October 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019
Six months releasing the stories that no longer serves us, renewing our relationship with our Self, and reclaiming our power, strength and embodied knowing through body-centered mindfulness practices, guided meditations, stream-of-conscious writing, creativity exercises, and community
Love letters with bi-weekly essays, homework, and exercises
13 live 90-minute group video calls (on Zoom) over our six months together (approximately one every other week)
Private Facebook group for us to connect between calls
Space limited to 6 women (plus Gwynn). CIS & Transgender women and those AFAB who are gender queer are all welcome. There are currently 6 spaces available.
$1350 one time payment or monthly payments of $225 (other payment plans also available).
Registration is now closed. To learn about future offerings sign up for my weekly newsletter here.
What does it mean to become self-actualized? To become our own person? To individuate?
How does it feel to release the generations old stories of how we are too much and not enough? The millennia of shame that lives in our bodies? The fear, the self-silencing, the self-censoring?
What does it look like to create space for a time of renewal? To allow time for the shifting of releasing our old ways of being? To give to ourselves what we so willingly give to others: a time for rest, a time for breath, time for nourishment of our bodies, our minds, our spirits, and our souls?
How can we reclaim those parts of us we have disregarded, pushed down, ignored? Our strength, our power, our daring? Our voice, our knowing, our very being?
We will explore these questions and more during our six months together. Together in our own individual ways we will get to know and embrace our whole Self (shadow and light, body, mind, spirit & soul) and find our ways of taking off the cultural leash that has been put upon us. We will journey together through the three phases of this work : Release, renewal, and reclamation.
Release. The time of setting down or letting go that which no longer serves us to create space for new ways of doing and being in the world. This is a time of unearthing, exploring, and questioning; a time of deconstruction, breaking down, and dismantling those stories that have been passed down to us for generations.
Renewal. The time of being in The Goo, as I call it. The Goo is the space and time after a caterpillar has decomposed within its cocoon but before it has begun to form into a moth or butterfly. This is an uncomfortable time as we continue to set down and let go and begin wonder and dream those parts of us that are forming, those parts of us we are ready to acknowledge, accept, and claim. It is the in between space filled with unknowns. It is a space of both solitude and community, a time of going inside and being supported by those in this journey with us. It is an act of revolt against our cultural and familial conditioning, this shifting, sifting, and deeply connecting to our Self; our willingness to do the often challenging and messy work of unearthing, unlearning, and then doing and being differently. It is also a time of self-care, self-compassion, and self-low: allowing space and time for the shifting into new ways of being, a time to slow down and nourish all parts of our Self: body, mind, spirit, and soul.
Reclamation. Taking back those parts of our Self we shoved down because it was safer, because we were told to, so we could be accepted and loved. Finding compassion for our past and present Self. Owning our strength, power, daring, and embodied knowing and truth. Stepping into our new ways of being in the world while we reclaim what we lost or was taken from us early in our lives.
We will dive into all these aspects of the this process of dismantling and dislodging our cultural, familial, and personal conditioning and traumas. This will be a time of intense work. At times it will be deeply uncomfortable and in this discomfort we know the shifting and metamorphosis is happening.
This circle is the culmination of the my own personal work over the last decade plus and my professional training and work as a trauma and grief therapist and group facilitator over the last six years. In all my work I draw on my education, and clinical and personal life experience in family and cultural systems, feminist theory, grief and trauma work, and body centered mindfulness/somatic therapies. In this circle we will also explore some of this work through the lens of mythology from around the world centered on journeying to the Underworld – the place of death of the old and rebirth of the new.
I deeply believe that part of the path to greater social change and justice is through our own individual examination of the stories and beliefs that have been passed down to us by our ancestors, our communities and our culture. My own personal and continual journey of self-awareness has been part of my ability to change patterns and break cycles of harm and disconnection both within my own family and in the ways I am in the world. As I have been able to understand the conditioning that was passed to me for any number of reasons in any number of ways I have been able to see how, while it is not my fault I internalized these messages, it is my responsibility to myself, my children, my partner, my community and the greater world, to unearth, examine, dismantle and dislodge these messages. In circle I share some of my own life experience as way to emphasize that we are all in this struggle of taking off the leashes put on us by others and find our own individual and collective liberation.
