self-compassion

An invitation to begin again

Every time I open myself more - reveal more truth, more rawness, more me - it’s both exhilarating and terrifying. 

And yet, I have a deep knowing in the rightness of what is wanting to unfold.

Today marks one of those exquisitely beautiful moments, a long-awaited becoming...

A few short years ago, I found myself parked along the Pacific Ocean, staring blankly at the pale gray sky, the dark gray sea, the flat gray sand. The green, magenta, and yellow porchulaca growing between my car and the beach providing the only color. 

Drawn to the ocean, I let my tear-blurred vision find comfort there. The window was halfway down, wind whipping by as Ani Difranco’s “So What” reverberated through me at max volume:

who's gonna give a shit

who's gonna take the call

when you find out that the road ahead

is painted on a wall

and you're turned up to top volume

and you're just sitting there in pause

with your feral little secret

scratching at you with its claws

I used my music playlist as an oracle that morning, clicking the “shuffle” setting and accepting the songs that came as perfectly timed messengers. Ani’s words continued on… 

how many times undone

can one person be

as they’re careening through the facade

of their favorite fantasy

you just close your eyes slowly

like you’re waiting for a kiss

and hope some lowly little power

will pull you out of this.

The song poured through my car’s speakers like a balm for my aching heart, not because it eased my pain, but because it so beautifully met it. Sitting salt-water-face to salt-water-face with momma ocean, listening to Ani DiFranco croon about her feral little secret, I could feel seismic waves start to crack my inner walls. 

I had become unbearably restless and inflamed, figuratively and literally, but I feared looking too deeply underneath because it meant I’d have to muster enough bravery to completely change my exquisitely beautiful life. 

A life where I was so very loved by the people who felt like absolute home to me – my husband and our daughter. 

A life that felt as cozy and secure as a blanket fresh from the warm dryer. A life that I was terrified to lose.

Almost in a prayer for courage, I inhaled the salty ocean air with a ragged breath, attempting to infuse my being with her powerful, feminine energy. Finally, I allowed silent sentences to escape the pit in my stomach, and burn their way up through my heart and throat.

I told my secrets to the ocean because I knew she could hold them until I could set them all free.

I reached down to turn off the music and sat in silence, staring at the sea, bracing for what would happen when I spoke aloud what I knew needed to be said, and did what needed to be done. Tear-soaked, dirty-haired, wild-eyed, and more awake than I’d ever felt, I backed my car out of the parking lot and started down the winding road toward home.

There was no turning away from my truth now.

As I made my way through my own turbulent midlife portal, I became a cartographer, charting the course, forging touchstones, illuminating the universal signposts along this transformational passage so that those who came after me wouldn’t have to journey alone. 

I reframed the midlife transition as a midlife emergence to make meaning of my own transformation during this time of life when I dared to reveal the raw, sometimes inconvenient truth of who I am. Using my own experiences, as well as decades of working as a psychotherapist and coach with women facing similar dire crossroads, I created a personalized roadmap to midwife the modern, awakened woman through her unique, midlife emergence.

And today, I’m writing to share this brand-new offering with you.

After months of seeking, dreaming, and crafting, I am delighted to announce that early-bird enrollment for the founding cohort of Midlife Emergence is NOW OPEN! 

Beginning September 21, Midlife Emergence is a 26 week-long online experience that will guide you through questions to consider as you seek to become the freest version of yourself. I blend accessible teachings on psychological and spiritual approaches throughout this journey, integrating self-discovery prompts and grounding practices to empower you as you navigate midlife and emerge into your own constant becoming. 

Your Midlife Emergence journey includes:

  • A foundational guide: A video introduction + guide to help you understand, embrace, and apply the self-inquiry practices and mystical supports included in each module

  • 13 self-discovery modules: Starting September 21st and released every two weeks thereafter, a new module opens featuring a video sharing my own stories and experiences around a specific midlife theme, as well as personalized self-inquiry practices and exercises to illuminate your own journey, explore the intricacies of your transformation, and weave together the aftermath of your metamorphosis.

  • Inclusive, private, online community: In our private community, we will connect with those who can relate to the quaking within. Here we will co-create a safe, welcoming, inclusive space to honor our transformation, share our stories, and speak our truths.

  • 3 live community calls with Jen and your Midlife Emergence cohort: Our exploration unfolds over the three stages -- Illumination, Innovation, and Integration. After each stage, we will meet via a live video conference call to connect around the themes we’ve explored. (All calls will be recorded and shared to allow you to honor your own pace and timing.)

  • An optional upgrade with a personal touch: Add two 1:1 Midlife Emergence coaching sessions to your package and infuse your experience with personal support.

Embrace Your Emergence

Be part of the founding class of Midlife Emergence and help shape the journey for seekers who follow in your footsteps. Take advantage of special beta offer pricing and the opportunity to share your feedback to guide future offerings as a member of the premier Midlife Emergence cohort. 

