The Bridge
I heard this term years ago that described experiences that were not meant to stay in our lives as a bridge into our next becoming. Throughout my life, I can think of many bridges that I have crossed.
From being young and in a deep state of not knowing how to feel, something in me didn’t see the point of what life was. There was a moment in time where somebody walked in at likely just the right time, a bridge to recognizing (subconsciously at the time) that there was something in this lifetime that was going to make it all worth it.
We’re crossing bridges all the time whether we recognize it at the time or not…
From my first job at McDonalds where so many skills, friendships (and honestly, drama) was had, a bridge into the working world that brought with it skills of peopling (which was once never a favourite of mine lol), conflict management, focus and my first real taste of leadership.
Although if you really want to dig deep, i’ve been leading and the one who feels it all/ takes (took) on it all on since I was younger.
A bridge where I continued patterns of avoidance and left the country after college to get away from all that wasn’t right, to get away from a world and people who were not always kind to me. I continued the pattern of avoidance (even still sometimes for longer than needed) long after I came back home, but it was a bridge into recognizing how deep my heart really was, how deeply people can mean to me.
Alas, still quite broken for many years after this, but I put my all into others who started this crazy life off a lot less than fair. My career officially began and I was putting myself last to the ones that I was supporting - something that funnily enough, I recognized in patterns across my lineage and fought against all growing up, the first lessons in believing that my opinions weren’t right and I obviously couldn’t be trusted (not a current belief, don’t worry).
I spent many, many years here trying to be the change within the system and always feeling like I had fallen short because change wasn’t actually happening (at least from big perspective and vision that I wanted and had).
It was an old friend/ colleague that I ran into recently who I hadn’t seen in years, I was her boss actually .. one of her first points of contact in the field and what she said to me just a few short weeks ago at the time of writing this, truly changed my perspective on the change that I did make despite not living a life that truly honoured myself. She shouted from the rooftops (almost literally lol) that I was 75% of the reason that she is the worker that she is today and wow, there is so much gratitude and recognition for the small waves that I was always making.
Something that’s hard to remember in a field and space that is always tearing you down, be it the systemic failure, leaders unable to lead themselves, kids screaming and slamming doors in my face.
This bridge was a very large part of my life, I spent almost 15 years crossing it, something that I loved so, so deeply (despite the above mentioned) but had to leave for my own sanity and to pursue the bigger picture, a bridge into my own becoming.
I stayed in the spaces of mental health for a while, and sure, my services and classes extend to those populations still, but its no longer a space where I am willing to be rooted in, there are too many things in common amongst all of them, and I cannot be in that, anymore.
Most spaces here (collected from a variety of sources and my own) share similarities in: the lack of support towards the staff doing arguably some of the hardest work out there (its not by fault that the lowest paying jobs are the ones working with the most vulnerable), judgement and always talking about staff that are doing their best instead of teaching them. Education teaches us, but leaders need to be the models and so many, are just not. The thinking you have all the answers. The empty hope - seen amongst the kids and adults (and even workers I have worked with and experienced personally), making promises that they know they won’t keep. The lack of communication. The anger at the systems. It’s soooo fucking real.
But you can’t fight anger with anger. A bridge that started taking me out of that world completely with great rupture, a demolishing that I truly hung on to, for a little to long. Fully stepping across when I began to recognize that I would only choose consciously, the creators that I partner with.
Ones that embody the work they do. Ones that are true to their word. Ones that are done with the tension, and exploring their own rhythms.
The bridge through friendships that were not meant to last, all of them bringing lessons of some sort of power, vanity and also ways in which I had been deceiving myself and what I had been allowing in my life.
A bridge into our fullest self yet.
A marriage, a wild revelation that we pulled together in 3 months.
An even deeper and more intentional time focused in the home, on us as a family; recognizing that its when we take care of the home (internal and external), that we make space for all of the possibilities.
The collection of experiences and depth into which we pour ourselves into, bringing it all together out of the comparison, worrying what other people think, needing to control it all and just jump into full on trust and no longer taking to heart what other people think or believe based on a message they likely heard from somebody else.
A bridge over the lack of flow through our broken hearts and into the wide open and ready to receive.
To trust.
To lead from the heart.
To typically be the one that goes first and learns all the lessons the hard ways so that you don’t have too. lol.
I’ve been moving into some deeper roles in the wildest and most empowering ways and in the midst, I had my ‘about me’ profile redone by a woman that I am so grateful to be embarking on a journey with, and wow to see yourself in the eyes of someone else in this way is so, so beautiful … it brought literal tears to my eyes.
Check it out here … (I changed to first perspective for my website lol)
I Am A Healing Arts Therapist Who Holds A Bachelor Of Social Work. I Am Devoted To The Infinite Possibilities Of The Human Spirit. My Work Is Rooted In A Collaborative “Power-With” Philosophy, Where Healing Is Not Something Done To A Client, But Something Gently Uncovered Together. Blending Feminine Energetics, Conscious Breath, And Deep Presence, I Create Spaces That Are Both Expansive And Profoundly Grounding.
My approach weaves ancient wisdom and energy sciences with evidence-based modalities, including somatics, psychodynamic and humanistic theories, and mindfulness. I am a trained Flow Breathwork Facilitator (with Shanila Sataar) , a body of work that extends far beyond breath alone into energetics, nervous system regulation, and elemental sciences. This training informs much of my practice, supporting clients in cultivating safety within their bodies while expanding their capacity for aliveness, clarity, and self-trust. She also holds Reiki Level I and integrates subtle energy awareness into her sessions where appropriate.
My learning journey is rich and multidimensional. I have undertaken extensive training in cyclical awareness (including studies with Sarah Morden), money mindset and its somatic dimensions (influenced by Kate Northrup), feminine energetics (deepened through her breathwork studies and teachers such as Sarah Jenks), pleasure and sensual embodiment (drawing inspiration from Alexandra Roxo, Mama Gena, and Layla Martin), and manifestation work (including teachings from Kathleen Cameron and Regan Hillier). Alongside these explorations, she brings years of social work–informed training, including psychological first aid and suicide awareness, grounding my expansive work in ethical care and trauma-informed practice.
Outside the therapy room, I embody the “soft life” that I advocate for. Living in the country, I am deeply connected to nature, rhythm, and family. This devotion to cyclical living and embodied presence is not just philosophy, it is practice. I view my work as a sacred contribution to a more conscious world: one rooted in curiosity, education, liberation, and the transformative power of reconnecting to what has always been within.
At the heart of it all, I believe healing is a remembering, a return to the wisdom of the body, the intelligence of the nervous system, and the limitless potential of a spirit that was never broken to begin with.
xx. Cait
