Wellness as wholeness

I am a person who has always felt big emotions. Highly sensitive to the world around me, every sensation was a grand play of experience and story. I was, and sometimes still am, really good at believing the stories I spin about the world and about myself—stories rooted in unprocessed, emotional pain. For years, I would talk about my emotions in therapy, but afterward, I often felt heavy and exhausted. The pain still felt raw, without much dissipation, leaving me with a sense of dread at having to confront it all again. It took me time to realize that I lacked the capacity to see underneath those emotions: that they had meaning, that they were a song being sung.

When I started using different techniques to bring space to my emotions and soften their intensity, I began to see the stories, beliefs, and resistances that clung to them, keeping them in place. By bringing more space and resources to these places, I could begin to ask them what they needed, and a shift in my relationship with them began. Nourishing them from this place, I could access what the needs were underneath. I could see emotion as a sensation, a protection, a response. These core places of pain got to be held in a space of compassion, without judgment. This was the first time I felt I could weave myself back into shape, building a relationship with parts of me I ran from, listening to what they were sharing, and knowing that my emotions aren’t “me” but hold meaning and wisdom that I’m invited to dance with.

I had scripts about what I should be doing, how I should be feeling, what certain emotions meant, and if they were “good” or “bad”—a streaming script of narratives, roles, contradictions, and sharp edges buried deeper by the shame of their existence. I was never told that these layers are existence itself; they’re the fabric of being human, of being an individual woven into the larger tapestry of humanity. Emotions don’t make us outsiders; they make us commoners. They bridge us to this experience as humans, each of us with different stories, identities, lenses, dynamics, and reactions that lead us to where we are today. Emotions aren’t meant to be pushed aside and forgotten; they will continue to flow even when things are joyful. Emotions aren’t a punishment; they are a facet of complexity that we get the opportunity to engage with. Embracing them is embracing the human experience, welcoming all the twists and turns, and learning to be more authentic in the process.

Style and Teachers

The foundational templates that I weave into each session are birthed from my own lived experience and work with emotions, Transformative Energy Work, along with somatic interventions learned from studying with Irene Lyon. With my work background and the areas of life I have been drawn to, the combination of what I bring comes from a wisdom that’s larger than myself—a wisdom that has been graciously woven into offerings that I’ve been blessed to receive.