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I'm Blake, your friendly neighborhood therapist helping you be more intentional with your relationships, your creativity, and your faith.

What this newsletter experience is about.

In my work as a therapist, I witness people doing the courageous work of journeying inward and facing hard things and making sense of those things and overcoming those things. Here is where we explore the nuances of the journey that I get to help people on a daily basis with. A journey that we’re all on in some way or another.

This a newsletter, an invitation, a guide, a community, an experience. A space that encourages you to journey inward and move towards wholeness. We’ll candidly explore the nuances of topics such as mental health, parenting, addictions, relationships, faith, creativity, trauma.

My goal for this space is for you to:

• Become more curious and less critical toward yourself and others.

• Engage your inner world on a deeper level.

• Find beauty and meaning in the complexities of the “mundane.”

• Discover some things. Put language to some things.

• Hopefully laugh some along the way.

My biggest hope is that my words put language to the not yet spoken. To what it’s like internally for you. Or, at least, inspires you to put language to what it’s like.

What you can expect as a part of the community.

All content at this time is free. There may be bonus content and other things in the future for paid subscribers, but I don’t feel the pull to that just yet.

It currently exists in two parts:

• Newsletter Experience

  • Ideally you’ll get two letters a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less, as that is what works for me in this season. The letters will be a combination personal essays, my clinical perspective & experience, current research regarding mental health, stories inspired by real people, and exercises that invite you to engage your inner world on a deeper level.

• Notes

  • If you have the Substack app you can follow me on Notes which is where I’ll occasionally share “therapy thoughts”. These are shorter candid ponderings that come up during my daily work with clients. It’s also a great place to connect further with me and other readers and writers.

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I have the privilege of helping people engage the most difficult, painful, complex, agonizing, and beautiful parts of their stories. Which also means I have a front row seat to explore what most people don’t get to experience - the “more” to the stories we are living. The parts we hide from others because we’re so good at protecting ourselves.

I’m passionate about exploring our inner world and the mystery of it and the beauty of it. More-so, inviting people back to the genuine core of who they are. That’s why I’ve created this space.

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Who this space is for.

It’s for those committed to doing the courageous work of engaging your story. It’s for those who are committed to becoming more self aware and expanding their capacity to self regulate. It’s for those who want to connect with themselves a little deeper. For those who want a more kind internal dialogue. For those pursuing wholeness and presence.

About Me

I’m a therapist and own a private practice outside of Nashville, TN where I live with my wife, our pup and our daughter. I never thought I’d be doing this work as a therapist. I managed an art gallery and did photography for years before going to grad school and before that I was playing college football. By way of entering (rather desperately) into 12-step recovery, working through my own trauma, and the grace of God, I find myself here now. I now can’t imagine doing anything else.

I have a Masters degree, and am still unsure where the commas are supposed to go in sentences - like should I have put one after degree or not? Most times I don’t care about the answer to that. If I ever When I write a book one day maybe I’ll learn. Or maybe not.

I love music and grew up playing the drums. These days I listen to a lot of jazz, ambient classical, and indie folk. And I’m learning to find my voice as a writer.

So thanks for being here and coming on the journey with me. It means a lot.

We’ll talk soon.

With care,

Blake

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