Empowered: Counselling from periods, pregnancy to parenting

🌷Initial reduced rate🌷 for the pregnancy loss ceremony. Only until June 10th. Limited spots to keep group size intimate. 💜

Sign up:
www.empoweredcounselling.ca

⚘️Pregnancy Loss 🌱

Rooted Family Wellness

Loss of hope, Loss of magic, Loss of possibility, Loss of joy, Loss of life...

Pregnancy loss is the loss of so many things.

It deserves proper grieving. It deserves connection, community and witnessing.

We deserve, and our baby deserves, recognition, validation and to be honoured.

Join me for a beautiful and sacred Pregnancy Loss Ceremony in June.

Perinatal Loss Ceremony | 1:00pm - 4:00pm | Rooted Family Wellness Centre If you are like most people who have had a miscarriage (as a birther or partner), you are probably experiencing grief, lack of understanding and ambivalence about moving forward.

Pregnancy loss is so often dismissed, hidden, and weathered in isolation. But the loss is real and suffering can be paralyzing.

This is why I have created a beautiful and meaningful Pregnancy Loss Ceremony.

This circle is for anyone who has experienced a loss (as a birther or partner) and is looking for community, acknowledgement and closure.

For more information and to sign up: www.empoweredcounselling.ca

Feel free to spread the word.

It is time for another Birth Trauma Group. This is for anyone who feels like their birth story feels stuck, unfinished, incomplete. Anyone who has birthed is welcome, even if the birth was 10 years ago! Groups are very small (3-4 participants) for lots of intimacy and safety.

For information and registration: https://www.empoweredcounselling.ca/birth-alchemy-group

After my traumatic birth, I talked and talked about my birth, but it never seemed to resolve anything. That's because trauma lives in your body and this is what we will be learning to process in the Birth Alchemy Group. Only one more week to register!

https://www.empoweredcounselling.ca/birth-alchemy-group

The new Birth Alchemy Group is now open for registration. If you are looking for a way to find peace around your birth experience, this is the group for you. Click here for more information: https://www.empoweredcounselling.ca/birth-alchemy-group

Hello folx! I am starting a wonderful free resources to help folx who have experienced reproductive trauma. In my weekly newsletter, The Healing Brew, sharing supportive practices, tools and feminist psychoeducation for folks who would like some support on healing their reproductive trauma. Hoping to see you on there and please share it with someone who you think would find it helpful!

Subscribe to The Healing Brew The Healing Brew is a weekly email newsletter with supportive practices, witchy tools and feminist psychoeducation for folks who have experienced reproductive trauma.

Let's name that what happens in many birthing rooms is VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

Being a "good" parent has nothing to do with having a "good" baby, an academically successful child or a well-behaved teen. It cannot be evaluated through happy smiles on social media or the tidiness of your schedule or house.

Being a "good" parent is visible in the dark. It is unwavering parents holding their kids with a loving gaze even when their kids are "bad", challenging or difficult.

Our kids will struggle. Being a good parent is about allowing our kids to struggle and proudly believing in them through the storm.

Started by a lovely Canadian couple, this company offers care packages for folks who have lost a baby.

I am in awe of their beautifully curated boxes with thoughtfully chosen and healing products.

Mars + Co Mars + Co

Some practical ideas to help you embody yourself again.

Healing Rituals for R**e and Reproductive Trauma Dear life-givers and creators, I am writing today with the intention of offering you rituals and practical ideas that you can integrate in your healing journey. Whether you are healing from sexual assault, gynecological exams, traumatic physiological issues in your reproductive system or a combinati...

I love this. It is so accurate. In our work around miscarriages, abortions, stillbirth and infertility, what we are doing is building more capacity to hold our grief rather than find ways to make the grief lessen.

This may also soothe the feeling of guilt that comes with feeling better... it isn't that you are forgetting or that you are not honoring the loss anymore...it is that you are more able to hold it and have built space to around it to continue living with it in your centre.

Creator of this work and concept is Lois Tonkin fromNew Zealand. you can learn more about this image here...
❤ https://whatsyourgrief.com/growing-around-grief/

''And so my body began telling the story of my depression. It started to show that I had let myself go. Now, my body rebelled. My body was heavy, much heavier. My belly folded into many rolling hills when I sat, refusing to stay hidden. My breasts dropped with gravity and my thick thighs allowed the earth to feel the vibration of each of my steps. The hair on my legs, under my armpits were like the screams I had been holding in, visible for all to see, and refusing to hide again...

So yeah, I did let myself go. And I hope you do as well. Because it is only when you let yourself go that you will finally be free.''

