Envision Me 2026: The Homecoming—Returning to Alignment, Community, and My Pre-Trauma Identity

In 2025, I walked into Envision Me thinking I was there to receive a word. I had my notebook ready, my professional "therapist" face on, and a list of goals I thought I needed God to sign off on. I thought I was there to sharpen my tools. I didn’t know I was there to be dismantled.

Melia Arnett-Archie dropped a seed that shook the very foundation of my self-perception. She said: “The goal is to return to your pre-birth identity.”

As a therapist, my clinical brain immediately went into overdrive. I started thinking about developmental psychology, attachment theory, and the way the world shapes the ego from the moment we take our first breath. But as a woman of God, my spirit began to stir in a way that science couldn't explain. I took it to the prayer closet. I sat with it.

And that’s when the Holy Spirit turned the lights on in a room of my soul I hadn't visited in years.

I realized I wasn’t out of purpose, I was out of alignment.

What I had been calling "strength" all these years? It wasn’t strength. It was hyper-independence. I was "handling it." I was capable, high-functioning, and discerning, but I was carrying weights that were never sized for my shoulders. I was an expert at the "pivot," making the heavy look light while my internal foundations were cracking. Survival had quietly, sneakily replaced surrender.

So for me, the goal wasn’t just returning to a pre-birth identity. It was returning to my pre-trauma identity.

I’m talking about the version of me that existed before the world told me I had to be my own protector. The version of me that was free. The version of me that trusted without a "Plan B" tucked in her back pocket. The version of me that knew exactly who she was, without bracing for impact.

The Year of the "Even If": Revelation to Restoration

That realization marked my 2025. It became a year of radical honesty. I got intentional about my environment because I understand, both clinically and spiritually, that where you plant yourself determines how you bloom. You cannot heal in the same environment that made you sick.

I leaned into three scriptural anchors that became my roadmap:

1. The "Even If" of Habakkuk I spent months in Habakkuk 3. I had to learn the "Even If" work. Even if the fig tree does not blossom, even if the fields produce no food... yet I will rejoice. This was the death of my control. I had to stop bargaining with God, thinking that if I was "good enough" or "worked hard enough," I could guarantee a certain outcome. I had to learn to belong to Him in the barrenness as much as the harvest.

2. The Long Road of Exodus I looked at the Israelites and realized that deliverance doesn't always look efficient, but it is always intentional. Sometimes God takes you the long way so you don't run back to your chains the moment things get hard. My "slow" healing wasn't a failure; it was a fortification. God was making sure that when I stepped into my Promised Land, I didn't bring a miserable slave mentality with me.

3. The Woman at the Well Jesus didn’t meet her at her best; He met her at her "noon", the hottest, most exposed part of her day. He met her in truth without shame. Therapeutically, I had to stop "managing" my patterns and start naming them. I stopped intellectualizing my cycles and started breaking them.

The Courage to Be Seen: Breaking the Hiding Cycle

This weekend, something shifted that I can only describe as a supernatural homecoming. I want to thank the women who truly saw me this weekend. I was celebrated in a way that left me in awe of how safe it felt to just... be.

For the first time, my confidence was a 10/10, inside and out.

Thank you Whitney for seeing me.

In the past, I would worry about the shame. I would worry that if people looked too closely, they would see the flaws or the "cracks" in the vessel. But this year, I embraced the compliments. I made meaningful connections without the "bracing." I stood in awe of how God has healed me back to that pre-trauma identity.

To understand why this is such a miracle, you have to understand my "why." When you experience childhood sexual trauma, being seen gets you hurt. At a young age, I learned that visibility was a threat. So, I started shrinking. I started hiding parts of myself to go unnoticed. I flew under the radar internally, doing "just enough" to be successful, but never "too much" to be questioned. I became an expert at being effective while staying invisible.

But today, I am no longer shrinking. Whitney took a photo of me and shared it today, and seeing that image was the final confirmation I needed. It was a mirror reflecting a woman who is finally safe being SEEN.

I am no longer flying under the radar. I am outside. I am showing up and I am showing out, intentionally. I am excited for what this aligned energy will attract, because when you are no longer hiding, you finally have the room to receive.

The Restoration of My House: A Testimony of Friendship

This work didn't stay confined to my office, it washed over my marriage. Last year didn't just help me, it helped my family. I have to give a deep, heart-felt thank you to Cherlise. Her wisdom helped me finally get out of God’s way. For a long time, I was trying to be the Holy Spirit in my house, trying to lead, fix, and "therapize" my way into peace.

