Rooted and Reaching: What Trees Teach Us About Mental Health
Photo by Brandon Green on Unsplash
A spring reflection on healing, growth, and decolonizing our approach to wellness
There’s something quietly powerful about a tree. It doesn’t rush. It doesn’t force growth. It simply follows the rhythm of the seasons. Right now, as the world softens into spring, trees begin again — tender buds reaching toward the light.
In many ways, they remind us of ourselves — growing, healing, and becoming in our own time. And perhaps most importantly, doing so on our own terms.
Roots: What Grounds Us
Every strong tree is supported by roots — deep, invisible, and essential. Our mental health is grounded in much the same way. Our roots include our experiences, relationships, ancestry, culture, and community.
Some roots nourish. Others carry pain. Intergenerational trauma can shape how we respond to the world — through fear, vigilance, silence, or disconnect. But just as trauma is passed down, so is strength. Intergenerational resilience lives in us too: survival, creativity, joy, resistance. The wisdom of those who came before us continues to live in our roots.
A decolonized approach to mental health invites us to honor both — to name the harm and the healing. To tend to what was never meant to grow in us, and to water what was always ours.
The Trunk: Our Core Self
The trunk is how we hold ourselves in the world — our values, our identity, our truth. It carries the weight of our stories and stands through every season. Trees often carry scars: from storms, droughts, fires. And still, they remain.
We do too.
Healing doesn’t erase what’s happened — it allows us to integrate our experiences into the shape of who we are. Mental health isn’t about perfection. It’s about returning to ourselves, over and over again, with compassion.
Branches: Our Reach
Branches stretch outward — into relationships, work, parenting, creativity, and care. Some grow wide and strong. Others are pruned back. Sometimes we reach far. Sometimes we need to pull inward.
Spring reminds us that reaching again is possible. But it doesn’t have to be dramatic. New growth can be subtle — a shift in perspective, a softening, a boundary held.
A decolonized lens reminds us: we don’t have to grow in every direction. We’re allowed to rest. We’re allowed to grow slowly.
Leaves: What Comes and Goes
Leaves are like our emotions, thoughts, and habits — ever-changing. In spring, they return soft and new. In fall, they let go. Trees don’t resist this. They don’t cling to what’s meant to fall. They trust the cycle. And so can we.
Letting go — of roles we’ve outgrown, coping strategies that once helped but now hurt, or beliefs that were never really ours — is not failure. It’s healing.
The Seasons: Trusting Change
No tree blooms all year. There are cycles: rest, bloom, fullness, and release. Mental health is not about staying in one perfect state. It’s about learning to move with our own seasons.
Spring is a reminder that life stirs again. Even after stillness. Even when we can’t feel it yet.
And trees know something about time.
They bear witness — to years, to losses, to joy, to change that comes slowly and suddenly. They’ve seen droughts and floods, generations pass beneath them, entire ecosystems shift. And still, they stand. Quiet. Steady. Listening.
We carry that same capacity — to witness, to survive, to remember, and to grow again.
A Gentle Reminder
If you’re in a season of becoming, reclaiming, or unlearning — you’re not behind. Growth doesn’t have to be loud. Sometimes it's the quiet choice to rest. To tend to your roots. To soften.
Like a tree, you are allowed to grow slowly. You are allowed to change your shape. You are allowed to root deeper into what sustains you — especially the parts of you and your lineage that were never broken, only buried.
This spring, may you feel your resilience. May you honor your roots. May you trust your seasons.
If you're ready to grow in supported, meaningful ways — therapy can be part of that journey.
Whether you’re tending old wounds, exploring your roots, or learning how to stretch into something new, therapy offers a space to slow down, be seen, and grow with intention.
Like trees, we’re not meant to do all our growing alone. We're here when you're ready.
About the Author
After spending years in a local community mental health setting and group practice in leadership positions, Tina D. Shah (PsyD, LP) decided to start Collaboration for Psychological Wellness, LLC to expand access and reduce barriers to services.