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Joy Faith Wellness

Are you ready for more kindness and self-love?

To be more present in your body? To heal yourself by befriending your inner experience?

Hi, I'm Joy. I mix the magical and the mysterious with the everyday.

I'm here to help you.

Meet Joy

Licensed Mental Health Counselor

Licensed Creative Arts Therapist

Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor

Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist

Ordained Interfaith Minister

Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher

Testimonials

What strikes me is how often I tell a client they’re doing a great job moving towards their goal and they say these exact words: “I’m trying.” Then I say these exact words: “You’re doing it.”

There’s a perception that if we make efforts and they are frustrating, messy, stumbling or painful that we’re not succeeding. But that’s not true at all. It’s these efforts, no matter how messy, painful, or small seeming that are the doing- the creating of the new reality.

If you want support in your mental health journey, feel free to reach out. I’m taking a few new clients, or join us for our virtual Expressive Arts Therapies retreat June 1st. 💖

#naturetherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #mentalhealth #lessonsfromnature #goalsetting #creatingchange #transformation #messymiddle
#creativearttherapy

What strikes me is how often I tell a client they’re doing a great job moving towards their goal and they say these exact words: “I’m trying.” Then I say these exact words: “You’re doing it.”

There’s a perception that if we make efforts and they are frustrating, messy, stumbling or painful that we’re not succeeding. But that’s not true at all. It’s these efforts, no matter how messy, painful, or small seeming that are the doing- the creating of the new reality.

If you want support in your mental health journey, feel free to reach out. I’m taking a few new clients, or join us for our virtual Expressive Arts Therapies retreat June 1st. 💖

#naturetherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #mentalhealth #lessonsfromnature #goalsetting #creatingchange #transformation #messymiddle
#creativearttherapy

Virtual Somatic Expressive Arts Retreat

Embracing the new season… loosening hold on what needs to crack and shed, opening to aliveness, and honoring your personal process in this season of transition.

For many, this can be a difficult time. My clients who have auto immune disease express how difficult it is for their bodies to struggle more in the warmer weather as the world around them speeds up. My clients who have bipolar disorder are monitoring the possibility of increased mania as the world around starts to bustle. For clients who have depression, the bird song and sunshine can serve as a painful reminder of lethargy. For others, there’s a deep relief as the seasonal affective disorder starts to ease. What’s sure for us here in the Northeast is the shift of spring is undeniable. It’s in our human nature to have spaces and rituals for honoring seasonal shifts. This is what we offer in this retreat.

This experiential retreat is led by two Licensed Creative Arts Therapists and Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapists. We’ll draw from expressive and somatic movement, art making, writing, breath work, and visualization. No experience needed and join from anywhere.

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #somatictherapy #mentalhealth #grouptherapy #virtualretreat

Virtual Somatic Expressive Arts Retreat

Embracing the new season… loosening hold on what needs to crack and shed, opening to aliveness, and honoring your personal process in this season of transition.

For many, this can be a difficult time. My clients who have auto immune disease express how difficult it is for their bodies to struggle more in the warmer weather as the world around them speeds up. My clients who have bipolar disorder are monitoring the possibility of increased mania as the world around starts to bustle. For clients who have depression, the bird song and sunshine can serve as a painful reminder of lethargy. For others, there’s a deep relief as the seasonal affective disorder starts to ease. What’s sure for us here in the Northeast is the shift of spring is undeniable. It’s in our human nature to have spaces and rituals for honoring seasonal shifts. This is what we offer in this retreat.

This experiential retreat is led by two Licensed Creative Arts Therapists and Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapists. We’ll draw from expressive and somatic movement, art making, writing, breath work, and visualization. No experience needed and join from anywhere.

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #somatictherapy #mentalhealth #grouptherapy #virtualretreat

Virtual Expressive Arts Retreat
June 1st with @balanced_life_movement 🩷

🎨 What to Expect:

🌿 Grounding somatic awareness and breath practices

🌿 Guided Dance/Movement Therapy experiences to explore emotion and embodiment

🌿 Gentle trauma-informed yoga

🌿 Expressive arts processes (including drawing, free writing, or sound)

🌿 Time for verbal sharing, reflection, and gentle integration

🌿 Themes of renewal, embodiment, release, and connection

🎨Who It’s For:
Open to adults of all genders seeking embodied healing, emotional support, or a creative space to process stress, life transitions, grief, chronic illness, or anxiety. No prior experience in dance or art is needed—just openness to explore.

Let’s unfurl together. 🌿🌿🌿

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #somatictherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #virtualretreat #springrenewal #groupsupport

Virtual Expressive Arts Retreat
June 1st with @balanced_life_movement 🩷

🎨 What to Expect:

🌿 Grounding somatic awareness and breath practices

🌿 Guided Dance/Movement Therapy experiences to explore emotion and embodiment

🌿 Gentle trauma-informed yoga

🌿 Expressive arts processes (including drawing, free writing, or sound)

🌿 Time for verbal sharing, reflection, and gentle integration

🌿 Themes of renewal, embodiment, release, and connection

🎨Who It’s For:
Open to adults of all genders seeking embodied healing, emotional support, or a creative space to process stress, life transitions, grief, chronic illness, or anxiety. No prior experience in dance or art is needed—just openness to explore.

Let’s unfurl together. 🌿🌿🌿

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #somatictherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #virtualretreat #springrenewal #groupsupport

I need a practice client to help me finish my SomaSoul® training hours.

SomaSoul® is an engaging and deep form of somatic psychotherapy. I need a volunteer for 5 online sessions including 1 recorded and 2 with my supervisor joining. My volunteer and me need to be basically strangers- maybe distant acquaintances. If you’re interested please reach out, or share with someone who might be.

I’m currently licensed as a Mental Health Counselor, Creative Arts Therapist, and Alcohol and Drug Counselor. So grateful for what SomaSoul® has brought to my life for my work and my own healing.

DM me or email me: joyfaithwellness@gmail.com.

#freetherapy
#somatictherapy
#practicehours

I need a practice client to help me finish my SomaSoul® training hours.

SomaSoul® is an engaging and deep form of somatic psychotherapy. I need a volunteer for 5 online sessions including 1 recorded and 2 with my supervisor joining. My volunteer and me need to be basically strangers- maybe distant acquaintances. If you’re interested please reach out, or share with someone who might be.

I’m currently licensed as a Mental Health Counselor, Creative Arts Therapist, and Alcohol and Drug Counselor. So grateful for what SomaSoul® has brought to my life for my work and my own healing.

DM me or email me: joyfaithwellness@gmail.com.

#freetherapy
#somatictherapy
#practicehours

Why Body-Based Psychotherapy?

1. Increases interoception (the ability to consciously feel what’s happening in your body) and interpret those sensations accurately and supportively. Useful for effective communication, intelligent self-care, and setting appropriate boundaries.

2. Increases your window of tolerance for being present with your own emotions and sensations. Useful for intentional responding versus harmful reaction patterns.

3. Facilitates the state of being you want- more vitality or more calm, for example.

4. Accesses memories, beliefs, and patterns that exist far beyond your conscious and verbal self. For some, talk therapy just hasn’t worked because it doesn’t access what exists beyond words and cognition.

5. Changes your biology for new realities. Yay.

6. Is engaging, interesting, soulful, and fun-thank God.

7. Increases self-acceptance, self-trust, and intuition- more of that, please.

8. Have you used body-based psychotherapies or are you a body-based psychotherapist? Feel free to add your own reasons in the comments. 😊

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #authenticmovement #somatictherapy

Why Body-Based Psychotherapy?

1. Increases interoception (the ability to consciously feel what’s happening in your body) and interpret those sensations accurately and supportively. Useful for effective communication, intelligent self-care, and setting appropriate boundaries.

2. Increases your window of tolerance for being present with your own emotions and sensations. Useful for intentional responding versus harmful reaction patterns.

3. Facilitates the state of being you want- more vitality or more calm, for example.

4. Accesses memories, beliefs, and patterns that exist far beyond your conscious and verbal self. For some, talk therapy just hasn’t worked because it doesn’t access what exists beyond words and cognition.

5. Changes your biology for new realities. Yay.

6. Is engaging, interesting, soulful, and fun-thank God.

7. Increases self-acceptance, self-trust, and intuition- more of that, please.

8. Have you used body-based psychotherapies or are you a body-based psychotherapist? Feel free to add your own reasons in the comments. 😊

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #integrativepsychotherapy #authenticmovement #somatictherapy

My friend says, “I just had a memory of us walking here, but it was a spring day,” as the snow falls gently off the trees.

“This is a spring day,” I say, and we giggle, and I hear how the sound of birdsong is louder and more clear now, bouncing off of the snow.

It is a spring day, as we stumble on a fresh green bud holding hands with a little ice. And all this, of course, is a reflection of what’s possible and true for us humans.

Therapy is a place to practice holding what may appear opposite or contradictory, allowing for nuanced and complex feelings. We have days and moments where- metaphorically- in our inner experience - there is a fresh green bud covered in icy slush. We are not just one thing, or just another. Thanks to nature for always telling it like it is. ❄️ 🌱

#naturetherapy
#integrativepsychotherapy
#natureheals
#forestbathing
#mentalhealthpoetry

My friend says, “I just had a memory of us walking here, but it was a spring day,” as the snow falls gently off the trees.

“This is a spring day,” I say, and we giggle, and I hear how the sound of birdsong is louder and more clear now, bouncing off of the snow.

