INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE and MIDWIFERY
with Jewell Whitmer, CNM, PMHNP

The Flourish Blog

What Happens When We Are — and Aren't — Held: Attachment, the Nervous System, and the Lifelong Arc of Healing
Integrative Therapy, Hillsborough NC, Mental Health, Integrative Care Jewell Whitmer Integrative Therapy, Hillsborough NC, Mental Health, Integrative Care Jewell Whitmer

What Happens When We Are — and Aren't — Held: Attachment, the Nervous System, and the Lifelong Arc of Healing

There is a kind of knowing that lives in the body before it ever reaches language. As a midwife and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, I've witnessed the same truth across birth rooms and therapy rooms: the nervous system remembers what it was — and wasn't — given. This piece explores the arc from attachment parenting to adult reparenting, and why healing is never too late.

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Nutritional Psychiatry: What’s Going On in Your Brain (and Your Gut)
Integrative Therapy, Hillsborough NC, Nutritional Psychiatry, Gut Health, Mental Health Jewell Whitmer Integrative Therapy, Hillsborough NC, Nutritional Psychiatry, Gut Health, Mental Health Jewell Whitmer

Nutritional Psychiatry: What’s Going On in Your Brain (and Your Gut)

Your brain is the star of the show when it comes to mental health.

It’s filled with billions of receptors that send messages between nerve cells. These messages trigger the release of neurotransmitters — chemicals like:

  • Serotonin (mood + emotional stability)

  • Dopamine (motivation + pleasure)

  • GABA (calm + nervous system regulation)

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