working at the confluence of eco-therapy, eco-somatics, and eco-spiritualityworking at the confluence of eco-therapy, eco-somatics, and eco-spirituality
ABOUT
GREETINGS & WELCOME!
We are Jess & Michelle and we are SO honored to have you here. Our people come from western and eastern European disaporic settler communities who have occupied areas surrounding the Great Lakes for generations.
Born in the Piedmont South, Way Of Belonging has been held and nurtured by the Cape Fear River Basin since 2019. We give our thanks to the land and communities who held us. We offer deep gratitude to the Eno, Shakori, Sissipahaw and Occaneechi nations, and more specifically, to 7 Directions of Service, for their work and leadership. Way Of Belonging is now shaped by the fact that we live on two different coasts. Our work reflects these life changes and is also responsive to the socio-cultural-ecological landscape in which it now grows.
Jess currently resides within the unceded territories of the Mi'kmaq within the Atlantic Maritimes of Nova Scotia. Michelle resides within the unceded territories of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, among many other tribal natons in what is now known as Portland, Oregon, situated within Cascadia.​
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We offer trauma-informed, somatic-based healing sessions for individuals seeking therapeutic support outside of the mental health industrial complex.
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We hope to meet you!
Belonging is hardwired into our blood, bones, waterways and stones
Belonging is an embodied journey of remembering your way HOME.​
We borrow from biology the term homing to describe our innate ability to navigate the dislocation of modern day empire towards embodied belonging.
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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 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 soul 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.
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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 healing and collective liberation.
This means interrogating and actively resisting the oppressive systems that bolster racial capitalism and 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.
Thus we root our work in a personal commitment to dismantling systems of oppression internally and externally while growing our collective capacity for an Indigenous land-back future. To this end, we believe it is imperative that we align with a vision of the world that liberates all lands and people, and reclaim our unique power, responsibility, ecological purpose and place of belonging within the web of life.
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Together, let us foster a resilient earth culture for generations to come.
“Our bodies know that they belong; it is our minds that make our lives so homeless. Guided by longing, belonging is the wisdom of rhythm. When we are in rhythm with our own nature, things flow and balance naturally."​
- John O'Donohue
PAST COLLABORATORS
