our sisters' voices

I feel entirely changed and yet absolutely the same. It was like being in a space with these women, getting to show up as my full self, getting to witness these other beautiful souls show up as their full selves, and really trusting in the love and connection that is in this container. It was like getting to chip off so many different layers and masks of things that were me-shaped but not actually me. ~ River

I notice being in this healing sisterhood, that it's making me go slower in friendships, in sisterhood and with blood sisters. I’m feeling enmeshment and codependency with friendships and sisters that I don’t have in this. This is opening me to want to pause and slow down in other relationships... to not feel over responsibility outside of this healing sisterhood. I really feel that I am being held by speaking and receiving in a totally new way, opening me up to view my entire life in a different way. It's rewiring everything constantly, making me question every other relationship in life and how I want to show up differently elsewhere.
~ Jennifer M.

I felt like there’s so much space to take our time. A fully titrated experience. There was no rush. There was no rushing, or forcing or pushing. Specifically for women who had big ‘othering’ trauma… Like foundational, fundamental, societal, ancestral, othering trauma. I watched an unfolding that was… it literally makes me emotional just thinking about it. You just see the perfect timing of it. And even in my brain of facilitation that’s like, it would quiver and oscillate, “Maybe we should move this along?!” And your trust in that and the positive results of that… unbelievable. ~ Jenny Ray

I so appreciate the fact that even though I intend to step more fully into the counsel, when I don’t have the bandwidth and I just show up over and over, that I am accepted, that I am valued and honored for who I am and where I am and respected for this. This is just a divine blessing in my life! ~ Anne

I had, and still am healing, a lot of trauma that sits in my body. I was able to become more conscious of how I respond to life, through this group, by being able to be present to my response in my body. COVID was happening, and it brought up a lot of existential fear from my earlier life in South Africa where it wasn’t safe to be out in the world... it brought up a way of coping, that I could at this stage of life have more presence to be able to be with that, and the space of the group allowed me to walk through connecting with my own responses. To hold myself and bring compassion and love to myself, while being connected to this deep feminine space. This deep feminine all-compassionate holding of life that was alive and real through the hearts and wombs of each woman in this circle. It was a deep alchemical process for me. ~ Bonita

It’s really helped me to step forward with my work now. Where I’ve always felt so afraid to come forward… to step forward and really just bring my gifts of who I am. To be able to walk through that in this counsel has given me this place of confidence… but it’s beyond confidence. My ability to stay connected to my own sovereignty, in amongst all that could trigger us. For me, particularly around my past. To be able to stay connected to my sovereign experience without being diminished by that, is quite profound. ~ Bonita

In a really sweet slow way, I’ve learned with this Counsel that it’s absolutely okay to share, both the experience of being a woman holding space for other women and really appreciating their honesty and depth, and being able to reflect back to them… or simply hold space and allow them to express themselves. And then having them do that for me. It has been incredibly healing, in that it makes me feel much more comfortable in my every day interactions with people. I feel like I have a more solid ground of “Yes, I’m a real person. A real woman.” And I’ve now been in the space with enough real people and real women who have the courage to share their fullness… It’s okay to have the level of depth that I have, the complexity that I have. It feels good. ~ Madeline

What is wonderful is that it’s motivated me even more... I have a much stronger motivation to create this kind of space for myself as a format… this way of connecting and level of depth of connecting with the people in my community. I’m living in this persona of the respectable music teacher and performer… there’s something different about my willingness to show up even more authentically, and get pretty clear about the types of connections I do desire and want with people, and create more of those. I feel softer about connecting in general… ~ Madeline

I’m often the eldest person in a group ...and I always thought it was funny that I was the oldest. When you said that to me, something really happened inside of me. Oh… this gives new and precious meaning to your age. It’s not like, “Oh, ha ha ha… I’m so old.” It gave this respect and dignity to my age and all of my experience. And I felt like, this is an important place to step into. Realizing how people might look to you, and how you can in return, either just hold that space of someone whose been alive more than anybody else in that group. And also be available to share or support because I had been through all those years. By you honoring that in me, it made me instantly honor it in myself. I began to think of myself that way… this is something different. This is something to try on… to feel your way into. And it’s allowed me to just be in a way that I wasn’t before, in a place of acceptance. ~ Jenny P.

I’m just me. In here. And yet… the elder is the part of me that’s been me in here for a long number of years. And I don’t have to do anything with it. It’s just about being it. Just be in the breadth and depth of your experience. All of it. The good, the bad, the crazy, the profound. The whatever. And be open to be of service. Not like, “I’m going to go out and find something to do.” But just, if I’m called upon, I’m here. I’m just here holding space, paying attention, and loving… ~ Jenny P