PLUS! Early birds who register before August 31 receive their very own gorgeous, personalized gift bundle delivered right to your mailbox. Packed with loving, supportive intention, your early bird care package includes a few sweet offerings to support you as we open the midlife emergence portal: an essential oil, a stone, a candle, and some special surprises!

Give yourself permission to step into your longing and own your truth - to become a more whole, more integrated, more genuine version of yourself - and live life on your own terms.

Your midlife emergence awaits.

Art, chakras & self-inquiry, oh my!

Oooof, what a year it's been so far, huh? For me, lately it's been more essential than ever to stay grounded and in touch with my body -- to listen deeply, to be nourished, and to express (literally meaning "press out") what I am feeling and carrying within. That's why this new offer comes at a perfect time for me, and I hope for you, too. 

I am thrilled and honored to be among the soulful artists and teachers in the next cycle of the inspirational 21 Secrets online workshop which will explore the theme: EMBODY. I am one of 21 teachers you'll hear from in this course, each offering a uniquely artistic approach to embodiment.

In my 21 Secrets segment, you'll join me on a colorful journey across the rainbow bridge of your chakra system. Oooo, one of my favorite topics to study and teach! We'll walk through the chakras as a developmental timeline, from womb through adulthood. You'll gain insight into how each chakra's qualities manifest in your life, and express your findings through art! Healing, honoring, and celebrating your body in your own artistic way will help to keep you connected to and caring for yourself in a time when it's imperative. And you all know how I feel about self-care!

EARLY BIRD SALE starts TODAY! Here's what's included:

  • A downloadable 150+ page eBook that contains 21 art journaling workshops packed with videos, photos, templates, and clear instructional content that is yours to keep and refer to again and again. This will be delivered to your inbox on March 27th at 9am Pacific, and it'll be yours forevermore.

  • Unlimited access to all workshops at once! You pick and choose which ones you do and when. There is no time limit or deadlines to meet — these workshops are yours to keep.

  • Membership to the private 21 SECRETS Facebook community where you can share, be inspired, and receive warm, supportive feedback.

  • The opportunity to learn a variety of art journaling approaches and techniques from the comfort of your home/studio.

  • Belong to a supportive online artist community that has been growing strong since 2010! 

Pretty awesome, huh?

The whole package is priced amazingly at $98, and you early birds can get $10 off using the code: emBODY when checking out between now and midnight Pacific Friday, February 11th.  

For more information & to register, click here.

 

Interview & Giveaway: When healers don't walk their talk

I am honored (and honestly quite giddy!) to have been interviewed by coach and thought-partner extraordinaire, Jac McNeil, about why it's important for helping and healing professionals to stay in their integrity by walking their talk when it comes to self-care. I hired the heartful and whipsmart Jac last year to help me with the nuts and bolts of manifesting the vision I had for creating an engaging, soulful, online experience for healing arts practitioners worldwide to revive their self-care practices in order to prevent the occupational hazards they report most often: burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, isolation, and insecurity. As a therapist who specializes in working with other therapists and helping professionals, I know all too well how difficult it can be to develop and maintain our own self-care rituals. My answer for this dilemma is the concept of micro-self-care, a method I guide my fellow helpers and healers through implementing in the SoulSpace Series.

In my conversation with Jac, she asked me these four questions:

When-Healers-Dont-Walk-Their-Talk.
  • What do you mean by "micro-self-care"?
  • In your experience, what micro-self-care techniques tend to have the most impact/value for healers?
  • Why do you think most of us avoid/ignore micro-self care?
  • What’s your favorite micro-self care technique and why?

Hop on over to the interview to read what I had to say on the topic, and enter on her web site for a chance to win a free spot in the upcoming SoulSpace Series, which kicks off on February 8th. Jac will choose the giveaway winner this Wednesday, February 3rd. Good luck!

It's time to create some SoulSpace

All summer, I've been deeply engrossed in the creative process of incubating and manifesting a long-time dream of mine, and I'm so stoked to finally be able to share it with you all! I'm super-excited to introduce you to the SoulSpace Series. (Really, I just clapped, here alone at my desk.) It's common knowledge that the relationship between the therapist and the client is the most beneficial and effective aspect of healing work. Way more-so than any techniques, tools, theories, training, tips, and tricks. So, as helping professionals, it is imperative (even ethically so) that we lovingly care for our most valuable tool -- OURSELVES! (Um, not selfish in the least.) If we enter into our healing work while suffering from burn out, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, lack of inspiration, lack of confidence/trust in ourselves -- then no one benefits. I want you to be the most clear, present, attuned, connected, and inspired healing practitioner you can possibly be -- the world needs more of that.

And this, in a nutshell, is why I created SoulSpace.

The SoulSpace Series is a super-accessible, guided online experience that reacquaints you, alongside a supportive cohort, with your creative, compassionate, inner healer and weaves a practice of rhythmic, micro self-care rituals unobtrusively into your everyday. (Think: sustainable, bite-sized, daily rituals vs expensive, annual vacations and retreats. We'll wither away waiting for those. <-- did you guys read that article?)

