Indwelling

01/02/2025

Happy New Year from Alicia and I!

Alicia recently joined Indwelling as a Support Coordinator and as a Sacred Counsel Guide, and I am so thrilled to have her on board.

Alicia, also known as Keera, is a certified cuddle therapist, registered trauma-conscious yoga guide, body and energy worker, and Sacred Counsel Guide who runs her body/mind/soul care business BeHeld.

Alicia received her bachelor’s in psychology in 2008, obtained her Reiki I and II attunements in the early 2010s, earned her cuddle therapy certification through Cuddlist in 2019, completed Svalja Whole Being’s yoga teacher training in 2022, and attended Indwelling’s first Sacred Counsel Guide Apprenticeship Program in 2024.

She ran a successful business from 2012 to 2022 with multiple employees before she fully shifted her attention to holistic care.

She works within LGBTQIA+, ENM, unconventional, and neurodivergent communities and loves to provide safer spaces for those in alternative lifestyles. Alicia also leads regular gatherings for non-normative folks where they can freely be themselves without masks. She’s passionate about relationships, sensuality, kink, the interplay of seggs, shame, and religion, and how to build deep and meaningful connections and survive combative/emotionally abusive people.

In her non-working life, Alicia likes to visit her favorite trees, stroll around with her overly enthusiastic Aussie/heeler mix, hoard bean bag chairs and fuzzy blankets, devour sushi, and engage in rambling conversations about Big Things with friends.

✨ We are taking new clients in 2025! DM for details ✨

PC:

11/15/2021

Hi, friends--a few spaces remain in the "Becoming Embodied" certificate program I will be leading in January at Svalja Yoga.

This certificate program is a holistic trauma informed training that incorporates depth psychology, somatics, and inner work, as primary pathways of healing and well-being.

This program is for yoga teachers, movement practitioners, bodyworkers, therapists, social workers, healers, or anyone looking to strengthen their awareness and expand their experience of bodily and imaginal knowledge in their own lives and personal practice, or anyone seeking to incorporate more holistic strategies into their work with clients.

Visit Svalja Yoga's website to register: https://www.svalja.yoga/becoming-embodied

11/10/2021

BECOMING EMBODIED CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
A few spots remain for the Becoming Embodied Certificate Program that I will be offering at Svalja Yoga this winter! This certificate program is a holistic trauma informed training that incorporates depth psychology, somatics, and inner work, as primary pathways of healing and well-being.

This program is for yoga teachers, movement practitioners, bodyworkers, therapists, social workers, healers, or anyone looking to strengthen their awareness and expand their experience of bodily and imaginal knowledge in their own lives and personal practice, or anyone seeking to incorporate more holistic strategies into their work with clients.

Upon completion of the program participants will be able to:

*Appreciate the importance of inner work and integrate it into their lives/practices

*Hold an awareness of Jungian theories and somatics in a trauma informed manner

*Practice dreamwork, incorporating it as a creative primary pathway for imaginal knowing

*Rely on the felt sense as an inner compass and primary pathway for bodily knowing

*Understand how trauma impacts embodiment and imaginal/bodily knowing

*Develop and/or get curious about having a healing relationship with their own embodiment

*Recognize the importance of a somatic ensouled psychology

*Apply healthy boundaries and communication in their lives/practices

*Get curious about reclaiming embodied joy and pleasure

For more information or to register:
https://www.svalja.yoga/becoming-embodied

Photo Credit: Wolfskull Creative

11/08/2021

WORKSHOP: SELF-CARE AND SETTING LIMITS--TRAUMA CONSCIOUS BOUNDARIES AND COMMUNICATON--There are still a few spots open for this workshop at Svalja Yoga on December 5th!

In this workshop we will explore healthy boundaries and communication from a trauma conscious perspective. A boundary is a limit or space between you and the other person; a clear place where you begin and the other person ends—boundaries are how we teach others to treat us. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of you. At a base level, boundary setting can be considered a radical act of self-care!

Healthy boundaries are those boundaries that are set to make sure we are able to be mentally, emotionally, and physically grounded and embodied.

What is your relationship to boundaries? Were they modeled to you as a child? Do they come easily? Are they challenging to implement?

Does boundary setting make you feel guilty or selfish?

Do you often sacrifice your own needs through people pleasing?

A boundary is a limit or space between you and the other person; a clear place where you begin and the other person ends. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of you.

11/04/2021

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING-VIA LYRICAL PLUMBING METAPHORS
"Okay so here's a story. When I bought my last house, it was a fixer upper and I like to know all the things so of course, that was my first house. One of the funner (more fun?) things to experience was the complete and total clog of the indoor sewer line, which was not, I REPEAT NOT fixed by the extreme build up of pressure that was created with a high pressure hose and closure of the pipe. The house started to get creaky and I (wisely) chose to stop adding pressure and call a professional. But before I did that, I had to release the pressure in the sewer line, which I did. The result was really stinky and made me almost puke-a lot. It took So. Much. Bleach.

