My innate love of stories, and exceptionally diverse mind (thanks to a chronic chemical imbalance in my brain), gives me a perspective of the world that is layered with archetypal expression.
As a Licenced Spiritual Director, my service to the world is through Vulnerable Visibility with Archetypal Storytelling.
Whether that be through; 1:1 & Group Spiritual Direction, or Archetypal Photoshoots, I serve with a depth of radical compassion that primes the conditions for those I serve to walk this earth fully expressed with their Integrated Identity.
Understanding the mechanics of IDENTITY is something that I have a lifelong fascination with. It started at 17 years of age when I was first treated for Bipolar Disorder and continued to pique my curiosity with further treatment for my chronic illness. Add into that mix a 4 year immersion in Ancient and Modern Sciences, and ongoing Academic studies in Psychology, my service is formulated on Vulnerable Visibility with Archetypal Storytelling. It centers on identity integration through the exploration of patterns of behaviour. Rather than getting stuck on this idea that anything needs to be “fixed”, my role as a Spiritual Director is to support my clients increase their capacity to love ALL of the complex parts that make up who they are.
Identity Integration is not as clean cut as simply making the decision on who we want to be.
The experience of living as humans is made up of complex and nuanced patterns of behaviours adapted from many variables that contribute to how we identify ourselves. These are networks of systems that have had years of practice to become masterful at being the default behaviours we express in our lives. The process of inviting any change takes time, practice and radical compassion. It requires a slow reduction of the dependance on the maladaptive behaviours, the ones that usually lead us to seek psychological or spiritual support, and introducing new adaptive patterns with an equally gentle approach.
Identity Integration takes time, persistence and compassion.
Integrated Identity is the process of becoming whole with who we are RIGHT NOW. It transcends this idea that we have to be “fixed” or that we have to wait until we have fully executed the change that we are setting out after. It is the process of recognising when we have defaulted to old behaviours, and making the swift call to redirect ourselves to the changes that we know we want to be integrating. If we consider the time it takes to develop lean muscle, it requires applied effort over time. While we wont lose muscle over night, we can be certain that without exercising the muscle groups we are intending to grow, over time we will lose any gains we have made. The same can be said for Integrating Identity changes. This is not a linear experience, and the muscle memory that can help a post-partom mother regain her physical strength once she starts training again, is the same muscle memory that activates everytime we persist on the road of our Integrated Identity.
Vulnerable Visibility & Identity Integration
Vulnerable Visibility is how I support myself and others with Identity Integration. It is centred on Archetypal storytelling which is a creative way of unpacking the conscious and unconscious patterns of behaviour that show up in our lives. Whether it be in a 1:1 Spiritual Direction session where we work together to rewrite the stories of shame being directed at the parts that have been deemed unloveable, or a dynamic photoshoot experience that allows the Archetypes to be honoured and revered in a bold and courages piece of expression, Vulnerable Visibility is an intentional act of humility that says THIS IS ALL OF ME. IT is a medicine of Archetypal Storytelling that is not only impactful in the lives of the glorious human’s I have the opportunity to serve, but the wider communities that we are all a part of.
In the digital world that we live in, this work feels incredibly necessary as a movement to dismantle the curated delusion of the Shadow Influencer. You know, the one that tells you that you can have 6 figure months if you can just stop having NORMAL negative human emotions? Yeah, that BS. Vulnerable Visibility and Archetypal Storytelling matters because it flips the status quo on its head by leading with HUMANITY rather than DIVINITY. So much of the new age, spiritual doctrine bypasses our physicality. It is no wonder Mental Health is rapidly declining all over our world. The whole point of Spirituality is living a fully expressed life, WHICH IS PHYSICAL and NOT just a mindset or vibrational experience. This work matters because it brings a grounded, practical approach to creating TRUE freedom in our lives. The freedom of feeling Integrated with our Identity, whoever and whatever that may be. We all are worthy of walking our lives confident, self-authorizing, and esteemed for our Divine Humanness.
Every step my clients take, I go there with them. I have come to recognise my own Integrated Identity as a Shadow Archetype. Marginalised by my mental illness, my cultural lineage, the colour of my skin, and being a woman, I have been hanging out in the Shadows my whole life. Part of my own medicine has been seeing just how fucking beautiful my Shadow is, and this is a medicine that feels imperitve that I share. So as a Shadow, I mirror the patterns of behaviour that are saying “I am not worthy” & “I am ashamed” in a way that invites a greater perspective and capacity for radical compassion to come in. I am a fierce ally to have because my capacity to love was also born out of the Shadows. As a recovered addict, my exposure to humanity, like the real stuff, the grungy and violent stuff, has taught me to see through the surface level of pain that we often wear as a mask, and into the tiny humans within who just want to be loved. My Integrated Identity as a Shadow Ally is an embodied expression of unconditional love that will not look away from the beauty that is exactly as it is. It is through my Integrated Identity that I prime the conditions for Vulnerable Visibility with Archetypal storytelling that I hope will invite those around me to see if its available to see the world the way I do, as a Divine Human experience.
B
Whakapapa
Ko wai au
Te taha o te whaia
Ko Tainui te waka
Ko Pukihikio me te tui o te o marama nga maunga
Ko Mangapu te awa
Ko Ngati Kinohaku te hapu
Ko Ngati Maniapoto te iwi
Ko Oparure te marae
Ko Wetere Tahi raua ko Tiria Eketone matua tipuna
Ko Chris West raua ko Teressa Tahi matua
Ko Kia West
Acknowledgments
We pay respects to our teachers for the wisdom that has been passed on and lives on through our service to our clients and communities at large.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land from which we serve, the Kabi Kabi people of the Taribelang Bunda Nation.
We pay our respects to the Elders past, present, and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.
We honour them for serving as the Spiritual Gatekeepers and caretakers of this land for thousands of years.
ALWAYS WAS ALWAYS WILL BE.