It is a spring day, as we stumble on a fresh green bud holding hands with a little ice. And all this, of course, is a reflection of what’s possible and true for us humans.

Therapy is a place to practice holding what may appear opposite or contradictory, allowing for nuanced and complex feelings. We have days and moments where- metaphorically- in our inner experience - there is a fresh green bud covered in icy slush. We are not just one thing, or just another. Thanks to nature for always telling it like it is. ❄️ 🌱

#naturetherapy
#integrativepsychotherapy
#natureheals
#forestbathing
#mentalhealthpoetry

Baby birds are hatched at the office! 🐣

I posted these videos and then deleted them a few days ago because I thought they might be a little too sassy, informal, unpolished. I’ve been on a journey of opening my heart. I’m in physical therapy actually learning to correct my posture by broadening across my collarbones, not sinking my heart. This journey includes me showing my sassy and subversive side more fully, even and likely especially in my professional spaces.

A sweet client told me the birds are purple finch. They’ve been back every year for the last few years. Last year, there were at least two rounds of babies.

#goodomens
#babybirds
#openheart

Baby birds are hatched at the office! 🐣

I posted these videos and then deleted them a few days ago because I thought they might be a little too sassy, informal, unpolished. I�’ve been on a journey of opening my heart. I’m in physical therapy actually learning to correct my posture by broadening across my collarbones, not sinking my heart. This journey includes me showing my sassy and subversive side more fully, even and likely especially in my professional spaces.

A sweet client told me the birds are purple finch. They’ve been back every year for the last few years. Last year, there were at least two rounds of babies.

#goodomens
#babybirds
#openheart

Outdoor psychotherapy sessions starting!

Fresh oxygen feeding every cell of your body. Movement supporting your body to flow, digest, heal, and regenerate. Sunlight giving you essential vitamin D to boost mood and support hormone function. The wisdom of nature putting things in precious perspective.

The wind on your skin, the birdsong in your ears, the smell of dirt in your nose- all bringing you into the present moment.

Anxiety reduced as the body is nourished (no screens-just simple beauty), depression alleviated as the body is given aliveness (no lethargic halt- more flow and freedom), and maybe the most important lessons of being in the now and being able to feel joy, wonder, awe.

Outdoor sessions can include an easy walk or moderate hike, or they can look like sitting peacefully outside with talk therapy and expressive arts materials. 🩷

#naturetherapy #expressiveartstherapy #mentalhealth #creativeartstherapy #mindfulness #integrativepsychotherapy #forestbathing

Outdoor psychotherapy sessions starting!

Fresh oxygen feeding every cell of your body. Movement supporting your body to flow, digest, heal, and regenerate. Sunlight giving you essential vitamin D to boost mood and support hormone function. The wisdom of nature putting things in precious perspective.

The wind on your skin, the birdsong in your ears, the smell of dirt in your nose- all bringing you into the present moment.

Anxiety reduced as the body is nourished (no screens-just simple beauty), depression alleviated as the body is given aliveness (no lethargic halt- more flow and freedom), and maybe the most important lessons of being in the now and being able to feel joy, wonder, awe.

Outdoor sessions can include an easy walk or moderate hike, or they can look like sitting peacefully outside with talk therapy and expressive arts materials. 🩷

#naturetherapy #expressiveartstherapy #mentalhealth #creativeartstherapy #mindfulness #integrativepsychotherapy #forestbathing

“Movement is the great law of life. Everything moves. The heavens move, the earth turns, the great tides mount the beaches of the world. The clouds march slowly across the sky, driven by a wind that stirs the trees into a dance of branches. Water, rising in mountain springs, runs down the slopes to join the current of the river. Fire, begun in the brush, leaps roaring over the ground, and the earth, so slowly, so always there, grumbles and groans and shifts in the sleep of centuries.” Mary Starks Whitehouse

Photos from Ithaca Authentic Movement retreat March, 2025.

“Movement is the great law of life. Everything moves. The heavens move, the earth turns, the great tides mount the beaches of the world. The clouds march slowly across the sky, driven by a wind that stirs the trees into a dance of branches. Water, rising in mountain springs, runs down the slopes to join the current of the river. Fire, begun in the brush, leaps roaring over the ground, and the earth, so slowly, so always there, grumbles and groans and shifts in the sleep of centuries.” Mary Starks Whitehouse

Photos from Ithaca Authentic Movement retreat March, 2025.

Dance/Movement Psychotherapy (DMT) helps clients expand and deepen what is possible in their very way of being in the world.

We might use movement to support clients to develop new parts of themselves, or change their relationship with certain parts of themselves.

We are meant to be dynamic creatures able to experience a wide range of emotions and expressions.

Many clients go to psychotherapy because they’re stuck in a rut – of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, or something else. These all have patterns.

We can see a depressed body slumped and slow, and an anxious body fidgety and jumpy, and a body with low self-esteem pulling inward- afraid to take up space.

As we use DMT, we re-pattern the brain and body to become more familiar and comfortable with different ways of being, different moods, different emotions, different perspectives, different possibilities!

Beyond talking about something in theory and concept, Dance/Movement Therapy imprints those ideas into the body and literally creates physical, hormonal, and biological change.

DMT is a rich and diverse form of psychotherapy. Many times, it doesn’t look like dancing at all, but maybe just body awareness in stillness. Dance/Movement Psychotherapists have earned their master’s degree in fields like mental health counseling. Many, like me, are Licensed Mental Health Counselors in their state. Lots of people think DMT is a dance class, or is just for children, or for dancers. Dance/Movement Therapy, and all forms of Expressive Arts Therapies, are for everyone. Remember that dance, art, play, story, music… these are all of our first languages.

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #mentalhealth #dancemovementpsychotherapy #somatictherapy #somatics

Dance/Movement Psychotherapy (DMT) helps clients expand and deepen what is possible in their very way of being in the world.

We might use movement to support clients to develop new parts of themselves, or change their relationship with certain parts of themselves.

We are meant to be dynamic creatures able to experience a wide range of emotions and expressions.

Many clients go to psychotherapy because they’re stuck in a rut – of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, or something else. These all have patterns.

We can see a depressed body slumped and slow, and an anxious body fidgety and jumpy, and a body with low self-esteem pulling inward- afraid to take up space.

As we use DMT, we re-pattern the brain and body to become more familiar and comfortable with different ways of being, different moods, different emotions, different perspectives, different possibilities!

Beyond talking about something in theory and concept, Dance/Movement Therapy imprints those ideas into the body and literally creates physical, hormonal, and biological change.

DMT is a rich and diverse form of psychotherapy. Many times, it doesn’t look like dancing at all, but maybe just body awareness in stillness. Dance/Movement Psychotherapists have earned their master’s degree in fields like mental health counseling. Many, like me, are Licensed Mental Health Counselors in their state. Lots of people think DMT is a dance class, or is just for children, or for dancers. Dance/Movement Therapy, and all forms of Expressive Arts Therapies, are for everyone. Remember that dance, art, play, story, music… these are all of our first languages.

#dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #mentalhealth #dancemovementpsychotherapy #somatictherapy #somatics

Authentic Movement- moving with eyes closed. I track my physical body- where are my body parts; what are they doing; what do I feel? I also practice tuning into my own free will, impulse, and choice. I open to the unknown: I seek it and maybe even choose to lose myself into it. I’m invited into my primal nature, from a time before words.

After moving, I sit and speak from my experience, owning it as mine, admitting that I only ever can know my own experience.

Yet I open to another knowing, that my experience is inextricably in relationship with, even in existence because of, that of others. And the others… when they let me know they see me- not by projecting or suggesting or asking or fixing but mostly just by being with me-as I am-they do it with fierce dedication to practicing their own accountability to their own experience.

And when I do speak from my movement, a place I have just been that is beyond words and rules and plans, a place that contains all my embodied wisdom, memories, joys, pains and experiences from my entire life, I hear the voice of my unconscious- and so it becomes conscious.

Authentic Movement evolved within Dance/Movement Psychotherapy- though movement as path to consciousness is ancient. I use Authentic Movement in my psychotherapy practice to support clients to learn to exist beyond the input of others, to learn to hear their own inner wisdom, to learn to trust themselves. No movement or mindfulness experience needed.

I’m grateful for my peer group (pictured here) of other amazing somatic practitioners @lovetheearth1234 , @lisaluttonbodymindtherapy , and @pmarie16 (not here today). 😊

#dancemovementpsychotherapy
#somatics
#integrativementalhealth
#authenticmovement

Authentic Movement- moving with eyes closed. I track my physical body- where are my body parts; what are they doing; what do I feel? I also practice tuning into my own free will, impulse, and choice. I open to the unknown: I seek it and maybe even choose to lose myself into it. I’m invited into my primal nature, from a time before words.

After moving, I sit and speak from my experience, owning it as mine, admitting that I only ever can know my own experience.

Yet I open to another knowing, that my experience is inextricably in relationship with, even in existence because of, that of others. And the others… when they let me know they see me- not by projecting or suggesting or asking or fixing but mostly just by being with me-as I am-they do it with fierce dedication to practicing their own accountability to their own experience.

And when I do speak from my movement, a place I have just been that is beyond words and rules and plans, a place that contains all my embodied wisdom, memories, joys, pains and experiences from my entire life, I hear the voice of my unconscious- and so it becomes conscious.

Authentic Movement evolved within Dance/Movement Psychotherapy- though movement as path to consciousness is ancient. I use Authentic Movement in my psychotherapy practice to support clients to learn to exist beyond the input of others, to learn to hear their own inner wisdom, to learn to trust themselves. No movement or mindfulness experience needed.

