“Without the security of feminine love that trusts life in the body and is, therefore, open to trust life, we learn to fear life itself. Even as children, we build a false foundation often enacted in nursery rhymes in which London Bridge is falling down, or Humpty Dumpty is falling apart. As adults, we seek further security through opulence of possessions. We are a society famous for our greed. Without a loving connection to the Great Mother, we literalize her. Mother becomes mater. We accumulate mounds of mattering an effort to blind ourselves to our own yearning for the Divine Mater. Ironically, we are materialists, essentially a matriarchal society worshipping the Golden Cow a the center.In the absence of the natural mother, the greed of the stepmother, including sexual greed, takes over.” —Marion Woodman, Leaving my Father’s House If you see yourself in this excerpt, this is an invitation to work with the innate, instinctual resources you have—that we all have inside of us regardless of your experience with the feminine. Where to start? There are so many places. A therapist can be of great help here of course. For others it might be prayer, meditation, breath work, a yin yoga practice or all of the above. The list in theory is endless. Join me at the end of this month and we’ll talk more about it! I’ll be hosting donation based visualization work on the Great Mother. Stay tuned for details! Photo by Lina Scheynius

We all long for the experience of the Great Mother, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. This instinctual force within all of us is part of a collection of guiding forces toward what Jung deemed the goal of our individuation: wholeness. The Great Mother is accessible inside and outside all of us. Along this winding path toward wholeness, it's important to remember that there is not a finish line nor end point––the ideal is never reached and there will always be room to grow. For those of you that love finish lines, this might sound like a reason to give up now rather than forge ahead through the growing pains and dark nights of the soul that await you on your spiritual progression into full-throated maturity. With each rung of the ladder climbed there is a significant movement of energy that unleashes the truest highs of our humanness. These zeniths are in direct relation and response to the sunken valleys trudged through in our darkest times. The highs and lows of an initiated life are oppositional forces that unite and contain the whole of our experiences. Summarized excerpt from this months newsletter—it’s not too late to receive! Link is in bio to sign up. Image: Frida Kahlo, My Nurse and I More about the painting: Frida's mother could not breastfeed her because she was nursing Cristina, Frida’s younger sister so nurses were hired. The nurse in the painting is wearing a pre-Columbian funerary mask. Frida reportedly had difficulties connecting with her mother and caregivers. Wounds can make great art and adaptations to traumas—both big and small are creative acts in and of themselves.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 In this month's newsletter we wrote about the powerful role a mother holds in our relationship to ourselves and to the world around us. We were inspired by the words of Marion Woodman who wrote extensively on the subject through the lens of fairytale, and spoke of a "Natural" or "Positive" Mother who is commonly lacking in those old stories, leaving the protagonists with a personal journey inward while on their outward adventure. Woodman describes this mythic mother as a woman who "in nourishing her children, [...] is confident in her own feminine identity and is, therefore, able to be a mirror for them. [Her children] are psychically and physically fed by the unconditional love she bestows." It's important to note that this "Natural/Positive" mother is a mere aspect of The Great Mother, the archetypal ideal that no human being can actually reach. Though some mothers will embody elements of the fantastical "Natural/Positive" mother ideal more than others, none can complete the picture. I found this email from my late mother (second slide) and showed it to my husband today. We teared up talking about how my mom held so many aspects of the positive mother. Although I only got to have her in my life for the first 30 years I am so fortunate to have known what it is like to be deeply loved, supported and encouraged to follow my own path. So much of why I work in the healing arts is because of her—I went to reiki trainings with her and she consistently encouraged me to use my intuition. She works through me all of the time and in that way she is still very much alive. Mother’s Day can be a charged day in so many different ways. If it is simple for you, consider yourself lucky! I believe that what arises is here can be a form of medicine. The feelings that come up can show us so much about how we relate to our own internal mother or to the feminine that is within all of us. It might reveal more about what we needed that we didn’t get, how our love is tangled in our grief and it can show us gratitude for what we do have and what we did have. Happy Mother’s Day to all. 🌹

Are you my mother? Image: me hanging on “The Venus of Nevada” by Belgian artist Hugo Heyrman

Our Mothers are the source of a great many things, not the least of which is our very lives. And because of this, so much psychic energy rests on them, amplifying their presence in how we relate to the feminine. This innately alchemical relationship invites the potential for deep reflection into some of the slightest or seemingly most insignificant moments of our formative years and can lead us, when adults, into breakthroughs that provide fundamental insights into our personal patterns. Marion Woodman, the mythopoetic author and psychologist, wrote on the subject of mothers through the lens of fairy tales. She references a “Natural” or “Positive Mother”, “who lives happily in her own body, loves her femaleness, experiences her menses as her feminine relationship to the phases of the moon. In nourishing and cherishing her children, she is confident in her own feminine identity and is, therefore, able to be a mirror for them. They are psychically and physically fed by the unconditional love she bestows. They can look into her eyes and recognize themselves as they are, without any sense that there exists an agenda as to what they ought to be, should be, must be. She sees their individuality and honors its becoming into being. She provides a powerful vision of wholeness that is fully embodied in her affirmation of herself. She therefore becomes a home for her children, a home they will go in search of when, in the process of growing up, it is inevitably lost.” Excerpt from May’s newsletter, coming soon Images by @ martinelightblue

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live. Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat. Perfection is static, and I am in full progress. Abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones. —Anais Nin

I was once told this should be my permanent therapist photo. #doublerainbow #promises #psychologytoday ;)

