Confession: This is Spiritual Work

I’ve hesitated to talk about this in my work….but what I do is so much more than healing the body and nervous system. It’s energy medicine and spiritual work.

Most people come to me when their nervous systems are so overloaded that they feel lost, especially because western medicine keeps giving them the same diagnosis: you’re fine.
Not only that, the people in their lives tell them the same thing: oh, but you look great!
Yet inside, they feel off. Stuck. Unsure of how to move forward. And meanwhile, whatever symptoms they had keep serving up more of the same pain, illness, anxiety, tension, you name it. This can be especially true for women in their early 30s. Culturally speaking, you’re supposed to be at the “prime” of your life, and to be thriving! Yet inevitably many of my female clients in their early 30s feel anything but that.

Nervous system dysregulation is so common in the west, an entire wellness industry has sprung up around helping people regulate their nervous systems. Spa days, self-care, yoga programs, etc.

From my perspective, the generalized anxiety that accompanies chronic nervous system dysregulation is part of a larger picture. From a spiritual perspective, when these symptoms manifest in the body they are indications that you are cut off from your own wholeness in a way that is destabilizing to your innate well-being and aliveness.

Animism (which is one of my deepest spiritual grounding points) is a relational world perspective that is informed by the knowledge that everything in existence has consciousness and soul (including humans, plants, land and animals–everything), and that everything is inextricably connected. Not only that, but humans themselves are relational and multidimensional, meaning that our wholeness depends on both deep connectedness to the world around us, but also to all of the inner aspects of who we are. Sickness, illness, trauma, are all symptoms of being cut off from various aspects of ourselves. More on how/why we are cut off from so many aspects of ourselves in future musings, but to name a few…the influence of cultural programming, familial expectations, gender norms, religious beliefs, environmental degradation….you get the idea.

So with the work I do, yes, I regulate nervous systems. I can help you feel better. But I’m not here to help you tolerate life. I’m here to help you transform your relationship to yourself by supporting you to call back aspects of your wholeness. Animist cultures (aka: cultures that have shamans or medicine women and men) perform this kind of healing all of the time: it’s called soul retrieval. While it may be a more marketing-friendly term for me to say that my work supports nervous system regulation, what is really going on is that I’m helping you to access the lost parts of your soul that left you feeling sick to begin with. And when that happens, not only will your physical symptoms improve, you shine a light on your life’s path that will lead you into a place of greater intimacy and aliveness with yourself, and with all of life. And that is powerful medicine.