The Jigsaw Collection

Part 2 of my pregnancy journey. 🤍

In February 2026, I was almost three months pregnant and so excited to finally be approaching the end of the first trimester. I walked into what I thought would be another routine ultrasound appointment and walked out having learned that there was no longer a heartbeat. I had experienced what is called a missed miscarriage.

But what happens after that moment? That’s the part we don’t talk about enough.

The appointments. The decisions. The physical recovery. The emotional aftermath. Trying to understand how life keeps moving when, for a moment, yours feels like it completely stopped.

I’m not sharing this story because I want anyone to feel sorry for me. I’m sharing it because hard things deserve to be talked about too.

There is so much loneliness in believing you’re the only person experiencing something and so much power in realizing that you’re not.

If you’ve experienced pregnancy loss, your story may look completely different from mine. But I hope talking about mine reminds someone that there can still be a future beyond one of the hardest chapters of your life. 🤍

Sometimes we don’t share our stories because they’re easy to tell. We share them so someone else doesn’t have to feel so alone in theirs.

“Welcome to the jungle.” 😂

Those were basically the first words I heard when someone unlocked the door and showed me around community mental health for the first time.

And let me tell you… I was in for the shock of a lifetime. 😂

But looking back, working in community mental health was genuinely one of the BEST things I ever did for myself and my career.

I worked with people who wanted to be there, people who absolutely did NOT want to be there, and people who were required to be there. I learned very quickly that connection doesn’t always happen because someone walked into the room ready to open up.

Fun fact: I was working in community mental health before I was even a therapist.

I ran groups. I worked in case management. I worked in substance abuse. I worked with juveniles. I worked with so many different people, stories, circumstances, and systems on my journey to becoming a therapist.

And I really believe all of it made me a better one.

It gave me the capacity to understand more about people and, more importantly, to understand MORE people.

There is no one way a person is supposed to look, communicate, cope, struggle, heal, or show up to therapy.

Community mental health taught me that firsthand. And I’ll always be grateful for my time in the jungle. 😂🌴

Just because someone LOOKS like they have it all together doesn’t mean they feel that way. 😅

You can be dressed up, showing up, getting things done, smiling, working, being productive… while internally thinking, “I literally don’t want to do anything today.”

Both can be true.

Sometimes our outsides and our insides just don’t match and that doesn’t mean you’re being fake. It means you’re human. 🤍

If you’re feeling disconnected from yourself, try these 3 things:

1️⃣ Name it without judging it. Instead of “Why am I being so lazy?” try, “I’m noticing I feel really unmotivated today.”

2️⃣ Ask yourself what you actually need. Rest? Support? A break? Movement? Connection? Sometimes we push ourselves before we even check in with ourselves.

3️⃣ Find one small way to create alignment. You don’t have to completely change how you feel. Ask yourself: What is one thing I can do right now that honors what I’m thinking, feeling AND needing?

The goal isn’t to feel motivated and put-together 24/7. It’s to get better at noticing when there’s a disconnect and responding to yourself with a little more curiosity and a lot less criticism. 🫶

A little throwback to my community mental health days… because if you’ve worked in community mental health, you already KNOW. 😂

The caseloads. The paperwork. The phone calls. The documentation. The crisis that somehow happened exactly when you were about to leave. And somehow functioning on caffeine, snacks, and pure determination. 😭

Was it chaotic? Absolutely. Did it teach me more than I could ever fit into a training manual? ALSO YES.

Community mental health really said, “Congrats on becoming a therapist… now here’s your character development.” 😂

Forever grateful for that chapter of my therapist life… and also very grateful I can laugh about it now. 😂

Community mental health therapists, what’s something you’ll NEVER forget from those days? 👀👇🏼

I swear I’m never looking for the drama… but somehow the drama always finds me 😂

And there is truly no better place to accidentally overhear someone’s entire life story than a women’s bathroom. I’m just trying to p*e and now I’m emotionally invested 😭

Please tell me this happens to other people too 😂👇

This is Part 1 of a story I never imagined I would be telling. 🤍

Miscarriage is incredibly common… and yet, until I experienced it myself, I had no idea how quiet the experience could feel.

And I think that silence can convince us that we’re the only ones.

That everyone else gets pregnant and stays pregnant. That everyone else gets to be excited without being scared. That everyone else gets the version of this journey we thought we were going to have.

But the more I started talking about my experience, the more I realized just how many people had a story too.

There is something powerful about that.

When we talk about the things that have made us feel isolated, we take back some of the power they held over us. We give life to stories that often exist quietly behind closed doors, and we create space for someone else to say, “Me too.”

And sometimes, “me too” is exactly what someone needs to feel a little less alone.

I also want to acknowledge something important as I start sharing this series: I’m a therapist. My job is to hold space for other people every single day, and I believe there’s a difference between vulnerability and sharing from an open wound.

I’m not bringing my open wounds to the internet and asking you to hold them for me. These are parts of my story that I have actively been processing, healing from, and learning how to carry. I feel grounded enough now to talk about them in a way that I hope creates connection rather than asking for caretaking.

So over the next few videos, I’m going to let you into my miscarriage and pregnancy journey a little more.

And if any part of my story overlaps with yours miscarriage, pregnancy after loss, fertility struggles, fear, grief, or simply a journey that looked nothing like you expected I hope you find something here that reminds you that your story deserves space too.

We don’t have to experience the same story to find community in telling the truth about what we’ve been through. 🤍

And if you feel comfortable, this is a safe space to talk about it.