Working Together
I especially love working with women across generations as they begin to question and explore their own relationship with the feminine and are curious about their inner life, which may look very different to what has been prescribed for them by others.
Uncovering our stories and finding our voice can be particularly challenging for us as women. From a young age, we find ourselves in a culture which denigrates, objectifies and sexualises us and direspects the feminine. I work to help clients recognise that where they may perceive a personal failing, there is likely to be an engrained cultural projection, so that they can begin to reclaim their story, desire, longing, power, love, and appreciation for their precious self.
"The word 'feminine', as I understand it, has very little to do with gender, nor is woman the custodian of femininity. Both men and women are searching for their pregnant virgin. She is the part of us who is outcast, the part who comes to consciousness through going into darkness, mining our leaden darkness, until we bring her silver out."
- Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation
This may be for you if...
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You have lived a life mapped out by others and have reached a stage in your life where you're beginning to question the wisdom of this
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You're keen to listen to your inner voice and to find out what your alternative personal map might look like
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You feel pulled in many directions; struggle to know and prioritise your own needs
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You know that deep down there is a part of you that longs for something more and you want to connect with her; get to know her and bring her into the world
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You feel fragmented as you wrestle to get it right; to be a good girl; to satisfy everyone's needs leaving you exhausted and drained. You know that there must be another way and want to find a path towards it. A life of ease and joy just might be possible, you posit, and you're curious to explore how
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You judge and berate yourself, holding yourself to impossible standards, competing with those around you but still never feeling quite enough
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You long to trust yourself and to bring compassion and acceptance to yourself just as you are
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You feel disconnected from, and not in right relationship with your body
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You feel disconnected from anything you associate with the feminine
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You long for a richer, more creative life but find you don't have enough time/energy/space or feel that whatever you do is not good/worthwhile/enough
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You really want to trust yourself but don't know what that means when there seem to be so many selves
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You are waiting to be perfect before you love yourself
"In our yearning to be perfect, we have mistaken perfection for wholeness. We think we cannot love ourselves until we and others meet some external standard. Depression, anxiety - in fact, most neuroses and compulsions - are ultimately a defence against loving ourselves without condition.
- Marion Woodman, Addiction to Perfection
How can we work together?
One-to-One
We are all connected to something bigger than ourselves. And we each have our personal story and unique way of being and relating in this world. I am curious about the detail of yours. As we get to know each other and you share your life calls and intentions, we will combine therapy, coaching, ritual and ceremonial work to best support you to tend what is here and get clear about what wants to emerge. If you would like to know more about therapy specifically, please click here.
Feminine Leadership
"If you are living for an ideal and driving yourself as hard as you can to be perfect - at your job or as a mother or as a perfect wife - you lose the natural, slow rhythm of life. There's a rushing, trying to attain the ideal; the slower pace of the beat of the earth, the state where you simply are, is forgotten."
Marion Woodman asks how can we be 'successful' in our lives and bring our feminine values with us, rather than imitate the masculine values that are modelled and encouraged. This is a dilemma that many of my clients face and one where we feel the split between masculine and feminine so keenly. If you are a leader and wondering how it is possible to lead without abandoning your feminine values, then let's talk.
Community Groups
Some of the greatest learning comes from being part of small, connected communities. I create spaces to connect people to one another, so that collective experiences can be heard, seen, chewed over, digested, felt, and honoured.
Currently, we gather through my Delighted Being Women’s Circle and The Pregnant Virgin Reading Group, offering opportunities for shared learning and connection. Please message me to be added to my mailing list for openings in future groups.
We all develop a persona in our lives; a way of being in the world that we believe others will like, accept, approve of. We do this to survive but it becomes suffocating and painful to live outside of our true nature and we long to return there. Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman, believed that we first bury our soul in the unconscious as we develop the persona that is prized by society. The key to our authentic personhood lies in our inner well; the images of our sleeping and waking dreams; the feelings in the cells of our bodies which lay the breadcrumb trail back to our buried soul.
She further believed that individuals and societies were meant to grow. And our best chance for growth, she thinks, is to bring the feminine into our culture.
This is the work that I do. Through one-to-one coaching, therapy, workshops, ceremonial work and women's circles. I am passionate about supporting your journey towards finding your own life from your own body, and exploring your relationship with your feminine nature.
The Embodied Soul is a place where the feminine comes first; where she is witnessed, honoured, cherished, nurtured, and developed. This is home to a growing body of enquiry about what it means to bring the feminine to consciousness and to integrate the masculine and the feminine in our selves and in our world through working with the body, dreams, stories, and archetypes.
Working with me, you will discover practices, resources, and a community devoted to supporting you as you build the inner musculature for your evolving awareness and reconnection with Self.
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