Rebirth: Therapy From The Snake Zodiac

2025 is the Year of the Snake, so what does that mean for our therapy journey? The Snake represents transformation, inner work, and rebirth. If we stifle that energy, we can wind up stuck, stagnated, and without direction for this era of our life. If we harness that energy, we can become the individual we’re supposed to be. So let’s hear from an expert. 

Lauren Mishkin is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in St. Petersburg, FL. She heals her patients through a combination of talk therapy, body-informed somatic therapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Whether you’re dealing with grief, trauma, or even recovery from addiction, Lauren loves to guide people along their path of transformation. So what advice does she have to offer when it comes to this most auspicious and transformative zodiac year?

What Does A Counselor Recommend For The Year Of The Snake?

“2025, the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Zodiac, is asking us to move with grace through the transformative energies Snake Zodiac years inevitably bring. Like a snake shedding its old skin to reveal new glossy scales underneath; we are being asked to shed old patterns and beliefs that no longer serve us. The problem is, most of us don’t readily offer ourselves up for transformation. Oftentimes, we only embrace change when the pain of staying the same outweighs our fear of change. The more trauma we have, the more we perceive change as a threat. Meaning we may stay in situations that no longer serve us way longer than someone who grew up with more of a felt sense of safety. If life at home was uncertain growing up, we may have internalized change as a literal threat to our survival. Therefore, the very idea of stepping into the unknown sends our nervous systems into full threat response mode.” – Lauren Mishkin, MS, LMHC.

• Embrace Change In 2025. While change has great potential for doing good in our lives, the process itself can be stressful, exhausting, and at times, painful. Embracing change doesn’t mean denying the reality of what’s going on, or lying to yourself about how change might make you feel sometimes. Just as there is the looming threat of negative change in our lives, we too have the promise of something new and different waiting just around the corner. We may not approve of everything that happens in 2025, but we can make the decision right now to accept it and find our joy in it no matter what.
• Transform With Intention Setting. A skilled therapist can help you set and reach your goals. Through intention setting, you can speak power to your most important dreams, and remind yourself every day of the goals that are important to you. Intention setting is one of the many skills you can learn from an expert like Lauren to transform your life in the Year of the Snake.
• Release Old Stories and Start Over. When the Snake is ready to shed its old skin and transform, there may be discomfort along the way, but the Snake has no other choice. When it’s time for us to start over, there may be obstacles along the way, but like the Snake, we also have no other option. Although the path is arduous, the scrapes along the way will slowly reveal scales that glisten in the sunlight, and a body that had long outgrown its own cage.

How A Therapist Helps You Transform In 2025

“A way I would work with perceived terror of the unknown as a therapist, is to first figure out an individual’s automatic threat responses. Is it shut down, deer in the headlights, overwhelmed, hypomotor agitation? Is it hyped up, over energized, quick to anger, or rage? Is it leg shaking, foot tapping, anxious rumination? Or, is it some combination of all three. I would then tailor an individualized treatment plan to implement immediate somatic based coping strategies, uncover root causes, and release stored traumas in the body that may still be contributing to exaggerated threat responses. 

I would look for parts that may be resisting change in hopes of clinging to security not found in childhood; that are in conflict with parts that are ready to embrace the experiences, growth, and opportunities that new beginnings inevitably bring. A possible aim would be immediate somatic based relief that allows for deeper exploration, validation, and integration of conflicting parts to allow change to unfold without the unnecessary pain of fruitless resistance. Embracing, validating, and working with internal conflicts surrounding change can often bring enough relief to move through change with snakelike grace. Maybe not complete ease; but increased comfort and grace nonetheless.” – 

Lauren Mishkin, MS, LMHC.

• A Therapist Can Help You Learn From Failure. Therapists like Lauren are there to pick you up when you’re down, and offer help when you’re at your lowest. Failure is unavoidable, and sometimes even out of our control, but defeat is a choice. Having the right guide can help you learn from your failures instead of being defeated by them.
• The Right Therapist Will Build Up Your Resilience. Trauma can make us feel weaker and smaller than we are in truth. A counselor like Lauren can help you see the inner resilience that’s brought you this far, and bring it into the spotlight.
• Therapy Helps You Untangle Your Generational Trauma. We carry stories with us told by our mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers. Some of these stories are helpful, and some of these stories are painful, but either way we tell them to ourselves over and over again. A therapist like Lauren can help you find and amplify the stories that serve you, and rewrite the ones that bring you pain.

In 2025, Where Can You Find A St. Petersburg Trauma Therapist?

If you’re ready to embrace transformation and shed what no longer serves you, Lauren Mishkin is here to guide you. Lauren understands that transformation isn’t always easy, but with the right tools and support, you can navigate the challenges of change with resilience and grace. If you’re looking for a therapist who can help you work through deep-seated fears, rewrite old narratives, and step into the next chapter of your life, you can connect with Lauren to start your journey. Begin your transformation by scheduling a consultation with our intake specialist.

Sunny Ebsary is an educator, multi-modal artist, and writer specializing in the intersection of myth and mental health. Sunny’s writing walks the line between poetic and logical, giving readers a chance to interface with the mind and imagination. Sunny’s been putting pen to paper since he was a child, writing everything from albums, novels, and plays, to essays, interactive games, and of course, many articles! While studying both psychology and writing, he realized his real passion in life was helping others unlock their creative spark. Whether he’s leading a D&D game, directing a production, or diving deep into the brain, you can be sure Sunny will be ushering you toward finding meaning in your life.