Tending to the Depths
A trauma-informed, soul-led approach to reconnecting with our disowned parts, reclaiming what rests in the shadow, and tending to the many forms of grief.
The fuller story
Contemporary psychology and spirituality both emphasise growth, ascension and the progression of the psyche, as though healing were a matter of reaching higher states.
But in almost every framework of psychospiritual transformation, healing also includes a movement downwards. Yet we are not taught to see value in that movement, and most of us fear it.
Tending to the Depths grew out of an understanding that the transformation so many of us are longing for, both in our own lives and in the wider world, asks for a willingness to descend as well as ascend.
Much of what passes for spiritual practice has become a way of bypassing the very grief and shadow that hold the keys to our vitality. This work is for people who are drawn to depth, meaning, purpose and sensitivity, and who sense that a different response is needed to the pain of these times.
We work with the ache in our hearts and souls, the tending of grief and of the disowned and exiled parts of ourselves. Through a trauma-informed approach, we draw on transpersonal and integrative modalities, shamanic practices, meditative approaches and shadow work.
What brings people here
Many of us get to the point where we realise we've been numbing or denying so much of who we really are.
Perhaps you are carrying grief that you have had nowhere to lay down, or you have come to sense that there are parts of yourself you were required to disown somewhere along the way, and you have started to feel the cost of that disowning in your body and in your longing for something more authentic.
You may have begun to suspect that periods of slowness and introspection, of shedding, releasing and embodying the feminine, are the very ground of the deeper work. True healing is often born out of a descent, and out of what we are willing to sit with in the dark.
The way through is down, and it is walked in company.
What becomes possible
Something held rigid can soften, and vitality can return to the body.
When we stop turning away from grief and begin tending to it, something in us that had been held rigid can soften, and a vitality that has nothing to do with forced positivity can return to the body.
This work makes it possible to live in a more embodied way, to feel the heart open through the alchemy that happens only when we are willing to remain with our pain rather than flee it, and to do all of this held within a community of others walking the same terrain.
We begin to cultivate the strength and compassion needed to turn towards the parts of ourselves that have been disowned, and to let those parts either be returned, or shed the layers of grief and burdens that were never theirs to carry.
It is the process by which we become familiar with the shadow, with grief, and with the aspects of life we would rather not turn toward. It is a movement into darkness which, counterintuitively, brings us into deeper intimacy with ourselves and with the world, and which teaches us the essential qualities of loving fully.
What brings people here
You may recognise yourself in some of this.
You are carrying grief that you have never been able to name or fully process.
You are ready to let go of the burdens, emotions or beliefs you have been carrying for so long.
You have had to disown parts of yourself and you long to welcome these parts home, including the joy and vitality that return alongside them.
You feel a pull to reconnect with your own heart, authenticity and sense of aligned purpose.
You are longing for community and to connect with like-minded others.
You have been shamed for aspects of who you are, including your sensitivity or aspects of your identity.
The Two Paths
Tending the Depths
Monthly gatherings offered both online and in person, where you can come together in community.
Find out moreThe Alchemy of Descent
Go further with the Alchemy of Descent, an eight-week online course.
Find out more
Jules De Vitto
Founder, Transpersonal Coach & Facilitator
Jules is a transpersonal coach, trainer and educator working at the meeting point of psychology, coaching, therapy and education. She guides people through deep emotional and spiritual transformation, supporting them to tend to their grief, reconnect with their authenticity and reclaim lost parts, drawing on integrative methods that honour psychology, consciousness and spiritual growth alike.
Her practice is grounded in years of training in transformative work: Michael Harner's Shamanic Practitioner Training through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Grief Ritual Leadership Training with Francis Weller, and a grief apprenticeship with Sophy Banks and colleagues. She is also the founder of the Highly Sensitive Human Academy, a hub of courses, coaching, writing and a podcast for highly sensitive people.
