The way our culture is set up, the way that psychotherapy typically goes, and the way that current social norms are, we are encouraged to proclaim ourselves as the victim. We do this as we recount our childhood trauma for the 20th year. We do this in our...

It makes sense to call out how "toxic" systems and spaces affect us. It can be an act of power. I do it all the time. And, at the same time, blaming the world for not being able to inhabit our truest, most peaceful selves can also induce powerlessness. It can be an...

In my earliest liberation-studying days when I used to make up frameworks of transformational programming in my free time, I saw a recurring pattern among the experiences I had had that had changed me forever. How many times can I say had in one sentence? Every...

We are mystified. We feel deeply and intensely. We are in awe of the unknown. We are sensitive. We question. We disagree. We disrupt. We tell the truth. We challenge. We are in disbelief. We rebel. We tell the truth. We do not conform. For those of us who have...

While I was quite unwell, I desired to attend a movement workshop at a major dance institution in New York City. I truly wanted the experience of connecting with people I felt aligned with. I listed my needs in an e-mail to the program administrators and they returned...

Western psychotherapy and personal development is focused on instilling independence rather than intuitively working with what a person needs in the moment. From my research on the needs of neurodivergent, gifted, chronically stressed, chronically ill, and disabled...

Suffering is caused by many things. Suffering can occur naturally due to loss, change, transition, and the lack of having one’s needs met. Suffering can be the result of our finely tuned connection to the ebbs and flows of the universe, stars, galaxies, moon - and, of...

Here are a few elements of spaces important for creating spaces of emotional safety. Many of them have to do with being adept at seeing the "default toxicity" of our spaces. This toxicity is present everywhere. It is ubiquitous (i.e., everywhere) by the nature of...

Noticing our shame is painful. It becomes a tremendous opportunity when we can use it to create what we need. In the recent years, I took several deep dives (deep dives don’t even begin to describe it actually, more like deep flailing) into various socially...

In the current age of deconstructing, decolonizing, deideologizing, it’s come to be a mainstream phenomena to point out the “problematic” nature of systems of oppression and how those systems are at play around us and within us. For many of us, this era comes after...

Oh, my! Here's another bulleted list. Here are some common features of spaces that stifle raw expression - i.e., create a lack of safety. In other words, these are a select list of things that are a part of the "default toxicity" of our spaces. By "default toxicity" I...

Fast forward. The summary is that most dance training is quite toxic - and it is so by default. Let's dive in! The core of artistic/dance training is actually not the technical learning, but the interpersonal learning and lessons about self and identity. Most dancers...

Neurotypicalism affects all people in all spaces. Neurotypical people suffer and are quirky af but they can actually hide it -- and do so very well. Homophobia, too, affects all people in all spaces. Straight people want to connect with others but cannot fully connect...

Depression is quite normal in a society where we are conditioned to consistently hold back parts of ourselves. Actually, it is to be expected. Racism, neurotypicalism, ableism, and all systems of conditioning and disconnection force us to hold back parts of ourselves...

For those of us who are committed to accessing and really feeling and sensing our deep connection to all that is, we’ve learned a lot recently about what it means to really not feel that sense of deep connection - and what it means to really feel that deep connection....

Let's talk about what it means to be loving and loved: There are levels to love and it is expressed in the body. When what we call love is present, there is openness to truth. There is openness to receive. There is fluidity. There is a reason why folks we call loving...

Beliefs are naturally dissociating. There is nothing necessarily wrong with beliefs. And there is nothing necessarily wrong with dissociation. Dissociation can occur with a sense of safety and with a sense of threat. For example, we can be dissociated and terrified -...

Many of us are finding that, to truly deeply connect to ourselves,  we must choose to rebel. And you are probably very attuned to this. For example, one practice of rebellion for many of us is in boundary-setting. Practicing setting boundaries - loose, firm,...

I’d like to propose, and repeat what many have said before me: the idea that when we construct liberatory, liberating, or transformational programming that intends to change the individual, liberate the individual, transform groups, transform society, we are...

In this conversation, I (dun dun dunnnnn) talk a lot about suffering and trauma. What else is new?! I talk a bit about how I currently view "trauma" and how trauma and learning from these experiences of suffering allows us to deeply connect to who we have always been....

Most of my writing thus far and what I'll post soon focuses on my broader worldviews/paradigms that lie beneath my approach to creating spaces of deep connection. But this conversation gets a bit more specific (dare I say grounded) about what I mean when I say...

In the past year, I've learned about myself. I mean, who hasn't? We've had so much time to very inconveniently (yet opportunely) cull over our deepest darkest secrets, pains, and the depths of our personalities. One of the things I've learned is that I constantly...

In this day and age, anxiety is all the rage. By that I mean, every other person in our generation either says they have anxiety or has anxiety and is so dissociated they won't admit it. I'm kidding. I don't think everyone has anxiety, but I don't hang out with those...

I am sitting here in deep reflection, sadness, love, and gratitude - processing how much intense suffering is going on in the world at this moment. Many of us are alone or isolated - or at least feeling alone and isolated, wondering what our future holds and when the...

For those of us who feel deficient, ashamed, or like we are lacking in connection to our ancestral lineage, for those of us who feel that we are in a dark time due to our collective disconnection from our ancestral, indigenous, or “traditional” cultures, maybe we...

This year’s “unexpected” pandemic, racialized uprisings, massive loss, continued exploitation, obvious oppression, and routinized daily suffering have made us acutely and painfully aware that great change must be made in our society. But, contrary to mainstream...