What I appreciate about Hilary is that she’s a really awesome plumber. But she doesn’t come along and snake out your sewer lines for you. No. She lets you do these things yourself, and she teaches you how to do them, and she never makes a comment about how smelly your p**p is.

What I also appreciate about Hilary is that she knows that sometimes you have to blow some stuff up and start over with new plumbing. And she has the best dynamite.

I came to Sacred Counsel via very different ways of knowing things, and it’s been the most amazing opportunity to get to know myself on a way deeper level. And while the process has been messy (and smelly) sometimes, it’s also been exhilarating. If you have the opportunity to embark on a journey to your own inner self, I hope you take it. And Hilary is a great plumber to take with you when you go."

www.indwellingduluth.com

10/30/2021

NEW WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITY, SUNDAY DEC. 5th!
In this workshop we will explore healthy boundaries and communication from a trauma conscious perspective. A boundary is a limit or space between you and the other person; a clear place where you begin and the other person ends—boundaries are how we teach others to treat us. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of you. At a base level, boundary setting can be considered a radical act of self-care!

What is your relationship to boundaries? Were they modeled to you as a child? Do they come easily? Are they challenging to implement?

Does boundary setting make you feel guilty or selfish?

Do you often sacrifice your own needs through people pleasing?

A boundary is a limit or space between you and the other person; a clear place where you begin and the other person ends. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of you.

10/16/2021

NEW RETREAT: BY TOOTH AND CLAW, JANUARY 21-23
Join me this winter for the "By Tooth and Claw: Womxn & Wolves" retreat at the lodge at Camp Amnicon, January 21-23, 2022. During this weekend retreat we will examine what it means to be womxn aligned in our hearts and bodies with the strength and predatory nature of wolves--by exploring how we can belong to ourselves (sovereignty), how we can look within for answers (imaginal and somatic knowing), and how we can learn to trust our instincts (wild nature).

We’ll investigate where our wild nature lives in our bodies as we traverse the feminine Underworld with pointy teeth and sharp claws. We’ll sing bone songs and send our howls through the forest on the wind. We’ll explore the deep visceral wells of powerful medicine within us and establish new territory.

Circling together we will draw on art and creativity, music, depth psychology, stories from the Norse/Germanic tradition, and wisdom from authors Sharon Blackie (Foxfire and Wolfskin), and Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Women Who Run With the Wolves), to explore what it might mean to live our most wild, authentic, and instinctual life. The retreat will include embodied movement practices, workshops, ritual, and time in nature.

Wolves devour and kill what is ill, injured, or no longer needed. What needs to be eaten in your life? Are you going to share the kill?

Wolves have the fangs and claws to do the killing and will feed you. Will you allow yourself to be fed? What will you make from the leftover bones?

Register here: https://www.indwellingduluth.com/retreats-workshops

“We are all filled with a longing for the wild. There are few culturally sanctioned antidotes for this yearning. We were taught to feel shame for such a desire. We grew our hair long and hid our feelings. But the shadow of Wild Woman still lurks behind us during our days and in our nights. No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estes

09/15/2021

FROM THE BONE SONGS BLOG: THE HEART OF THE RED FIRE
A new blog by Sam Connolly who is currently a part of Svalja Yoga and HGYS's 4th YTT cohort, and a Sacred Counsel client. Sam eloquently describes the depth and meaning that can emerge from inner work.

"I was opening up to the idea that I can add to my beliefs, making space for the idea that the rational container is not big enough to hold all of our experiences. I felt I was scratching the surface of important work that needed to be done...I am not holding the expectation that I will be given answers. Doing this work is part of unravelling the tight ball of ancestral trauma held in my body, fold by fold. Each phase of this exploration is opening pathways to deeper understanding. I am slowly and cautiously opening up to receive what comes up next. This is life’s work, and I’m here for it."

I was opening up to the idea that I can add to my beliefs, making space for the idea that the rational container is not big enough to hold all of our experiences. I felt I was scratching the surface of important work that needed to be done. Wanting to further explore these ideas, I began seeing Hila

09/15/2021

NEW WORKSHOP: IMAGINAL AND BODILY WAYS OF KNOWING
A few spots remain in my upcoming workshop on Sunday, October 3, from 10A-1P, at Svalja Yoga!

In this workshop we will explore a depth psychological approach to knowledge through imaginal ways of knowing that include the body, sensation, feeling, dreams, intuition, art, and nature. We will bring images, symbols, metaphors, and the felt sense alive, tapping into the deep wells within as sources of knowing, power, connection, and imagination. Through circling together, grounding our bodies in nature, and other somatic and imaginative practices, we will validate our internal capacity for generating significance and meaning, and discover new ways of relating to our bodies and the world.

"The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world--we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millenia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves, and each other." -Joanna Macy
This workshop is for anyone who wants to get to know themselves better, for those who want to learn to trust their own bodily knowing, for those who seek a new lens through which to see and relate to our world, and for current or prospective Sacred Counsel clients.

You can register here: https://www.indwellingduluth.com/retreats-workshops/p/imaginal-ways-of-knowing

Photo Credit: Wolfskull Creative

**The sacred smoke used in this photo is from plants I grew myself that my European ancestors would have used.**