what would you like to hold space for?
this is the prompt awaiting you when you arrive in my virtual office with sounds + music to support your grounding.
the posed question is an invitation to transition into our session and set an intention for how you would like to share space. asking what would you like to hold space for is an invitation for collaborative intention setting. beginning each session with this small question over our time together becomes a practice in identifying and naming how best i can show up for you in our time together. in this practice, i support your permission-giving, welcoming you to take up space in the fullness of your emotional expression. together, we design a container and holding space for exploration. for tending. the question “what would you like to hold space for?” is an invitation to co-create spaciousness that permits witness and witnessing.
holding space is being a witness
my practice of holding space is grounded in the work of Black feminists, facilitators, and community organizers. through study and co-struggle, i learned the importance of holding space, being a witness and container to the emotional experience and processes of the folx i am with. in asking, “what would you like to hold space for?” i am asking your permission to be witnessed. to be seen. to be held. holding this, i invite you to witness yourself. to commit to the act of meeting yourself exactly where you are, outside of the white gaze and perceptions of others. connecting to emergent strategy holding space is collective work. it serves as a reminder that our healing + liberation is collective work. in showing up for yourself consistently, you honor the collective; you honor our interdependence.
holding space with curiosity and intrigue
as a therapist, i find questions one of the most powerful tools in our work together. shaping our space with questions offers the space to grow a personal practice of curiosity. through inquiry, we uncover the ways we are shaped, find tenderness and challenge our relationship to domination + oppression. my friend and wonder of a healer, Mychelle, calls the process of therapy co-exploration. our questions create our maps, guiding the session through and to your truths. holding space in curiosity is experiential. we make our way to our embodied knowledges by checking in with ourselves energetically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and somatically. this moves us closer to our inner, collective, and ancestral knowings.
holding space for you to get in touch with your intuition and trusting it
in a world that often requires us to deny our body knowledge and override the messages our bodies communicate, the practice of naming what we need can be challenging. returning to our inner knowings through deep listening and reflection supports developing a relationship with our intuition. engaging this question weekly, i hope you grow trust in yourself and your needs. that you’ll find comfort and ease in following your longings. and that you’ll allow direction to emerge, releasing the expectation that you’ll be given an exact roadmap. that you’ll allow resist and disrupt the systems that instruct you to operate like a machine and create the need for healing and feelings to be “perfect” or “productive.” you’ll show up unmasked, giving yourself the gift of emotional breathing room in the shapeshifting journey of healing + liberation.
honoring emotions and experiences by holding space allows the experience of feeling heard, seen, held, and understood.
it is my intention to create a space where you feel heard, seen, and held—practicing holding space for all of your parts, for emotion storms, existential dread, loss, grief, broken-heartedness, fears, failures, rage, your deepest intentions, historical trauma, and ancestral healing, individual and collective shadows, relational patterns, challenges, and conflict. we create space to expand in your growth, new beginnings, celebrations, wins, dreams, commitments, devotions, unfolding future, unraveling non-linear iterative change, and collective healing.
i believe that healing happens in relationship; in shared + collective space. can you allow yourself to enter our shared space with curiosity and openness? can you expand in the shapeshifting nature of healing with vulnerability? can you trust yourself to name and honor your needs each week? will you join me in being a co-conspirator in holding space for yourself? these are invitations for you to explore. what would you like to hold space for today?