I’m grateful for my peer group (pictured here) of other amazing somatic practitioners @lovetheearth1234 , @lisaluttonbodymindtherapy , and @pmarie16 (not here today). 😊

#dancemovementpsychotherapy
#somatics
#integrativementalhealth
#authenticmovement

That’s a wrap ❤️🩷

That’s a wrap ❤️🩷

Leading Retreat ❤️

At the beautiful @sweet_birch_herbals property.

Looking forward to nature, art, embodiment, and connection.

Leading Retreat ❤️

At the beautiful @sweet_birch_herbals property.

Looking forward to nature, art, embodiment, and connection.

What happens in ketamine psychotherapy?

You’ll meet virtually with a medication prescriber @journeyclinical who will prescribe your medication based on your unique needs. Your medication will be mailed to you.

We’ll get to know each other for several sessions without ketamine. In this time, we’ll build comfort with each other and discuss the plan for ketamine therapy including procedure, goals, and fears.

Your ketamine sessions last a few hours. The format is…

1. Grounding, expressive arts practices, and intention setting.
2. Checking blood pressure and heart rate.
3. Dosing (Your medication is a tablet that dissolves in your mouth. You’ll swish it around for 10 minutes and then spit it out.)
4. Ketamine effects last about an hour (give or take). During this time, you might lie down and listen to a curated playlist. Or, if you’re feeling more active, you might use talk therapy or things like writing or drawing.
5. As the ketamine wears off, we will process your experience using expressive arts therapy. We’ll also discuss ways to support and integrate the process at home.
6. Final check of heart rate and blood pressure.

If you’re coming to the office, somebody will pick you up. Just relax the rest of the day. If you’re doing your ketamine at home, you will be on Zoom and have a trusted chaperone with you.

For many people, ketamine sessions will occur every two weeks for a while. However, this frequency fluctuates, depending on the individual.

Ketamine is a dissociative analgesic. Most people report it creates a feeling of peacefulness or openness, allowing them to confront issues that have historically been too difficult to resolve.

In studies, ketamine has been shown to support brain plasticity. It has also been shown to have fewer side effects than other traditional pharmaceuticals.

Myself and @balanced_life_movement (NY and MA) are taking new clients for ketamine assisted psychotherapy. Please reach out if you’re interested!

#ketamineforanxiety
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#feelittohealit

What happens in ketamine psychotherapy?

You’ll meet virtually with a medication prescriber @journeyclinical who will prescribe your medication based on your unique needs. Your medication will be mailed to you.

We’ll get to know each other for several sessions without ketamine. In this time, we’ll build comfort with each other and discuss the plan for ketamine therapy including procedure, goals, and fears.

Your ketamine sessions last a few hours. The format is…

1. Grounding, expressive arts practices, and intention setting.
2. Checking blood pressure and heart rate.
3. Dosing (Your medication is a tablet that dissolves in your mouth. You’ll swish it around for 10 minutes and then spit it out.)
4. Ketamine effects last about an hour (give or take). During this time, you might lie down and listen to a curated playlist. Or, if you’re feeling more active, you might use talk therapy or things like writing or drawing.
5. As the ketamine wears off, we will process your experience using expressive arts therapy. We’ll also discuss ways to support and integrate the process at home.
6. Final check of heart rate and blood pressure.

If you’re coming to the office, somebody will pick you up. Just relax the rest of the day. If you’re doing your ketamine at home, you will be on Zoom and have a trusted chaperone with you.

For many people, ketamine sessions will occur every two weeks for a while. However, this frequency fluctuates, depending on the individual.

Ketamine is a dissociative analgesic. Most people report it creates a feeling of peacefulness or openness, allowing them to confront issues that have historically been too difficult to resolve.

In studies, ketamine has been shown to support brain plasticity. It has also been shown to have fewer side effects than other traditional pharmaceuticals.

Myself and @balanced_life_movement (NY and MA) are taking new clients for ketamine assisted psychotherapy. Please reach out if you’re interested!

#ketamineforanxiety
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#feelittohealit

We hardly ever dance like this in session, but sometimes.

Dance is where I learned what emotions felt like in my body, and it was a first safe place to feel them and express them.

At its foundation, dance/movement psychotherapy realizes that we are embodied creatures, and so we cannot heal or reach our goals without an embodied presence.

Dance/movement psychotherapy sessions bring us back to the body in some way- perhaps a body scan, maybe dancing full out to music, self-massage, gentle yoga, or maybe just breath awareness.

A dance/movement psychotherapist is somebody who’s been trained clinically in mental health counseling with a specialization in using the body to create change, integration, and wellness. They are either registered or board-certified nationally as a dance/movement psychotherapist.

For me, my work’s mission feels much like the lyrics to Céline Dion’s song – which you might also know from Deadpool, if you’re nerdy that way: Let beauty come out of ashes.

I am taking just a few new clients (NY or MA) for psychotherapy online or in person. Please reach out if you’re interested in working this way with me.

#dancemovementtherapy
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#artheals
#dancetoheal
#feelittohealit

We hardly ever dance like this in session, but sometimes.

Dance is where I learned what emotions felt like in my body, and it was a first safe place to feel them and express them.

At its foundation, dance/movement psychotherapy realizes that we are embodied creatures, and so we cannot heal or reach our goals without an embodied presence.

Dance/movement psychotherapy sessions bring us back to the body in some way- perhaps a body scan, maybe dancing full out to music, self-massage, gentle yoga, or maybe just breath awareness.

A dance/movement psychotherapist is somebody who’s been trained clinically in mental health counseling with a specialization in using the body to create change, integration, and wellness. They are either registered or board-certified nationally as a dance/movement psychotherapist.

For me, my work’s mission feels much like the lyrics to Céline Dion’s song – which you might also know from Deadpool, if you’re nerdy that way: Let beauty come out of ashes.

I am taking just a few new clients (NY or MA) for psychotherapy online or in person. Please reach out if you’re interested in working this way with me.

#dancemovementtherapy
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#artheals
#dancetoheal
#feelittohealit

Exploring the first glimpse of change in therapy. Something might have shifted, a spark maybe, but is it too soon to tell, and does one dare to believe it?

We made nests for the spark, and explored the theme through poetry (my work shown).

How precious and big- to notice the awakenings of shift.

#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#mentalhealth
#somatictherapy
#dancemovementtherapy

Exploring the first glimpse of change in therapy. Something might have shifted, a spark maybe, but is it too soon to tell, and does one dare to believe it?

We made nests for the spark, and explored the theme through poetry (my work shown).

How precious and big- to notice the awakenings of shift.

#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#mentalhealth
#somatictherapy
#dancemovementtherapy

It’s not crazy
As I sit here
writing this
just out of the bath
where I cried
until I laughed
big wide mouth
Loud
until I cried again
then laughed
again
Aliveness
It’s not crazy
Or is it
To live
and feel
I guess life told me
Well, people told me,
to quiet down
to feel less
I tried it
I learned it well
I can pull out that old trick, if I want
I’ve discovered it’s not as fun, or rewarding
So now
I’m tired. I’m weary
from not showing it
the parts of me they call
weird, too sensitive, crazy
Those are the best parts of me

#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#poetrytherapy
#poetryformentalhealth

It’s not crazy
As I sit here
writing this
just out of the bath
where I cried
until I laughed
big wide mouth
Loud
until I cried again
then laughed
again
Aliveness
It’s not crazy
Or is it
To live
and feel
I guess life told me
Well, people told me,
to quiet down
to feel less
I tried it
I learned it well
I can pull out that old trick, if I want
I’ve discovered it’s not as fun, or rewarding
So now
I’m tired. I’m weary
from not showing it
the parts of me they call
weird, too sensitive, crazy
Those are the best parts of me

#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#poetrytherapy
#poetryformentalhealth

So much gets lost when we forget the big picture.

That we’re only nature, and nature is us.
That the guise of religion was used to shame and murder healers away from their ancient healing skills.
That that lives on NOW in things like insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, plastics, junk food.
There was a simpler way, once.
Our bodies remember,
and are still made for this way.
Finding the old knowledge is a deeply subversive act.
Deciding to counter social norms is a deeply subversive act.
Wild to realize that learning the basics of our health is still a subversive act- though the last shriek of medieval woman burned at the stake, or drowned, rang out long ago.
But in some ways I guess many of us are still shrieking.
Can we shriek our way back to our power?
I think so.

Some other good books for embodied, sound mental health and overall wellbeing …

She Comes First, Ian Kerner

The Enlightened Sex Manual, David Deida

The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, Sarah Ramey

Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health, Leslie Korn

The Food Mood Connection, Uma Naidoo

The Body is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor

So much gets lost when we forget the big picture.

That we’re only nature, and nature is us.
That the guise of religion was used to shame and murder healers away from their ancient healing skills.
That that lives on NOW in things like insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, plastics, junk food.
There was a simpler way, once.
Our bodies remember,
and are still made for this way.
Finding the old knowledge is a deeply subversive act.
Deciding to counter social norms is a deeply subversive act.
Wild to realize that learning the basics of our health is still a subversive act- though the last shriek of medieval woman burned at the stake, or drowned, rang out long ago.
But in some ways I guess many of us are still shrieking.
Can we shriek our way back to our power?
I think so.

Some other good books for embodied, sound mental health and overall wellbeing …

She Comes First, Ian Kerner

The Enlightened Sex Manual, David Deida

The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, Sarah Ramey

Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health, Leslie Korn

The Food Mood Connection, Uma Naidoo

The Body is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor

What does an expressive arts psychotherapy session look like?

