My life has always included some aspect of artistic and creative expression, and I imagine the way I teach and work with psychotherapy clients to be no exception. I have come to believe that one must be creative and improvisational to do self-reflective work, to be curious and ask questions and imagine new ways of being, coping, living, reacting, and relating. We all have and live our own narrative, a story we tell ourselves about our lives, about other people, about our world, and who we are in it. On our mats, as we move and breathe mindfully, we can look to see what that narrative is and how it impacts our daily experiences.

In my years practicing and teaching mindfulness and movement, I have noticed that contemplative practice elicits vulnerability and pain. Because we are relational mammals hardwired for connection and belonging, we’re limited in what we can process on our own. We need other humans to bear witness in order to contact long-lasting healing… This is why I believe so wholeheratedly in practicing in community, as well as a psychotherapeutic journey.

In my opinion, our mind, body, nervous system, neurology, parts, and attachments are manifestations of our unconscious mind, interwoven like a beautiful quilt, invisibly but palpably blanketing our daily life. This layered perspective is what I think encapsulates a reflective journey to self-awareness, healing. relational resilience, and taking ownership/accountability for our role. It’s the practice of staying curious about how our individual threads of experience and our temperament are braided together. Noticing our patterns, fears, aversions, attachments, fantasies, dreams, and projections.

This type of work is slow medicine, an act of love, sometimes painful, sometimes insightful, sometimes liberating, and sometimes so incredibly obvious once it surfaces you may wonder how you didn’t see it before. It is thoughtful, courageous work. These threads have been twisted and knotted over years, sometimes decades, kneaded into us as implicit understandings and unconscious beliefs. It takes patience and perseverance to loosen the knots. Every minute we spend opening ourselves up with curiosity and honesty in therapeutic space is meaningful, and is healing.

One can gain compassion, understanding, and appreciation for one’s path, the experiences that brought you to this moment. A reflective, mindful journey can illuminate just how intricately our unique tapestry has been woven over the years from every and all our experiences, and our relationships. The beautiful, the sorrowful, the traumatizing, the infuriating, the repetitive, and the banal.

I invite you to sit, look, be curious, imagine, remember, wonder, question, and reflect upon your memories, interpretations, understandings, feelings, and relationships. Hope to see you on your mat.

Meg has been teaching movement since 2011, served as Studio Manager atThe Hummingbird Field from 2013-2020; she now works at THF part time as Student Care + Communications/Marketing Advisor and substitute teachers Mindful Pilates, Meditation, Hummingbird Hatha, Hummingbird Flow, Yin, Restorative, Vinyasa, Prenatal, and Caregiver + Child classes. Meg is completing her graduate work at The Centre for Training in Psychotherapy in the spring of 2025, and has been working with patients under clinical supervision as a psychotherapist-in-training since 2022.

theartofpsychotherapy.ca | yogaismytherapy.com

Portrait by Greg Pacek