RADICAL SOMATICS
Body As Map Women’s Complex and Chronic Illness Group
Women have represented an estimated roughly 80%+ of autoimmune and chronic illnesses, which is why in some doctors’ offices they still labeled them as “hysterical” up until only a few decades ago.
How can we cultivate a relationship with our bodies to acknowledge the threats and sometimes resulting symptoms our body sets off like alarm bells yet still build safety and soothing to an inflamed, vigilant vessel?
How can we honor our unique experiences in a world where the able bodied are the ideal and where many of our complex and chronic physical conditions are invisible?
Most of all, how can we honor the stories our bodies tell, that they are not problems to solve and listen to what they’re sharing?
For years, with my illnesses and symptoms multiplying but also migrating – in patterns unfamiliar like those of migratory animals and birds – I would find myself saying: my body must be a map. I just can’t always decipher its rich and complex language.
Pretending to be “ok” for others is often a mechanism of survival. For me, it’s been the enterprising, capitalist resilience I’ve donned like a robe some of my life to make myself and others feel more comfortable. But when I accepted it as an illusion, something not always true, I felt a realigning and rebecoming. Our freedom to create enough space inside of us to hear “yeses” and “no’s” and to feel the desirous impulses of “knowing” has long been under attack by systemic forces, but as I sort through the toxic fumes of believing “I did this to myself” and the belief that my only option is too push through, the path to truth is illuminated. Besides, what if we’re not “sick”, what if our bodies are antennae responding to an unsafe and toxified world and cultures?
This is an eight-week online process group to start.
Will begin January 2026 then run longer term – for female-identifying adults who have a chronic and/or complex illness, have experienced ongoing health struggles of any kind or have endured limitations with their physical health and relationship to body.
- We’ll establish an incredibly safe space to bring our WHOLE selves into this intimate, virtual space.
- We’ll be developing more capacity to witness and validate our bodies’ feeling states and experiences while also interrogating how we might elevate our well-being and narratives of physical chatter.
- We will incorporate some mindfulness, somatic practices, breath work, group EMDR, and raw, heart-centered shares in a virtual circle of care.
- Together, we will create space for understanding ourselves and people who tread the world with challenging somatic manifestations, which in turn helps us inform our immediate communities of how to normalize varying conditions and illnesses – not because this is our duty but because it helps many people when we share our voice and experiences.
Chronic and complex illnesses are unfortunately on an explosive rise, and yet not many are aware of this or even the autoimmune disease-like Long Covid illnesses plaguing people around the world. Historically, women have represented an estimated, roughly 80%+ of autoimmune and chronic illnesses, which is why in some doctors’ offices they still labeled them as “hysterical” up until only a few decades ago. But this precipitous rise seems to not discriminate, and many more people will be in need of language for their experiences and wider acceptance. We can start with ourselves and this small group.
This Might Be a Cathartic Group If:
- You have long-term or more recently experienced chronic illnesses and setbacks and/or ostracization through your symptomatic journey
- You would like to find a sacred middle: not dwelling on and certainly not denying your experience – a sweet spot I coined for myself and clients years ago
- You have been dismissed and/or harmed by any health practitioner or system, particularly that of our highly Westernized, industrialized, insurance-based system in America
- You felt dissociated by what you have experienced physically
- You feigned “healthiness” to fit in and get by day to day/pushed down your felt experience
- You feel lost in navigating your health and well-being symptoms and abandoned by the wherewithal to manage, either financially, from the bureaucracy of day to day life, of being in an overly patriarchal and productivity-obsessed culture
- You want to be able to speak honestly about your experience and witness others do the same WITHOUT politics. We will be setting these agreements to be able to discuss a splintered and profit-driven complex like the healthcare system without nosediving into political rhetoric or divisiveness
Dates, Cost & Commitment Details
- Meeting days and times are Wednesday 8:30-10:00am PST beginning January 7 through February 25, 2026 via Zoom
- We will begin with a grounding and quick council circle to bring all of our voices into the space and incorporate some mindfulness, somatic practices, breath work, group EMDR, and raw, heart-centered shares in a virtual circle of care.
- I will share some resources (books, journal prompts, podcasts, exercises and more) to explore on your own time outside of the group.
- There will be ample space for YOU to share yourself – whether vocally, art you’ve made, prose you’ve compiled, how ever your voice comes through.
- Cost is $300 per person for the entire eight weeks. There is an option to drop in to a few sessions instead of committing the full eight weeks, but I ultimately want to create a cozy, safe and intimate container to be able to go a bit deeper together.
Testimonials
