👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
To feel your existence
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This is a story about how animals can help us heal our nervous systems. Recently, my mom got to meet my cat, Tiger. And it was really fun to see them spend some quality time together. You see, my mom had grown up with stray cats in her neighborhood, but never had her own pet in the home. So everything about Tiger — the orange creature that I adopted from the Boulder Humane Society, with a “diagnosis” of “under-socialized & fearful” & the personality of a Sour Patch Kid — was a completely new experience for my mom. “Look, Tiger jumped onto the couch!” she would announce excitedly. “Tiger is rolling on the carpet.” “Tiger is licking her paw and using it to clean her face.” “Tiger is scratching the couch – stop it, Tiger!” And so on and so forth. To feel her existence. “Yes.” I said. “That’s exactly it.” She wants us to feel her existence. I’d never put it that way, and yet those words resonated so deeply. I imagine that when Tiger wants us to feel her existence, she wants to feel seen, heard, and accepted. She wants to feel like she matters. She wants to feel like we’re here with her and she’s not alone. And in that sense... I think we all need someone to feel our existence. I think we owe it to each other to feel each other’s existences. To remind each other that we matter. To remember that we’re not alone, even if it feels really lonely to be here & human sometimes. Being around animals has always reminded me of what really matters in life... Love. Connection. Relationships. Sometimes (or maybe always), it’s really that simple. And just as Tiger wants me to feel her existence each and every day, I hope this message reminds you that, because you are a being in this world, your existence is felt too. And in case no one has told you yet, your existence is a gift to the world. To many more moments of feeling each other’s existences and remembering just how much we matter. Talk soon, P.S. If you need help taking care of your nervous system, I'd love to support you. I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives — three 90-minute sessions, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, IFS, EMDR) that go deeper than talk therapy & help you feel better, sooner.
Intensives are a type of short-term, accelerated therapy — for folks who are looking for something different than weekly therapy; who need longer than 50-min sessions to go deep & get to the root of the issue. 👉🏽 If you want to get an Intensive on the books, click here to book an intro call. I'm scheduling for August 2025! P.P.S. Know someone who needs to hear this? Forward it along. New readers can subscribe HERE. I help highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults heal their nervous systems & connect with their authentic selves.
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Liz's Neurodivergent Letters
👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
I’m three weeks into a memoir writing course, taught by the brilliant Stephanie Foo – author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. It’s surreal (and seriously such a gift) to learn about writing from one of my favorite authors. Plus, my nervous system appreciates the care with which sensitive topics are handled in the course. For example: after reviewing excerpts from a number of best-selling memoirs - all of which covered intense topics, like trauma & oppression -...
What does it mean to be human? Years ago, I watched an episode of Black Mirror (a science fiction show) that made me sit with this question in a new way. The episode is called San Junipero. Here’s the premise: 🌊 San Junipero is a town on the beach, where people play, dance, meet with friends & lovers, and live their best lives. The only catch? San Junipero doesn’t actually exist in the physical world. It’s a simulated, digital reality. The people who hang out in San Junipero are: living...
A couple newsletters ago, I mentioned that I recently moved to Oregon. (You can read that newsletter here if you missed it!) Since then, I’ve been observing & connecting with the nature around me - which is the land of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla; Clackamas; Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. (Which I learned through this helpful & important website.) A few things catch my attention when I meander through the forest in my backyard. 🦋 the...