December 2023 Newsletter: Values, Community, KAP

In this newsletter: Values, Healing for Healers KAP Group, Community Meditation

This month’s newsletter feels more like a reflection. I'm finishing this note to you on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. As I reflect, I’m writing through the lens of exploring my own values and how I want to show up as someone who considers myself a healer. I find values work to be immensely powerful, not only as a means of self exploration, but also because knowing your values helps to inform how you want to live your life. I do a lot of work around values with my clients, and it’s also work that I use to guide my own life. 

As I reflect on my own values, things like community, connection, compassion all come to the front of my mind. It’s funny, because these values that I’m leaning into now are not the qualities that mattered to me even just a few years ago. Things like individual healing, independence, productivity, being able to do everything myself, those were what mattered.

After a great deal of work and reflection, I now know that many of those values weren’t actually mine - they belong to a culture of colonialism and supremacy. We actually aren’t meant to do all of this alone, yet our society says otherwise. You’re successful if you can “push through”, and “make it on your own”. And while that might look impressive from the outside, most people who are “pushing through” are also burnt out, struggling, and feeling isolated. In my work with my therapy clients, I witness so much pain that occurs in isolation. I see people struggling to fit into a societal “ideal”, and I wonder whose ideal it really is - so much pain comes from trying to fit a narrative that isn’t even yours to begin with. 

Reflecting on your values gives you the opportunity to actually examine your life and check in with how it matches with what’s important to you. You may be surprised by what you find.

I also understand that having the stability to examine your values is a privilege. Not everyone has the opportunity to make life changes based on the qualities they want to embody. My own privilege comes not only from the color of my skin, but also because I’m able-bodied, in a heterosexual relationship, and have access to the resources I need in order to live comfortably, among many other things. As a white woman living in the US, I’m *just about* as free as it gets. But as I look around, I’m not actually free when others aren't free.

As I continue to explore the ways in which I’ve been complicit with and influenced by systems of oppression in our society, I keep getting hit over and over again with this thought - how can I consider myself a spiritual person or a healer if I’m not focused on collective liberation? What is any of this work for otherwise? It feels vulnerable to share all of this because I don’t have all the answers. Untangling these patterns is without a doubt work that will take a lifetime. And, I also want to normalize the messiness and vulnerability of the process. There is no prize for being perfect, despite what we’ve been told. 

For now, I’m orienting to my values and am placing compassion front and center. When I shift and place compassion for others and compassion for the Earth and compassion for myself at the center of my heart, the world looks different. Instead of looking away from suffering, I can meet it. Because your suffering is my suffering, and your joy is my joy. By rooting into compassion, we can hold space for deep listening to each others' experiences. We are all beautiful and unique and different, and we’re all interwoven together into the fabric of this Earth. 

So what’s my point in all this? I say all this to say that I can feel a shift in me and a shift in my work. The answer I keep coming to is “together”. I’m committing to bringing more compassion and community into my work, because I truly believe we need each other. Individual therapy is work that I love and will continue to do, but I’m also adding in more community offerings and ways to connect in the next few months.

You may have caught my emails about my Community Meditation Gatherings - this offering is a 30 minute meditation, breathwork and grounding practice that takes place on Wednesday mornings. It’s a free/pay-what-you-can gathering, and half of all funds go to support organizations who are currently providing aid in Gaza

I’m also offering a 4-week Healing for Healers ketamine assisted psychotherapy group in January! This group is for those of you who are healers or therapists who want to lean into the value of doing your own work in community. There are only 4 spots, so our container will be intimate and cozy as we embark on this beautiful journey together. Three more spaces remain, payment plans are available.

If you’re not a therapist but you are interested in exploring psychedelics, I’d love to connect with you about KAP! Ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a psychedelic healing modality that has powerful antidepressant effects, even for treatment-resistant depression. Not only that, but it helps to move through stuck and maladaptive patterns of behavior in a different way than traditional psychotherapy. KAP involves the administration of ketamine together with psychotherapy, which allows you the ability to process and integrate any insights that arise during the medicine session with the collaborative support of your therapist. If you want to learn more about this work and find out if it’s right for you, read more here.

That's all for now. I hope this holiday season is slow and gentle, and that you have the space to connect with those you care about.

I am so deeply grateful to you for staying connected with me and for supporting my work. From the bottom of my heart - thank you for being part of my community. This newsletter marks a year of newsletters, and two years of Mind Body Wellness! I couldn't do it without you. Go slowly, and I'll see you again in the new year.