Shanelle D. Johnson, Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

Where does Anxiety show up in your body? I like to call anxiety a one trick pony. Anxiety manifests and shows up in your body the same way. It is important that we recognize the signs and symptoms of anxiety and work towards recognizing it's "tricks" in the beginning and stop bbn it from getting bigger. #MotivationMonday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme #anxietyadvocate #dontgiveup #getsleep #therapyishealing

All Your Tries Count We live in a world filled with the illusions of perfectionism. We are consistently fed lies about perfect bodies, perfect this and perfect that. All of it is a lie and we are left comparing ourselves to a false reality. How do I know it’s a lie, you ask? It is simple my dear.humans are perfectly imperfect. We are beautifully flawed to make mistakes and not have all the answers. We are masters of nothing at birth except breathing and pooping. Everything... that we know is taught and learned. Everything that we learn takes effort to learn it. Everything requires multiple tries to get itright. It will take you multiple tries to master...everything. Yet, each and every try counts. The mastery comes in trying to learn to trust again. It's in the 3rd try at a new medication to help lift the depression. The perfection is trying out another coping skill to help manage your anxiety. You see the perfection isn’t in..I have found the perfect ending...the perfection is the willingness to continue to try in an imperfect way. Society will tell you that the outcome is the perfection..but I assure you the perfection is the willingness to get up and try again and again and again. #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme #youareworthy

Drink Your Water Did you know?? Research has linked dehydration to depression and anxiety, because mental health is driven primarily by your brain’s activity. Dehydration slows down your brain's ability to make serotonin (happy hormones), zaps your brains energy, and increases the stress in your body. ALL of these things contribute to depression and anxiety. #MotivationMonday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth... #blacktherapist #followme #drinkwater See more

Everything will be okay There are times in life when we are overcome with doubt and uncertainty. You are resilient even with tears running down your face. You are powerful even when you don’t have the answers. You are wonderful even when things appear to be so muddy and you can’t see your way through. Today, allow me to remind you that everything will be okay...even though you don’t think they will be. #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme

May favor be upon you for a thousand generations Adapted from one of my favorite songs, The Blessing by Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes. This line makes my heart swell when I think about the possibility of your great great great grandchildren being blessed. #MotivationMonday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme

I don’t want to be strong today Today, I give you permission to take off your superhero cape and use it as a blanket to snuggle with. Today you don’t have to pretend to be anything other than...HUMAN. I give you permission to allow all of your human emotions to flow freely. Today, your cape can be a blanket, napkin, headwrap, towel, or anything else you want to use it for. Today, you get to remove your cape and allow your humanisms to flow and say goodbye to the superhero and just be...YOU. #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme #beyou

You are worthy You are worthy of praise and accolades. You deserve to be seen for the beautiful, wonderful, magical creation that you are. You deserve to be noticed. You deserve to be recognized in a specific way just for being YOU. You are worthy! having or showing the qualities or abilities that merit recognition in a specified way.... #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme

Give Yourself Permission to Feel You have permission to feel all the emotions that you have. You don’t have to fight them or suppress them. Allow yourself to space to explore the emotions that have been stuffed down inside you. You can feel emotions without being ruled by them #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme

When you're having a rough day go to your therapy appointment I totally understand what it means to have a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. I totally understand the urge to get in the bed and turtle away. Normally, I would tell you to be gentle with yourself or extend yourself some grace. but I can NOT in good conscience tell you to do any of those things on Therapy Day. You see therapy is where you can FALL APART. It is the place that has been created just ...for you. Your therapist welcomes you in your pajamas, messy ponytail, while looking and feeling a wreck. They welcome your tears, anger, disappointment, and despair. They can help you figure out how to navigate all of the emotions and help you figure out what to do and how to do it. When you wake up feeling crappy. That is the day that you drag yourself out of bed and go to your therapy appointment. At the end of it all, you can always go get back in bed when the appointment is over. #MotivationMonday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme #domesticviolenceawarenessmonth #metalhealththerapy #abuserecovery #domesticviolenceadvocate #support #mentalhealthawareness

"Abundance is your birthright" -Lisa Nichols Reading Abundance by Lisa Nichols rocked me to my core. It allowed me to realize that scarcity, struggling and suffering was how I had been accustomed to living. However, I was born to live and love from a place of excess and to live my life everyday from my overflow. It’s like getting paid every week. But never having to touch that money. All of your bills, childcare, food, gas, everything is paid from your abundance. You never have you touch your actual paycheck. But the key is we don’t have to do anything extra to get it. I don’t have to work two jobs and work myself into the grave. We were born with abundance and it is ours to access. #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme

