Mental Nesting
Mental Nesting is the gentle space for sensitive adults who've outgrown the "hustle through your healing" mentality. Hosted by licensed therapist and writer Barbara Guimaraes, this podcast explores the messy, nonlinear reality of rebuilding your life after trauma, heartbreak, and the kind of personal upheaval that leaves you questioning everything.
If you're someone who's done therapy, read the books, and tried all the self-help strategies but still feel like you're figuring it out as you go—this podcast is for you. Barbara brings both her clinical expertise and lived experience of navigating bipolar disorder, relationship trauma, coming out later in life, and the quiet courage it takes to choose yourself when no one taught you how.
Each episode feels like a conversation with your most emotionally intelligent friend—the one who sees your sensitivity as a superpower, not a flaw. Through vulnerable storytelling, practical frameworks, and her signature "soft but unfiltered" approach, Barbara helps you reconnect with your inner child, build unshakable self-trust, and create a life that feels authentically yours.
This isn't about optimizing or fixing yourself. It's about learning to be human—messily, beautifully, exactly as you are. Because sometimes the most radical thing you can do is slow down, turn inward, and remember that healing doesn't have to hurt to be real.
Perfect for highly sensitive people, therapy graduates, late bloomers, and anyone who's ever felt "too much" in a world that demands you be less. Welcome to your emotional homecoming.
Mental Nesting
Creating Home: From Occupying Space to Belonging in Your Own Life
What's the difference between occupying a space and truly being at home?
In this reflective episode, Barbara shares a profound realization that hit her on her 30th birthday: for the first time in 30 years, she finally feels at home. Not just in her apartment, but in her own life, her own skin, her own existence.
Growing up, she lived in many places. She had her own apartments where she was the only one on the lease. But she never felt at home in any of them. She was occupying space, but she wasn't belonging. And she couldn't figure out why every new place felt temporary, unsettled, like she was still waiting for something—or someone—to make her feel like she could finally exhale.
Then she spent her 30th birthday in her family's kitchen, sharing stories and just being present. Her dad called her "titas" and joked that she looked 29. And something clicked: the reason she'd never felt at home before wasn't about the spaces she lived in. It was about not feeling at home within herself.
You'll discover:
- The crucial difference between occupying space and creating home
- Why external spaces can't feel safe until you build internal safety first
- How three years of self-knowledge became the foundation for belonging
- Why being protective of your peace is wisdom, not gatekeeping
- How creating home within yourself transforms your ability to hold space for others
- Five practical steps to build that internal sense of home right now
This is for anyone who's ever felt like they're just passing through their own life, people who've moved hoping the next place would finally feel right, and anyone learning that belonging starts from within.
Because home isn't something you find or earn or wait for permission to have. It's something you create—starting with yourself.
Brief mentions of family dynamics and 30th birthday reflections
Thank you for being here, beautiful soul.
If this episode resonated with you, I'd be so grateful if you'd leave a review—it helps other sensitive souls find this gentle space we're creating together.
Connect with me:
- Instagram: @mentalnesting_
- Substack: mentalnesting.substack.com
- Email: hello@mentalnesting.com
Join The Nest
The Nest is my free community where we have conversations like this and you don’t have to explain yourself as much.
Want to work together?
I offer gentle, nervous-system-informed support for therapy-experienced and sensitive adults. Learn more about coaching and community offerings at homecoming.mentalnesting.com.
Remember: Messy healing is still healing. You don't have to be done to be enough.
Mental Nesting Podcast: For sensitive adults who've outgrown the hustle