There is real wisdom in the human-like qualities of the gods inside the ancient pantheons of our spiritual imagination. Growing up in the Christian West I was under the belief that a god must be perfect if they are to be a God at all. But the human imperfections I once considered as holes in the mythic story not only allow us to resonate with forces greater than ourselves, but they also present a way of projecting our psyche onto the external world, which in turn helps us make sense of the otherwise incomprehensible abstract. Having an imperfect model grants us grace for our own imperfections. With the persistent and enveloping chaos that surrounds us, our psychology develops a myriad of coping mechanisms, or “gods” who differ in their approach to handling our existential problem. The Warrior is one such deity and this archetype’s solution is to confront the unknown and enter into conflict against it, fighting for the sake of a Divine Order that is in constant need of protection from the encroaching ataxia. This was the mindset of the ancient Egyptians, who believed that from a dark primordial sea (Nu), rose a hillock. The hillock was the place where order literally stood above chaos. Egypt itself came to represent this very idea as enemies of other foreign lands who warred against the order of the Pharaoh were analogous to the watery abyss that sought to devour state (read hillock) and return the world to chaos. Except from this month’s newsletter on the Warrior archetype Image: Maison Dragon by Niki de Saint Phalle

THE WARRIOR The age-old debate between religious orders about which god is the truer God is an argument over which order is “rightest”. Many times it is a cultural divide over comfortable adaptations that organize the otherwise unpredictable and disordered world. We strike at fear when we cast doubt on other's beliefs because we are shaking the very framework of how they may interpret the unknown. When pushed or prodded in this way, the Warrior comes out, armed to the teeth, and does battle on behalf of our worldview, which at its most basic level is a form of protection against the madness of not knowing, of not having control. When you see the vitriolic arguments on social media wherein strangers police one another on moral grounds, you are witnessing the righteous Warrior taking up the fight against perceived disorder. The Warrior can be a double-edged sword, in that the archetype requires an enemy to exist. So when we conjure our inner Knight we also materialize our outer adversary. And if we acknowledge that the inner Warrior is there to represent Good on the field of battle, that means we have also conjured its opposite–the “Bad”, “Evil” or “Immoral”. So, in a sense, we end up generating a dichotomy, false or not, and manifesting the very “chaos” we seek to escape, when we employ our Warrior prematurely or without a higher purpose. The process of calling up the Warrior is swift and typically unconscious. The archetype is one of decisiveness and action. This is a structure that does not think things through. The Warrior strikes and will not stop until either it or its foe is vanquished. And when the fighting is over, maybe then you can ask some questions. Excerpt from this month’s free newsletter. Link in bio to receive if you’re not already signed up! Image: Yushi Lee, The Death of Actaeon

Scenes from a series of hikes in Northern California this weekend. Nature is one of my primary sources of therapy. The color green melts me in all the best ways and the plants remind me how to be.🌿 Happy earth day not belated because every day is earth day!

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love. —Rainer Maria Rilke Image: slipper covered in selenite via @oneofakind.archive

Hello! 🌸 It’s been a little quiet over here! I miss writing and sharing in this space. For as disappointing and wasteful as social media can be, I appreciate it as one of many ways to connect and share ideas. I have been deep in focus and building mode since the beginning of 2023. Between nurturing the work with my supervisees and my clients as well as setting up a second office space and working on a new website—a lot has been percolating. Soon I will be emerging with lots of news and new offerings. Until then I hope you are enjoying this glorious spring!

Camellia aura💓

Welcome to my office 🪷 Thank you to @garancerousseau for the immense help on designing this space with me🌸

𝟑 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝙰 𝚍𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚢, 𝚊𝚠𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎. 𝐵𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑚 𝑆𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟 ＠𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙．𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ This simple practice can be done wherever you are and can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes depending on how much space is available to you. For one week, take a few minutes each day to walk anywhere outdoors without the distraction of music or conversation. As you walk, identify at least three beautiful or interesting things you see on your path (try to identify new things each day). You might notice a flower with brilliant colors, a weed growing out of the sidewalk, a bird who's song stops you in your tracks. When you find something that catches your attention, take a moment to observe it. If you can, touch it, see how it smells, listen to it. What amazes you about this being? Does your encounter with this being evoke any feelings or sensations in you? Keep a list or a photo album of these subjects (extra credit if you bring a sketch book and draw your subject) and after a week, review your list/photos/drawings. Notice if your state of mind has changed. As you begin to orient towards the beauty all around you, you grow your connection both to the place you are in and the beauty within your own being. Photo of work by Nils Udo 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚑’𝚜 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚌𝚘-𝚙𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Eco-psychology is the meeting ground of our interior and exterior worlds, the place where our minds and our environment overlap. Theodore Roszak, known to be the father of Eco-psychology, has stated that, for many years, psychologists “simply assumed that human beings exist in a condition of alienation from nature." We thankfully know this to be untrue now, though we are often quick to forget that we are not abject from nature, but of it. Roszak posited that there must be balance between the psyche and its environment if we are to have sanity at all, believing that we ought to even define sanity in relation to our habitat. In that way, urbanization, suburban sprawl, pollution and the myriad of side effects produced by our industrial/post-industrial life has disconnected us from the rhythms of nature, and therefore knocked us out of balance. Many of us have fallen out of tune with our environment, squeezing in time for a hike here or a walk in the park there. But what is needed to reinstate that lost balance is a thorough reintegration with nature. Roszak claims that we have “ecological wisdom” hardwired within us, deeper, even, than the religious archetypes of Jung or Freud’s sexuality, is a powerful concept to consider. It's this very idea that informs Eco-therapy, inspiring practitioners to spend interactive sessions outdoors with clients, or assign “homework” that invites the client to venture into nature for personal resonance work and tap into what eco-psychologists believe is never lost. Tune into our newsletter for more—link in bio to join ✨ Image by Dmitry Kokh, “House of Bears