Wow, She Really Let Herself Go... Body Image, Postpartum, Parenthood

Anti-oppressive practice as a white therapist.

The White Lady Therapist I am white. Very white. I am a settler; my ancestors are mostly of French decent, I think, and also Scottish, British and Irish. I grew up with so many unearned privileges. My parents had money, they were respected and recognized in our small community. I had access to as much education as I wanted....

During this difficult time, Empowered will be giving a portion of its profits to OCAMA (a birth organisation in Toronto led by POC).

Also, if you are part of the black community, please talk to me about the option of obtaining a reduced fee for sessions.

Dear life-givers,

I came across this wonderful mindfulness app for mothers which I feel everyone could benefit from.

It is filled with short do-able exercises, visualizations, and meditations. I like to do mine when I am helping a child fall asleep, or when they are in the zone for a few minutes.

Happy self-care!

https://www.mindfulmamasclub.com/

The Mindful Mamas Club | Self-Care and Mindfulness for Moms The Mindful Mamas Club is a self-care and mindfulness for moms.

This book sounds brilliant!!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Motherwhelmed-Challenging-Untangling-Truths-Restoring-ebook/dp/B086ZYSK2M

Motherwhelmed: Challenging Norms, Untangling Truths, and Restoring Our Worth to the World Motherwhelmed: Challenging Norms, Untangling Truths, and Restoring Our Worth to the World

Moms,

For mother's day, hear this:

By being an imperfect mother, you are helping your child build resilience.

https://www.seleni.org/advice-support/2018/3/14/the-gift-of-the-good-enough-mother

The Gift of the Good Enough Mother — Seleni Institute Our kids need us to fail sometimes "I am not ok with being with a good enough mother. I work too hard to settle for that." One of my closest friends (and one of the most devoted mothers I know) said those words to me a couple of years ago, and I've never forgotten them. On a personal lev

Wonderful read about downregulation of the nervous system.
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/biology-of-calm-how-downregulation-promotes-well-being-1027164

The Biology of Calm: How Downregulation Promotes Well-Being - GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog Downregulation of the sympathetic nervous system is a biological response to stress states that calms us. Like a muscle, it can be developed and strengthened.

I Can't Be Fully Present With My Kids and It's OK The pressure is on. The stress is high. Yet, completely disregarding the parent's experience, child experts are telling us we need to be more present than ever. We need to be 100% attuned to our children. We should make this experience a good one. Well I think this pressure is oppressive and it is c...

A little self-nurturing visualisation for you all. Enjoy :)

Nurturing the Wounded Mother Visualisation Dearest life-giver, You are on your own journey perhaps of grief, perhaps of longing, perhaps of indescribable depression. From my heart to yours, here is a piece of chocolate, or a special treat to resource you, and give you a moment of pleasure, release and nurturing during this time. As you nibbl...

The parents are not alright.
https://gen.medium.com/parents-are-not-ok-66ab2a3e42d9

The Parents Are Not All Right Even in the most privileged households, the pandemic is exposing the farce of how society treats families

"This is not what you had planned. This is not what you’d envisioned. There are no visits from friends, no loving doula bringing you soup, no “mommy and me” yoga classes, no coffee dates, no stroller walks through the park. There is empty space where you had planned comfort and company. There are long days with no one but your little one to talk to and this big transition to navigate all alone.

I know it’s lonely, mama. I know the walls of your house feel tight and the days feel so long, and you crave a warm hand on your knee and the soft embrace of a friend. You wish for someone by your side to marvel at this beautiful baby of yours and to wrap an arm around you when the feelings get too big and scary.

We were never meant to do this alone. Motherhood has never been a solitary sport. And yet here we are, in this odd chapter of isolation and distance, with no choice but to do it by ourselves.

But mama, know this- We are alone. Together. You are surrounded all the other mothers who are navigating this tender time in isolation. You are held by all of us who have walked the path before you and who know how much you must be hurting. You are wrapped in the warm embrace of mama earth, as she too settles into this time of slowness and healing.

This too shall pass. And when it does, hugs and coffee dates and visits from friends will taste so much sweeter. Soft kisses on your cheek and arms around your waist and gentle laughter in your ear will be the joyful medicine after this trying time.

Until then, hunker down mama. Find the coziest, warmest spot on your couch, sink into the pile of unfolded laundry, and sleep the Spring away, with that sweet babe warm on your chest."

You are not alone mama.

Image and words by the stunning Spirit Y Sol
https://www.instagram.com/spiritysol/?hl=en

If you are craving connection and calm during social isolation, this group will nourish you from the inside out!

Find out more: https://www.empoweredcounselling.ca/online-mother-circle