The Heart of My Work - An Attempt to Explain

Who am I?

I am a trauma-informed, somatic-based breathwork, shadow work, and group work facilitator. I feel proud being able to proclaim that. It has been a long, winding road fraught with fear, doubt, frustration, and reluctance, but I am Gratefully and Powerfully here.

This is what my life has led me to contribute to humankind. Through loads of trial and error, devotion, and study, I’ve come to trust the knowledge and modalities I work with as powerful and reliable paths for real change.

My approach has been shaped through lived experience, perennial philosophy, and modern understanding of psychology. In this article, I will attempt to share what influences the way I support others and what it’s like to work with me.

Who are you?

You may be the type of person who was like me: a seeker, a deep thinker, a feeler. Maybe confused, disappointed, frustrated, and lost. Maybe you’re beginning to see and feel things differently now. Maybe there’s a quiet sense, or even a call, for more.

Seeking more is not always a bad thing, especially when the pendulum has lived on the opposite end for so long. Sometimes a person has to seek and seek until they discover there is no longer a desire to seek.

What I found is there is a difference between seeking more and going deeper.

Through my experiences of seeking and finding, I no longer feel the need to keep searching. I trust the compilation of what I found, and I intend for this understanding to continue deepening into a full mind–body–spirit Knowing.

I am uncertain where this path is taking me. What I do know is that I have something to offer — an offering that assists in the search and the deepening. The way I offer support is shaped by the conclusions I continue to arrive at and the influences that inform my work.

What Guides My Work (Core Principles)

• You Are the Expert of You

• Agency & Choice Create Safety Thus Transformation

• Being Trauma-Informed, Nervous-System-Aware

• There Is Nothing to Fix & You Are Not Broken

• Everything Is Workable

• Love, Presence, & Care Are the Foundation

• I Deeply Honor Your Unique Process

• Embodiment Is Essential

• Things Are Always Changing

• Trust the Larger Unfolding

• Hold All of Reality

• Integration, Integration, Integration

• Connection Heals

• Curiosity Is A Crucial Meta-Skill

• & We’re All Doing Our Best

  
  

What Influences My Approach

• Being coached throughout my life while playing sports

• Years of participation in therapeutic modalities, primarily somatic-based

• Extensive reading and listening in self-help, psychology, and spiritual traditions

• A deep respect for the unconscious

• Various mentors and teachers

• Trauma- and nervous-system-informed trainings and courses

• Trainings in shadow work and breathwork

• Self-Love, care, and compassion

• Deeply intimate and Loving relationships

  
  

If any of this sounds like your cup of tea, keep reading.

Healing inside and out

Healing is a process made up of many processes and experiences. It often involves tools and practices that invite insight, connection, and remembrance. 

Insights arise within processes. Lessons become clear, or are remembered. Connections between past and present begin to form. These are common signs of going deep in therapeutic sessions and ceremonial spaces.

What I want to emphasize is this: healing is not just an experience: It is an ongoing practice.

And from my point of view, what we are practicing for is not a game with winners and losers. That implies there is a means to an end, which there is not. From my perspective, there are no better options than to practice, to play, and, when needed, experiment with new methods and approaches if the results weren’t what we hoped for.

What I’m saying is this: insights, lessons, and connections can arrive in an instant, yet take a lifetime(s) to integrate. 

A lesson will continue to show up until enough awareness and consciousness are brought to it. The first step to change is to take notice: then keep noticing. Connections between the conscious and unconscious are always useful and often deeply fruitful, yet all of this means very little if they are not practiced in real-life situations.

Talking about practice

The healing process that happens within sessions is one thing, and it is monumentally important. But what happens outside of that process is where the real healing occurs. This is the practice of healing. And this understanding forms a central part of my approach, both in session and in life.

Because of this, one of my cornerstone intentions for the people I work with is that insights, connections, and lessons are integrated into their relationships, with themselves and with others.

Without this, transformation isn’t occurring. Dependence is.

Brief touch upon the modalities

The modalities I work with are shadow work, breathwork, and group work.

Shadow work is a practice of making contact with parts, elements, forces, and energies that have been disowned and now reside in the individual and collective unconscious.

