellness to sit quietly in the corner.
This is not the time to abandon our values.
This is not the time to retreat into the comfort of neutrality while the people we serve are cracking open under the weight of uncertainty.
This is the time to show up like it matters, because it does. Your office, your virtual room, your presence—those are sanctuaries now. Your words are lifelines. Your ability to hold grief, rage, numbness, confusion, and fear with compassion and steadiness has never been more important to those you serve. It’s not just “the work”, it’s the shield.
The rebuilding. The way back to center in a world that feels like it’s coming apart.
To the healthcare workers and healers — your work is not passive. It’s radical. It’s protective. It’s sacred. And if you’re waiting for a better time to get involved, to speak up, to offer more, to bring in ritual, regulation, softness, and spine—this is that time. You were never meant to stay small and silent.
So ground yourself, nourish yourself, regulate your nervous system like your impact depends on it—because it does.
And then, get in the room.
With love and gratitude,
Gianna
