Trauma is like sedimentary rock—a mixture of unheld harms, losses, devastations, violence, neglect, disappointments, and aloneness that in the absence of warm loving accompaniment can harden and become the conscious and unconscious foundation for your life. Healing comes with warm welcome and loving accompaniment that soothe the parts of you who still hurt—whether that hurt lives in […]
What dreams are you wanting to tend this year?
Welcome to 2024, dearests! What are you dreaming into this year? Are there areas of your life that feel stuck where you’re longing for movement? Are your heart and your dreams needing more loving, attuned, responsive support?
How can empathy help us right now?
When lives are at stake, it can feel counterintuitive—and HARD—to slow down and listen. In this space dedicated to the restorative power of empathy, I want to talk with you about how to have conversations about geopolitical violence with people we care about when we have different views or come from different positionalities, to try […]
Wiping Clean the Family Curse: Healing Family Systems, Healing Our World
Have you ever felt that you’re carrying pain that’s not your own? The burgeoning field of epigenetics reveals: “Traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past, leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA….The genome has long been known as the blueprint of life, but the epigenome is life’s Etch A Sketch: Shake […]
Why is Self-Compassion So Elusive? (And A Three-Step Process for Priming the Pump!)
When I started learning Nonviolent Communication (NVC) a decade ago, one of my first teachers heavily emphasized self-empathy—that is, sensing into our own feelings and needs as a method to understand and connect with ourselves—as the easiest and most readily available source of empathy and compassion. “Self-empathy is your best friend,” she said. Her preference […]