When it's Time to Put the Tools Down

I was chatting with a neighbour recently about how she shifting from Building to Interior Design

She said "You know how I did it, Lexy? I had my nails done!"

I looked at her deadpan.

"I was forced off the tools because I couldn't break a nail... and I've learned to use my long pointy finger for delegating"

It's a fine example of the much-needed shove we all need, to take a more strategic position..

I tell this story often, because I operate in the transition space. Pregnant and menopausal women both need to hear it.

Those unhappy in their careers or their marriages, definitely need to hear it.

Patient-clients reiterating the repetitive strain of a job they've outgrown need to hear it.

All of us resist change, or when we make it, slip back out of fear. This clever hallmark represents the power of a rite of passage in making change sustainable

Just because we can do something, does not always mean we should

This year marks my 25th anniversary in healthcare and business.

My approach to business is based on 5 principles 1. jump in and soon discover whether I sink or swim 2. stay cutting edge and never stop learning 2. work with those who really value what I bring, 3. live by example, and 4. learn the ropes as I need, whatever they may be.

This has led to a rich and purposeful career, steep learning curves, a deep sense of selfhood, and an especially rounded skill-set.

At this point of my career, I'm seeing many of my peers reach their exit points.

Grateful for having worked with the nervous system since the beginning, it's prompted me to give myself three years to hand over what I've learned.

Thriving on diversity, I have always dance in the "in-between" places. In-between complementary and biomedical medicine. In-between somatic-approaches and psychological. In-between empirical evidence and purely theoretical. In-between masculine qualities of business development and feminine qualities of care.

Despite having identified with various labels over the years, I'm consistently asked "do you do yoga?" and identified by long-time associates as "the yoga woman".

Having assessed the health system through various lenses, it's apparent that my consistent connection with yoga, lends itself to disorders of the nervous system, especially deeply-held disorders, as well as the tipping of transition into states of flourishing.

In the last 18 months, my closest allies and I have pilot a progam which has evolved from The Burnout- & Trauma- Care Clinic to The Somatic Experience Lab.

The analysis of burnout, especially during peri-menopause and beyond, points to structural and cultural inputs which can be summarised as:

It's time we put our fake nails on.

What is it really to have impact? and how do we leave a profession better than when we found it?

These are the questions which lead me to my spiritual home of Minjerribah, Stradbroke Island to offer a Trauma-Informed Somatic Convergence 2nd - 7th November.

SomaSutra is a self-guided approach to physical rehabilitation and mind-body integration. It is the synthesis of 6-years working intimately through a trauma-informed lens, and 25 years working in somatic- & integrative- health care.

While the training is an embodiment of the complete package of inner- and outer-resources which enable Trauma-Informed, Somatic- & Integrative Practice, participants agree the closest words they can find to describe the practice is "self-devotion".

It's the practice of companioning ourselves with the gifts of presence in all its forms, in order to meet the very thing we needed when we needed it most.

The 5-Day Convergence is the launch pad to an ongoing mentorship, from which practitioners engage in peer-supervision, integration-with-the-health-system, and from which all participants may begin restructuring their lives to what is truly sustainable.

Over the decades, I've experienced the silk-fine twine between giving and receiving, hence the value of service to the fabric of our society.

It's for bodyworkers, yoga teachers, mental health practitioners, general practitioners, dancers, and those needing to receive hands-on Trauma-Informed Somatic Integrative Medicine. Join me.

See www.SomaSutra.Co for more detail.