Calm and Focused Therapy

🌿 A space for veterans to be supported, not just served. 🌿

Introducing Restoring Resilience — a trauma-informed restorative group created specifically for veterans navigating reintegration, PTSD, and the weight of what you've carried.

Over six sessions, you'll build community, develop real coping tools, and reconnect — alongside others who understand.

📅 Every-other-Saturday | July 18 – September 26 | 9:00–10:30 AM
📍 Garner, NC | 915 Vandora Springs Rd.
💰 $80/session or $450 for all · FREE with VA Authorization

This isn't about reliving the past. It's about finding solid ground now.

🔗 Register at calmaf.org

🌊 Parenting through big emotions can feel like weathering a storm — and you don't have to ride it out alone.

Introducing Building Emotionally Safe Homes, a five-session parenting group for caregivers learning to meet emotional dysregulation with calm, confidence, and connection.

Grounded in DBT-informed parenting, the Nurtured Heart Approach, attachment-informed care, mindfulness, and co-regulation, this group hands you practical, evidence-informed tools you can use the moment the waves rise.
You bring the love. We'll help with the skills. 💙

📅 Every other Saturday · July 11 – September 5
⏰ 9:00–10:00 AM
📍 Garner: 915 Vandora Springs Rd
Register at https://tinyurl.com/Parenting-Crash-Course

Find your peace of mind.
GET

Tag a friend 👇 who could use some calm in their family!

🌈 PRIDE IN PRACTICE 🌈

We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Buuuut....calling all LGBTQIA+ and allied mental health professionals — this one's for you. 💙

We're teaming up with Phoenix Therapeutics, PLLC to bring you an afternoon of connection, community, and building a real network of clinicians within the LGBTQIA+ space. Because doing this work well means not doing it alone. 🌿

☕ Unhinged Coffee & Co.
📍 319 N First Ave, Knightdale, NC
📅 Sunday, June 28th
🕑 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
🍺 Beer, wine, THC-infused drinks, and coffee available
🍪 Snacks provided

🤝 Networking, community, and connection — no agenda required
All LGBTQIA+ and allied mental health professionals are welcome.

Come as you are. Bring a colleague. Build your people. 💛

RSVP not required, but requested for planning: https://tinyurl.com/LGBTQIAMeetUp

🔗 Tag a clinician who needs this kind of community in their corner. 👇

Building community is kind of our whole thing, so this one hits close to home.

We’re honored to host the very first Pride in Practice, created by Calm and Focused Therapy and Phoenix Therapeutics, PLLC. It’s a space for LGBTQIA+ and allied clinicians to meet, network, and feel a little less alone in the work they do.

Feel free to join us in supporting q***r therapists and q***r owned businesses across the Triangle this Pride Month. Join us Sunday, June 28 from 2:00 to 5:00 PM right here at Unhinged.

To every clinician holding space for others: come let someone hold a little space for you.

💙 Your identity is not a diagnosis. Your existence is not a disorder. 🌈

For too long the mental health field got this wrong. And a lot of people carry wounds from that history — from therapists who pathologized who they were instead of supporting who they were becoming.

We want to say clearly and without hesitation: that ends here. 🌿

The research is clear. The data is consistent. LGBTQ+ individuals experience significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, and trauma — not because of who they are — but because of a world that has repeatedly told them who they are is wrong.

That's not an identity issue.
That's a systemic one. 💛

Affirming care isn't a specialty.
It's the baseline. It's the floor. It's the least we owe every human who walks through our door.

At Calm and Focused Therapy our clinicians are trained in gender affirming care, LGBTQ+ affirming therapy, and creating space where ALL of you — every part, every identity, every season of your story — is welcomed without condition. 💙

If you've been waiting for a practice where you don't have to explain yourself before you can heal — You don't have to wait anymore. 🌈🫶
📍 Garner & Clayton, NC
🔗 calmandfocusedtherapy.com
⭐ tinyurl.com/CalmAFGoogleReview

***rTherapy

🧠 Usher had CONFESSIONS. We have a framework. 💙
— "Confessions Part II" was uncomfortably relatable.
But admitting wrong? That's actually a skill.

A real apology is one of the most powerful acts of connection and repair we have in relationships - and most of us were never taught what one actually looks like. 🌿

A genuine apology has nothing to do with making yourself feel better -
It has everything to do with the person you hurt. 💛

Here are our 4 A's of Apology — and yes, ALL FOUR matter:
1️⃣ ADMIT you've done wrong.
No "I'm sorry you feel that way." Own it. Clearly. Specifically. Without excuses hiding inside the sentence.

2️⃣ ACKNOWLEDGE how it hurt.
Step into their experience. What did your actions cost them? Say it out loud. Let them know you actually get it — not just what you did, but what it did to them.

3️⃣ APOLOGIZE for your actions.
Now say it. Directly. "I am sorry for ___." Simple. Specific. No buts. No howevers. No asterisks. Just the apology they deserved from the start.

