Our relationship to ourselves and how it is impacted by many internalized constructs and cultural beliefs: the messages received early in our family and environment, norms promoted on body aesthetics, the anti-aging culture and pressure to look young, the expectation to get married and have children, the expectations on women in business, amongst others. We went on a journey together to explore and unpack some of these constructs while doing embodiment practices as a way to land fully in and listen to the wisdom of our bodies. We built resources to support this embodiment journey.
We invited women to explore and integrate various aspects of their relationship with themselves through different moments of life in the context of societal expectations: including body image struggles; relationship with food, illness and disability, pleasure and desire; navigating menopause and the anti-aging culture, etc. Participants are welcomed to choose one specific aspect to explore and use the lab process to get more clarity on the wisdom of their bodies to deal with their challenges. At the same time we invite a broader look at several aspects that impact the way in which we relate to ourselves.
We started out with a group of 42 participants and completed with 40 participants. We met for 12 monthly 2-hour Lab Sessions, staggered with 10 monthly 1-hour Practice Sessions from January - December 2024. We conducted individual check-in interviews for all participants at the mid-way point of the lab.
In the first 2 sessions of our lab we invested energy in creating the container that would hold the lab process through: personal introductions (including their original and current land), alignment on Shared Agreements and sharing of the intentions of each participant - which led to a consolidation of the collective intention. (done with a Word Cloud). We introduced the methodology of the lab process, including an overview of the CTIP, an invitation to explore artistic expressions such as poems, drawing, music; and an introduction to the Body Map.. We introduced the 4-Sync meditation which was used throughout the lab. We introduced the concept and basic guidelines for triad work. We created the space to explore different regulation practices. We invited participants to connect with internal and external resources. We created several opportunities for connection - triads, dyads, plenary. We invited them to lead the mindfulness/embodiment practices during the supplemental Practice Sessions.
We spent session 3 exploring resources in the female lineage and started to enter the collective trauma field by exploring muteness/women not having a voice and the different emotions that arise in that exploration.
In session 4 we started to open the CT field more and explore the places in us that want to turn away (denial, absencing…). We did this by starting to acknowledge the difficult circumstances and struggles our female ancestors lived through, such as: Pressure to have children, not same opportunities as given to men in the family, sexual harassment, pressure to look beautiful (3Bs), pressure to be assertive or not assertive, domestic and sexual violence, dangerous childbirth, lack of support, double journey of work and home duties (super woman syndrome).
In session 5, we reflected on how collective trauma from societal expectations on women has shaped our identities and experiences:
What was going on with our parents at the time of our conception and gestation;
The rules and expectations present in your education experience
Education, guidance, and expectations around spirituality and/or religious doctrine
Messages received from your community at large and the female role models you had
Messages from broader cultural influences such as: TV shows / movies / music / advertising ads / magazines
In session 6 we explored how the traumatization of Societal Expectations on Women has shaped the culture and societal institutions we grew up in. For example:
Education System,
Workplace (male dominant stereotype of successful leadership, the filling of a quota system)
Health care and Medical System (we listen to what our doctors say instead of what our body needs and manifests; the excess amount of procedures in place to bring safety /minimize fear)
Sports (override of the body needs when training/competing on sports)
Arts and Science (difficult for women to be taken seriously - idea that they were not capable; keeping women out because they would be a threat to man)
Dating and Sexuality (the different standards for who (men or women), on who initiates, how much is appropriate),
Marriage Institution (“Your body is there for your husband's pleasure only and his sense of worthiness),
Spirituality,
Religious doctrine,
Community Systems
In session 7 we explored the connection between our pain and our ancestors’ pain.
At this stage of the lab, we connected more with the Collective Trauma Field - “I am aware it is here” … “and I have a relationship to it”
We invited awareness around the muted voice as a collective trauma experience that most women carry rather than it being just a personal struggle
Our ancestors also carried this trauma response and passed it down to us. We looked at the field through them….
As participants shared, we invited everyone to listen, naming the witnessing as a collective Nervous System using the 3 S’s - Slow Down, Make Space, Soften.
In session 8 we connected to our female ancestor lineages and beyond to sense the broader system of generations going through the trauma of societal expectations for women - zooming in on the ethical violations … where were the rights of being, becoming and belonging violated?
We reconnected with the 3 basic human rights - to be, to become and to belong - and emphasized that anytime one of these is violated we are breaking the sacred law
Be: right to be in life and to have space to reflect, digest and integrate. Life is sacred.
Become: right to flourish in the authentic intelligence that each of us brings
Belong: right to create meaningful relationships and community
In session 9 we continued to explore the effects of the shadow of karma coming up through our roots from the past.
In this session we explored the upstream of light through our ancestors and through evolution as energy arising in our bodies. In this embodied process, participants experienced more of their history reunited with their daily lives. They reported a reconnection to the light. During this session, we invited connection with the roots and ancestors ….connecting with the female lineage and beyond and to the field of exploration to feel the energy that arises in the body and opening to the download of light. We prompted reflections with:
Where is energy flowing in my life now (that was not there before?)
How am I changing?
How is my relationship to my ancestral field changing?
How are we changing?
As you notice what is changing in you and in the relationships in our field…
How does it show up in your being, becoming and belonging?
In session 10 we introduced the concept of ‘permafrost’. That, when there is still too much trauma captured in the permafrost, restoration remains a concept only…and that as the ice melts, ‘an offender’ can move towards reparation from a felt place. We invited participants to notice what they sensed in themselves as they connected to the permafrost (felt the parts that are frozen in themselves and in the collective on societal expectations for women), to explore where they have caused pain to themselves, to others, what emotions sprung up
In session 11 we invited participants to connect with the history of their ancestors that was integrated and had become soil (resourcing) and to use this as a nourishment for their own systems. As they connected with this soil, they were invited to explore what information and creative potential was flowing from this movement.
In the plenary, we invited participants to present their creative expressions that they had been working on throughout the lab - body maps, poems, artwork, songs, etc.
As each participant shared their creative expression, we slowed down as a group to meet the experience. This allowed a deepening into connecting with the individual and collective experience of the lab. As if each individual voice was saying something collective as well.
In session 12 we summarized the 12 stages of the CTIP and asked the participants to reflect on these questions:
What openings did you have?
What was challenging?
What shifted in me? Around me?
What have I learned?
What have I learned in my relations to others?
What have I learned in my relation to transcending societal expectations for women ?
We continued with the remaining participants who wanted to share their creative expressions following the same process from session 11 of slowing down to meet the experiences.
"I feel called to join other women in healing collective/ancestral trauma around women and the way that societal constructs impacted on them. I have experienced ancestral/collective/past life wounding around being a women during women’s circles and have been witnessed and worked creatively with what has arisen and this inspired me to join the lab. "
"I really believe that it is important to talk about and to work towards healing women's issues and so many of the myths, legends and beliefs that surround the idea of roles that women occupy in our society and cultures. There has been so much wounding and trauma around this, and it is important that we stand together as women to heal and grow and to celebrate our growth together. It is important that we create safe spaces for our healing journeys to take place..I want to be part of the change."
"It's a topic I am very interested in, and I would like to explore further in an environment with not only like-minded people, but also people who are interested in personal and societal transformation, and collective trauma-healing."
"I was brought up in a "women are no less than men" household. This ensured I was confident in myself, and had a lot of freedom and independence to do things. And it also led to me not being able to fully identify with what being a woman really means. My intention to join the Lab was twofold: 1. To understand how patriarchy shows up in different ways in different women around the globe. 2. To explore my relationship (maybe even deepen it?) with my being a woman."
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Adriana Mascolli Fontes 
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