You Deserve A Break You have been going HARD. Take a moment to take a deep breath, enjoy the sunshine, read a book, take a nap, or order dinner in and relax. You have earned it and you don’t have to feel guilty about it. #Humpday #WellnessWednesday #aglimpseofhope #mentalhealth #blacktherapist #followme #domesticviolencepreventionmonth #domesticviolenceawareness #abuserecovery ... #domesticviolenceadvocate See more

Self-care isn’t a one size fits all practice or concept, and URCC and is here to support new parents with a wellness group, taking place on the first Tuesday of... every month. Black and brown mothers are 3x as likely to experience infant mortality during pregnancy and postpartum. URCC stands by its mission statement to rehabilitate and rejuvenate the lives of those who may be in disenfranchised communities with affordable outpatient services, and the New Patient Wellness Circle is an exciting step towards that goal. Reach out and pre-register now at the link above! #wellness #urbanrestorationcounseling #selfcare #pregnancy #postpartum #newparent #therapy

Urban Restoration Counseling Center is serious about healing the family unit from Domestic Violence and creating generational change. All of our classes are facilitated by clinicians of color. #WeChangingLives

A letter of thanks to my mental health healers, Thank you all for being vessals and containers for people that have been hurt, wounded, broken hearted, abused, violated, defiled, mistreated, forgotten, and left to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. Thank you for pouring into each and every one of these people. Thank you for bracing the brokeness with cognitive behavioral therapy, rubbing words of affirmations in the emotional scars, mending the seams of their s...elf esteem. Thank you for helping them rewrite their narratives and for teaching these individuals that they are worthy of love and helping them learn how to receive it abundantly. Thank you for helping them unearth the generations of rottenness, lies, deceit, and abuse that have taken root in their souls. Thank you for planting seeds of hope and watering the seedlings of the healers before you. Thank you for pruning the branches and creating space for fruit to grow. Thank you for standing in the blazing sun and the freezing shadows with the souls that were once hopeless. Thank you for all the big cheers and small whispers of encouragement. Thank you for going to work every day and modeling self care, vulnerability, courageous, fear, heroism, insecurity, bravery, righteousness, strength, and weakness. Thank you for having a bad day and still coming to work because you made a promise. Thank you for carrying ridiculous caseloads and weathering the burnout. Thank you for reminding us that boundaries keep us safe, happy, healthy, and whole. Thank you for all the times you cussed underneath your breath and still made that phone call. Thank you for doing your notes....even if they were late. Thank you for giving a damn. Thank you for caring about the people that are often overlooked and forgotten. My dear mental health healers. THANK YOU for doing ALL of this while being one of these people. Thank you for being vessals and containers while dealing with your own depressions, headaches, addictions, divorces, bad ass kids, broken hearts, physical illnesses, anxieties, hypomanic episodes, moments of suicidal ideation, loss of loved ones, miscarriages, cancer scares, and heart aches. To ALL my mental health healers....I SEE YOU and I appreciate you. With Love and Admiration, Shanelle D. Johnson

Happy Wednesday! As we’re now halfway through the week, take some time to reflect today. It’s a no-brainer that journaling helps keep your thoughts organized...but it does so much more, too! Every Wednesday, we’ll be narrowing our focus and providing you with a journal prompt and some tips to get the most out of it, whether you’re a seasoned journalist or just getting started. Be on the lookout for #reflectionwednesday #urbanrestorationcounseling #mentalhealth #journaling #reflection

I love Urban Restoration Counseling Center's Black Lives Matter Newsletter. I am really excited to see the section on San Diego's Black Owned Eateries. If you know anything about me you know that I LOVE to eat. One of my favorite parts of working at Community Research Foundation was the ability to be able to take our clients to grab lunch. It was the first time that I recognized the true healing power of food. It was then that I witnessed how a burrito can bring down walls an...d allow a person to openly share about their mental health struggles. Also, eating can be a simple way to engage in self care. As the nation begins to open up and establish a new "normal." I encourage you to visit some of San Diego's Black Owned eateries to allow the magic of ingredients, flavors, and aromas to heal some of the wounds from the increase state of angst by the state of the world. #Foodie # #sandiego #SupportBlackBusinesses #BlackLivesMatter #BLM #BlackMentalHealthMatters #mentalhealth #selfcare #healing