|
I’d love for you to know that our time will be insightful and impactful and comforting and interesting and eye-opening and instructional, and yet, please know that the most transformative moments of our work together will take place outside of our session times. They’ll take place while you endeavor to integrate the themes and invitations from our work into the rhythms of your day-to-day life.
I’d love for you to know that every single session we have together has the potential to look different than any other session, and may look different than the care I provide other clients due to the diversity of modalities I trust--modalities that resonate with some clients and not with others. I will pivot often to shape the work that we do together based on what is resonating with you most in the moment, what you've asked for, and what seems to align most with the goals you have, all in partnership with my own instincts. I’d love for you to know that I thought long and hard about becoming a licensed clinical therapist, but no, I'm not one. Despite working in a state psychiatric hospital in undergrad, in the psychiatric emergency room during grad school, and finding myself in therapeutic spaces regularly where I'm the only person in the room who’s not a licensed psychologist, I've made the deliberate choice to remain within my scope of practice as a mental health coach, breathwork practitioner, nutrition & wellness educator, and spiritual collaborator. This choice affords us both a level of flexibility and freedom in how our work unfolds, and ensures that I stay values-aligned as I shape my unique training to support you. I’d love for you to know that, due to my hybrid training path and lifetime of experiential education, my work is often mistaken for therapy. I've realized over the years that many of my clients aren't quite sure what the difference is between a mental health coach and a therapist, especially as the field of coaching is fledgling, and breathwork and psychospiritual facilitation is even more fringe. I’d love for you to know that licensed therapy is not the only way to care for your mental health or the mind-body-spirit continuum, and you can trust yourself to use the modalities that feel the most aligned for you. I’d love, love, love for you to know that you can trust yourself to use the modalities that feel the most aligned for you. I’d love for you to know that I’m not a clinical nutritionist. I have a Master of Science in Integrative Nutrition and spent some time during the early part of my career focusing specifically on nutrition consultations, but the runway for fulfillment was short for me in that work. What does this mean for you? It means I won’t make you a meal plan or write you a supplement recommendation list. I will hold space for exploring your cravings, your complex relationship with food, the parts of you that are activated underneath the day-to-day routines of nourishment, and how to manifest your visions around nutrition and wellness. I’d love for you to know that “psychospiritual wellness care” is only the imperfect phrase used to describe our work together, but more importantly, please know that this isn’t a new concept, nor is it a model that I uniquely designed…not really. It's mind-body-spirit medicine, and it’s woven throughout human history in one form or another. I have my own spin, with complementary models woven together, but this approach to wellness care belongs to all of us. I’d love for you to know that when I say I work on a sliding scale, I really mean it. You can trust me to set rates that enable me to afford my life as a mother living in the DC area and you can trust me to have space in my practice each month to provide some number of reduced cost sessions. I’d love for you to know that if you’re coming into this work with anxiety about what you're paying--feeling like you're spending more than you have to give, or worrying that I've given you a reduced rate that doesn’t honor my value--those anxieties will be rippling under the surface of our work. I’d love for you to know that our work will flow best if there's a foundation of trust here, that we can be in partnership together in financially wise and sound ways for both of us, and that there are paths available for us to collaborate openly around this (cue “collective care for healing money trauma!”). I’d love for you to know that I'm content with us only working together a few times, or staying in this collaboration for years; meeting every week, or only touching in when you need it. As I said, I trust you. I trust that you know what kind of care you need. I trust that even if you don't feel like you know, there's something deeper guiding you along your healing journey, and whether you trust that or not, **I do**. I invite you into collaboration in whatever way it makes sense for you, at whatever time. Lastly, I’d love for you to know that I won’t fix you, because you’re not broken, and I won’t heal you, because you are the agent of your own healing. I’ll meet your inner parts right where they are with support and skill-building that's tailored uniquely to you. Together we'll walk you into the next season of your life. Amidst everything you’re facing and holding and hoping for, psychospiritual wellness care is poised to be of service, and so am I. Have you spent any time healing in “wellness spaces”? Or given much thought to the blossoming field of Health and