Moving Parts Psychotherapy

A different kind of intro post…
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I’ve been taking a break from Instagram as I’ve been deep in my own healing and grieving process. I haven’t had as much capacity to post, or known quite what to say. I advocate for us showing up as human, with authenticity in the therapy room and on social media. But how do we show up in this way when we haven’t fully come to terms with our own experience? When we’re in the healing and not through it? When the grief is still ever present? When you haven’t figured it all out?
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I’m realizing I don’t have to share every part of me to show up as authentic. That it doesn’t mean I’m not in touch with those places within me. That perhaps those parts of me need my attention before I let others meet them or know they exist. I’ve been spending time with parts of myself I had to bury deep for a long time, some I’m delighted to meet once again and some that feel more difficult to be with.
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So I’m back because I have the capacity to be back. I’m ready to reintroduce myself in a way that feels right and good to me. I’m leading with this photo of me in pure bliss at Era’s tour. During this time of grief and healing I’ve found so much comfort in her music. Watching her take back her power from men by reclaiming ownership of her music with each (Taylor’s Version) record has deeply resonated with the ways I’m healing. To revisit the Era’s of your life through music, for me reconnecting to the young parts of myself that each record represents and for her, getting to re-record her music, her adult self witnessing those younger parts take back their power.
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I guess I’m leading with, I’m a swiftie. I’m also a trauma therapist who owns a group practice of talented clinicians who are passionate about trauma healing, Moving Parts Psychotherapy. I practice and work in Austin, TX but see folks from all over the state of Texas. Interpersonal neurobiology, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing are my jam and I’m one of the few clinicians who integrates all of the above. I love bringing expressive arts in to my work as well. I’m passionate about doing deep work and moving slowly through trauma healing. Trauma healing is big scary work. Though we crave feeling better quickly, addressing the fears and hesitation is just as important as moving through the traumatic material. My specialty areas are working with CPTSD, perinatal mental health and parents processing traumatic material coming up within parenthood, and Dissociative Identity Disorder and dissociation in general. I feel so honored to work with the folks I do. I am lucky to be genuinely excited and delighted to see each one of my people each day.
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I’m AuDHD which is an important part of my identity as a therapist and human. I’m a mother of 3 which also informs my work as a therapist. I’m a co-paren’t.I’m white, Jewish, and pansexual which also informs my humanness and work as a therapist.
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I wrote a book this year which I’m both immensely proud of and have a lot of shame around dropping off instagram and not promoting in the ways I *should.* So buy my book! It’s called “The Tender Parts” and is available on Amazon. The book delves in to trauma healing through Internal Family Systems and is meant to be useful for therapists and non-therapists alike.
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I’ve found a deep passion in being an educator and consultant for other therapists through trainings, groups, and individual consultation. My year long training group, Parts of the Therapist is about to begin its THIRD year in September. It has been such a joy to offer and connect deeply with other healers.
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So this is me, a healer that’s healing and listening to A LOT of Taylor Swift right now.
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Thank you for being here and I look so forward to reconnecting.

I’m still processing my experience at the first weekend of our year long Nurturing the Heart Training I participated in this weekend. As I reflected at the end of the weekend, I shared I’ve been waiting so long to do this training and I’m both relieved and terrified that I’m finally doing it at one of the rawest times of my life.
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Nurturing the Heart is a year long interpersonal neurobiology training that goes deep in to IPNB and deep within ourselves as therapists. We gather with strangers from across the world sitting in awe as we learn about our brains and bodies and deep grief as we think about the hurts they endure. We go deep in our own process to touch places within us that are touched by the material—meeting our subconscious through sandtray, collage, and writing.
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As a therapist I’m aware of how imperative it is for me to touch in to my own deeply hidden and protected parts in order to invite my people to do the same and offer the safety to do this. When we touch in to those deep places within us through the subconscious, we touch things that may feel scary and raw. To build the safety of a group who can both hold you in going to these places as they do the same thing alongside you is sacred and beautiful. Most of us do not have spaces where this is welcomed. Most of us do not seek spaces where this is welcome.
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In my rawness I worry that I am too much. That my content is overflowing. That my pain will take up too much space. That others may not be able to handle what I am sitting with. That I can’t fully grasp the dark spaces that showed up in my sandtray and collage and writing myself.
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We spoke about the power of meeting with eyes, with skin, with souls. Of truly connecting. Of allowing our vulnerabilities to come through. We spoke of a tribe that says “I see you” and responds “I am here.” I felt this from the group and can offer it from self to my own parts. I know the deep work I will embark on cannot rub me more raw than I am already. So I say to those deep parts of myself that I’m ready to be with and hold, “I see you. I am here.”
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Welcome the newest edition to our MPP team!
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Welcome! My name is Emily (she/they) and I am an associate therapist practicing at in Austin, TX.

