Vanessa Manes

There are certain books I find myself coming back to again and again- both personally and in the work I do with clients. Not because they offer quick fixes, but because they help us understand ourselves more deeply. They give language to experiences we’ve felt but haven’t always known how to explain, especially when it comes to anxiety, trauma, relationships, and healing. Many of these books share a common thread: healing isn’t about fixing yourself-it’s about understanding yourself. Books...

There’s been a noticeable rise in conversations around trauma, anxiety, and healing on social media. And while I appreciate that mental health is becoming more normalized, I also see how much of this information is oversimplified and at times, misleading. As a trauma therapist, I often sit with clients who feel confused or discouraged because the tools they’ve seen online haven’t worked for them. They’ve tried the breathing techniques, the mindset shifts, the “quick fixes”… and still feel...

There’s a moment many of us have experienced when our emotions feel big, overwhelming, and hard to contain. Maybe it shows up as anxiety in your chest, anger that feels like it comes out of nowhere, or a shutdown where you just want to disappear. And in that moment, a familiar thought appears: “I’m too much.” But what if that isn’t true? What if you’re not too much… but instead, you’ve been carrying too much for far too long? Our emotional responses don’t come out of nowhere. They are shaped...