Amanda here. Hilary was one of the lead teachers in my 200RYT certification through the House of the Gathering Yoga School. Hilary has always been a source of inspiration, wisdom, awe, and incredible insights. After the completion of my YTT, Hilary became a mentor and friend. When she began offering sacred counsel through Indwelling, I was thrilled to give it a try. While I’m currently feeling well, healthy, and balanced, I wanted to pursue sessions with Hilary as an exercise in radical wellness. I have not been disappointed! I am excited to share some information on Hilary’s incredibly important work here. I think anyone interested in exploring the depths of themselves, dreams, the subconscious, their relationships with others, their art, wellbeing, and generally working toward balance and contentment can benefit.

One of the most profound moments with Hilary came when I shared something I’ve been agonizing over for years. She said, “well you are telling me how your mind feels about this issue. How does your body feel?” My face lit up. “My body feels great about this decision!” She replied, “the mind is great at creating problems. It can be helpful to tap into what the BODY wants.”

Without further ado… meet Hilary!

Hilary, can you tell us a bit about Indwelling Sacred Counsel?

Sacred Counsel is a holistic form of trauma conscious guidance that supports individuals in body, mind, psyche, spirit, and soul, for the purposes of growth, transformation, and well-being.In a Sacred Counsel session the whole person is considered rather than just looking at isolated symptoms--including but not limited to--body awareness, present state of mind, emotions, relationships, daily life, spiritual outlook, selfcare, family of origin, ancestry, and traumas.

A Sacred Counsel session is individualized based on each client's unique needs, history, and intentions. A session might include Dream Work, Ancestral Mending, Spiritual Direction, Body-Mind Integration practices, Somatics, and more.

Sacred Counsel as a holistic practice rests in the following assumptions:

The psyche cannot be treated as separate from the body
The body-mind is unified and whole
The unified body-mind has innate self-regulating healing capacities
Symptoms are information and signs of body-mind intelligence
Imaginal ways of knowing are valid and useful
Shadow work contributes to cultural repair and healing

What is the difference between Sacred Counsel and traditional therapy?

Sacred Counsel is different from most conventional therapy in that it brings the body into the session with intention, has a sacred and spiritual focus, is rooted in nature and our relationship to it, and centers the client as the expert on their own experiences. We each carry all of our life experiences-- including our traumas big and small, conscious and unconscious--everywhere we go. We also carry our patterns and habits, survival strategies, nervous system states, as well as somatic and psychological symptoms that manifest through the bodymind. These configurations and expressions of humanness are unique to each person. Sacred Counsel co-creates space for increased awareness around how we "shape" and express ourselves based on our experiences and traumas, and it offers holistic pathways of integration and support that are somatic, imaginal, and centered in inner knowing.

Who might benefit from Sacred Counsel?

I think most people could benefit from the various aspects of Sacred Counsel though it can be particularly beneficial to those who are seeking understanding, who want to get to know themselves better, who want to make bone deep change in the world, who are suffering from various symptoms and want to get to the root, who want to know themselves as a part of a larger interdependent story, who want to understand themselves within the context of their ancestral heritage, and those who want deeper spiritual connection. At its heart, Sacred Counsel is a process of inner work. Inner work requires that we step into a new of relating to ourselves and the world that engages imaginal ways of knowing, our dreams, intuition, bodily sensations and feelings, and the earth. Inner work affects body, mind, spirit, psyche, soul, and our relationships to ourselves and others. It opens up infinite possibilities for connection, repair, and reclamation. And it can lead to the creation of authentic change in the world.

What are a few things someone might expect from a session with you?

Sessions are tailored to suit each individual and their intentions. The process is really quite organic in that I offer a few prompts in the form of questions, such as, "What are you seeking?" "What wants to emerge?" "How are you feeling in your body?" And then we follow the threads together. It is really a process of following the bodymind where it leads us--often to images, memories, sensations, feelings, and inner knowing. I often ask clients to bring a dream or two to the session as well, as I find that the dreams themselves are direct portals into what we don't know about ourselves. They show us our life as it is, which can be challenging to access consciously. They also offer important insights and wisdom from the bodymind. Once we discover insights together, I often offer an invitation or practice to bring the insights into conscious awareness through action or ritual. This looks different for each person depending on what emerges.

Dream tending is an important component of your work, can you tell us a bit more about that?

Dreams are a portal to the source, the "royal road" to the unconscious as Jung called it. The themes, images, figures, sensations, and storylines all point to a larger story about what it means to be human. In my experience they are a direct way to get to know ourselves better, and to learn to trust the imaginal realms and the wisdom they offer. Dream work can also feed our creative impulse through practices in which we can dialogue with the dreams, draw the dreams, write poetry about the dreams, or even dance the dream. They are a never ending source of fascination for me and I love to unpack them with clients. They prompt change, aha moments, healing, integration, and so much more.

From my own experience with our sessions, I've learned a lot about somatic, or bodily, wisdom. Can you share a few thoughts on somatic wisdom?

Somatic wisdom often shows up through the "felt sense." Our felt sense often knows more about our life and what is happening than our thinking mind--this is important to take in. We all carry and embody a holistic way of knowing that comes from within us, though most of us are never taught how to listen to it or access it.

The felt sense is inner sensation, a bodily felt meaning that can’t be fully expressed in words. It is a nonverbal source of inner knowing that is subtle, and that bubbles forth from what we are experiencing inside of us--like a liminal space between what is conscious and unconscious.

Learning to connect to the felt sense through inquiry can generate understanding and intuitive insights which can assist us in getting to know ourselves better and see our lives more clearly.

Felt-sensing is an act of empowerment that gives us a way to acknowledge and change things that have been holding us back, rather than feeling powerless and falling victim to circumstance. Instead of reacting from momentary thoughts, nervous system dysregulation, or strong emotions, we develop the somatic, psychological, and emotional spaces within us to respond from a deeper and wiser place.

Finding and connecting to the felt sense is a slow, rhythmic, intuitive process that takes its own time, and it runs counter to our societal paradigm of doing, busyness, quick fixes, and linear answers. It requires patience, gentleness, kindness, slow receptive listening, and is an endless well of wisdom!!

Can you share a bit about why you decided to create Indwelling?

I created Indwelling in large part from following my own dreams and felt sense! Inner work is a big part of my life and I have participated in and experienced everything I offer to clients in my own bodymind. I've learned to trust the cues and messages, and to travel the deep cavernous spaces within. Sharing it with others seemed like the next logical step.

What else would you like us to know?

I'm just really thrilled and humbled to be able to share this work with the world.

You can follow Hilary on Instagram at @indwellingduluth (she posts awesome content and is one of the most inspiring accounts I follow!) You can also learn more about upcoming retreats, workshops, and sessions with HIlary through her beautiful website at www.indwellingduluth.com.

Indwelling Sacred Counsel with Hilary Buckwalter Kesti