An Expanded Approach

Self-love. 

It gets a lot of airtime in therapy:  self-love, self-worth, self-esteem...

There are so many angles.

My unfolding understanding is that self-love isn’t just a concept.

And working at it conceptually and directly is only one way and not the one with the most results.

We can’t talk ourselves into self-love.  

Then it’s a fight with our bodies which have their own positions.

I’ve had a massive shift in self-worth the past year.

But it’s not like I walk around with all these amazing thoughts about myself in my head.  Maybe that will come? I don’t know.

It’s that my needs are important to me.  My physical and emotional needs are the top thing I need to attend to.

This isn’t self-coaching, although that is a component.  It’s work with my physical, emotional, and spiritual self that has resulted in this attention being inevitable.

It’s a work in progress, but it’s happening.

I love feeling good.  When I feel good, work with clients is easy.  The people I love are easy to love. The days flow with ease.

This is how I am able to be of service.

By filling my cup first.

And self-love is the doing of this.

I got here through sustained and deep attention to my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.  To unblocking and releasing. To expressing.  

All these levels are actually one and the same.  Most of us know this intellectually. Many of us are on a journey of coming to understand this experientially.  And once you do it changes everything.

And this is why I am shifting how I am working.  Because psychotherapy is one very important piece of healing.

And I am proposing an amplified model.  A model that offers those who want it care that addresses all the levels and helps them make shifts quickly. 

Care that pays attention to the body and each of its systems.  Care that offers insight as well as emotional release. Care that connects us with spirit.  

Care that sees your gifts and potential beyond the symptoms and the suffering.

We have the birthright to be beyond ambitious about the things that we want.

Well-being can come to us sooner than we expect.

Life is speeding up.

Awareness is expanding.

The stakes are increasing.

We can do more.

I see it in my practice every day.

If you are interested in my thinking on this I have created a new website and mailing list that you can subscribe to here.  There are two programs currently being offered out of The Cove Healing Centre in Vaughan: The Ostara Program - a nine-week program designed to address the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of anxiety, depression, and relationship challenges.  And Salacia Healing - a four-month program designed for thriving people who know there is more.

For myself, my work in naturopathic medicine, somatic therapy, shamanism, and magic has transformed my ability to help my clients and myself.

Psychotherapy is an art, my first love, the most fascinating and beautiful of practices.

And to receive everything that is available to us I believe more is often required.

Each person’s alchemy of modalities is different.  The creativity of intuiting what we need when is a highly creative act that each of us engages us every day.  The choice we have is how.

I would also like to mention access.  This is a part of the innovation I am talking about.  The ability to deliver care in group settings and with online material to complement the one on one services will broaden access to all of these services.  There are clinicians in all modalities working on these projects. Clinicians who are passionate about widening access to care.

So there’s a lot happening over here.  I’ll keep writing here for now. And I’ll share little tidbits from Salacia Healing as they feel relevant.  I hope many of you will join me over here. So much excitement is coming.

I’m dreaming.

Please dream.