Myth Mending
Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. ~ Rumi
You’re here . . .
Maybe you met me at a conference, or heard an interview, or read an article I wrote… or maybe someone sent you.
Whatever the case, you are most welcome.
If you have made it this far, you are probably seeking a new paradigm, something a little different from the standard of careand the protocols of therapy or the diagnosis of disease. If you are a member of a marginalized category or community (most all of us are), you are beginning to witness the world awakening to the fact that the problem isn’t just with you, the marginalized, but with the dominant system and those who are consciously, as well as inadvertantly, complicit in it. You are looking for a remembrance, a sacred healing practice, a collaboration, a release and a deeper awakening.
Me too.
That is why I created Myth Mending:
Myth Mending is an ancient and innovative, powerful and efficient process of trauma resolution, curative story, ancestral lineage repair, ceremonial practice and nervous system re-imprinting. It is a process for resolving trauma, recovering presence and finding your (and the world’s) deeper healing story of the past, but also the future. The rupture that so often follows trauma in our current world is not a universal and necessary reality. Traumatic rupture is a result of our current dominant paradigm – its deconstruction and removal of the Indigenous and embodied ceremonial arts practiced by initiated individuals and communities as a whole. Our global ancestral cultures and the ceremonies that went with them were protective and must be restored.
tīciyōtl :: sacred healing medicine
Tīciyōtl is the Nahuatl word for the Indigenous medicine of the Mexica people and their descendants. Here, the word medicine does not come from the Latin and does not refer to the diagnosis and treatment of disease based on the scientific medical model. Rather it is closely related to the realms of soothsaying and divination. It lives in the context of Indigenous ways of knowing and being that are connected to all things (even those considered to be non-living by the western paradigm). Tīciyōtl is non-hierarchical, non-linear, non-binary, relational, poetic, emotional, personal and process-based. Tīciyōtl is anart. That means we work together with all things. I am your fellow traveler, not your superior. We will work in spirals toward internal (body, psyche, soul) and external (oppressive structures, cultural restoration, global recovery) transformation.
Myth Mending is also, and primarily, rooted in Indigenous tīciyōtl, in the theory and practice of the traditional “return to ourselves” Earth-medicine. In particular, I work with the Temazcalli, Limpias, rebozo sobadas, dream-craft (temictli and temixoch), and other curative arts as embodied in the present through my personal experience and calling.
I have learned these arts mostly from regular people as well as brief relationships with Indigenous Elders and teachers. I honor, without claiming apprenticeship or lineage, Tela Star Hawk Lake (Yurok – moonblood), Cher Bear Lyons (sweat lodge / SunDance), David Forlines (Quileute – plant medicine, cultural restoration), Basil Brave Heart (Lakota – ceremony to open the path for me to find my Indigenous lineage), Michael Paul Hill (Apache – coming of age ceremony), Tonita Gonzales (Xicana – temazcalli), Rita Navarrete Perez (Mexican – temazcalli, sobadas y hierbas), Dayana Paz (Mexican – temazcalli), and Francesca Mason Boring (Shoshone – constellation ceremony).
Myth Mending, as I practice it, is also based in part on the work of Hippocrates, Plato, Carl Jung, Peter Levine, Gabor Maté, Rudolf Steiner, Bert Hellinger, James Hillman, Arny Mindell, David White, Pam England, and Whapio Diane Bartlett. In learning from these teachers, I acknowledge both their contribution to the art and science of transformation and their debt to Indigenous people who supplied, often without specific community or individual recognition, much of the material upon which their work is built.
Within the western paradigm, I have trained as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, Family Constellation facilitator, Theater of the Oppressed facilitator, and Nutritional Therapist. I have also trained in Anthroposophy, Craniosacral Therapy and Processwork as well as a Birth Keeping, and Death Midwifery. I am a doctoral candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia. I work with Indigenous girls, women and mothers in restoring ceremonial practices of birth and mothering. I also have an MA in Depth Psychology with a concentration in Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology and Eco Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
How does it work?
Myth Mending takes place within a simple conversation carefully slowed, tracked, tenderly repaired and integrated. Sometimes it is done one on one in sometimes in a group.
Myth Mending is a profoundly efficient and powerful way to get to the root of things and make a deep inner shift, one that echoes outward into your life and the world.
Myth Mending can help with:
- Moving though relationship conflict
- Work and career development, change or evolution
- Personal feeling of well-being
- Personal and professional commitment preparation (marriage/career)
- Understanding your purpose and calling in the world
- Creating and maintaining family rhythm and harmony
- Finding and maintaining a healthy weight
- Overcoming depression, anxiety and/or addiction
Who Myth Mending is for:
- Anyone interested in receiving in depth, individual support during times of transformation and change.
- People who have tried everything else and need something that works at a deeper level.
- Anyone wanting to relate to conflict in a way that makes it more comfortable.
- People open to embracing their inner healer as an ally and teacher.
- People wanting to see things from a bigger picture without denying local reality.
Who Myth Mending is NOT for:
- People who are looking only for conventional talk-therapy.
- People looking for a miracle cure.