Wellness Coaching? Or considered the changes taking place as a growing wellness industry reacts to the limitations of modern healthcare? Yes, me too! I’ve done all three of these things and more along the winding road of my health and wellness journey. I’ve been in many, many wellness spaces, shaped like gyms and yoga studios and acupuncture offices and health food stores….. functional doctors, herbalists, float tanks, countless other settings. For better or worse, I’m teeming with commentary on this topic. I’ve thought a ton about the blossoming study of Health and Wellness Coaching as I picked up a graduate degree in the field and now work one-on-one with clients. And I’ve watched wellness spaces ebb and flow with trends, shape-shifting alongside their social media influencers, all the while attempting to provide a refuge for the exhausted and chronically ill searching for answers in an overburdened healthcare system. Ultimately, my time in the wellness world inspired a few specific adaptations to the way I’ve learned to practice, evolving into the spaceholding that I now relate to and identify as Psychospiritual Wellness Coaching. This approach, Wellness Coaching for Psychospiritual Integration, brings together everything beautiful and bountiful that traditional wellness practices have to offer, and deepens our relationship to them across multiple planes. from wellness work to psychospiritual wellness workNo matter what angle you’ve been using to think about wellness care, you’ve likely been the recipient of the rewards this industry offers at some point or another. So have I! Perhaps focusing on strength training led to muscles that can do things they couldn't do before. Mindful eating brought you greater awareness of food sensitivities or cravings that were interfering with ease-filled nourishment. Maybe you came into the wellness space feeling groggy, lacking energy, and this work took you beyond personal trainers and nutritionists into the realm of acupuncturists manipulating Qi or massage therapists supporting lymphatic flow.** Taking a spin around the classic wellness wheel model, I find nothing but wonderful topics worth exploring, the focus of which will lead to tremendous quality of life improvements for those who endeavor to work in any of these realms. Nutrition. Movement. Sleep. Rest vs Stress. Sexuality. Professional wellness. The list really goes on here. In classic health and wellness coaching, we use a variety of tools and techniques to strategize around goal setting, to draw forward the motivation that already dwells within, to reaffirm one’s values as a means of devotion to the changes they seek. I. Love. This. Work. Golden. Annnnnnd, as time has passed, I’ve fallen more and more deeply in love with psychospiritual work too! Psyche. Spirit. The psyche. The mind and emotions. Mental health. Stored memories. Entrenched beliefs. Cultural narratives. The spirit. The sacred. The Divine. Mother earth. Holy rage, holy sorrow. God/Goddess. Slowing down with them, we’ll notice that these terms are actually quite nuanced, and personal, and individualized. I’m not convinced psyche or spirit mean quite the same thing to any two people, and the way this work actually shows up in someone’s life is even more personalized. Simply look down the block at the number of different religious institutions you’ll find (ok, I’m in the DC/Baltimore area, I can find a lot…. depending on what part of the world you’re in, this won’t be the case, but you get the idea). Or consider mental health care options - there’s a similarly diverse stream of modalities for understanding the psyche as there are churches and temples to engage the spirit. From classical psychoanalysis (whose roots, by the way, don’t extend that far back into history) to a wide range of modern psychotherapeutic approaches, to esoteric consciousness studies, and beyond. So if there’s this much variety within the fields of psychological and spiritual study and practice, and the wellness world is equally saturated with options on every urban street corner for how to “get fit” and “be well,” what does all of this actually look like when woven together in practice…when woven together in practice with you? putting psychospiritual work into practiceAhhh, that last sentence fragment above is the key to thinking about Psychospiritual Wellness…. it will be woven together over time, like a complex tapestry, in the dynamic, living practice that is you, that is your life. Unlike the “Six Weeks to Six-pack Abs” protocols of the wellness world, Psychospiritual Wellness Coaching doesn’t aim to accomplish the same goal for every participant - you won’t all end up with six-pack abs at the end. Or 12 weeks to a healthier thyroid, or “fatigued to fresh in five easy steps.” In the montage of mystery that is your personal walk with living well in your body, attuned to your mind and mental health, with a pulse on what it means to live sacredly through your lens, no two clients ever strive to the same pot of gold at the end, and they certainly aren’t walking the same way to get there. It’s a highly individualized exploration of what health and wellness can look like for you in this season of life, what’s calling for your attention along the way, and what you’re being invited to actualize as a result. That said, six-pack abs might be part of your story! Or your pot of gold might be thyroid labs that fall back into