Really rich and diverse, drawing from a well-equipped tool box to meet my clients’ immediate and long-term goals and needs.

Fun, adventurous, restful, restorative, cathartic, exploratory, accepting, empowering, honest, challenging, beautiful.

It looks like a shifting kaleidoscope. But, for a much more literal take, check out my video to hear about what I’ve done in sessions lately.

#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementpsychotherapy
#creativearttherapy
#somatictherapy
#integrativepsychotherapy

What does an expressive arts psychotherapy session look like?

Really rich and diverse, drawing from a well-equipped tool box to meet my clients’ immediate and long-term goals and needs.

Fun, adventurous, restful, restorative, cathartic, exploratory, accepting, empowering, honest, challenging, beautiful.

It looks like a shifting kaleidoscope. But, for a much more literal take, check out my video to hear about what I’ve done in sessions lately.

#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementpsychotherapy
#creativearttherapy
#somatictherapy
#integrativepsychotherapy

My practice is changing, can I allow it to come through me? Changing, new, while also circling back to what I’ve known, as life continues to do- change and circle back, over and over.

In the last 12 months, I’ve completed an herbalism apprenticeship training @sweet_birch_herbals and also a clinical training in Integrative Medicine and Nutrition for PTSD and Complex Trauma.

But almost 20 years ago I was studying and teaching yoga, breath work, reiki, expressive dance, before I became a psychotherapist. And so there’s something I know, from my own healing and from walking this path with others, about the power of nature and holistic practices.

As a psychotherapist, I spent most of my career working in institutions- very inside the box. They do fabulous work, but, I have to say, mainstream health treatment truly misses the mark around the basics of health. We’re born to be healthy. The world we are born into is designed to support us in being healthy. Part of my work is supporting my clients to learn that and to learn how to live in alignment with that truth. I’m glad we have tools. I’m glad we have pharmaceuticals when people want them. I’m glad we have life-saving emergency surgeries. But, those are not the basics. You might have a beautiful house, but if your foundation sucks – that shit’s going down.

I started my private practice slowly during the pandemic. Feels so good to be out of the box and just face myself around my own boundaries or self-imposed limits of what I can do- as well as face myself around my deepest dreams, whims, curiosities, and desires for how I work.

I’m a holistic and integrative expressive arts psychotherapist. I’m out of the box. No box can hold me. Thanks for being on this journey with me.

#holistichealth
#integrativepsychotherapy
#herbalism

My practice is changing, can I allow it to come through me? Changing, new, while also circling back to what I’ve known, as life continues to do- change and circle back, over and over.

In the last 12 months, I’ve completed an herbalism apprenticeship training @sweet_birch_herbals and also a clinical training in Integrative Medicine and Nutrition for PTSD and Complex Trauma.

But almost 20 years ago I was studying and teaching yoga, breath work, reiki, expressive dance, before I became a psychotherapist. And so there’s something I know, from my own healing and from walking this path with others, about the power of nature and holistic practices.

As a psychotherapist, I spent most of my career working in institutions- very inside the box. They do fabulous work, but, I have to say, mainstream health treatment truly misses the mark around the basics of health. We’re born to be healthy. The world we are born into is designed to support us in being healthy. Part of my work is supporting my clients to learn that and to learn how to live in alignment with that truth. I’m glad we have tools. I’m glad we have pharmaceuticals when people want them. I’m glad we have life-saving emergency surgeries. But, those are not the basics. You might have a beautiful house, but if your foundation sucks – that shit’s going down.

I started my private practice slowly during the pandemic. Feels so good to be out of the box and just face myself around my own boundaries or self-imposed limits of what I can do- as well as face myself around my deepest dreams, whims, curiosities, and desires for how I work.

I’m a holistic and integrative expressive arts psychotherapist. I’m out of the box. No box can hold me. Thanks for being on this journey with me.

#holistichealth
#integrativepsychotherapy
#herbalism

Loving my abstract art
Interesting to be in relationship with a process
All these years
Making these abstract pieces
Felt like escapism
Like just something to do
With extra materials
Or extra time
Sloppy
Fun
But actually today I see
It was integration and digestion
The gifts that chaos might bring

Loving my abstract art
Interesting to be in relationship with a process
All these years
Making these abstract pieces
Felt like escapism
Like just something to do
With extra materials
Or extra time
Sloppy
Fun
But actually today I see
It was integration and digestion
The gifts that chaos might bring

Winter quiet. In the conversation on mental health and wellness, it’s always interesting to me how patterns of ignoring natural rhythms and obvious answers create further discomfort.

What if it was acceptable to claim even more simplicity in how we understand and care for ourselves? Tired? Rest. World around you iced over from winter? Slow down. Stuff like that. How do we make our daily life harder by denying the possible facts, guidance, and supports staring us in the face?

Of course, society trains us to deny these natural rhythms and our own intelligent intuition. Expressive arts psychotherapy can strengthen the skillset for noticing and trusting the truths around and within us.

#mentalhealth
#naturalrythms
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy

Winter quiet. In the conversation on mental health and wellness, it’s always interesting to me how patterns of ignoring natural rhythms and obvious answers create further discomfort.

What if it was acceptable to claim even more simplicity in how we understand and care for ourselves? Tired? Rest. World around you iced over from winter? Slow down. Stuff like that. How do we make our daily life harder by denying the possible facts, guidance, and supports staring us in the face?

Of course, society trains us to deny these natural rhythms and our own intelligent intuition. Expressive arts psychotherapy can strengthen the skillset for noticing and trusting the truths around and within us.

#mentalhealth
#naturalrythms
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy

I’m not from the soft green hills
where layers upon layers of pine needles make a welcoming bed nestled by damp, tender moss pillows- beckoning me to rest.

I’m from the sea, where the earth does not greet with soft moss or fern but instead with pebbles and seashells and even cactus- sharp things.

The gulls shriek before they dive
They drop their prey from sky to earth
Crack

And the waves- their own chorus of wooshhhh and shaaaaaa
Wooshhhh Shaaaaaa
Wooshhhh Shaaaaaa
Endless

I know salt and sand as second skin
And the alive harsh bustle of the sea

The mountains taught me to slow like sap in wintering New England maple trees. But I am not from there.

I’m not from the soft green hills
where layers upon layers of pine needles make a welcoming bed nestled by damp, tender moss pillows- beckoning me to rest.

I’m from the sea, where the earth does not greet with soft moss or fern but instead with pebbles and seashells and even cactus- sharp things.

The gulls shriek before they dive
They drop their prey from sky to earth
Crack

And the waves- their own chorus of wooshhhh and shaaaaaa
Wooshhhh Shaaaaaa
Wooshhhh Shaaaaaa
Endless

I know salt and sand as second skin
And the alive harsh bustle of the sea

The mountains taught me to slow like sap in wintering New England maple trees. But I am not from there.

She smells seashells by the sea shore. Stressed, anxious, overwhelmed? Try engaging your senses. Get into nature and smell, touch, taste, see something. Can’t get out? Look around your space and really slow down to notice color, texture, light. Touch some fabric and practice noticing how it feels on your skin. Pause for a minute and just listen to what you can hear- even if it’s silence. You don’t need to feel calm to do this. Just the way you are is good. ❤️

#mindfulness
#mindfulnessformentalhealth
#mentalhealth
#integrativepsychotherapy
#sensory

She smells seashells by the sea shore. Stressed, anxious, overwhelmed? Try engaging your senses. Get into nature and smell, touch, taste, see something. Can’t get out? Look around your space and really slow down to notice color, texture, light. Touch some fabric and practice noticing how it feels on your skin. Pause for a minute and just listen to what you can hear- even if it’s silence. You don’t need to feel calm to do this. Just the way you are is good. ❤️

#mindfulness
#mindfulnessformentalhealth
#mentalhealth
#integrativepsychotherapy
#sensory

Inviting you into my own expressive arts process…

This setting is my traveling sanctuary - a place I’ve gone to a million times - within me- where there’s just room to express and integrate.

Music playing is an awesome dj set by @tashablank

#expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #dancemovementtherapy #artheals

Inviting you into my own expressive arts process…

This setting is my traveling sanctuary - a place I’ve gone to a million times - within me- where there’s just room to express and integrate.

Music playing is an awesome dj set by @tashablank

#expressiveartstherapy #creativeartstherapy #dancemovementtherapy #artheals

The office is looking cozy for the season- thanks to the amazing @dolores_mannix !

Last week I was Googling “Team Grinch” tee shirts with my clients. Today, I feel kinda jolly. It’s ok to feel a lot and experience whatever waves of emotions might come. It’s ok to be different and not do or feel what media says you should.

Whatever the holiday season brings, I’m grateful for human connection, the option to celebrate, the option to rest. In my work as a dance/movement psychotherapist, that’s what stands out to me as this holiday season unfolds, as I support myself and my clients to feel into their autonomy and what they need- we have options and the power to choose.

PS- Holidays hitting you hard? Still room to join the monthly grief group and we’d love to have you. ❤️

The office is looking cozy for the season- thanks to the amazing @dolores_mannix !

Last week I was Googling “Team Grinch” tee shirts with my clients. Today, I feel kinda jolly. It’s ok to feel a lot and experience whatever waves of emotions might come. It’s ok to be different and not do or feel what media says you should.

