When I was dreaming about creating The Sacred Self Wellness Collective, I knew this for sure:
· I wanted to create an online space for people to be emotionally held in their most difficult moments
· I wanted to cultivate an online space that allowed for the creation of community and fostered a sense of belonging
· I wanted to a build a team of practitioners who share in the belief that humans are inherently worthy, good, and whole and who believe in the power of love (in the form of empathy, compassion, gentleness, unconditional acceptance, non-judgment) to heal
· I wanted to create a space in which mental health care is destigmatized, and regarded as a process of collaboration between two humans who are imperfect, and continually growing and learning
In essence, I envisioned creating an online space that is accessible to all, in which people could feel seen, heard and unconditionally embraced without fear or shame, regardless of their struggle, or life circumstance.
If you are thinking of working with The Sacred Self Wellness Collective, know that we are grounded in the following principles:
You are the expert on you: The practitioner’s role is not to be “the expert” but to understand and work with you on your goals while supporting you with bringing awareness to the thoughts, emotions and behaviours that keep you from feeling free and connected to yourself.
Everything you do, think, and feel is or was once protective or adaptive: Your thoughts, feelings and behaviours are not inherently wrong or an indication of how “messed up” you are.
Healing is a process of unlearning and claiming: Healing is a process of identifying your internalized beliefs and compassionately challenging them to support the creation of a more nurturing relationship with yourself. It is a process of deepening your understanding of your emotions and developing an insight of the want, need or desire it is pointing to. It is a process of making changes to your behaviours so that you can live in alignment with your values, and your vision for your life.
The relationship you build with your practitioner is fundamental to change: Your relationship with your practitioner should feel safe, always. It will be a relationship in which you feel respected, unconditionally accepted, and gently challenged. You will feel seen, heard and validated. Your autonomy and agency will be at the core of the relationship. You don’t feel ready to talk about something difficult? That’s ok. Your practitioner will work with you to explore your fears about doing so, your felt sense of safety in the relationship with them, and the internal “blocks” that may be arising for you. Your readiness will always be considered and respected. Healing is not a race. It is okay to take your time and respect your readiness.
The strength and resources you need to heal are already within you: The role of your practitioner is not to give advice or tell you what to do to. Their role is to support you with cultivating an awareness of your patterns, while holding you with compassion and gentleness as you reflect on the parts of you that you may relate to with a sense of shame, self-loathing, fear, anger, sadness, or disgust. In so doing, encountering yourself becomes increasingly tolerable and therefore change becomes possible. You are not broken. You likely have just never felt safe enough to allow your protective walls to come down to understand and connect with yourself more deeply.
At The Sacred Self Wellness Collective we believe healing is the work of coming home to yourself.
This means:
· Experiencing a sense of freedom to embrace your most authentic self
· Experiencing an internal sense of safety
· Embracing playfulness and joy openly
· Learning to trust yourself
· Cultivating the ability to tolerate discomfort in service of your goals, dreams and desires
· Extending curiosity toward your emotions
· Learning to honour you needs, wants and desires
· Speaking and relating to yourself with compassion
· Embracing your imperfections and vulnerabilities
· Claiming your inherent worth and goodness
It is truly our honour to journey alongside those who choose to work with us. If you feel that we could be of support to you, do not hesitate to reach out to any one of our practitioners directly or connect with Client Care Coordinator at [email protected] to get matched to the practitioner trained to best meet your needs.
We can’t wait to meet you.