working at the confluence of eco-therapy, eco-somatics, and eco-spiritualityworking at the confluence of eco-therapy, eco-somatics, and eco-spirituality
​EXPLORING THE RELATIONAL RESILIENCE OF ECOSYSTEM ENTANGLEMENT THROUGH ECO-SOMATIC RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY PRACTICE
A HOME FOR RELATIONAL & ECOLOGICAL EMBODIMENT
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Way Of Belonging is a home for repairing what has been severed and reconnecting to earth/body wisdom. We seek to nurture our ancestral roots, relational bonds and ecological entanglements by working towards an ecology of connection and care through earth-honoring rituals, embodied placemaking and decolonial solidarity.
Our offerings are designed with the intention to:
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- nourish a felt sense of belonging within an interwoven, complex, life-sustaining web of relationships.
- deepen intimacy with the wisdom of our body/lands.
- queer notions of love to include our more-than-human relatives.
- strengthen our connection to the places that nurture us.
- enliven the collective spirit toward rhythmic resonance.
- liberate life energy toward mutual thriving.
BELONGING TO OUR BODIES & THE GREATER BODY OF EARTH
Belonging is the journey of remembering your way HOME and for us that means coming back into rhythm with your embodied nature in relationship to earth and the spirit of life.
We come from the perspective that belonging is your birthright and is nature’s intelligence awakened from within. We borrow from biology the term homing to describe our innate ability to navigate the dislocation of modern culture towards an original place of embodied belonging. This is what our work is in service to: restoring a secure attachment with Earth and recovering ancestral technologies of animist wisdom through earth-centered and body-based practice.
We support promote this "awakening" by supporting you to strengthen relational practices (somatic, animist, place-based) that repair attachment bonds to Earth and integrate fragmented aspects of self back into the wholeness of your ecological landscape/body. This involves the necessity of slowing down, listening, and re-connecting to the wild, erotic power of being fully awake and alive and supports you to creatively respond and adapt to life changes and challenges.
PURPOSE, PLACE & BELONGING IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD
We believe that belonging arises from an earth-honoring way of life as old as creation. We also understand that systems of oppression work hard to sever us from this innate and vital connection with our body/lands/stories. We recognize that what ails humanity at this time is a disconnection from our own bodies (mind/body split) and from the greater body of our living earth (spirit/matter split) - the source of our spiritual sustenance and aliveness.
Separation from and domination over land/body is a core wound stored within the collective soma of humanity. It expresses fragmentation in myriad ways as it alienates and cuts us off from the intelligence of our ecological nervous system, communal ways of surviving, and relational resilience. We believe that earth is calling to humanity through the collective discomfort and cultural crises of these times and is asking each of us to rise and reclaim our purpose in service to planetary and collective liberation.
This means interrogating and actively resisting the oppressive systems that bolster racial capitalism, including ongoing imperialism, genocide, Indigenous land theft, settler colonialism, slavery, exploitation, extraction and war. Simultaneously it means imagining and actively co-creating the kind of world our hearts long for. To this end, it's imperative that we commit to reclaiming our ecological purpose and place of belonging within the movement for liberation through a process decolonization (both within ourselves and our communities) toward the rematriation of Indigenous land and life.
Born in the Piedmont South, Way Of Belonging is home to the Cape Fear River Basin and is shaped by and responsive to the socio-cultural-ecological landscape in which it grows.
WHAT WE VALUE & PRACTICE
Cyclical Attunement
We divest from colonial practices of separation by re-attuning to the rhythms of nature that prioritize the healing powers of expansion / contraction, creation / letting go, life / death.
Queer Entanglement
We practice embodied interrelating by expanding our felt sense of self to include the ecological relationships that encircle us and queer notions of love to include our more-than-human relatives.
Creative Reciprocity
We ground our care in the context of interdependence. We offer our creative expressions generously in service to life. We acknowledge and receive gifts with humility and give in return as a gesture of gratitude.
Ancestral Recovery
We actively seek to remember our roots deeper than whiteness, reclaim ancestral wisdom as a necessary part of resistance, and strive to live in a good way by learning from those who have come before us.
Decolonial Solidarity
We divest from systems of oppression rooted in white supremacy, extractive capitalism and settler colonialism toward the rematriation ofIndigenous land and life.
