What if your avoidance, your anxiety, your patterns all made perfect sense?

Overview Full Theory

A framework for understanding why we shut down, why we avoid, why we keep making the same mistakes—and how healing actually works.

Energy level

The first sign of healing is learning to accept. You should feel proud that you're learning, not ashamed that you sometimes still fail.

There is not a single person on this planet who has not done something they "should" feel shameful for.

#EnergyLandscapeTheory #NicholaRoberts #newkindofselfhelp #personalgrowth #healing

This theory is for the people who want to do better. Who want to understand better. The people who have read all the self-help books, all the attachment books. All the books on coping strategies and realised they aren't enough.

Something is still not making sense.

Energy Landscape Theory is that fresh perspective. It's why you keep making the same mistakes even though you know better. Why your partner can't listen to your needs or respect your boundaries. Why they left even though they wanted to stay.

I can't promise to fix all your problems. Sometimes that takes years. But I can hopefully, finally set you off down the right path. The path to true healing.

Nichola Roberts

The building blocks

Everything in the theory builds on these four ideas.

Energy Limit

The altitude we cannot climb above. When we hit this, the feeling is unbearable—all we care about is getting down as fast as possible.

Mountains

Our stressors, traumas and insecurities, peaks we spend our whole lives trying to navigate around.

Structures

Scaffolding we build over our natural landscape. Designed to keep us safe from traversing our dangerous mountains.

Erosion

How mountains lose their power over us. Through counter-evidence and taking the risk of showing up as our authentic selves.

Three parts to the theory

Part 1

The Lay of the Land

Energy limits, mountains, valleys, pathways—and why some days everything feels impossible.

Part 2

Engineering Our Landscape

The structures we engineer to survive—barricades, bypasses, watchtowers, scorekeepers. How they keep us safe. And how they keep us stuck.

Part 3

Integrating Our Landscape

How real healing happens—through erosion, counter-evidence, time, and the messy work of being truly seen.

Read the full theory