HORÓ Psychotherapy - Aleksandra Staneva, PhD

02/01/2026

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

Mary Oliver

23/12/2025

I have always been the warrior woman. Nothing stops me. Challenges rain down and I rise, watching myself stretch higher and wider above them.
Tough, forged, unyielding.
My ancestors showed me how it is done.
Endure. Override. Survive.
I learned to ride the body hard, to treat it as something that exists to carry me forward no matter the cost. Hunger, exhaustion, pain, longing. These became things to push past, not listen to. Strength equaled control. Control meant never slowing down.

But there comes a moment when this way of being turns against me. What once saved me begins to cost me.

Surrendering to the body feels incredibly hard, almost wrong. A part of me still wants to push until the very end, to ignore the body’s signals and keep going.

That part believes stopping is weakness. What is to actually surrender?
To the bestest of companions I will always have around? My one and only precious body? The only one I got!

It is listening. It is letting the body matter.
It is the friend who says - I am tired. And then I attend to that. It is the friend who says Help! I am sick. And I help it heal in the best ways I could.

When I stop forcing, something else appears. A steadier strength. A connection between us. Because let’s be honest. What exactly does it really mean to say “listen to your body”?? It means getting soooooo attuned to its cues that you simply know its needs. Like a mother who knows.

A body that has been listened to usually means all agendas of our conscious mind get overturned. Because-you know?? You had a plan! And then your body had another plan. Surprised? Shocked? Only if you didn’t hear the whispers.

So listen. I am learning. Oh I am so green at this. It hasn’t been in my make up. I haven’t seen a woman in my lineage doing this. All I saw was a mighty all-veins-popping push through…. And I used to admire and respect that. And I still do but differently now. Cos when I listen I know that there are times to push. And times when you can’t and you shouldn’t.
It’s about knowing early enough. And that is only possible when your listening instrument is sharp. And the reward, a deeper sense of being alive.
Warrior woman, surrender.

25/11/2025

One of the things I felt like doing for my birthday this year was to see ‘If I Had Legs, I’d Kick you’ with a bunch of friends, and have a discussion about it. (Some spoilers coming up)

It is a film about a therapist and mother who is completely overwhelmed by the chaos of family life, starring the fantastic Rose Byrne.

After the movie my friends and I sat around talking about it, and what really stayed with me was how unusual it felt to watch a story where the focus was actually on the mother. Full focus! Zoomed in on her experience Not the child, whose face was not shown until the very last scene, not the partner, not the “role” of motherhood, but the woman herself.

It made me realise how rarely we get to see a mother’s inner world shown honestly. We talk so much about mothering, but hardly ever about the psychological experience of the mother as a person in her own right. This film gave her space: her frustration, her tenderness, her anger, her exhaustion, her humour, her moments of disappearing and reappearing.

From a Jungian point of view, it touched on the deeper layers of the mother figure. Not the perfect Mother that society expects, but the real one who has a shadow too, the parts that feel trapped, resentful, scared, lost. It showed how easy it is for a woman to be swallowed by the idea of “being a good mother” and how that can disconnect her from her own sense of self. As well as some truly real challenges mothers experience in their hopelessness and inabilities to “know what to do” when often - there are simply no answers to this.

The film puts the mother’s experience front and centre, which as I said - is quite radical. We see just how much society expects women to carry emotionally, practically, and constantly. The father or male presence barely appears, not because she needs him, but because the story refuses to give men the spotlight. As a matter of fact there’s no healthy masculine present. The way I saw the father appear at the end was actually the mother’s own helpful inner Animus energy, much needed for her inner resolution.

Have you seen the film? What are your thoughts?

Aleks

23/11/2025

06/11/2025

Another Mother-centered film! I am thrilled to see it!

04/11/2025

Shadow work is not glamorous. It’s not neat. It’s not fancy or pleasant or cute. It’s not instagram-worthy and it’s never ending. Can’t put a pin on it. Or a nice ribbon of completion.

It’s tiring. It’s sticky. Uncomfortable. Shame-inducing. Nauseating. It is also INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT sacred soulwork.

What is Shadow Work
Shadow work is the sacred art of walking into the dark with a candle in hand. It is the journey to the places inside us we have banished or forgotten. The Shadow holds what we have been told not to be: our grief, our rage, our hunger, our wild knowing. When we meet these hidden parts with tenderness instead of fear, we recover the lost pieces of our soul and remember the fullness of who we are.

⸻

Why it Matters

1. It restores power
What we deny does not disappear. It waits beneath the surface and pulls the strings from the dark. Meeting the Shadow frees the life force trapped in fear and shame and returns it to our hands as creativity and strength.

2. It brings wholeness
To love only the light is to live half a life. When we welcome the dark, we become complete. The soul longs to be seen in its entirety, not edited to please or perform. Wholeness is born when we can say yes to all that we are.

3. It deepens love and truth
Unseen Shadow makes us judge, project, and repeat old wounds. Seen Shadow softens us. It humbles and awakens us. It allows us to meet others and life itself with greater compassion, honesty, and depth.

“ENCOUNTERS WITH THE SHADOW” is a Women Circle I will hold on July 27, 2026 at

10 spots only

📧 horoforwomen@gmail.com

04/11/2025

This is what’s currently happening (and for a bit - not happening 💤) at HORÓ in the next few months.

04/11/2025

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE SHADOW: the GOLD inside the DARK
Monday, February 23rd, 2026
5.30–7.30pm
at HORÓ Psychotherapy, Annerley
Cost: $199 | Only 10 spots

⸻

HERE SHE IS, cloaked in mystery and power. The Dark Goddess, the keeper of the underworld within.

She does not whisper sweet words of comfort. She calls you deeper. She asks you to look where you have not dared to look before.
SHE IS REJECTED AND PUSHED OUTSIDE OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS 🌖

This is an evening of descent and awakening, where we meet the Dark Goddess as the sacred guide into our own Shadow. The parts we hide, deny, or judge are the very places where our life force, creativity, and truth are buried.
Together we will enter sacred circle and
• Meet and embody your Dark Goddess archetype
• Encounter what has been repressed or feared
• Reclaim your power, vitality, and creative fire - and all her secret gifts

This will be a deeply embodied experience of shadow work through Archetypal exploration, Invocation, and inner process. You will be guided safely into the terrain where transformation begins.

As always, spaces are very limited to keep our circle intimate and safe.

⸻

🖤🤎Come dressed in BLACK and/or GOLD, the colors of the Dark Goddess 🤎🖤

Booking details
📧 horoforwomen@gmail.com

Strictly limited to 10 participants.
For more information: horoforwomen@gmail.com
More about Aleksandra: www.aleksandrastaneva.com
Artwork by Sarah Bogh

03/11/2025

You don’t have to “bring something” to therapy.
So many of us feel pressure to arrive prepared, with a dream, a crisis, or something meaningful to unpack.
But therapy isn’t a performance.

The moments when you feel blank, tired, or “have nothing to bring” are often the most honest. They reveal the part of you that learned long ago: I must produce to deserve attention.

In truth, you don’t need to bring anything.
You are the material.
Your silence, fatigue, numbness, confusion all of it belongs.

When we let ourselves arrive empty, something deeper can begin to speak.

Sometimes the most transformative sessions start with: “I don’t know what to talk about today.”

Just show up.

Warmly,
Aleksandra 🤍