Inside This Full Heart

Welcome, dear ones. This Saturday will be a time of celebration as we step into some change in our Full Heart Healing studio. In the spirit of transparency and speaking to what’s in my business heart, I’ve written a bit about these choices and why they came about. I’m looking forward to hearing how this share reaches your heart in our future sessions together. Thank you for being curious and supportive. I am endlessly grateful for our years together.

the slowness + the stillness

Moving slow feels like the ultimate antidote to the general rush and pace of the human experience today. My awareness shifts completely. When I am still, my connection to myself delivers so much somatic information. Answers to questions like: What do I need in this moment? What would bring about more ease in my body? What would bring about more ease in my thoughts? Am I allowing space for what I need most today? Where am I holding in my body?

It might be this new time in my life. It might be the times we are all living in. My need for rest, a slowness practice, being mindful of rushing myself or someone else, and seemingly, a call to observe and learn more than I participate and act. It makes being a small business owner feel like a trip! But I’ve chosen to make my time at work part of my practice in slowness. Rejecting the disconnection required to constantly be multitasking - that split second when a thought pops in and takes you away from the present moment. I am at my best for you when I am present. I am at my best for me when I am present. Inviting presence together is it, guys.

So part of my observing and learning last year, while feeling disconnect from my work like I never have in my twenty years of being licensed, is that this work works better when we embrace the slowness together. Longer sessions offer more time for us to really sink in, yes, but the same sinking and giving over to the deep rest can be achieved by shifting goals within a shorter session. The key is in the nature of the touch and practicing with these more potent, ooey-gooey massage modalities. When your body receives rushed touch, there is an energetic shift away from relaxation. When we honor your body’s need for a slow pace of diving in, the healing potential is damn near limitless.

So here’s to you and your choice to join me in the slow down and therapeutic presence on the table. I am forever grateful for your trust and for being here with me.

letting go of beauty

I love where I began my career. Becoming an Esthetician offered such a solid foundation to build from, but now it feels necessary for me to honor and release the Esthetician side of my practice in order to approach the future of Full Heart Healing with expansive thinking. I am so ready, and I trust that our session work together is ready, for me to stand strong in my voice as a provider. For me to trust what I’ve learned and will continue learning about treating the entire being, rather than addressing in parts.

For anyone who has seen me for a facial or massage session in the last year or two, these shifts might be imperceptible in our time together. That’s because I’ve been slowly integrating this depth of therapeutic massage and healing intention in all of our sessions together over quite a long time. Introducing to you the ideas and modalities, and resetting expectations little by little because that’s a more palatable way to present change. It’s the type of change that feels secure to me, and it seems you all have been appreciating this approach, as well. So, not too much is changing, really. But, for example, calling what I offer a ‘facial’ just doesn’t feel aligned with our reality any longer. It’s a deeply therapeutic massage of the chest, neck, shoulders, scalp, and of course, the face. The face is a supremely effective area to bring both external and internal massage to for more benefits than I could fit on one website. I will always work diligently care for the face and the skin, but no longer calling it a facial feels like absolute freedom to me. Freedom to follow intuitively along with what your body and energy are asking for, rather than maintaining some structure of what a new client might come in expecting or desiring from a facial. This change feels like a gift to our abilities within our time in session.

And while I’ll miss the very specific sweetness and energy we share in our eyebrow and eyelash care visits, and even though that work has always held a special place in this artist’s heart, it feels really good to be courageous and make this change after years of wrestling with it. I want to make sure that those of you who have seen me for the beauty care add-ons for a long time feel perfectly supported in this transition, so please reach out to me here if you’d like a few recommendations of Estheticians I trust and value.

simplify the connection

It’s so clear to me now that I can’t believe it’s taken me twenty years of practice, eight as a business owner, to make this change. Full Heart Healing is no longer accepting gratuity, and it is going to make your time in the studio feel seamless. If the credit card you’ve used to hold your appointment time is the way you’d like to pay for your session, then I’ll take care of the rest once you float back into your day. And just so everyone feels safe and all things feel transparent, I will now be emailing you a receipt for that payment, as well. No need to wake your brain up to do math after we’ve just spent a deeply relaxing session inviting your brain to turn off.

I am so grateful for all of you and the generosity you’ve shown me over the years. Full Heart Healing is still alive and well because of you, my dear ones. But I want to make sure I eliminate any and all feelings of expectation around gratuity, or confusion around if it’s appropriate, or how much is appropriate. Yuck. All I need is a living wage and every few years I gently increase my session pricing to help adjust to the world’s demands, and then all is well.

Accessibility in the care providing community is a passion for me and guides me in my decision-making. I want as many people as possible to receive the care they need without restriction. Over the years I’ve tried different ways of achieving this, including mutual aid opportunities for care, and sliding scale session pricing. I have another idea up my sleeve to make different types of care available soon, but for now eliminating gratuity seems like a good place to begin.

Please feel free to email me here if you have any ideas regarding care accessibility, or if you are finding it challenging to come in for a session as regularly as you need. I am open to brainstorming any sort of accommodations that would feel helpful. Seeing you when you need to be seen is most important.

a full future

Once this shift is in place, I have something to share with you about the future of my work. I have already begun deepening my education and learning all I can within a few modalities that will kick off the second half of my career as a provider. My quest for potent and gentle healing will continue on in building upon my somatic education, my love and awe for Craniosacral work, myofascial techniques, and grief tending. Some of you I’ve known and seen for sessions and grown with for over a decade. As our lives build and our days pass, our priorities and needs shift. I am dedicated to grow in the direction of those needs and pour myself into service of as many kinds as possible.

I am alive to be in service. Offering to you all and to my friends and family, and to myself is all that feels worthy of my brief time on this planet. I love learning from you, and learning myself. What a blessing it is to be alive and human.