The breathwork I commonly facilitate is a powerful embodiment and spiritual practice used to open and clear energy channels in the body and cleanse the spirit, ultimately opening the Heart and the body to new possibilities and ways of being.

Group work, such as men’s groups, is where I create a container with clear intentions, inviting individuals to lean into and work with their edges in a group context, while other participants offer energetic or physical support.

My role

As you might presume, facilitating these practices are complex. I am in an interesting position. I need to simultaneously allow what wants to happen, while serving the purpose of the container. Invite people to go deep, nudging a little with consent, while also regulating a pace that isn’t too much too soon for their nervous system. All while regulating myself. 

The capacity to be in this role did not happen overnight. It is partly natural and partly deeply learned through my own nervous system regulation journey and inner work. I’m far from perfect, but I am willing to continue to show up and be forged through fire because I Trust the path and all the infinite processes within the one overarching Process or Unfolding.

Two things I can say as a facilitator:

1.  I am there to simultaneously support emotional release and regulate the pace so the system feels safe enough to be fully present and connected with what’s coming through. This is where it’s critical to be trauma-informed and nervous-system-informed. 

2. And I am there to support people as they meet their shadows and edges. I offer Loving and devoted support, allowing the energies to be met, connected with, and potentially worked through. 

That is the gist. The rest of the details are whatever they need to be and are met with Love, Care, and Presence.

Ways we can work together

I am devoted to meeting a client exactly where they want to be met. There are people I meet that need gentleness with very simple and light invitations during a session. These sessions take considerable skill, patience, and discernment, which I have. 

Then there are people I meet that are ready for the deepest dive possible within a session. This is where I can let go and be fully guided and led by my intuition. With this level of consent, we can follow threads via prompts, that are used as momentum, until we meet something deep that we need to stay with and feel, likely engage with it. 

And of course, I can support the type of person that falls in the middle of that range. All of it changes as the relationship and life goes on. The work has its moments of constant edge working and moments of slowness. Sometimes heavy. Sometimes light and celebratory.

I devote myself to learning how a person wants to be supported. That is ultimately what influences the session. That can change and we will change with it. I like to think my framework is fluid yet powerful, like water. 

I tell people that I work with that I am committed to their evolution and transformation. I see their potential. I see their beauty. I see the light that is ready to shine brighter and brighter. I Love being able to make that commitment while practicing honoring my own boundaries and capacities.

Who this work is for…

Honestly, if you are reading this, then the work is for you. A lot of humans have the capacity to make contact with their shadow selves, even if it is the smallest, tiniest moment of connection. That alone can be monumental.

All of us breathe and a lot of humans can modulate our breath in ways that contribute to deep healing. Working with this tool brings up a lot of amazing information to then take into therapy, groups, your journal, or shadow work sessions. 

If a group is available, a lot of humans have the means to make it to those groups. I understand how scary groups can be, and they aren’t for everyone. If that is the case, do the individual work first so that you start to get the sense for how to embrace that challenge while also honoring your nervous system and protecting yourself in ways that feel appropriate. 

I recognize there are many marginalized groups and individuals that don’t have access to this work. I think I am doing my best to resource those that can’t access the work but want it. I am very open to hearing about more ways I can show my respect for all populations of humans. Please reach out with constructive suggestions, if you have any.

Healing can be considered a privilege, but I think it is a human right. How can we all do our part to make that so?

An Invitation

If any part of this resonates with you — the curiosity, the longing to go deeper, the desire to practice healing in real life and real relationships — I invite you to keep exploring with me: Book a Discovery Call.

Healing doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in moments. In breaths. In connection. In the ways we show up for ourselves and for one another.

Whether that looks like shadow work, breathwork, group work, or simply paying closer attention to your inner world, there is always an opening for more awareness, more connection, and more care.

My intention is not to give you answers, but to offer support as you discover your own through integrating more, if not all, parts of you.

Closing

Healing is not a destination.

It is a relationship.

With yourself.

With others.

With all of life.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

If this feels aligned, I’d love to walk a part of this path with you.

With Love and Gratitude,

Ohl (Jacob) Albritton