My journey to serve in a new way

This time last year, I felt uneasy, and at times, overwhelmed, about how I wanted to show up in the world. If I’m being truthful, it was just after the BLM protests in 2020 that things started to shift.

I realized how many holistic offerings often exclude black and brown people. And how much I allowed it even with my best intentions not to. 

It was obvious when I tried to find a therapist in 2020. I had a hard time finding someone who was non-white let alone someone who would be able to provide me with somatic therapy sessions. I was on a waitlist for 6 months when I was finally offered a white somatic therapist.

I decided to work with this therapist as the stress and strain of life during a pandemic was becoming too much. And although I appreciate her and the deep work we’re doing together, I spent extra time teaching her about my experiences tied to racial trauma. She has openly shared that she can only empathize with those experiences (which I get).

While this was happening, I realized I wasn’t presenting myself as who I really was–someone who is non-white. I’m Anishinaabe First Nations and Punjabi Indian originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada living in Washington, DC for the past 23 years. 

And my experiences as being this background heavily influence how I show up in the world. How many code-switching, passing, and releasing triggering moments happen without anyone noticing. I came to understand that not showing up as my true self and not sharing this journey was keeping other people feeling like they couldn’t fully be themselves, too. And coming to understand that started to feel terrible.

I realized that there was a need for more people to openly share who they really are and how they are able to not only survive in this very patriarchal and white supremacist world but how they are also thriving under these intense circumstances. Able to do so with tools that, again, are not so easily accessible to people without means. Someone who can understand them at a level they didn’t know was possible.

As I internally cried for more representation, it became abundantly clear that I needed to be a part of the change that I wished to see in the world. So I decided to do three things:

  1. I finally jumped into a somatic coaching training that I’d been eyeing for years. Which, by the way, I’m done with and am now a somatic coach!

  2. I hired a coach to help me project to the world how I truly wanted to be seen: as an Indigenous healer with Punjabi roots. 

  3. To create offerings I would want to see offered from a brown person to other brown and black people purposely. 

And that brings me to right here, right now. 

Well, now I’m excited and a little nervous!

Here are my new offerings:

So what does working with a somatic coach mean? 

These offerings include helping you:

  • with somatic exercises and coaching that fall under my presence-based coaching training

  • connect to your body through yoga (whether with vinyasa, hatha, yin, yoga nidra, and trauma-informed yoga)

  • to gain core strength with pilates on the mat or with a reformer machine

  • learn how to eat better or to create a plan of health action

  • learn to calm your heart and body with Reiki energy healing

  • feel peaceful with breathing and meditation 

Let me share with you what somatic coaching means as taken from TalkSpace.com, 

“Somatic coaching involves seeing the client as a whole person, more than their intellect, more than their capabilities … working with who they are as a whole, vital, interactive, living being; acknowledging we have been shaped over time, from birth (maybe before) onwards.”

Using this framework for coaching, I offer you a chance at having breakthroughs in life by connecting to yourself at all levels.

I have so much more to share with you but wanted to give you a glimpse of what was around the corner. A few new things to look forward to in the fall.

Sending you much love! 

Big hugs!

-Jess

Megan Brackett