Whatever the holiday season brings, I’m grateful for human connection, the option to celebrate, the option to rest. In my work as a dance/movement psychotherapist, that’s what stands out to me as this holiday season unfolds, as I support myself and my clients to feel into their autonomy and what they need- we have options and the power to choose.

PS- Holidays hitting you hard? Still room to join the monthly grief group and we’d love to have you. ❤️

As I write, the air outside is filled with smoke from a local wild fire. Is it safe to say that these are hard times?

I picked a song from my favorite sad music playlist. I love this song: my own halo has felt broken so many times and I’ve so often sat with others gently feeling into their own devastating pains.

When we use expressive arts psychotherapies, we give our emotions an actual channel and outlet to be processed. This way, they don’t just stay stuck in our bodies or circling around in our minds obsessively. When dealing with more painful emotions, using expressive arts therapies can support us to experience the pain along with our playfulness, joy, and resilience.
This helps us support the pain, move with it and through it, remember our wholeness and even find hope.

Expressive arts therapy uses talk therapy along with creative means like writing, drawing, movement, or visualization. No artistic experience is needed and it’s not about skill or making a nice product. It’s all about how these expressive explorations provide an enlightening, relieving, integrating and lasting impact.

I admit that sadness, grief, despair, and depression are arduous and hard landscapes to travel. But we’re very lucky if we get to travel them while singing and dancing and telling stories and crying and laughing together.

I’m approaching our upcoming support group at @balanced_life_movement with so much tenderness. Group will be co-led by myself and 2 other Licensed Creative Arts Therapists and meets the first Monday night (NY time) monthly December through March. If you want creative and compassionate support for difficult emotions come join us and/or share with someone else who might be interested.

#dancemovementtherapy
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#grief
#griefsupport
#griefjourney
#griefsupport

As I write, the air outside is filled with smoke from a local wild fire. Is it safe to say that these are hard times?

I picked a song from my favorite sad music playlist. I love this song: my own halo has felt broken so many times and I’ve so often sat with others gently feeling into their own devastating pains.

When we use expressive arts psychotherapies, we give our emotions an actual channel and outlet to be processed. This way, they don’t just stay stuck in our bodies or circling around in our minds obsessively. When dealing with more painful emotions, using expressive arts therapies can support us to experience the pain along with our playfulness, joy, and resilience.
This helps us support the pain, move with it and through it, remember our wholeness and even find hope.

Expressive arts therapy uses talk therapy along with creative means like writing, drawing, movement, or visualization. No artistic experience is needed and it’s not about skill or making a nice product. It’s all about how these expressive explorations provide an enlightening, relieving, integrating and lasting impact.

I admit that sadness, grief, despair, and depression are arduous and hard landscapes to travel. But we’re very lucky if we get to travel them while singing and dancing and telling stories and crying and laughing together.

I’m approaching our upcoming support group at @balanced_life_movement with so much tenderness. Group will be co-led by myself and 2 other Licensed Creative Arts Therapists and meets the first Monday night (NY time) monthly December through March. If you want creative and compassionate support for difficult emotions come join us and/or share with someone else who might be interested.

#dancemovementtherapy
#expressiveartstherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#grief
#griefsupport
#griefjourney
#griefsupport

Need a space where your sadness is welcomed, where your tears won’t cause discomfort, where you can put down the armor to turn towards your own tender heart or dark pains- tethered safely to others for support- to help you visit grief but not get lost there? Our expressive arts therapy group for supporting grief is forming now, hosted by @balanced_life_movement .

https://balancedlifemovement.com/therapy/gathering-at-the-wild-edge-of-belonging-an-online-monthly-expressive-arts-journey

On Joy and Sorrow

Kahlil Gibran
1883 –1931

Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

#griefsupportgroup
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#griefjourney
#grief

Need a space where your sadness is welcomed, where your tears won’t cause discomfort, where you can put down the armor to turn towards your own tender heart or dark pains- tethered safely to others for support- to help you visit grief but not get lost there? Our expressive arts therapy group for supporting grief is forming now, hosted by @balanced_life_movement .

https://balancedlifemovement.com/therapy/gathering-at-the-wild-edge-of-belonging-an-online-monthly-expressive-arts-journey

On Joy and Sorrow

Kahlil Gibran
1883 –1931

Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

#griefsupportgroup
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#griefjourney
#grief

Coming to your Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy session. Cozy, right? Prescription ketamine tends to have a relaxing effect on most clients and seems to allow for processing difficult memories and feelings with new amounts of peace and optimism. Ketamine in psychotherapy supports the brain to have new dendritic growth- literally making tangible changes to your brain. It’s safely prescribed to you by @journeyclinical just like any other medication. New (NY and MA) clients welcome for ketamine assisted expressive arts psychotherapy online and in-person.

#ketaminetherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#wholisticpsychotherapy
#mindbodyspirithealth

Coming to your Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy session. Cozy, right? Prescription ketamine tends to have a relaxing effect on most clients and seems to allow for processing difficult memories and feelings with new amounts of peace and optimism. Ketamine in psychotherapy supports the brain to have new dendritic growth- literally making tangible changes to your brain. It’s safely prescribed to you by @journeyclinical just like any other medication. New (NY and MA) clients welcome for ketamine assisted expressive arts psychotherapy online and in-person.

#ketaminetherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#wholisticpsychotherapy
#mindbodyspirithealth

“It feels like a sleepover,” we said to each other, smiling. Thank goodness psychotherapy can also be cozy, playful, and creative. Thank goodness we can be human, first. @journeyclinical @balanced_life_movement

#ketamineassistedpsychotherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#somaticpsychotherapy
#alreadywhole
#integrativewellness
#ketaminetherapy
#artheals
#comeasyouare

“It feels like a sleepover,” we said to each other, smiling. Thank goodness psychotherapy can also be cozy, playful, and creative. Thank goodness we can be human, first. @journeyclinical @balanced_life_movement

#ketamineassistedpsychotherapy
#creativeartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#somaticpsychotherapy
#alreadywhole
#integrativewellness
#ketaminetherapy
#artheals
#comeasyouare

On retreat immersed in The Discipline of Authentic Movement, developed by Dance/Movement Psychotherapist Janet Adler.

A second year of returning to this place, with most of the same people. I arrive and something in me urges the importance of the unknown and something in me opens to the sacred task of being with both the familiar and the new.

Grateful for spaces, intentional, inviting me to be more myself. Inspired by others doing the same, I read “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost. Sometimes I build the walls and other times I delight in their bursting asunder.

A friend asks about my time here, and my own poem arrives:

The leaves glitter in the sun
Small buddha peaks out- sitting patiently on the dirt
And around me tears, laughter, sighs and silence
From me
From others
From us- one- whole
And I risk being myself
More and more
And I am welcomed
Celebrated
Ushered
And these people
And this practice
Midwife me as I am born

#dancemovementtherapy #authenticmovement #zen #emptiness #unknown #collective #consciousness

On retreat immersed in The Discipline of Authentic Movement, developed by Dance/Movement Psychotherapist Janet Adler.

A second year of returning to this place, with most of the same people. I arrive and something in me urges the importance of the unknown and something in me opens to the sacred task of being with both the familiar and the new.

Grateful for spaces, intentional, inviting me to be more myself. Inspired by others doing the same, I read “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost. Sometimes I build the walls and other times I delight in their bursting asunder.

A friend asks about my time here, and my own poem arrives:

The leaves glitter in the sun
Small buddha peaks out- sitting patiently on the dirt
And around me tears, laughter, sighs and silence
From me
From others
From us- one- whole
And I risk being myself
More and more
And I am welcomed
Celebrated
Ushered
And these people
And this practice
Midwife me as I am born

#dancemovementtherapy #authenticmovement #zen #emptiness #unknown #collective #consciousness

Fall colors have me in love. So sassy. As the summer heat and adventures dissipate, and the nights come sooner, I remember the quiet. The autumn, offering abundance and fruition, ushering a turn into the unknown, towards the dark. What a strange chasm, between bursting abundance and the dark unknown. I welcome my moodiness; I claim my restful spaces; I trust fall a little more into the dark void, as the seasonal wheel spins again. But for right now, today, I see bewildering, shimmering beams of light. The trees drop floating glitter dancing against the bright blue sky. How amazing, just the purples of it all. Nature rests, nature changes. I rest, I change. 🍁🍂🍄‍🟫

Fall colors have me in love. So sassy. As the summer heat and adventures dissipate, and the nights come sooner, I remember the quiet. The autumn, offering abundance and fruition, ushering a turn into the unknown, towards the dark. What a strange chasm, between bursting abundance and the dark unknown. I welcome my moodiness; I claim my restful spaces; I trust fall a little more into the dark void, as the seasonal wheel spins again. But for right now, today, I see bewildering, shimmering beams of light. The trees drop floating glitter dancing against the bright blue sky. How amazing, just the purples of it all. Nature rests, nature changes. I rest, I change. 🍁🍂🍄‍🟫

Thank you @sweet_birch_herbals

I love my herbalism apprenticeship class. So enlivening to be with women and return, through herbs and plants, to the fact that potential healing is all around us.

Thank you @sweet_birch_herbals

I love my herbalism apprenticeship class. So enlivening to be with women and return, through herbs and plants, to the fact that potential healing is all around us.

In-Person Somatic Wellness Group this Fall 🍁

At the gorgeous Zaanti yoga studio, drawing from multiple modalities, and offering you a space to rest, play, and breathe. Perfect if you’re wanting to feel more at home in your body, bring balance to patterns rooted in trauma, bring healing to chronic stress, alleviate anxiety or depression, or just want a creative and loving space to be human. All levels welcome!

