Our Approach
This space is dedicated to the simple act of sitting with the depth and richness and naked truth of what you feel. Whatever that might look like.
In a way, there’s so very little happening here. Mostly what matters here is what’s left out: the usual mode of judgement and aggression with which we treat each other and ourselves. When we’re not beating ourselves up…when there’s some openness to the idea that we might be fundamentally worthy…then some kind of deep, true healing can begin.
"The resolution of unworthiness is not going from feeling unworthy to feeling worthy, but going from being hateful towards yourself to being kind, even kind toward your hateful self-dialogue — those old violent, condemning voices in your mind that have become inherent. - Adyashanti
So...the basic bargain here is that I won’t judge you: that I offer a safe space where you can surface different parts of yourself that could benefit from basic kindness. The other side of the bargain is your own investment in self-compassion. The challenge and opportunity here involves learning to bring a quality of care and honouring to the parts of yourself that you find most ugly and unacceptable. Slowly we can work back…through the high school rejections, childhood disappointments, womb-trauma…wherever there’s a gap where you weren’t properly met, we can time travel back and bring a quality of grounded wholeness and love to the situation. In so doing, we invite deep, deep healing.
This space is dedicated to the simple act of sitting with the depth and richness and naked truth of what you feel. Whatever that might look like.
Imagine two poets - two friends - meeting in a mountain-top hut after years of separation. One poet might share with the other much of what she's experienced: not just the surface details, but the inner feelings that go with the stories. Sharing what's inside her might offer the simple relief of no longer feeling alone in her experiences - having a space to say what's in her heart. But it might become more than that quickly. In telling her stories - in sharing what she feels in a space of basic kindness and compassion - she might let herself feel more and more deeply: falling from blame and anger, into vulnerability, hurt and grief...then ultimately into a simplicity or innocence underneath all of it - a nakedness in which everything is felt more fully. In the course of sharing and reflecting on her feelings, the feelings themselves might become richer - gaining in poetry, dignity, and grace. And at the same time, the poet herself might change...as a result of the way in which she showed up in relationship with herself. The way she sits with and shares her anger might provide her with a calm strength that suffers no fools. The way she sits with and shares her grief might break open her heart in a way that radiates compassion. And so on. The poet might become more herself - more expressive of the depth and richness of who she is - through the process of reaching down into herself and speaking from what she felt.
We have that same aim here.
So...these sessions may be a place in which you gradually feel safe enough to let slip the mask you might usually move through the world with. To admit the hard things: “I feel unloved”. “I don’t feel worthy”. To speak about - or even from - the bone-deep beliefs we usually keep locked deep down in the dark of ourselves. And then the simple, sacred possibility of meeting those feelings, beliefs, constrictions and energies with a kind of stark compassion and respect for the depth of pain - and wisdom - they carry. Letting the pain move through...with a kind of gravity and solemn acknowledgement of harshness endured. Respecting that the experience of great suffering leaves its mark. No arguments or platitudes.
Journey into the Inner World
These sessions offer the chance to come face to face with our wounded parts: a direct, intimate meeting in which their needs and pain become obvious. Healing occurs through giving them what they need.
Tenderness here involves revoking the sense that some part of ourselves should be a particular way. Compassion here is infused with respect: rather than being tinged with pity, it may easily include a recognition of the sacred, primordial dignity of the hurt part. Compassion and honoring at the same time.
Our work here then is to sit in the muck and grit of humanness without losing our footing in a deeper perspective. Our sessions involve drawing on an inner resource of stability...of peace and wellbeing: touching down on that ground in a way that helps it become more a reliable part of your moment to moment experience. And from that ground, we meet whatever suffering or turmoil comes along.
Going Deeper
If we listen deeply enough, some kind of caring naturally arises from our depths to embrace that suffering...as a mother would instinctively embrace her injured child. So we court that sense of care: if it joins a session, it can so much do the lion's share of healing work. Something vastly still within us remains unmoved by all that we've lost or stand to gain in life; and something else loves passionately and grieves with ancient sorrow when we lose what we love. Our work in these sessions is to honor the Wholeness that includes both the dispassionate stillness and the tender ache involved in loving and - inevitably - losing what's loved.