A little about me:

I am a q***r, tattooed, Honduran-American social worker and therapist!

My work is rooted in anti-oppressive practice, so I pay close attention to the social and cultural influences in which you navigate the world, and how oppression has played a role in your trauma. I use a client-centered approach, meaning YOU are the expert of your own life and we are working together as a team!

Although we exist in a society that promotes independence and self-reliance, it’s important to remember that we are wired to connect with others. We heal in community. I believe the most powerful tool in therapy is the relationship between therapist and client; in therapy, I hope to cultivate a safe relationship with you so that you can take the skills we use in therapy to your relationships outside of therapy.

Outside of the therapy room, I enjoy spending time with my partner and our cats, reading novels, imagining a liberated world (ask me about abolition!) and I unabashedly love reality TV.

This account will be dedicated to mental health resources/ psychoeducation/ anything else that feels right. ❣️ To book with Emily e-mail [email protected]

So stoked to join our therapist Marissa Sánchez at tomorrow for Intentional Movement!
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8:30 - 9:30 PM
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Flowmagin
2505 E 6th st
Austin, TX
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See ya there!
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I’ve found myself saying this often to clients lately and it felt like something important to share here. We can’t ask our partners to change—we can ask them to grow.
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Change means shifting things that are fundamentally a part of us. Asking to get new friends, change appearance, function differently, give up hobbies, change how someone functions in relation to neurodivergence. Asking a partner to grow means asking for expansion. Asking to see other perspectives, to listen more fully, to more deeply connect, to shift relationship dynamics.
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If we recognize we are in a space of asking a partner to change rather than grow or in a space where we need growth within the relationship but our partner is unable to meet us there, we may need to acknowledge the relationship is not a fit.
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Too often we enter relationships expecting our partner to forever be the person we first met rather than expecting them to grow. We may hear ourselves say “you’ve changed so much” when really, what we are seeing is growth. We can meet our partners in their growth and they can meet us in ours, or we can recognize we’ve grown apart.
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So are you asking your partner to grow or are you asking your partner to change? Growth is the space we can meet each other in, while change is a space we may never meet.
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During the thick of COVID I noticed a desperate need for trauma healers to connect. To be with one another. To acknowledge the complexities of our work. This group has unfolded in such a beautiful way. We come together each month to strengthen our knowledge of treating trauma through experiential exercises that focus on Somatic work, parts work, and memory reconsolidation and consult on cases in a deep way that acknowledges what the folks we work with bring up in ourselves. You will leave this group feeling more confident in your trauma work but more importantly more connected to healers offering the same. 24 CEs available for the year. Interns and graduate students welcome. Link in bio to apply. Spots are limited and your spot is not confirmed until payment is received. Join us for a beautiful year ❤️. Link in bio to apply!
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You’ve seen me post a lot about grief recently as I’ve been deep in a grieving period. You’ve also seen me taking lots of space recently as many days I just need to be WITH it and just don’t have much to post. It’s raining in Austin right now as I’m with the sounds of the rain, it feels peaceful and cathartic to my process. How often do we just stop and listen to the sky? With no music or television in the background. No podcast or conversation with a friend.
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I attended a grief retreat this weekend. And yes, I have parts that want to tell you it was some woo woo therapist s**t. I have parts of me that laugh thinking about the experience but the laughter moves quickly from a place of judgement to delight. The grief retreat was a sacred space to be intentional about grieving. In our western culture we’ve been taught not to grieve too loudly. Not too take up space with our grief. Not too look too sad—or worse—angry, because it will make others uncomfortable. To move quickly through it then get back to normal life. To dissociate from it because we HAVE to get back to functioning in normal life. But when we leave grief unprocessed, it doesn’t go away. It sits in our bellies, in our chests, in our hearts, begging to be touched and held and noticed. It stays there until it’s touched and held and noticed. If it isn’t, it is passed on to the next generation once again begging to be touched and held and noticed. It shows up as anxiety, as depression, as ancestral trauma.
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Our grief retreat was a sacred space. I cannot tell you exactly what it entailed. I cannot tell you how I was witnessed and how I witnessed others in their process. For the grief belongs in that sacred space to those who experienced it. I can tell you we grief cried. A wail that allows the grief to move viscerally through the body. I can tell you we were held and cared for in community. That we touched in to the deepest pain but also the deepest joys. That an intimacy, love, and safety was felt with each and every person in the group. A true connection of the heart. The process unfolded as it needed to and will continue to move through us.
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And so, I continue to grieve.

