Vanessa Bennett, LMFT, Los Angeles, CA (2025)

11/17/2025

let me be clear: I’m not against celebrating pregnancy.

We should celebrate it. Marking that threshold matters. Honoring the initiation matters.

But I want us to keep questioning why the celebration stops the moment the mother crosses into the part that actually requires a village. Because after the baby comes, the glow evaporates. Doctor appointments stop. Support becomes silence. Curiosity turns into judgment. The “pregnant princess” becomes the “postpartum pauper” overnight.

This isn’t accidental, it’s structural.

Patriarchy and capitalism exalt a woman as a vessel while abandoning the actual mother who now has needs, limits, boundaries, and a psyche in transition.

So what would it look like to lift the mother up and honor her profound shift in identity? To recognize that she is not just the bump, not just the performance of pregnancy, but a whole human on the cusp of an ego death so massive it will dismantle and rebuild her, and if supported, has the power to dismantle and rebuild us, too.

Because a mother’s initiation is never just personal. When she becomes more whole, more awake, more rooted in herself, the systems around her are forced to evolve.

Imagine if our rituals reflected that. Postpartum nourishment instead of party décor. Community instead of comparison.
Support instead of spectacle. Celebrate the pregnancy, yes.
But let’s stop pretending the initiation ends there. The real transformation begins after birth…and that’s where the mother needs the celebration most.

11/11/2025

From the moment we’re born, our survival depends on attachment. We learn to reach for connection: first from our caregivers, then from our peers, and eventually from society at large. To stay attached, we adapt. We perform. We become who others need us to be. Somewhere along the way, our authenticity, the part of us that knows what’s true and real, takes a back seat to belonging.

This is the invisible bargain so many of us make: I’ll trade parts of myself if it means I won’t be abandoned. And it works…until one day, it doesn’t.

Depth psychology teaches that this awakening often arrives at a threshold, what Jung called the midlife crisis, though “crisis” might be better understood as initiation. The first half of life is solar: outward-facing, building the persona, seeking achievement. The second half invites us inward into lunar, feminine territory where the questions change: Who am I beneath the performance? What does my soul long for now?

Yet, because our culture doesn’t support these initiatory passages, this transition can feel like falling apart. Without a village to witness and normalize the transformation, we mistake evolution for failure.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re losing yourself, in motherhood, in partnership, in the pursuit of success, you’re not broken. You’re awakening to the tension between attachment and authenticity.

🌕 The work of the second half of life is learning how to reattach to truth rather than approval, and to find the kind of community that celebrates that return.

So, where in your life are you beginning to choose authenticity over attachment? Leave a comment below. 👇🏻

✨ If you’re ready to read this full article or explore these thresholds in your own life, subscribe to my $ub$tack “Even Deeper” for access to full-length workshop recordings, monthly Q&As, and weekly depth psychology musings. 🔗 in bio

11/06/2025

“Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” — Carl Jung

Community is where both happen. ✨

We spend so much of our lives looking out there for belonging, meaning, and guidance. But true transformation happens when we find a space that mirrors our inner work back to us—without judgment, without pretense.

That’s what the Inner Compass Collective was built for.
A place to remember that healing isn’t meant to happen in isolation.

Where we can wrestle with shadow, reconnect to the Self, and be witnessed in our becoming.

🌀 November inside the Collective includes:
— Live group classes and workshops
— Community discussions and reflection prompts
— Access to the growing archive of depth-psychology teachings
— Real connection with others walking the same path

Come explore what happens when your growth is held in community.

✨ Join or rejoin the Collective today…link in bio.

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10/30/2025

Did you know the father wound often looks like self-doubt?

Like outsourcing your decisions to someone “who knows better.” Like shrinking when it’s time to take up space.
It’s the quiet habit of looking outside yourself for permission, because somewhere along the way, you learned that authority lived “out there.”