#dancemovement #somatictherapy #somatics #healingmovement #yogaheals #expressivedance #mindfulmovement #authenticmovement #wellness #wellnessgroup

In-Person Somatic Wellness Group this Fall 🍁

At the gorgeous Zaanti yoga studio, drawing from multiple modalities, and offering you a space to rest, play, and breathe. Perfect if you’re wanting to feel more at home in your body, bring balance to patterns rooted in trauma, bring healing to chronic stress, alleviate anxiety or depression, or just want a creative and loving space to be human. All levels welcome!

#dancemovement #somatictherapy #somatics #healingmovement #yogaheals #expressivedance #mindfulmovement #authenticmovement #wellness #wellnessgroup

I first experienced Authentic Movement practice in my Dance/Movement Therapy master’s program. At that point, I grew up a dancer and was trained in reiki, yoga teaching, and yoga nidra meditation instruction. Even with hundreds of hours of meditative practice around consciousness and embodiment, Authentic Movement hit me a little bit differently.

I loved the way it supported my moving body to be a portal to my own subconscious- through a wild energy of unknown possibility that leans heavy towards the dark feminine. That was circa 2013, and I’ve deepened my practice ever since.

You move, with eyes closed, however you like. Free to choose. No right or wrong. What a relief (and a challenge). After moving, in our group, we’ll use art and writing for processing and exploration. The body will serve as fertile ground, helping us know ourselves and be with ourselves more fully.

No movement or mindfulness experiences needed to join this group. All levels welcome!

#dancemovementpsychotherapy #somatictherapy #embodimentpractice #somatics #consciousnessstudies #authenticmovement #mindfulness

I first experienced Authentic Movement practice in my Dance/Movement Therapy master’s program. At that point, I grew up a dancer and was trained in reiki, yoga teaching, and yoga nidra meditation instruction. Even with hundreds of hours of meditative practice around consciousness and embodiment, Authentic Movement hit me a little bit differently.

I loved the way it supported my moving body to be a portal to my own subconscious- through a wild energy of unknown possibility that leans heavy towards the dark feminine. That was circa 2013, and I’ve deepened my practice ever since.

You move, with eyes closed, however you like. Free to choose. No right or wrong. What a relief (and a challenge). After moving, in our group, we’ll use art and writing for processing and exploration. The body will serve as fertile ground, helping us know ourselves and be with ourselves more fully.

No movement or mindfulness experiences needed to join this group. All levels welcome!

#dancemovementpsychotherapy #somatictherapy #embodimentpractice #somatics #consciousnessstudies #authenticmovement #mindfulness

One perspective on mental health is that it comes down to a collection of habits, habits around what we think and how we behave. We can have a habit of neglecting basic needs like sleep or hydration, of expecting the worst, of isolating, of having poor boundaries, of believing we are stuck, or anything else.

One thing I like about traveling is that it opens my mind to remembering there are so many possibilities for how to live this life. Just because I do something a certain way, or my culture does something a certain way, does not mean it’s the best way and does not mean it’s the only way.

I am traveling far this time, but I get this kind of rejuvenation from even a local trip to a new place, even a drive down a road I’ve never taken before right in my own city.

In the field of mental health, there’s conversation about how novelty (having new experiences) is really important for supporting brain health and overall wellness.

So, if you’re on a mental health journey, you might consider taking a new route somewhere, going to a new local park or museum, or just taking a trip to a nearby town you’ve never been to before.

Novelty helps us remember our liveness and our power to choose and create.

If you want deeper and more personal support in remembering your aliveness and your power to choose and create, I invite you to send me a message to talk about joining me for online authentic movement practice this fall- a somatic/movement meditation practice where we embrace the moment, spontaneity, and autonomy.

#dancemovementtherapy #newperspectives #mentalhealthhabits #mentalhealth #novelty #expressiveartstherapy #travel #authenticmovement

One perspective on mental health is that it comes down to a collection of habits, habits around what we think and how we behave. We can have a habit of neglecting basic needs like sleep or hydration, of expecting the worst, of isolating, of having poor boundaries, of believing we are stuck, or anything else.

One thing I like about traveling is that it opens my mind to remembering there are so many possibilities for how to live this life. Just because I do something a certain way, or my culture does something a certain way, does not mean it’s the best way and does not mean it’s the only way.

I am traveling far this time, but I get this kind of rejuvenation from even a local trip to a new place, even a drive down a road I’ve never taken before right in my own city.

In the field of mental health, there’s conversation about how novelty (having new experiences) is really important for supporting brain health and overall wellness.

So, if you’re on a mental health journey, you might consider taking a new route somewhere, going to a new local park or museum, or just taking a trip to a nearby town you’ve never been to before.

Novelty helps us remember our liveness and our power to choose and create.

If you want deeper and more personal support in remembering your aliveness and your power to choose and create, I invite you to send me a message to talk about joining me for online authentic movement practice this fall- a somatic/movement meditation practice where we embrace the moment, spontaneity, and autonomy.

#dancemovementtherapy #newperspectives #mentalhealthhabits #mentalhealth #novelty #expressiveartstherapy #travel #authenticmovement

Part of what I love about traveling is seeing how something in human nature has an instinct for creative expression. Different languages, foods, customs, time zones- but always art.

Part of what I love about traveling is seeing how something in human nature has an instinct for creative expression. Different languages, foods, customs, time zones- but always art.

Late summer- so much life and death- fully immersed in cycles turning.

Where I live the seasons scream, not demure at all, but wild, harsh, and beautiful.

I’m so touched this August by the bothness in the woods- of new and old, life and death, push and release - ripe blackberries on the vine next to fully browned stalks of seed, the turning leaves and the sunflowers, the snake skin and the snake. I’m grateful for the reminder that there’s an ongoing cycle.

I wake up today and my first conscious breath rushes my lungs along with gratitude.

#cyclesoflife #gratitude #lessonsfromnature

Late summer- so much life and death- fully immersed in cycles turning.

Where I live the seasons scream, not demure at all, but wild, harsh, and beautiful.

I’m so touched this August by the bothness in the woods- of new and old, life and death, push and release - ripe blackberries on the vine next to fully browned stalks of seed, the turning leaves and the sunflowers, the snake skin and the snake. I’m grateful for the reminder that there’s an ongoing cycle.

I wake up today and my first conscious breath rushes my lungs along with gratitude.

#cyclesoflife #gratitude #lessonsfromnature

Fall Group Events! 🌻🍄🍁

✨ Embodiment and Somatic Wellness Group
- 10-Week In-Person Group
- Tuesdays 5:30pm-7pm @ Zaanti Yoga
- $250.00
- Increase inner presence, calm, balance, and aliveness
- Drawing from dance/movement psychotherapy, expressive arts, Shake Your Soul®, Let Your Yoga Dance®, Yoga Nidra, Reiki, Authentic Movement, Gentle and Yin Yoga
- Beginners Welcome

✨ Free Virtual Book Group
“Secure Relating” by Sue Marriott and Ann Kelley
Tuesday, September 24th, 7pm-8pm EDT

✨ Virtual Authentic Movement Series
- Last Friday Monthly: 9/27, 10/25, 11/29, 12/27
- 6:30pm-8:30pm EDT
- $35 Drop-In or $100 Series Pay-In-Full
- A movement meditation practice
- Increase presence, self-awareness, permission to be you, clarity around what you feel, empowerment to choose what you want
- Beginners Welcome

#grouptherapy #somatic #dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #bodypsychotherapy #yogahealing #supportgroups

Fall Group Events! 🌻🍄🍁

✨ Embodiment and Somatic Wellness Group
- 10-Week In-Person Group
- Tuesdays 5:30pm-7pm @ Zaanti Yoga
- $250.00
- Increase inner presence, calm, balance, and aliveness
- Drawing from dance/movement psychotherapy, expressive arts, Shake Your Soul®, Let Your Yoga Dance®, Yoga Nidra, Reiki, Authentic Movement, Gentle and Yin Yoga
- Beginners Welcome

✨ Free Virtual Book Group
“Secure Relating” by Sue Marriott and Ann Kelley
Tuesday, September 24th, 7pm-8pm EDT

✨ Virtual Authentic Movement Series
- Last Friday Monthly: 9/27, 10/25, 11/29, 12/27
- 6:30pm-8:30pm EDT
- $35 Drop-In or $100 Series Pay-In-Full
- A movement meditation practice
- Increase presence, self-awareness, permission to be you, clarity around what you feel, empowerment to choose what you want
- Beginners Welcome

#grouptherapy #somatic #dancemovementtherapy #expressiveartstherapy #bodypsychotherapy #yogahealing #supportgroups

What is simple makes sense; we don’t need to complicate mental health or wellness. Step back to reflect and challenge the sick societal norms, however threatening it can be. The earth is our home- we need the elements to live- simple things keep us well- movement, whole foods, nature, connection, presence.

But in this busy and crazy world, creating and choosing simplicity can be near impossible. This is one way psychotherapy can be useful- in helping clients identify and set the goals and boundaries they need to make time to really care for themselves.

I’m in awe (always) at how many options we have for taking care of ourselves. After studying and working in the mind/body/spirit wellness field for 16 years, I’m only now immersing into the world of plants and natural medicine. Tinctures, cordials, and mushroom extraction in the photos while I’m a student @sweet_birch_herbals (loving it!).

If you want to improve your mental health, I hope you find some encouragement in the notion that there is no right way. Just start on the path towards whatever feels good or interesting to you. If you’re in despair and nothing feels good or interesting, just start with what is available. We’re made to heal.

