Dear Reader, This week, I've found myself navigating a bumpy personal landscape. And it got me reflecting on the delicate, ongoing dance of carrying the weight of the world while still allowing ourselves to live fully within it. How do we notice the pain, suffering, and unfairness in the world without letting it completely dampen or strip away our permission to experience the joyful, frivolous, beautiful parts of life? And on the flip side, how do we avoid shutting that pain out so much that...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, Last night, as we sat in circle for the third week of our current workshop series, the space felt raw and tender. There was a collective awakening as the group shared that they were beginning to truly notice and name the different parts of themselves. But sitting right alongside that awareness was a heavy exhaustion. We talked about how we are still stretching ourselves thin, and how hard it can feel to actually say "no" in the moments that matter most—blocked by a myriad of old...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts about the heavy blueprints and external "shoulds" we carry—the rules and expectations that cloud our true voice and make us feel like we constantly need to ensure everyone around us is cared for and contained. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what happens when we choose to pause and look beneath all that noise. I’m a huge fan of analogies and the one that comes to mind is the ocean. On the surface, the waves can swish, churn, and chop. The...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, My heart is feeling incredibly full today. Last night, we gathered for the very first evening of The Return 4-week immersion series. Sitting in a room with a group of women, hearing their stories, their challenges, and their wishes, was a profound reminder of a simple truth: the quest to find your authentic voice and reclaim what is true to you is a journey so many of us are walking. To witness the immediate warmth, encouragement, and love that filled the room was beautiful. It...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, As we wrap up the final days of autumn and step into the official start of winter on Monday, I find myself thinking about the symbolism of the seasons and what we can learn from them. Winter is nature's embodiment of boundaries. It is a time for turning inward, for deliberate rest, and for recuperation before the rebirth of spring. It is a season that demands a slower pace. Yet, so many of us have lost touch with our own cyclical nature. We operate with an "all systems go"...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, In my work as a psychologist, and in my own personal journey of unlearning, I often lean into a framework called Internal Family Systems (IFS). It’s a gentle, profound way of looking at our minds—the idea that we aren't just one monolithic personality, but a beautiful, complex collection of different "parts." When we look at our lives through this lens, it can change everything. Take your inner critic, for instance. Or the part of you that reflexively falls into people-pleasing,...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, I've been sitting with a thought lately about the hidden forces and expectations that shape us. We grow up in a world that, either covertly or overtly, provides us with a blueprint for how we should act, what we should do, and what we should be prioritising in our lives. These messages are everywhere - they shape how we show up in our most intimate relationships, how we hold ourselves in professional spaces, and even how we navigate public spaces or a brief interaction with a...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, As Mother’s Day approaches this Sunday, I’ve been sitting with the complexity of what it means to be a "nurturer." For many of us, our lives are driven by a profound love and a genuine value for the wellbeing of others. We are the observers, the emotional anchors, and the holders of space, regardless if we hold the title of ‘mother’ or not. But there is a shadow side to that drive for love: we can become stuck constantly looking outwards that we lose the ability to look in. We...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, I've been thinking a lot lately about how much of our energy is spent reading the room. We fine-tune our responses, we soften our edges to fit, and we master the art of people-pleasing - often without even realising we're doing it. It's a survival strategy, a way to keep the peace. But eventually, the volume on our own internal compass gets turned so low that we forget what our own true needs, desires and values actually feel like. I'm so ready to turn that volume back up. I am...
3 months ago • 1 min read