JIHAN MCDONALD

Facilitator. Writer. Ritualist.

Empathy & Reflection sessions

Hello my Beloved Community,

I hope this finds you all enjoying the season's offering of reflection and composting of the lessons you've learned in the year past. 

This is also a season that can bring a lot of challenges and conflict into our lives as we engage with our blood families, or remember all the reasons we don't.


For those of us who do not find comfort or belonging within our blood family, our emotional, mental, and spiritual health can take a major hit during the holidays when there's a lot of pressure to be with family, even if they're toxic. And sometimes we just need a helpful place to release the stress, frustration, anger, loneliness, grief, and other potentially overwhelming emotions that can come up in this time.
I will be offering 1:1 Pay-What-You-Can Counseling Sessions, Dec 23 - Dec 27. Sessions last 1-hr and can be done by phone or by video call.

You can choose the best method(s) that work(s) for you for me to support you:

Pure Reflection

You talk; I listen and reflect back what you've said (good for folks who often feel ignored or invisible in their family of origin)

Empathic Reflection

You talk; I listen and make "empathy guesses" about what emotions are underneath the surface (good for folks whose feelings were often invalidated in their family of origin)

Good Ol' Advice

You talk; I offer reflection, empathy, and also advice on how to navigate your family interactions (good for folks who struggle with being assertive with their family)
Schedule your Empathy & Reflection session
BOOK A SESSION
As someone who has been choosing where I want to be during the holidays since I could choose, it brings me a great deal of peace to offer support during what I know can be a rough time, especially my QT/POC (Queer and Trans/People of Color) community. 

 As we enter into a decade I am naming the Visionary 2020, I am reminded how important it is to look to the past for sure footing towards the future. I started the decade with a major depressive episode and spent the next two years clawing my way out of it and learning some of the most important lessons of my life. I learned how much there is to know from your shadows, how kind they are once you get to know them, how eager they are to help, and I developed critical muscles of resilience. I prioritized my authenticity and began shaping a life that was full of deeper meaning and purpose, completing my Life Coach training in 2013, Capacitar Stress & Trauma Release training in 2015, and my M.A. in Social Transformation in 2018.

I am closing this decade, in all honesty, both weary and content. It has been no crystal stair and the landings were often strewn with dust bunnies escaping from the many rugs they had been swept under and many times I thought I would lose my footing; sometimes I did. Again and again, it is you, Beloved Community, that has held me up and saved me from both drowning and dehydration of the spirit in so many different ways. And so, back to you I offer this in reciprocity and with the knowledge that this is always the root of our survival and well-being. 

Feel free to share with people in your life that may be served by some extra support this season.

Whatever your relationship with your family, I hope these holy days bring you peace.

Best,
- Jihan
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