We live in complicated times. Many of us feel a deep sense of disconnection—from ourselves, from others, and from the wider living world. While traditional talk therapy can offer a space for reflection and understanding, it often doesn’t touch the deeper, embodied layers of what we carry.
My work draws on somatic therapy, animistic and transpersonal perspectives, systemic approaches, and ritual to create a grounded, relational path through these challenges. At its heart, this approach is about connection: connection to your body and inner experience, to your ancestry and family systems, to the land and nature, and to the larger unseen forces that shape our lives. These connections are where we often find the most profound healing.
Why Talk Therapy Isn’t Always Enough
Talk therapy is a helpful starting point. It provides a space to explore feelings and begin to understand patterns. But it often remains in the realm of thought and language, which can leave the deeper, more instinctual parts of our experience untouched.
So much of what shapes us lives beyond words:
Trauma is often held in sensations, postures, and unspoken impulses in the body and nervous system.
Family and ancestral patterns play out in ways we may feel but not consciously understand—through repeated dynamics, inherited emotions, or a sense of belonging that feels compromised.
Disconnection from nature and the sacred can leave us with a sense of emptiness or loss of meaning.
Focusing solely on the cognitive can feel like we’re skimming the surface of something more profound. True healing often invites us to go beyond thought—to tune into the body, work with symbols, dreams and rituals, and engage with the broader systems that shape our lives.
Working Systemically: Seeing the Bigger Picture
Much of what we struggle with is not just ours. It’s tied to larger systems—family dynamics, cultural histories, or societal structures that shape how we experience the world. Systemic work helps bring these invisible forces into focus, offering clarity and a way forward.
For example, systemic constellation and/or ritual approaches might help you:
Recognise and shift inherited patterns in your relationships.
Address a sense of guilt or responsibility that doesn’t belong to you but has been passed down through generations.
Understand feelings of being “stuck” as part of a larger system seeking balance or resolution.
Systemic work helps us bring awareness to what has been carried—patterns, pain, or unresolved dynamics—and offers ways to honour and transform these with intention. Rituals can be a powerful way to engage with these patterns, creating a space where they can be acknowledged and reimagined. Malidoma Patrice Somé reminds us, “Ritual is the act of sanctifying action—even ordinary action—so that it has meaning.” Through ritual, we can work with what has been carried and open the door to healing and change.
Animism: Reclaiming Connection to the Living World
Animism—the understanding that all things are alive and connected—offers another lens for finding our place in the world. This perspective reminds us that we’re not separate from the world around us but deeply intertwined with it.
When we work with animistic principles, we can ask questions like:
What would it mean to feel more at home in your relationships or the natural world?
How might connecting with your ancestry or the land where you live offer grounding or insight?
What can nature teach you about your growth, rest, and renewal cycles?
These explorations often involve ritual, creativity, or spending intentional time in nature. As Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us, “All flourishing is mutual.”
Somatic Approaches: Listening to the Body
The body holds so much of our history, resilience, and pain. Somatic approaches allow us to access these nonverbal layers of experience, helping us release what words cannot.
This might look like:
Noticing how your body responds to certain feelings or patterns and gently working with that awareness.
Exploring breath and movement to release tension or stuck emotions.
Using embodied practices to find grounding and a sense of safety.
This is not about “fixing” the body but learning to listen to it—to honour it as a source of wisdom and healing.
Nature as a Partner in Healing
Sometimes, the natural world offers what no words can. Working in nature—whether through ecotherapy or simply spending intentional time outdoors—can help us reconnect with something larger than ourselves.
Sitting with a tree, walking in the forest, or observing the flow of a river can provide a sense of calm and perspective that’s hard to find elsewhere. Nature reminds us that we are part of something vast, alive, and constantly changing.
As Wendell Berry offers, “The Earth is what we all have in common.”
Why This Way of Working Matters Now
We live in a time of great upheaval—what some call a “poly-crisis,” where personal, societal, and ecological challenges are colliding. Many traditional approaches to healing don’t account for the complexity and interconnectedness of our current situation.
Working in this way—with systemic awareness, animistic perspectives, somatic practices, and ritual—allows us to engage with the wholeness of our lives. This isn’t about “fixing” anything. It’s about deepening our understanding of the relationships that shape us and finding ways to reconnect, restore, and move forward with intention.
Rainer Maria Rilke shares, “Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
Healing isn’t just about resolving pain; it’s about remembering. Remembering who you are. Remembering your place in the world. And remembering that even in times of complexity, connection is always possible.
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