PRIDE is a celebration.
It says:
I exist. I am worthy. I am loved. I am free to be all of who I am.
But PRIDE is also a protest — one born from struggle, survival, and resistance.
It says:
We are still fighting. For safety. For dignity. For the right to live fully and freely.
That tension — between joy and justice, between visibility and risk — lives not only in parades or public spaces. It lives inside people. Inside bodies. Inside nervous systems.
And recently, I felt it in me.
The Coffee Shop Moment: A PRIDE Story
In this short and deeply personal video, I share a recent moment that brought all of this home for me.
A moment of celebration.
A moment of protest.
And a moment of connection.
I’ve been doing this work for over 40 years — supporting people in healing the aftershocks of exclusion, shame, and rejection. I’ve cried with clients who feared coming out — not because they didn’t know who they were, but because they feared losing everything: family, community, safety, career, even their therapist/coach.
And still… I found myself standing in a coffee shop, heart racing, reading the room before I spoke a simple truth:
“Thank you for flying the PRIDE flag.”
Even as a proud mother of a gay son, even knowing who I am and what I stand for — my nervous system lit up. An old voice whispered:
What if someone hears you and thinks you’re gay?
That wasn’t coming from my adult self.
That was a survival imprint from childhood. From growing up in a world where there were no role models — only sexism, racism, homophobia, and silence.
I was heartbroken to feel it.
And also deeply grateful.
Because in that moment, I could turn toward it and say:
You can be here. But you’re not in charge anymore.
And I spoke. I said what I came to say.
It was a tiny act of protest — and a profound act of healing. For me – and I believe, for the world.
PRIDE Still Matters
We are not there yet.
PRIDE continues to be both a joyful declaration and a courageous resistance to the systems that still shame, silence, and separate.
Too many LGBTQ+ folks — and those who love them — have become experts in shrinking, scanning, hiding, and waiting for the right moment to feel safe enough to speak. To belong.
And yes — that includes therapy and coaching spaces, where heteronormative assumptions still cause unintentional harm.
Which is why, as healing practitioners, we must stay in our work.
We must examine our own nervous system responses, our biases, our blind spots — not to judge ourselves, but to become safe havens for others.
Safety is not evenly distributed in our society.
And love must be made visible and active — not just assumed.
An Invitation to You
If you’re someone who supports others — in therapy, in coaching, in wellness work — let this be a moment to reflect:
- Where do my own early messages about love, inclusion, and identity still live in my body?
- Do my clients know, deep down, that all parts of them are welcome?
- How might I be more visible in the love and acceptance I want to offer?
We are not passive witnesses to the world — we are active participants in shaping it.
Every time we speak love, embody acceptance, or stand visibly in solidarity, we are creating new pathways — not only for our clients, but for ourselves.
🌈 With Love,
Nancy
As healers, let’s join together in a community dedicated to learning how to provide this deepest of service and healing to ourselves, our clients and our world. Need a safe community to call home? I’d like to personally invite you to join our private Facebook Community.