4️⃣ ASK for forgiveness.
Not demand it. Not expect it on your timeline. Ask — and then give them the space to respond however they need to. Forgiveness is theirs to give. Not yours to take.

A real apology doesn't guarantee forgiveness. 💙
It doesn't erase what happened.
But it does say: I see you. I see what I did. And you matter more to me than my pride.

That's where repair begins. 🫶

Save this. Share it. Tag someone who needs to see what a real apology looks like — or who deserves one.

📍 Garner & Clayton, NC
🔗 calmandfocusedtherapy.com

🎨 Your Friday just got a whole lot better. Put the week down. Pick up a paintbrush. 🖌️

Friday Night Flow: Art Night is THIS Friday and we saved you a seat at the table. 💙
No talent required.
No pressure.
No agenda except showing up, creating something, and leaving a little lighter than you arrived. 🌿

Because creativity isn't a hobby reserved for "artistic people."
It's a nervous system reset.
It's play.
It's healing dressed up as a fun craft with a few strangers. ✨

🎨 Friday Night Flow: Art Night
📅 Friday, June 12th
🕔 5:30 – 7:30 PM
📍 The Beerded Lady | 1350 5th Ave #170, Garner, NC
🖌️ Supplies provided — bring your favorites if you have them!
💙 All are welcome. ALWAYS.

🔗 calmandfocusedtherapy.com/events
Tag someone who desperately needs a creative night out. You know who they are. 👇

🌈 Happy Pride Month. You belong here. Fully. Completely. As you are. 💙

To every person who has ever had to shrink their identity to fit into a room —
This month is for you.
This space is for you.
This practice is for you. 🌿

Pride isn't just a parade. It's a declaration. A collective rising of voices that have been silenced, suppressed, and told they were too much — or not enough.

You are not too much.
You are not too little.
You are exactly who you were always meant to be. 💛

At Calm and Focused Therapy we don't just say we're affirming. We mean it. In every room. For every identity. 🫶

Whether you are Gay. Le***an. Bisexual. Transgender. Non-Binary. Intersex. Q***r. Asexual. Still figuring it out. Or somewhere beautifully in between —
You are safe here. You are celebrated here. You are seen here. 💙

This month and every month.
Because pride isn't seasonal. And neither is our care. 🌈

🔗 calmandfocusedtherapy.com
📍 Garner & Clayton, NC

***rMentalHealth

🎨 Art Night is coming and your soul NEEDS this. ✨

Clear your calendar. Grab a friend. And come exactly as you are — because Friday Night Flow: Craft & Connect is NEXT FRIDAY 🖌️

No talent required.
No judgment.
No pressure.

Just you, creative energy, good people, and a space to finally exhale after a week that probably asked WAY too much of you. 😌

Come paint. Come sketch. Come glue things to other things.
Come sit there and watch everyone else create while you sip your drink.
That counts too. 🫶

🎨 Friday Night Flow: Art Night
📅 Friday, June 12th
🕔 5:30 – 7:30 PM
📍 The Beerded Lady | 1350 5th Ave #170, Garner, NC
🖌️ Supplies provided — bring your own if you have favorites!
💙 All are welcome. Always.

Because creativity isn't just fun — it's healing. And you deserve both. 🌿

🔗 More info: calmandfocusedtherapy.com/events

Tag someone who needs a creative night out. We'll see you Friday. 💙

🧠 Let’s talk about TIPP. Because your nervous system deserves a toolkit. 💙

When emotions hit HARD — we’re talking overwhelmed, flooded, spiraling — your brain doesn’t need a pep talk.

It needs biology. 🌿

TIPP is a set of DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) skills designed to bring your nervous system down fast — using your body, not just your mind. And it works because it’s evidence-based, not just inspirational. 💛

🌡️ T — Temperature
Feeling dysregulated? Change your body temperature. Cold water on your face or wrists. Ice in your hands. A cold shower. Your body’s dive reflex kicks in and slows everything down — heart rate, breath, panic. Fast. It sounds simple because it is.

💨 I — Intense Exercise
Burn off the emotional energy that has nowhere to go. A fast walk. Jumping jacks. A sprint around the block. Moving your body hard for even 10 minutes can metabolize stress hormones and shift your emotional state.

🌬️ P — Paced Breathing
Slow your exhale down. Longer out than in. Try breathing in for 4 counts — out for 6 to 8. This directly activates your parasympathetic nervous system. Your body cannot stay in crisis mode when you breathe this way. It is not a suggestion. It’s physiology.

💪 P — Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Tense each muscle group tightly for a few seconds — then release. Work from your toes to your face. The contrast between tension and release signals safety to your nervous system and melts the stress your body has been holding.

These skills won’t fix the hard thing.
But they will bring you back to a place where you can face it. 💙

Save this for the hard moments.
Share it with someone who needs it today.

Tag a friend, a colleague, a human you love who could use a toolkit like this. 🫶

And if you’re ready to go deeper than skills — that’s what therapy is for. We are here.

📍 Garner & Clayton, NC
🔗 calmandfocusedtherapy.com