The REAL Reason I Left Social Media...

This is a reboot - my shame and guilt Parts thought my original post was too long, and could have come across in unintended ways. Here's a softened version...

Over the years, I have used a lot of different kinds of social media for a lot of different reasons. As we grow—either in age, maturity, understanding, or knowledge—we change and sometimes need to pivot.

This is one of my many pivots of late. If you are intimately connected to Apeira Wellness, you will have noted the numerous changes I have made in life since COVID - as many of you, too, have had to make changes. Change is natural, necessary, and for some of us a built-in safety switch.

Apeira has grown to be something very beautiful in my opinion, and I’m trying to do the growing I need to keep up with it!

1- Not all of my reasons for using social media in the past were beneficial... when I finally took a step back and saw what I was putting out there, I was struck with shame for not being authentic to my core Self.

Recently, I came back to social media for to promote Apeira and explain some of the changes clients would see related to the business and my modalities. Since embarking on an intense trauma journey, it also helped me weave in things that I found beneficial for my own wellness, that would be relevant to the stories and struggles of my clients and anyone else looking for specific help.

Knowledge is power, and I believe that if you have it, you have a responsibility to share it.

That's why I used it. Here's why I stopped using it:

This has been my intention with social media: to share the tools I have, the things I’ve learned that have been beneficial, and provide support to anyone who needs and wants it.

There are a lot of other people using social media for the same reasons, but there are also a lot who are not.

That's why I used it. Here's why I stopped using it:

1- Wellness is a business. It’s my business, in fact. But some people will sell anything to anyone - whether it will help them, hurt them, or be of no use at all - if they can make money on it. There are so many tools and gimmicks being used to hook people, even emotionally, that do not align with my practice.

I have trauma, that's not news, but many of these tricks and tools being used to promote health and wellness _____ is very triggering for me. It makes me angry and want to reform the system, the outlets, the creators... and this, my friends, is a losing battle!

Not everyone uses this tactic with an indifference that devalues the weight of our collective shared-trauma experience, but for me, knowing someone could look at my story and wonder if that was the reason I shared it impelled me to separate myself from the collective.

2- There are too many solutions to sell any ONE of them as the right one for everyone.

Blanket statements about what good health looks like or what tools work for everyone are simply dangerous.

There is no one diet, exercise program, supplement, therapy, meditation, self-care practice... that will do it all.

This goes for the content creators, the health guides and gurus, the wellness practitioners, and even the therapists who treat everyone with the limited tools they have but without the awareness to refer people when they need it. We all want to be able to fix everything and help everyone, but that is impossible.

Knowing what you know is great; but knowing what you don't know is better. Knowing what works is great; but knowing there are other things that might work just as well is better.

3- Practitioners responsible for the health and wellness of others must be qualified to help at the level the client requires. They must have the training and knowledge necessary. That includes the awareness to know when things are out of their scope—and refer. How do you know if you’re out of your practitioner’s scope? You plateau. Progress isn’t being made in a marked or noticeable way. Questions can’t be answered and solutions can’t be found. You’re just “hanging” from session to session instead of setting and seeing steady goals.

I have more than my fair share of clients this way. We do the work, we get great results, then… we’re stuck. They’re not getting better. I’ve always had the desire to do my best and fix everything I can, but as soon as someone requires work I am not qualified to perform, or they stop improving and need continued care, I send them to someone who can pick up where I left off and finish the work.

That is my responsibility: help where I can, refer where I cannot.

4- This leads me to my last reason for leaving social media: I don’t want to post anything incomplete, misleading, misinformed, or incompatible with that kind of audience. This could be a part of me that fears making mistakes or not communicating perfectly, so for now I am going to take a step back and focus on the things I’m learning without fretting about how or what to share.

There is a lot more pressure in short-form social media to express things without too much detail. Here at least, I can include disclaimers, footnotes, and references for the things I post. There will also be a separate trauma-blog sharing my experiences, tools, resources, etc - without muddying the wellness work I focus on here. If you're interested in that info, reach out and I'll add you to an email list. 🤍

Things may change. I may get a social media manager to run things … who knows. 2026 is already earmarked to be a bit of a wild year. For now, though, I’m going to stick to what I’ve been good at doing, to learning the necessary things, and not stress about anything else. I'm learning my place, learning humility, and learning appreciation for the things that I am and that I have...

Be well friends!