The Art of Listening
We create space in our lives to slow down, lean back, and touch into the heart of silence which renews our spirit and allows us to listen for the voice of Earth speaking in and through us.
Beauty Making
Beauty is the Spirit of Life revealed to us through nature. Communing with nature awakens the soul, inspires us to live reverently, and compels us toward poetic embodiment.
Right Relationship
Right relationship arises when we know ourselves as belonging to a place to whom we are beholden and responsive to the needs of our mutual thriving.
Play as Prayer
Play opens the heart toward connection and joy. It is a pathway toward communion and fosters innovative forms of exploration in relationship to the spirit of life.
Relationship with Land is at the heart of our work
& this Land is Indigenous Land
Way Of Belonging is currently led by queer, white settlers and are offering this work from the occupied ancestral territories of the Catawba, Eno, Shakori, Tutelo, Sissipahaw, Occaneechi and Saponi Nations, and specifically within the Cape Fear River Watershed of NC.
We approach our work with the understanding that loving earth and each other means carrying the sacred responsibility to understand the present day impacts of our shared history on the lands that we call home.
We recognize that our being here is inextricably linked to the oppression and attempted erasure of Indigenous peoples as well as the horrific legacy of chattel slavery. The processes by which our ancestors came to reside on Turtle Island are steeped in injustice and violence. A commitment to our Community Care Practices is one way that we humbly attempt to repair some of that harm.
We see it as part of our work to learn what it means to be in right relationship, to live in alignment with our deepest held visions, to understand our unique roles in relationship to place, to enact our responsibilities as settler-occupiers on Indigenous lands, and to cultivate authentic relationships of solidarity and shared struggle towards collective liberation.
We are rooted in a commitment to the ongoing work of unsettling whiteness and the ideologies of domination and supremacy that uphold it; dismantling both internalized and systemic manifestations of colonial capitalist violence; and building toward radical visions of the future rooted in collective liberation.
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With that being said, our offerings are not spaces for spiritual by-passing or escapism. We seek to ground our work in the realities of our living world, much of which requires a willingness to get uncomfortable and to create space for the holy shadow - those things that have long been denied and dismissed - to teach and guide us
ABOUT US
Michelle Rozek
Co-founder &
Holistic Healer
She/They
Michelle Rozek is a queer mind-body-spirit healer, advanced somatic experiencing practitioner (SEP), eco-therapy guide and shadow worker.
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As a highly sensitive, introverted intuitive Michelle is attuned to the subtle realms and finds deep peace and clarity in the serenity of nature where she spends much of her time when she's not serving her clients.
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Michelle's soul purpose is to serve earth's evolution by supporting others on their healing journey. Gifted with the multi-sensory perception of clairsentience - the ability to feel hidden, energetic and emotional subtleties - Michelle is able to see what is often invisible to most. She also carries the ability to recognize fractal geometric patterns playing out in human behavioral and relational dynamics.
In the in-betweens of everyday life, you can find Michelle wandering in the woods communing with the trees, foraging edible plants and mushrooms, sitting in stillness, working on landscape projects, studying a topic of interest, or sharing a deeply meaningful conversation with a friend. As an eco-sensual she is inspired every day by the way earth moves and nurtres her soul.
Jessica Cudney
Jessica Cudney is a queer, environmental justice activist, embodied transformational coach, multidisciplinary artist, and community facilitator. She received her BA in Political Science and Social Justice and Peace Studies at the University of Western in London, Ontario.
Jessica is a member of the NC Alamance NAACP Chapter and sits on the Environmental Justice Committee. She actively supports local Indigenous-led efforts (7 Directions of Service) to protect our communities, Land, and Waters from the threat of fossil fuel industrial expansion, specifically the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Through her personal practice, Jessica seeks to support folks in creating a life of meaning and purpose; aligning daily practice with deepest held values; making necessary lifestyle shifts that make room for more aliveness and presence; and unlearning conditioned/colonized ways of being that get in the way of collective thriving. Grounded in social justice values, Jessica compassionately supports clients to embrace their shadows and deepen their capacity to hold themselves and others in loving regard.
In the blissful mundane of everyday life, Jess loves gathering all her friends together to co-create intentional, meaningful experiences. She nurtures her soul through movement organizing, dancing, writing, crafting, and spending time in nature. She is inspired every day by the magic and beauty of earth and delights in capturing the essence of Earth through nature photography.