balance; fussy, late-night cravings that dissipate; marital woes that soften… the list is as infinite here as there are people on the planet. Along the way, during your one-on-one sessions, the focus might hover around the classic wellness wheel features, and perhaps you’ll set goals around movement routines or celebrate as your sleep improves. Other times, you might find yourself expanding out beyond this wheel of wellness fundamentals, touching themes often reserved for your therapist's couch, or your pastor's office, maybe even your yoga studio, ashram, or meditation retreat. Questions on the nature of consciousness. Inquiries into your ancestral line and the way it impacts you today. Considerations about the nature of trauma and safety and comfort in this human body. Reflections about recurring dreams you have or daily hunches that seem to unexpectedly come to fruition. A deep dive into the ways this pattern has been with you for decades. In a practice where the wellness wheel expands out beyond the confines of the boundaries once known, where the psyche and the spirit are invited into wellness work, the question of what it means to live well doesn't stop at what you're eating, or how often you're running on the treadmill. While in this expanded space of Psychospiritual Wellness Coaching, the wellness wheel goals still do actualize - the periods of deeper rest emerge, the nightly love affairs with a particular food that leave you feeling guilty the next day slowly evaporate, the visions of starting a new running habit materialize - and alongside these fulfilled wellness goals is a deeper connection to that which is sacred about this state of being human. A deeper connection to the questions of birth and death, deeper understanding of the traumas that have been suppressed, a more loving care of the inner parts that were encouraged to go into hiding so our performance as a person wouldn't be interrupted. All of that is now invited into the room when the question emerges, “what was it like partnering your goals and intentions this week”? The opportunity to bring psychospiritual practice into the wellness space is a river with many tributaries branching from its central stream, and each practitioner designs their own way forward. I’m eager to share more with you about how the tools of Breathwork, the Internal Family Systems model, the Enneagram, and compassionate self-inquiry are used in my practice while we endeavor to journey through this work together. For now, I hope these words built a firm foundation and a soft landing for you to imagine what’s possible, that they set the stage for all the learning and exploring we can do together in the future. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a prompt to get you started today, and invite you to sit with a friend, a journal, or a long and rambling voice memo to yourself as you explore the answers. As always, if I can be of service in any way, please do connect when the time is right. Here’s to a life well-lived and a soul fully expressed. questions to prompt a new perspective on your goalName one health and wellness goal or intention you’ve been spending a lot of mental energy or heart energy with lately - a change you’ve been making or wanting to make in your diet, your sex life, your sleep habits, your movement routine… what have you been trying on, or fantasizing about implementing? Now explore one, several, or all of these questions below to bring in a new perspective about this theme in your life:
** For those with goals related to specific body shapes or sizes, a dietary plan may have led to a desired slenderness or weight. (As a weight-neutral practitioner, I stopped short of mentioning this example in the list above, but the truth is that so many people enter the wellness world through this doorway! Often, wanting to be slimmer, smaller, lighter, thinner. I’m equal parts inspired by this collective drive to commit to our health and human bodies, and dismayed by the reality that patriarchal structures perpetuate mythology about what it means to have a “good” body. So before I digress too far, suffice it to say that I opted to leave the weight loss option off of the list above, and I simultaneously acknowledge and appreciate how much of our hearts goes into this work. More reflections to share on this another time.... |
Details
About the AuthorRachael is a Mental Health Coach, Breathwork Practitioner, and Wellness Educator who invites clients to move beyond the cycle of "fixing" themselves and into a practice of deep listening. With a background that spans psychiatric emergency care and a Master of Science in Integrative Nutrition, Rachael bridges the gap between clinical knowledge and spiritual practice. Drawing from her own journey through addiction and recovery, trauma work, and chronic illness, she has cultivated a unique, hybrid approach to healing that weaves together training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic breathwork, and intuitive coaching. She makes the deliberate choice to work outside the traditional clinical box, offering a collaborative space for clients to explore their emotional landscape, body wisdom, and spiritual identity through practices that blend therapeutic frameworks with each client’s own inner wisdom. Rachael lives and practices in the Washington, DC area where she is awestruck every day by the resilience she witnesses both in and outside her office. |