Trauma & Identity — Moving Parts Psychotherapy PLLC

Our wonderful therapist Erin Smith, LPC Associate with a wonderful blog post on trauma and identity.

Trauma & Identity — Moving Parts Psychotherapy PLLC "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." – Maya Angelou Trauma, whether a singular distressing event or a cluster of experiences, can have an impact on nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Trauma inhibits us from being fully in the present moment – oft

In healing, we often look for our big moments of growth—seeing our lives change. Being in a healthy relationship, getting a new job, switching careers. We forget to look for the smaller moments. Those small moments are actually the ones that push us toward big change. That give us the courage to change our lives. That give us the capacity to be in relationship. Even the act of recognizing the small moments of growth and healing is an act of growth and healing. How are you making space and acknowledging your small shifts?
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So I’m on a high of completing a task I put off for 3 years in 15 minutes. Yes, even as a therapist I have those impossible tasks that my ADHD won’t let me complete.
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What often happens is I put something off and my shame around not getting it done grows and grows until it’s bigger than the task itself. What should be something small becomes bigger in my mind and weighs heavy on me. For many of us, we seem put together on the outside, like we have everything together and feel shame around ‘what if people found me out?’ The truth is, most of us have those things. The cracks. But rather than cracks that feel like they’re letting out all the water or air, they’re cracks that let in the light. We are allowed to be imperfect and have those things that fly under the radar (and we can acknowledge the privilege many of us have in being allowed to be imperfect.)
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And some tips and tricks for getting s**t done:
✨Share your wins with a bestie.
✨Get yourself a little treat after you complete your task.
✨Have something comforting on like music or a show while you complete your task.
✨Break it down in to smaller steps you can check off as you go.
✨Schedule out the task even if it’s far in advance.
✨Give yourself a larger reward for completing a few tasks you’ve been putting off.
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You’ve got this 💪🏼.
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So many of us are healing from hurt caused by others. Within this hurt, we often move in to a place of self blame—trauma survivors know this well. We can’t control the behavior of another but moving toward a place of self blame feels more within our control. When we blame ourselves WE can change to assure the hurt doesn’t happen again.
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So many ruptures we experience are left without repair from the other party. These ruptures don’t heal themselves, instead they build like thick scar tissue. We learn from them and form new parts of ourselves to protect us from the hurt.
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While it feels lonely and disheartening to heal the hurt caused by others—for we were so deserving of repair, we ARE so deserving of repair—it is beautiful to acknowledge that we each possess the innate capacity to heal. That rather than allowing the scar tissue to harden, we can tend to it with soft hands and a soft heart. To acknowledge we were not deserving of the hurt. That the burden did not belong to us and we no longer have to carry it. To lean in to the love we ARE receiving to learn to turn it toward ourselves. To know that even when it feels lonely, and the loneliness is agonizing, we still have the capacity to turn love toward ourselves. I imagine a ring of light surrounding my heart, emanating to all parts of myself, as those parts take in my compassion, the scar tissue begins to slowly melt. Not absolving of the hurt, but acknowledging and feeling held in it.
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Before you ask your therapist, “can I read you this text?” ask yourself what the content is bringing up for you. So often in the therapy room, we are untangling confusion around social interactions whether with a partner or other loved one. We are often attempting to solve issues as individuals that need to be addressed within the relational dynamic.
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So many of us don’t know how to clearly communicate or are scared to do so. Sometimes clear communication touches on our vulnerabilities or leaves us with a fear of being rejected. Yet we’ll spend days or weeks or months stewing and shaming ourselves about an interaction we might have gotten more clarity around if we had the communication skills to do so. How many hours have you wasted wondering what a text means? Or an email? Wondering why someone hasn’t responded? It’s the wondering that actually causes more stress within us. It’s the not knowing that leads to anxiety. Rather than sitting in the discomfort of wondering, share your truth and ask for clarity when you don’t understand theirs. I know I know easier said than done. What does communicating your internal world bring up for you? What fears do you hold around it?
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The realization your world has been forever changed. That you have been forever changed. That they are no longer here. That you are no longer here. That they were not who you thought. That you are not who you tried to become. That you cannot exist as the person you were a minute ago, a week ago, a year ago. That those parts of you are still reaching out for something or someone they can’t grasp. That you had to bury that person, that belief, that version of yourself.
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Grief is the realization that nothing will be the same again.
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