Sometimes I wish I could be less snarky and just embrace the soft voices and flowy fabrics of the typical healing spaces. I would love to see a barefoot woman with wild hair and loose clothing and a beatific smile and accept the positive vibes she offers. But I can’t get past the cynicism. I…… Continue reading When your body is your enemy
Like a lot of activists and community organizers, I got into the game to solve my own problems. I had experienced unjust treatment and as part of my healing journey I wanted to create justice by changing things for other people. This is a beautiful impulse, but if you stop there, you’re going to be…… Continue reading My liberation is bound up in yours
I’ve learned this lesson twice, once through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and once through Quality Management: “Yesterday’s solutions are today’s problems.” The problems you frequently address in both therapy and in business often spring up from doing things as they have always been done, when the present circumstances are very different from past circumstances. Like trying to…… Continue reading Different Solutions for Different Circumstances
The values I was raised with got me here: so ashamed of my body that the thought of someone seeing it filled me with actual terror. Convinced that my body did not deserve rest, or food, or kindness; that it was base and crass and needed to be overcome. Desperately trying to master its needs…… Continue reading New Values for a New Relationship
You are a human. That doesn’t seem like it should be controversial, does it? Is anyone out here disputing that we’re something else? I don’t hear that argument, but I certainly see it. Every time a workplace doesn’t account for the ways we need rest, bathroom breaks, meals, leisure, it is sending a message that…… Continue reading You are a human.
I was raised thinking that sensual was a synonym for sexual. I’d hear ‘sensual’ connected to things like roses and chocolates and silk sheets and think that sensual referred to foreplay. I don’t think I ever even heard the word unless it was pronounced in a way that dripped with meaning I couldn’t quite decipher…… Continue reading Sensual doesn’t mean sex.