Re-Imagining Healing
Updated: Sep 24
My primary commitment in life is to cast webs of healing and that is a very tender and individualized process for each and every one of us. Different people hear different things when we hear the same words, so it’s important for me to define what exactly I mean when I use the word “healing.”
In my practice, healing is a process of alignment with one’s internal cycles and the cycles of the world around us so that we may experience more vitality, cohesion and felt safety in our daily lives.
Why Healing?
Healing is such a popular concept to talk about and it's easy to understand why. Modern life, while full of many incredible realities and opportunities, also poses a number of serious challenges to our wellbeing. Processed foods, pollutants all around us and stressful work conditions compound to create serious pressure for us. Extreme inequalities, oppression and cultures more focused on profit than life create external structures that make it really really hard to have a body in this world. In this context, it’s no wonder so many of us are obsessed with healing.
In my consultations, I focus on the ways that spirit, land, culture, interpersonal relationships and connection with ourselves all interweave to shape our conditions, with an understanding of the ways that racism, ableism, heteronormativity and all other forms of oppression deeply shape the lived realities of all of us.
Everybody deserves to feel safe in their body. Safety is an internal, felt reality that can be cultivated with support, and that is a major focus in my astrological and herbal practice.
Perfectionist expectations and a culture of New Year's resolutions lead us to believe that healing is a final end goal - a magical point we get to where everything will be all right. However, life isn't stagnant. Life is cyclical and we can support ourselves much more effectively if we tune into, honor and observe the natural cycles of our bodies and the environments around us.
It's also so very important to recognize that you are not broken and healing is not about "fixing" things that are wrong with us. Healing is about aligning with our own internal processes so that we can feel safe and connected inside our bodies as we move through this world. You are not broken.
Here are 4 ways I work to re-imagine healing in my astrological and herbal practice with clients:
1. Work with the body’s vital life force
Through life, there is a cycle of health and crisis that we all experience and getting sick is our body’s natural mechanism for encouraging change. Approaching healing with a Vitalist mindset means encouraging gentle and sustainable shifts that meet life on life’s terms, rather than trying to suppress or coerce our symptoms into changing. With this perspective, we are looking to support practices that enhance our overall vitality, which is a very personal and individual process that looks different for everyone.
We know what we should and shouldn’t do because we feel it, and learning how to listen to and respond to our body’s messages can make a huge difference in our overall wellbeing. As someone who has spent a significant amount of my life dissociated as a result of trauma, I understand how difficult it can be to listen to your body.
A big focus in my practice is to help my clients experience a more embodied understanding of your health and astrology so that you can sense into your inner-knowing to feel more safe and at home in your body and life. Of course, what that looks like will be different for every single person.
It’s so easy to approach healing by making a big to-do list of all the changes we want to make and then trying to muscle our way through the transition. Vitalism works in a very different way, focusing on gentle shifts that can be practiced regularly over a long period of time.
Potential Vitalist practices to consider incorporating into your life may include:
Take 3-5 minutes every day for a deep breathing exercise of your choice
Do 2-5 minutes of burst-type exercise on arising in the morning (burst exercise is short exercise that boosts your heart rate and respiratory rate)
Take a small dose of digestive bitters 20 minutes before meals
Go to bed 30 minutes earlier than you are used to
And so much more - it’s very fun to get creative when brainstorming small shifts to make that can support vitality in our lives, and that’s a lot of what we do in consultations together.
2. Personalized approaches that recognize individuality
Every single one of us is different, with unique goals, priorities and health experiences. In my practice, I make it a priority to meet every client on their own terms, helping to clarify and work towards their own healing goals, whatever that may be. What works well for one person may not fit for someone else. What you may prioritize in your healing journey may be completely different from what someone else cares about. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to healing.
My practice is explicitly trauma-informed, recognizing that we all have our own lived experiences and relationships that influence how we move through this world, and those are often quite private and tender. I work hard to help clients feel that they have agency in how they interact with their healing, and to bring more of that choice to the surface. While I have several planets in Scorpio and am quite used to traversing the deep, mucky waters of life, we can go as deep or stay as surface level as you like - your own desires will always dictate where we go in session work together.
Individualizing the approach taken with each client helps to facilitate a deeply transformative and personal process that is directed by your needs and desires. You are the expert on your own life, and I am simply here to provide astrological and herbal support to help you along your path.
3. Support the body as a healing organism
Natural healing modalities center the body as a healing organism, introducing the most gentle interventions possible to help stimulate the body’s own ability to foster more balance and cohesion in our lives. This looks very different for each person, and the types of support that are introduced are based on the Vitalist philosophy outlined above.
The main point I want to stress here is that healing interventions can be gentle and gradual. We are not here to force our bodies to behave a certain way, but rather to listen to and work with ourselves to encourage sustainable shifts. Learning to trust the body’s inherent ability to heal and listen to ourselves to determine what we need are major steps along one’s healing journey and I’m here to help you along the way.
4. Healing as a process, not a destination
I tend to think about healing as getting yourself on the right train tracks so you can keep moving through the natural processes of health and illness with a respect for the cyclical nature of life. Astrology can be particularly useful here in helping identify your own personal cycles and the cycles of the world that are flowing around you.
Being aware of the cycles influencing you can help guide your actions to be more attuned, flowing with your natural processes rather than resisting or ignoring them, as so many of us are taught to do.
However, once you get on the train tracks and have a healing process that is supportive for you, you’ve got to keep moving! Healing is not a stagnant, perfect destination but rather a process of participation. As Octavia Butler teaches us, change is the only constant: “All that you touch you change. All that you change, changes you” - quoted from Butler’s Parable series.
Recognizing change as a reality of this world, we can meet life on life’s terms and work with those processes, and that is what true healing is to me. We are not here to fix problems, but rather to help you help yourself by feeling connected and committed to your life path.
So, if you want astrological and herbal consultations that are personalized, actionable and supportive, please consider booking a session with me. I would love to have the opportunity to help you better understand the cycles influencing your life and the ways that you can support your vitality to experience more cohesion and wellness.