#innerhealer
#holisticpsychotherapy
#herbalmedicine
#mindbodyspirithealth
#mentalhealth

What is simple makes sense; we don’t need to complicate mental health or wellness. Step back to reflect and challenge the sick societal norms, however threatening it can be. The earth is our home- we need the elements to live- simple things keep us well- movement, whole foods, nature, connection, presence.

But in this busy and crazy world, creating and choosing simplicity can be near impossible. This is one way psychotherapy can be useful- in helping clients identify and set the goals and boundaries they need to make time to really care for themselves.

I’m in awe (always) at how many options we have for taking care of ourselves. After studying and working in the mind/body/spirit wellness field for 16 years, I’m only now immersing into the world of plants and natural medicine. Tinctures, cordials, and mushroom extraction in the photos while I’m a student @sweet_birch_herbals (loving it!).

If you want to improve your mental health, I hope you find some encouragement in the notion that there is no right way. Just start on the path towards whatever feels good or interesting to you. If you’re in despair and nothing feels good or interesting, just start with what is available. We’re made to heal.

#innerhealer
#holisticpsychotherapy
#herbalmedicine
#mindbodyspirithealth
#mentalhealth

I’m loving summer with the healing power of dance, nature, art, and people! With expressive arts psychotherapy, we open to these original instincts for using creativity, connection, and presence to heal.

We’re meant to play and express through our senses. An expressive arts psychotherapist is trained to guide clients to tap that instinct for play and creativity, perhaps long silenced by society.

To me, a sign of health is when a person can have a natural high: be enamored with feeling the breeze on the skin, have eyes widen from the beauty of birdsong, enjoy dancing sober, play with crayons - have free access to the joy of childlike nature.

Traditional talk psychotherapy has no emphasis on liberating the essential human need for creativity and play. This is one reason why expressive arts psychotherapies are so powerful- they can return us towards our true wholeness: a capacity for vibrant, deep aliveness.

If you’re interested in using expressive arts psychotherapies, please reach out. I’m glad to offer outdoor sessions, upcoming dance/movement therapy groups, intensive therapy sessions with @balanced_life_movement and an expressive arts wellness retreat in March.

#dancemovementtherapy #somatichealing #creativeartstherapy #somaticmovementtherapy #arttherapy #vibrantnature #spirit #creativity #creativityformentalhealth

I’m loving summer with the healing power of dance, nature, art, and people! With expressive arts psychotherapy, we open to these original instincts for using creativity, connection, and presence to heal.

We’re meant to play and express through our senses. An expressive arts psychotherapist is trained to guide clients to tap that instinct for play and creativity, perhaps long silenced by society.

To me, a sign of health is when a person can have a natural high: be enamored with feeling the breeze on the skin, have eyes widen from the beauty of birdsong, enjoy dancing sober, play with crayons - have free access to the joy of childlike nature.

Traditional talk psychotherapy has no emphasis on liberating the essential human need for creativity and play. This is one reason why expressive arts psychotherapies are so powerful- they can return us towards our true wholeness: a capacity for vibrant, deep aliveness.

If you’re interested in using expressive arts psychotherapies, please reach out. I’m glad to offer outdoor sessions, upcoming dance/movement therapy groups, intensive therapy sessions with @balanced_life_movement and an expressive arts wellness retreat in March.

#dancemovementtherapy #somatichealing #creativeartstherapy #somaticmovementtherapy #arttherapy #vibrantnature #spirit #creativity #creativityformentalhealth

This month I had my own ketamine assisted psychotherapy session with @balanced_life_movement . Though I’ve been offering this modality for over a year, it was the first chance I had to take the medicine.

I’m grateful for all the options available to us in seeking wellness, expansion, and integration. I’ve experienced higher states of consciousness in full sobriety, engaging with yoga, meditation, breathwork, chanting, authentic movement, or just being fully present during a magical moment immersed in psychedelic nature. I’ve experienced higher states of consciousness through illicit drugs or in traditional plant medicine ceremonies. And I’ve experienced them with prescription ketamine, this month.

I believe we need to access these higher states of consciousness to understand the depths of our full potential for creativity, healing, wholeness, or bliss, to understand our full potential for facing darkness and realizing that darkness is an important part of our wholeness. I’m grateful for all the ways human beings have discovered for accessing higher consciousness.

My ketamine assisted psychotherapy session with Balanced Life Movement was wonderful. I was surrounded by nature and art. I felt fully supported.

I think ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a fabulous option for anyone who feels stuck in their mental health journey and wants an alternative treatment that is safely prescribed and overseen by a physician and a mental health practitioner.

From what I’ve experienced as a provider and client, ketamine assisted psychotherapy allows us to remember, feel, and process very painful memories and circumstances with more peace, understanding, faith, and love. It helps our brains reorganize our relationship to these difficult parts of our lives. Words to describe my experience: peaceful, joyful, healing, room for the love and the pain.

If you’re interested in experiencing ketamine assisted psychotherapy, please reach out to me or to @balanced_life_movement . We’re offering this to clients in New York and Massachusetts both online and in person.

#journeyclinical #expressiveartspsychotherapy #ketamineassistedtherapy #higherconsciousness #dancemovementtherapy

This month I had my own ketamine assisted psychotherapy session with @balanced_life_movement . Though I’ve been offering this modality for over a year, it was the first chance I had to take the medicine.

I’m grateful for all the options available to us in seeking wellness, expansion, and integration. I’ve experienced higher states of consciousness in full sobriety, engaging with yoga, meditation, breathwork, chanting, authentic movement, or just being fully present during a magical moment immersed in psychedelic nature. I’ve experienced higher states of consciousness through illicit drugs or in traditional plant medicine ceremonies. And I’ve experienced them with prescription ketamine, this month.

I believe we need to access these higher states of consciousness to understand the depths of our full potential for creativity, healing, wholeness, or bliss, to understand our full potential for facing darkness and realizing that darkness is an important part of our wholeness. I’m grateful for all the ways human beings have discovered for accessing higher consciousness.

My ketamine assisted psychotherapy session with Balanced Life Movement was wonderful. I was surrounded by nature and art. I felt fully supported.

I think ketamine assisted psychotherapy is a fabulous option for anyone who feels stuck in their mental health journey and wants an alternative treatment that is safely prescribed and overseen by a physician and a mental health practitioner.

From what I’ve experienced as a provider and client, ketamine assisted psychotherapy allows us to remember, feel, and process very painful memories and circumstances with more peace, understanding, faith, and love. It helps our brains reorganize our relationship to these difficult parts of our lives. Words to describe my experience: peaceful, joyful, healing, room for the love and the pain.

If you’re interested in experiencing ketamine assisted psychotherapy, please reach out to me or to @balanced_life_movement . We’re offering this to clients in New York and Massachusetts both online and in person.

#journeyclinical #expressiveartspsychotherapy #ketamineassistedtherapy #higherconsciousness #dancemovementtherapy

Thanks to @magic.pond.retreats , @aleks_dance , and all the amazing people for such a soothing, playful, and expressive day yesterday. How easily you seemed to offer your gifts, right from your heart’s pleasure! A poem inspired by you…

The shoulds are long gone
Here, on the dried grass…the ants climbing my landscape
My sweat and breath are also the humid air
Endless space and time reveal my aliveness
and I open in a new way
The art on the earth
The dance in my bones
My hands on yours
And the sun, and the pond, to witness us all

Thanks to @magic.pond.retreats , @aleks_dance , and all the amazing people for such a soothing, playful, and expressive day yesterday. How easily you seemed to offer your gifts, right from your heart’s pleasure! A poem inspired by you…

The shoulds are long gone
Here, on the dried grass…the ants climbing my landscape
My sweat and breath are also the humid air
Endless space and time reveal my aliveness
and I open in a new way
The art on the earth
The dance in my bones
My hands on yours
And the sun, and the pond, to witness us all

With a friend soaking up nature and talking mental health.

She had a 4-year depression and feels great now, recently finishing her slow emergence to vibrant health. I asked what helped her out of it. She said, “I remembered to have fun, that I can have fun. And in CBT I learned that it can’t last forever and not to believe the thoughts that told me I was doomed.” How beautiful and powerful.

Hearing her, I wondered how might it interrupt our personal illusions, to remember we can have fun? And how could it challenge our egos, to consider that our thoughts may not be true and may not be an authority? So many of us stay a lifetime in depression, or chaos, or addiction. This conversation just got me marveling and musing: how do we humans shift and transform, or how do we stay stuck? How do we stay recreating something we say we don’t want? How do we learn to see, with new eyes, other options?

I don’t think it comes easy for many of us to remember (or to choose to believe) that we can have fun (or other healthy states of being we want). I don’t think it comes easy to choose to believe that we have influence over our thoughts. I do think my friend’s healing touches on something true about health.

Perspective on personal power, choice, and possibility matter. Delving into that is a journey, a big part of the work in psychotherapy.

This life isn’t about fitting into other people’s boxes. In the US, society is designed to oppress, to make us forget we are born with vibrant spirits. The structures are ill. To reflect in a way that questions the norms (personal and public) is an act of healing. To believe we have choice is an act of healing.

To remember that we can have fun, to remember we are not our thoughts, to be bravely open to support, to be open to seeing and questioning what we have come to live and believe…. we can then maybe move out away from depression or any other place of illness we’ve fallen into, and maybe live the courage of moving towards our truer natures.

