Recap, Resources, and Spring Growth

I’m taking a break from writing a more meaty newsletter this month so that I can assist for the first time at a Somatic Experiencing (SE) training. I completed my SE certification in 2022, during the years when our world was going through the collective trauma of a pandemic. I’m honored and look forward to supporting others on this path toward helping people heal from trauma with body-based work.

One of the things I love about the SE training is that it’s incredibly experiential. Sure, there is lecture learning, but we get used to doing the work by diving in and working on techniques with each other in a counseling laboratory from the beginning.

I’m excited to revisit the material with a new cohort of practitioners, and I feel privileged to learn and practice this healing modality in my nutrition therapy work. All too often, trauma is connected to our relationships with food, body, and self.

At the same time, I’m slowly writing my third book. I find it hard to carve out stretches of time to do research and write because I’m also juggling my clinical practice, two daughters coming home from college for the summer, rehearsals with my dance troupe, and my need for time in the garden for balance and grounding.

Since I’m not writing an elaborate post this week, I’ll share the latest of my biweekly newsletters, if you're new to Nourishing Words, or if your inbox has been a vortex and you’ve missed some.

Also, if you’ve never read my "welcome” post (some Substackers call it a “hero post,” but I prefer humility over heroics), you can read here about how I came to practice and write about our relationship with food and our bodies. Writing has always been a passion, but a creepy English teacher set me in a different direction.

I’d also like to share some of what I’ve been reading lately, in case you’re newly poking around Substack or would like to explore some books I’ve found inspiring.

• Heather Cox Richardson (Letters from an American) is one of the most popular writers on Substack for a reason. Even if you aren’t an American history buff (I’m definitely not), you'll appreciate how she connects U.S. history with our current state of politics. Her speech on April 18 at the Old North Church here in Boston was epic, and the speech can be found on her Substack, though I recommend listening to and watching her speech recorded in the historic place.

• I’m becoming an even bigger fan of Hillary McBride after reading The Wisdom of Your Body and Practices for Embodied Living, both books that I would recommend to clients working on embodiment and recovery from eating disorders and trauma.

• Beth Kempton’s The Way of the Fearless Writer has been inspiring my writing practice lately. I have always appreciated her public online writing sanctuaries, so I’m not surprised to be loving this book.

• Julie Duffy Dillon, podcaster extraordinaire, has written her first book, Find Your Food Voice. I recommend this book, along with Reclaiming Body Trust by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant (which I’m reading with a current therapeutic book club), to support your journey of recovery from dieting or disordered eating. What I appreciate about these books is that they take the blame and shame away from those who suffer and highlight the greater social change that needs to happen. Our world promotes disordered eating and disembodiment. We need to change the culture that encourages these problems to thrive.

• I finally got around to reading all about love by bell hooks. I think if everyone read this book, the world would most certainly be a more loving place.

  

  I’ll see you on the other side of my Somatic Experiencing training. May whatever is blooming inside of you get more sunlight this Spring.