Similar to traversing a labyrinth, vulva gazing looks simple but it’s not easy, especially at the beginning of cultivating the practice. Many thoughts and feelings may arise such as disgust, apprehension, surprise, curiosity, cultural messages, and internalized misogyny. Yet it’s also the case for people with the aforementioned parts, the vulva is the center of them, their core, their innermost being. Seeing themselves with a hand mirror can be a profound and sacred experience. The vulva can be a portal to a realm beyond the mundane. The vagina and vulva are where life is birthed through and while in some ways birth is mundane as it happens every day, it’s also a transcendent experience.

The shadow is what you don’t want to see the “light of day.” It’s the traits you’d rather keep hidden away. It’s things or traits you perhaps feel ashamed about or embarrassed by.

Tattoos can be a form of self-expression and a way to process trauma, for instance the death of a loved one. Tattoos can be a way to transform wounding and reclaim the body for the Self. Tattoos can increase embodiment. Tattooing does so by bringing attention and emphasis back to the body, to the skin, but also to the psyche

None of these scenarios allow for flexibility or for the wide range of feelings and emotional expressions that are within the human experience. And that includes people with penises.

They say it’s their medicine and their bodies operate better with it. That may be true – after all, the body gets used to substances (provided they’re made to be consumed). That’s why withdrawal can be so hard and highly unappealing.

There’s a great quote by the anthropologist Angeles Arrien that captures this well: "When did you start creating discomfort with the sweet territory of silence?" Silence…it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. Silence, it can be pleasant and something we welcome. It can be something we befriend and pour tea to sit with. However, silence is not often perceived as something we can embrace.

Sometimes bodies speak quietly, like through a whisper. And sometimes we miss that whisper and then our bodies speak more loudly, such as through a cold or an illness even. When we dis-associate from the body, the body’s inner wisdom has a way of bringing us back. Sometimes we know our bodies are speaking to us, but we don’t understand the message! It may be hard to decipher the messages from the body as they are encoded in such ways that require some quieting, slowing, or curiosity.

Therapy as a field, by and large, is a broad and wide-ranging one. Therapy sessions with me are non-directive and open-ended. Coaching is goals focused and directed. Coaching may offer both a respite from your current state of mind and affairs by helping you make a plan and implement changes immediately.

When it comes to White supremacist thinking, the questions are similar: “Do I address it directly? Or do I hold the tension of the situation and explore with this patient how they got to this hate-filled othering?” The answer, for me, is first the latter and then the former. And I would not have a session end before I do both.

In general, if you’re looking for self-care techniques due to political stress, I want to remind you it’s the business model of all media outlets – mainstream, alternative, independent, social media, whatever – to generate clicks and views.

How do ritual and ceremony relate to psychotherapy? Well, psychotherapy too, has aspects of both ritual and ceremony. In terms of ritual, the practices and applications are passed down from generations of practitioners and there is an initiation. The theoretical orientation of clinicians determines