When the father wound goes unexamined, we tend to do one of two things:
👉🏻Rebel against authority while secretly longing for guidance.
👉🏻Or collapse into pleasing, waiting for someone else to lead the way.

Healing it isn’t about blaming our tangible fathers.
It’s about reconnecting to the archetypal Father within…
the inner authority that offers structure without control,
protection without domination, and guidance that aligns with integrity, not fear.

This is what I call reclaiming inner authority…learning to listen for your own voice, to trust your discernment, to move from “power over” or “power absent” toward sovereignty and purpose.

🌀 Read the full piece (and watch a 20 min clip from my Father Wound workshop): Facing Fear Without Outsourcing our Power on $ubstack.
(link in bio)

10/15/2025

I need these little things…’cause it’s the little things that mean a lot.

Annual tradition. Soul friends. Sweater weather. Dark beer. Pizza. Spooky fun. Children’s laughter. Adult laughter. Fireplace chats. Up past bedtime. Synchronicity. Reconnection to Self. Home.

i’ve been taking a much-needed break from social media. Reevaluating priorities and what’s important in my life. Trying to recalibrate my relationship to this space. And in the meantime, being present with life and friendship, because it’s happening, right here and now. And if we don’t look up from scrolling, we’ll miss it. 🍂

09/21/2025

The Witch Wound isn’t just the fear of being too much, it’s the lived experience of being judged or shut out because we dared to be. And healing it doesn’t mean pretending that fear isn’t still real. It means noticing when it’s running the show, and choosing to stand in our full expression anyway.

This is something I explore in The Motherhood Myth, because the roots of this wound live deep in our roles—as mothers, partners, leaders, artists.

The stories we’ve inherited from patriarchy, misogyny, colonization… They taught us that to be accepted, we had to be agreeable. To be safe, we had to be small.

But what if reclaiming our voice, our intuition, and our power was part of the healing? Not just for ourselves, but for the collective?

I’ve been inviting clients and community members to sit with a few simple questions:
    ✨ What part of me have I buried to stay safe?
    ✨ When do I turn the volume down on my truth to stay likable?
    ✨ What qualities in other women do I judge because I’ve been taught to fear them in myself?

These aren’t always easy to answer. But they open the door to something honest. And if you’ve been feeling the discomfort of growth, of no longer shrinking to fit, then you’re already in the work.

This is part of a longer ditty I wrote for my $ub$tack - 🔗 in bio

09/02/2025

Community is more important now than ever…

our September calendar is stacked with amazing groups, workshops, and classes led by myself and a team of rockstar therapists and coaches.

Affordable (and will stay that way always, on purpose), accessible, and welcoming…I hope you’ll join us 💚

Comment “September” for a 50% discount code for your first month💚

09/02/2025

2025 has been the biggest perspective shift of my life.

If this resonates with you…this was a deeper dive into what I sent to my weekly email subscribers this week…join via my website or my $sub$tack 💚

08/26/2025

Still have questions about the Academy?

here are a few answers, feel free to DM me directly with any others !!

✨ visit my website for a full breakdown of the details. There’s only a couple spots left in cohort 2, which starts September 14.!

08/19/2025

You were never meant to do this alone.

This week marks the final chapter in our 7-week series exploring The Motherhood Myth.

The Return to the Village.

We’re talking about:
• What post-patriarchal motherhood might look like
• Why community is not just support, but soul medicine
• How the journey back to your Self is the most important return of all

🌿 This isn’t about going back to how things were. It’s about returning transformed, more embodied, more sovereign, more connected.

🛑 And this week is the last day to join the Book Club! Preorder the book and you’ll get:
→ An 8-week live experience
→ Two months of free access to my private Circle community
→ A space to go deeper into the myths, stories, and truths behind the roles we’ve been given

Vanessa Bennett, LMFT

11/17/2025

11/11/2025

11/06/2025

10/30/2025

10/15/2025

09/21/2025

09/02/2025

09/02/2025

08/26/2025

08/19/2025

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