When I finally surrendered my hyper-independence, the atmosphere shifted. My husband and I are friends again. We still have our disagreements, but now we can laugh in the middle of them. We can regulate, stay in the room, and honor each other even when we don't see eye to eye.

We realized we are on a divine assignment for one another: He is on assignment for my heart and my healing, and I am on assignment for his. The shift was so real that he even came with me this year to see what the Envision Love session was all about. And God willing, next year we aren't just showing up, we are coming back as sponsors to invest in the next woman’s homecoming.

The "Seen, But Not Safe" Paradox: A New Framework

Through this journey, God gave me the blueprint for the work I am now called to do for the High-Visibility Professional. This is the core of my upcoming work addressing the "Seen, But Not Safe" paradox.

High performers are often taught to prioritize "resilience", the ability to take a hit. But I am teaching Structural Integrity.

• Why Insight isn't enough: You can be self-aware and still have a panic attack.

• Why Faith isn't a bypass: You can love God and still have a dysregulated nervous system.

  
  

This is about building the Bridge between mental health and spiritual depth so that your success doesn't become your exposure.

A Letter to the Girl in the Photo

As I look at this photo, the little Renée I used to be and the woman I am today, the tears start to well up.

To Little Renée: Thank you. Thank you for never losing hope that we would find our way back. Thank you for your quiet patience while I was out there in the world trying to prove I was enough, trying to protect us, and trying to be "the strong one." I honor you for holding the light in the dark when I was too afraid to look.

To the woman I have become: I acknowledge your resilience. I acknowledge the grit it took to stop "settling" for a life of high-functioning hiding. It took a certain kind of stubbornness to search for more, to refuse to believe that trauma was the final period on our sentence.

And today, I make a pledge.

I’m not just a therapist with a framework, I am a girl who finally found her way home. And because I found my way back to the Source, I pledge to be the girl who brings other girls back too. I’m not just leading a community, I’m leading a homecoming.

I am but a vessel, and my purpose is to make sure that no other woman has to mistake "surviving" for "living" ever again.

The ROM8 Way: Walking in Alignment

I have to honor Chanae for her obedience. She’s not asking you to follow her, she’s reminding us that we’re a community, and we’re going to be real cute all the way to the finish line.

The ROM8 Community is making sure I stay sharp in every area, mind, body & soul. When you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, you become a magnet for the Kingdom.

So come ready to move and dance, because movement is therapeutic and releases what words cannot reach. Come ready to work the runway, because your confidence is a light that attracts abundance and reflects the King's excellence.

In this space, we are true "girl's girls", we don't just coexist, we root for each other’s success, celebrating every win and honoring the sacrifices we’ve each made to get here. We refuse to take one another for granted, knowing that our collective glow is what lights the way for the next woman to find her homecoming.

As I step into 2026, I am no longer mistaking independence for alignment. I am choosing:

• Connection over isolation

• Surrender over striving

• Community over control

  
  

I am living as the woman I’ve already been restored to be.

Free. Grounded. Aligned.

And we’re walking forward, together.

Take the Next Step: Auditing Your Alignment

If my story resonated with you, it’s likely because you are also a "High-Visibility Professional" who has mastered the art of being Seen, but Not Safe. You have built a life that looks successful to everyone else, but internally, you are navigating the quiet erosion of hyper-independence.

Healing isn't a destination, it’s a return to the version of you that existed before the world told you to hide.

Are you ready to stop forcing the flow and start building structural integrity?

Reflection Questions for the Soul

Take a moment to sit with these. Don't intellectualize the answers, feel them.

1. The Survival Audit: What "strengths" am I leaning on that are actually survival strategies? (e.g., Is it discernment, or is it hyper-vigilance? Is it independence, or is it a fear of being let down?)

   
   

2. The Visibility Paradox: In which rooms do I feel most "seen" but least "safe"? What would it look like to bring my whole, authentic self into those spaces without bracing for impact?

   
   

3. The "Even If" Factor: If the "fig tree" of my current success didn't blossom tomorrow, would I still know who I am? Or is my identity entirely tied to my output?

   
   

4. The Environment Check: Is my current environment (personal and professional) supporting my restoration, or is it demanding my performance?

   
   

5. The Coverage Question: I am "seen" by many, but who is holding me? Do I have a community who can make a deposit when I am running on empty?

The Kingdom needs your glow, but it needs the restored version of you.