#cbt
#mentalhealth
#depression
#mindfulness
#humandevelopment
#thepowerofchoice
#feelittohealit
#borntoplay
#choosefun
#selflove
#selfhonesty
#insight
#askforhelp

With a friend soaking up nature and talking mental health.

She had a 4-year depression and feels great now, recently finishing her slow emergence to vibrant health. I asked what helped her out of it. She said, “I remembered to have fun, that I can have fun. And in CBT I learned that it can’t last forever and not to believe the thoughts that told me I was doomed.” How beautiful and powerful.

Hearing her, I wondered how might it interrupt our personal illusions, to remember we can have fun? And how could it challenge our egos, to consider that our thoughts may not be true and may not be an authority? So many of us stay a lifetime in depression, or chaos, or addiction. This conversation just got me marveling and musing: how do we humans shift and transform, or how do we stay stuck? How do we stay recreating something we say we don’t want? How do we learn to see, with new eyes, other options?

I don’t think it comes easy for many of us to remember (or to choose to believe) that we can have fun (or other healthy states of being we want). I don’t think it comes easy to choose to believe that we have influence over our thoughts. I do think my friend’s healing touches on something true about health.

Perspective on personal power, choice, and possibility matter. Delving into that is a journey, a big part of the work in psychotherapy.

This life isn’t about fitting into other people’s boxes. In the US, society is designed to oppress, to make us forget we are born with vibrant spirits. The structures are ill. To reflect in a way that questions the norms (personal and public) is an act of healing. To believe we have choice is an act of healing.

To remember that we can have fun, to remember we are not our thoughts, to be bravely open to support, to be open to seeing and questioning what we have come to live and believe…. we can then maybe move out away from depression or any other place of illness we’ve fallen into, and maybe live the courage of moving towards our truer natures.

#cbt
#mentalhealth
#depression
#mindfulness
#humandevelopment
#thepowerofchoice
#feelittohealit
#borntoplay
#choosefun
#selflove
#selfhonesty
#insight
#askforhelp

Loving meeting my clients for outdoor sessions. I remember I am nature. I remember I am wild. The dried snake that I found in today’s first outdoor session, offered to the Kripalu Ganesha altar after my second outdoor session. May there be more of this to come. More wilding.

#rewilding
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#outdoortherapy
#vitaminnature
#feelittohealit
#beweird
#damntheman

Loving meeting my clients for outdoor sessions. I remember I am nature. I remember I am wild. The dried snake that I found in today’s first outdoor session, offered to the Kripalu Ganesha altar after my second outdoor session. May there be more of this to come. More wilding.

#rewilding
#expressiveartstherapy
#dancemovementtherapy
#outdoortherapy
#vitaminnature
#feelittohealit
#beweird
#damntheman

On retreat practicing the Discipline of Authentic Movement this May in VT. No matter where the circle forms, I feel I enter the same space in me and in the energy that holds me. My awe illuminates for the ways our practices and rituals offer containers and universes- no matter the time/space details.

In conversation with my teacher lately discussing the importance of personal choice in relating to, containing, channeling or expressing energies that arise- and musing over how those choices (maybe more than the energy itself) can make a difference between healing and illness.

#authenticmovement
#dancemovementtherapy
#consciousness
#somatichealing

On retreat practicing the Discipline of Authentic Movement this May in VT. No matter where the circle forms, I feel I enter the same space in me and in the energy that holds me. My awe illuminates for the ways our practices and rituals offer containers and universes- no matter the time/space details.

In conversation with my teacher lately discussing the importance of personal choice in relating to, containing, channeling or expressing energies that arise- and musing over how those choices (maybe more than the energy itself) can make a difference between healing and illness.

#authenticmovement
#dancemovementtherapy
#consciousness
#somatichealing

Shake Your Soul® is such a smart design. In this clip, I’m using movements from the intercellular fluid repertoire: fluid yet strong. As I hear the music and move in these ways, I’m invited to embody and experience my own fluidity and strength.

The first half of the class invites us to experience and enjoy different parts of ourselves through music and movement: heartfelt, vital and connected, loose and free. The second half of class invites us to dance and play like little kids again…spontaneously, joyfully, and probably with lots of laughter.

You can find a Shake Your Soul® class in your community or online. If you’re local to me in the Berkshires, you can join my lead tomorrow (Wednesday 5/29) from 6-8pm @wanderberkshires , supporting this new small business in our community.

Can’t join me tomorrow but still want to dance Shake Your Soul®? Locally you can check out the Pittsfield Senior Center with @bdpastie and @berkshirepulse with @theembodiedtherapist .

Hope to see you on the dance floor, where we have a better chance of remembering our truest selves. 😊

Shake Your Soul® is such a smart design. In this clip, I’m using movements from the intercellular fluid repertoire: fluid yet strong. As I hear the music and move in these ways, I’m invited to embody and experience my own fluidity and strength.

The first half of the class invites us to experience and enjoy different parts of ourselves through music and movement: heartfelt, vital and connected, loose and free. The second half of class invites us to dance and play like little kids again…spontaneously, joyfully, and probably with lots of laughter.

You can find a Shake Your Soul® class in your community or online. If you’re local to me in the Berkshires, you can join my lead tomorrow (Wednesday 5/29) from 6-8pm @wanderberkshires , supporting this new small business in our community.

Can’t join me tomorrow but still want to dance Shake Your Soul®? Locally you can check out the Pittsfield Senior Center with @bdpastie and @berkshirepulse with @theembodiedtherapist .

Hope to see you on the dance floor, where we have a better chance of remembering our truest selves. 😊

I have a favorite big rock I love to lay on in the woods. It’s like a recliner, with an indentation for my butt, support for my head, and support for my legs. I like to lay on it and look up at the trees.

I was laying there the other day and couple approached me as they followed the trail. The lady thought I was in distress. This has happened to me a number of times in a variety of places (does this happen to you?), because I like to lie down with Mother Earth.

This couple suggested I make a little sign letting people know I’m just resting, or that I maybe find a nice rock further off the trail, unseen. While I understand their concern, it also touches my sadness and my anger… that my resting is perceived as alarming, as something I need to warn/inform others about, or as something I need to hide.

What about my animal body-the one that yearns to lie on the rock and do nothing, just like the frog who sits happily in the swampy water, wide green smile illuminated by the sun? What about the beloved dog resting drowsily by the fire with not a care in the world? My animal body knows this, too.

May we rest and lie in the leaves and lie on the rocks and bask in the sun and in the breeze, and I’ll know you’re resting, and I’ll rest too.

I have a favorite big rock I love to lay on in the woods. It’s like a recliner, with an indentation for my butt, support for my head, and support for my legs. I like to lay on it and look up at the trees.

I was laying there the other day and couple approached me as they followed the trail. The lady thought I was in distress. This has happened to me a number of times in a variety of places (does this happen to you?), because I like to lie down with Mother Earth.

This couple suggested I make a little sign letting people know I’m just resting, or that I maybe find a nice rock further off the trail, unseen. While I understand their concern, it also touches my sadness and my anger… that my resting is perceived as alarming, as something I need to warn/inform others about, or as something I need to hide.

What about my animal body-the one that yearns to lie on the rock and do nothing, just like the frog who sits happily in the swampy water, wide green smile illuminated by the sun? What about the beloved dog resting drowsily by the fire with not a care in the world? My animal body knows this, too.

May we rest and lie in the leaves and lie on the rocks and bask in the sun and in the breeze, and I’ll know you’re resting, and I’ll rest too.

The mainstream conversation and awareness around mind/body/ spirit health has changed a lot in the United States since Covid started. All of the on-screen, collective, taking-many-forms trauma has made it much harder to deny our human sensitivity and the many dysfunctional elements of our society. So I think people are starting to understand more that everything is connected. The path to personal healing involves realizing all the connected pieces of your own puzzle. One piece will not do the trick. That’s why it’s not enough to have a few techniques used only in an emergency. To build a life of health and wellness, it’s really important to consider the basics of your daily human needs. In a certain way, basic wellness is obvious and simple. We absolutely need water, sleep and rest, real food, nature, supportive others to name a few. If you’re working on your mental health, prioritizing these basics will give you a strong foundation. I know implementing is not so simple: the map is not the terrain (I love that saying). Nevertheless, it’s really important to remember (especially in a society that makes up illnesses to sell pharmaceuticals) that we are part of nature; we have basic needs, and fulfilling them goes a long way to health and wellness.

The mainstream conversation and awareness around mind/body/ spirit health has changed a lot in the United States since Covid started. All of the on-screen, collective, taking-many-forms trauma has made it much harder to deny our human sensitivity and the many dysfunctional elements of our society. So I think people are starting to understand more that everything is connected. The path to personal healing involves realizing all the connected pieces of your own puzzle. One piece will not do the trick. That’s why it’s not enough to have a few techniques used only in an emergency. To build a life of health and wellness, it’s really important to consider the basics of your daily human needs. In a certain way, basic wellness is obvious and simple. We absolutely need water, sleep and rest, real food, nature, supportive others to name a few. If you’re working on your mental health, prioritizing these basics will give you a strong foundation. I know implementing is not so simple: the map is not the terrain (I love that saying). Nevertheless, it’s really important to remember (especially in a society that makes up illnesses to sell pharmaceuticals) that we are part of nature; we have basic needs, and fulfilling them goes a long way to health and wellness.

Always remembering the power of simple things- nature, beauty, movement, curiosity, and rest.

Always remembering the power of simple things- nature, beauty, movement, curiosity, and rest.

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