Holistic Mental Health Coaching
My Tender Revolution
For nearly two decades, I devoted my life to healing.
But the truth was, I was trying to heal in the same way that I was wounded in the first place: with force, self-criticism, hypervigilance, and perfectionism.
And even though I knew so much in my head, I wasn’t able to feel in my body the self-love I’d been studying for years . . .
Then, something happened in my life that changed everything.
My first child was born–the greatest wonder of my life. And also, her birth catalyzed a postpartum nightmare in which I hit mental and physical rock bottom. I tried all the healing tools I knew to fix myself… And the harder I tried, the worse my symptoms became.
Then, in a moment that I call my Tender Revolution, I made a radical shift in how I approached healing.
Because nothing was working to change myself, I took the only path I could: I softened into acceptance and love for myself, exactly as I was.
This radical self-love had an effect I never could have anticipated:
In accepting myself as I was, free from shame and the desire to change, I started opening up more to the love of others.
And in this willingness to be seen and felt in my vulnerability, deep healing took root in my body.
In receiving the loving witnessing of others, my body unfroze. What I knew in my head was able to land in my body.
Our bodies are wired to need one another to heal.
This liberatory soul connection is the foundation of my program, BECOME LOVE. It is my story.
Gratitude
I want to honor some of the amazing teachers and mentors who have inspired and informed the work that I offer:
Thank you to Tara Brach, whose Radical Acceptance meditation retreat I took as a teenager revealed the work of my life. Profound thanks to Dr. Rocio Rosales Meza, whose intensive course, REMEMBER, initiated me onto the lifelong path of unlearning the colonial mind, and showed me the importance of leaning into our spiritual guidance and healed ancestors as we work towards liberation for all.
Deepest thanks to Malidoma Patrice Somé, now in the realm of the ancestral, who through his writings and in-person transmissions opened my eyes to a different way of being human. Heart gratitude to Melinda Kaur, my Holy Fire Reiki teacher, who taught me how to embody unconditional love as energy healing.
Deep thanks to Dr. La Tasha Levy, Professor of Black Studies at the University of Washington, for being my coach and guide through a deeper understanding of Black history and anti-racism. And thank you to Mark Lilly, founder of Street Yoga, for teaching me the power of trauma-informed healing for those who need it most.
Deep gratitude to Prentis Hemphill, Alok Vaid-Menon, adrienne maree brown, and Sonya Renee Taylor, whose work has opened a portal in my heart and has taught me that joy, pleasure, embodiment, and collective liberation happen together.
Thank you to all the clients and students who have sat with me, shared their most intimate joys and struggles, and taught me volumes about what it means to be human.
Profound thanks to my soul sisters–you know who you are–who hold and witness me with loving tenderness so big it brings me to tears, and who always lead me back to myself.
Last but absolutely not least, thank you to my greatest teachers and inspirations: My two young daughters, Gabriela and Isabel, and to my husband Carlos for the unwavering support and the lightness of soul that always brings me home to myself.
Love,
Catherine