“My whole heart for my whole life.” I saw this quote in a piece of artwork hanging on a studio wall that served as part of the backdrop for videos in the online course, Self-Compassion, with Kristin Neff and Brené Brown. It was love at first sight.

In essence, this is a focus of what I do. I help people learn over time how to offer to themselves—to all of themselves—to all the different parts of themselves—their whole hearts. It is difficult to find a complete language for this, technical or everyday, but it entails the journey into self-compassion, into self-acceptance, into a relationship of friendliness and kindness toward one’s own self and all the different ways this looks—no matter the story, no matter the messiness or the glory, no matter all the different parts (in fact, often in response to them….). And I also help people to offer this same approach to others—not in a one-size fits all way, and not all the time, and also in a way that is context-dependent—but I help people to feel connected to their humanness and to the humanness of everyone else. From a place of friendliness and compassion toward oneself and toward others as a foundation, I help people connect with their inner wisdom and courage.

There are large (and growing) realms of research describing more technically all of this (and suggesting its helpfulness for emotional well-being and functioning)—that research is so important—but for this post, I tend to think the more poetic language of the artwork is more fun.

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p.s. The image used in this post is of a piece that I made after seeing the artwork in the course videos. The piece is now framed and hanging in my office—in the room where people arrive and where people gather together for group sessions. It makes for an easy craft if you feel inspired.