SoulSpace invites you into a deeply soulful and contemplative space that is also refreshingly playful, permissive, creative, and light. Over the course of the, 6-week, online program, you'll master simple, self-care rituals that nourish your practice and your day, walking away with concrete practices you can dip into in even the smallest moments you have between clients.

Whether you're a student training to become a psychotherapist, coach, or bodyworker -- or if you've been in practice for years in a setting where you're supporting clients emotionally/spiritually throughout your day -- I created SoulSpace for YOU.

Click here to more about SoulSpace, cozy up in your favorite blanket, grab a cuppa pumpkin-something, join a tribe of fellow healing arts practitioners this autumn.

Now is the perfect time.

Oh, and I'm giving away one free enrollment this week, only on Instagram! Hop on over to follow me and enter! (The winner will be chosen on Monday, September 21, 2015.) Giveaway has ended and SoulSpace is underway for the Autumn 2015 session. I'll offer it again after the new year, so stay tuned to my e-newsletter to find out when the doors open for enrollment.

So, what is Reiki anyway?

Reiki has been circling back into my practice more regularly since the new year, and it seems like a perfect time to write a little post about this ancient, subtle, and powerful hands-on-healing method. I am a Master/Teacher-level Reiki practitioner in the Usui tradition and lineage. I have been studying energetic healing and the chakra system since 1995, and I have been formally practicing Reiki since 2003. I enjoy calling upon Reiki energy for my own healing, cleansing the energy of a space, and for hands-on healing treatments for clients, family members, and friends.

This Spring I conducted two Reiki workshops in the Bay Area for therapists who also wish to become Reiki practitioners, and incorporate this type of energetic healing modality into their practices. In these workshops, I shared information about the psychology of the chakra system, taught specifics about Reiki I & II, and 'attuned' the participants to become Reiki practitioners. We gathered in a lovely space in Mountain View, and it just felt so good to send more healers out into this world.

So, what is Reiki?

Reiki is not a religion or dogma, does not take away from current belief system; it’s a gentle, effective, non-invasive hand-on healing modality based on an ancient form of healing. Rei means spiritual consciousness.  Ki means life force (sometimes called chi and prana). Thus, Reiki is a spiritually guided life force energy, which is everything around us (earth, air, sun, water.)

Some of the benefits of Reiki: 

  • Reduction in stress and anxiety
  • A sense of deep peace and tranquility
  • Release of blockages on physical, emotional and spiritual levels
  • Feelings of overall well-being
  • Renewal of spiritual awareness and insight
  • Inner stillness, allowing a deepening connection with self
  • Enhanced functioning of the immune system
  • Reduction in levels of chronic pain
  • Decreased time necessary for healing from illness or injury
  • Shortened recovery time from physical exertion
  • Management of symptoms from chemotherapy
  • Support for conventional medical treatment

What to expect during a Reiki treatment session with me:

I offer 75-minute Reiki sessions. You may think of scheduling a Reiki session as a self-care and self-inquiry treat to yourself, much like getting a massage or acupuncture. You don't need to be my psychotherapy client to receive a Reiki treatment, as I offer them independent of psychotherapy. At times when appropriate, I also incorporate Reiki with psychotherapy clients who are interested.

During a Reiki treatment, you will lie comfortably on a massage table, as you remain fully clothed. You may wish to gently close your eyes as you lie quietly on the table and relax fully into the treatment, remembering that you do not need to do anything to increase the effectiveness of the treatment.

The room will be comfortably lit with either candles or soft lighting. Soothing music may be played to enhance relaxation.

I will spend a few minutes getting to know you better, as well as discussing Reiki treatments and finding out what your reasons for coming for a treatment might be. Anything that you choose to share during your treatment will be kept confidential, remembering that this is a safe and sacred environment. If you have any significant areas of physical discomfort, be sure to share that information before the treatment begins, or as you become aware during treatment. I then will gently place my hands over/on the major energy centers, or chakras, of your body, leaving the hands in each position for a few minutes, helping the body to bring itself into balance as it draws in the healing energy of Reiki, and may spend additional time at other areas of the body that seem to be calling for attention.

During the treatment, you may experience a variety of sensations throughout your body such as heat, vibration or tingling, pulsation or flowing energy, lightness or heaviness, deep relaxation, and occasionally temporarily intensified emotions as you release blockages from the past. You may also fall asleep for all or part of the treatment, or find that you do not experience any physical sensations at all. This is perfectly normal, since Reiki does not need to be perceived for you to receive its many benefits, nor do you need to be awake during the treatment.

If you'd like to learn more, I recommend the following books on Reiki: (clicking on affiliate links below will open the Amazon page for the book in a new browser window on your computer) 

Or feel free to contact me to discuss scheduling a session.