To learn a bit more about me and my work, I invite you check out my About page here.
We will create the feel and energy of this circle together, and basic pillars of support for our circle that have already been set. These are ::
Our 90-minute group calls. During these calls we will talk about the aspect of this work we are currently focusing on as we also connect in real time to the other women in the circle. This is a time of witnessing and being witnessed. Of learning and teaching. Of connecting. There is a total of 13 calls during our six months together. During most of these calls I will lead us in a guided meditation journey and then we will have time afterwards to process how that mediation was for us. Our non-meditation journey calls are open to discuss anything and everything that is up for the group and for each of you individually.
Online private group (Facebook). In this private group we will connect with each other and check in once or twice a week between our calls. It is a space for you to “land” between our calls, to share what is happening in your life, to be witnessed and to witness the other women who have gathered together. This is a space to be seen and heard and to see and hear others.
Bi-weekly homework email. In these emails will be a journaling/stream of conscious writing prompt along with a creativity or body connection exercise. These emails will contain a short essay from me about the work and the themes we are focusing on and are another way for you to dive into this work. You will receive emails on the weeks we do not have group calls.
Optional individual time with me. These 60-minute 1:1 sessions are all about you. It will be a time to dive deeper into how this work is impacting you, any questions you may have, any particular personal experiences you would like to explore more. It is your time for us to do with as you please. During our first session we will set the goals and intentions of this time together and then we will go from there. These sessions are an additional cost. To learn more about my individual work (including my sliding scale fee schedule), you can click here.
Guiding principles. These principles are intended to remind us all how to be witness and hold space, how to not rush in to fix others, how to sit in our own discomfort and with the discomfort of another. The guidelines are:
- Everything that is shared on our group calls and within our private FB group is confidential. The caveat to this is that I do not own FB and am not able to control how or if they use anything that we share on this platform. Our calls will be on Zoom and will be recorded to share with the other group members who may not have been able to join us that week or for those of us who were able to attend to give a relisten. I use the HIPAA compliant version of Zoom which means that the calls are encrypted while we are on them.
- We do not give advice unless it is specifically asked for. Advice giving, at its root, is about fixing. It is not our place to try to “fix” other people or their lives. We are in a space of witnessing, hearing, seeing, and honoring each person in the circle. That said, sometimes we need the experiences of others to help us form our own path. When we want the brainstorming power and experiences of others within the circle about a specific issue we are grappling with, we are welcome to specifically request it.
- Each person’s experience is valid.– Each of us will take responsibility for our own experiences and we will honor each other’s experiences. We have all had good and not so good things happen to us and we are all impacted by these experiences in our own unique ways.
You can learn more about these guidelines by watching this I created for a previous circle I have guided and facilitated:
To learn more about the topics we will be exploring during our time together, check out the essays I have written below. (Each essay also has a short video to go along with it.)
The Impacts of Inter-generational & Cultural Relational Traumas
Releasing our stories of too much, not enough, & shame
The Goo: A time of Renewal, Restructuring, Re-evolving
Reclaiming our power, strength, & daring
In addition you can learn more details about this circle on the pages below::
Why the Becoming Unleashed circle?
The essence of Becoming Unleashed
Becoming Unleashed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Below are essays I wrote leading up to last year’s (2017) offering of this circle:
Self Actualization in community
What previous circles members have said
The topics with which Gwynn works are difficult, but she shines a light on them, reminds you to take care of yourself, and leads you through the rough patches with grace, making your journey one of profound learning about who you essentially are at your core.
Being part of your circles has provided me with a fantastic support system and safe place to deal with the tough shit. {Thank you!}
Gwynn Raimondi has helped me face the challenging, neglected, raw & wounded parts of myself with tenderness & steadfastness. She has helped me recommit, reclaim & recharge the feminine parts of myself while balancing the gifts of my inner masculine.
Gwynn leads you to discover parts of yourself that you didn’t know existed, much less know you want to embrace.
I’ve continued to work with Gwynn over and over again for the vast knowledge that she brings to her circles of women, as well as for the kindness, compassion, insight, depth, and ability to be real and truthful that she holds forth in herself and advocates for in her clients. Gwynn is an amazing leader, a generator of ideas and inspiration, and a safe place to land on the hard days.