Here we spend time noticing - moment to moment - what is happening in the body with a basic attitude of respect and compassion. Often, the body and its sensations can be uncomfortable or overwhelming. But with a careful, gentle approach, it becomes possible to meet the sensations in a way that feels relatively calm, safe and grounded. This opens up the possibility of interrupting stressful old nervous system patterns and gradually replacing them with patterns which are more calm, relaxed and resilient.

We often start out with the feeling that nervous system activation (fight, flight, freeze impulses) are something happening to us - like something imposed on us from the outside world that we have to somehow deal with. Through somatic work, we gradually shift into the feeling that our nervous system is working for us. So we begin to become more skilful in letting it do its thing…in a way that leads eventually to a greater sense of joy and well-being.

Here, Cognitive wellness involves the work of releasing any and all stories and core beliefs that distort your sense of what's true. It’s about finding the courage to set aside comforting, intoxicating, ego-inflating ideas and accepting instead humbling, vulnerable truths. So it's a destructive process, but one which can lead to a greater sense of freedom and authenticity.

While exploring cognitive wellness, we might dip into formal counselling approaches like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, or Narrative Therapy.

Here, spiritual wellness involves deep Self-connection. The space here is offered as a kind of sanctuary - with armed gargoyles posted at all the doors - where nothing and no one is telling you what to do. Even the old voices gathered from your childhood, your church...they're all invited quiet down for a while to make room for some part of your soul to grab the mic and have its say. Your opportunity lays in having support and space to settle down into your own depths and find deeper and deeper truths that have nothing to do with what anyone else thinks.

An orientation of committed, lived spirituality infuses the whole space of what we do here.

Here, emotional wellness involves coming face to face with our wounded parts: a direct, intimate meeting in which their needs and pain become obvious. Healing occurs through giving them what they need.

A big part of the work we do with emotions involves the attitude of a kind, wise old grandmother who’s seen it all. The idea then is to sit and walk along with the emotions in gentle accompaniment: giving them a world of space and time in which they can be deeply seen, deeply felt. The other part of the work,…if those emotions have been held down for years and years..is to give them an opportunity to come and be more fully part of the lived body.

Tenderness here involves revoking the sense that some part of ourselves should be a particular way. Compassion here is infused with respect: rather than being tinged with pity, it may easily include a recognition of the sacred, primordial dignity of the hurt part. Compassion and honoring at the same time.