Q&A: Jessica's Upcoming Women's Group
How can we, as women, choose to receive the full benefits of a women’s group? One way is simply by reading through this interview I had with Jessica, where the two of us go in-depth about her hopes and intentions behind hosting a six-week, in-person women’s group.
L: Let’s start simple. What exactly is a women's group and what motivated you to start your own?
J: A women’s group is a place for women to come together and be their most authentic selves. It’s a space where we can release the competitive stereotypes that we as women have been conditioned to have, and to be cooperative, collaborative, and compassionate. It’s a gathering of women who have a desire to grow beyond their current situation.
L: What activities and conversations will you be having with the women who attend these group sessions?
J: The first week is going to be introducing ourselves and sharing our intentions so that everyone is clear on what they and the other women in the group want. In the following weeks, we’ll explore and expand on our use of focus, presence, awareness, vision, and faith.
We’re all holding onto energy that we’ve suppressed. When these emotions arise in session, I share a transformative practice that changes the state of this energy in order to liberate ourselves from it. This allows women to powerfully be with their emotions instead of habitually resisting the discomfort of them. There is great freedom available to us when we learn a practice that supports the acceptance and allowance of emotions to surface in an attentive, compassionate way.
L: How will each of these sessions be different and how did you know what you wanted to include in each of the sessions?
J: Every session is different because this container allows women to share their current experiences with the intention of identifying the effects she is unconsciously causing. When a woman has an opportunity to bring the unconscious to the conscious, she experiences a shift in consciousness, which expands her consciousness. The only agenda is to explore the topics of (focus, presence, awareness, vision, and faith) and teaching women an effective efficient way to process their emotions. Beyond that, it’s an intuitively led experience where every woman has an opportunity to transcend her conditioning by witnessing with what another woman is going through and by being witnessed by the other women and experiencing seeing it differently through another’s perspective.
The idea is that every woman benefits from one woman's work. When we can see something without the emotional entanglement of it, and we relate it to an experience we’re having, we can see it from a wider perspective take what we learn from another women’s experience and apply it to our own lives.
L: Is the women’s group right for everyone? How do you know if you’d benefit from the sessions?
J: I believe that every woman benefits from a women's group. We’ve been taught to be in competition with other women; this keeps us playing out societal expectations in the form of roles and keeps us in an illusion of remaining separate. This women’s group breaks down these roles and invites us to open up and be witnessed as we are and as we wish to be by other women, while also witnessing other women as they are and as they wish to be. You get to realize and experience that we’re all the same, yet very unique in the ways that we perceive and create in the world.
L: Is there anything else you want to add that people should know about the women's group?
J: It’s a sacred container for transcending our conditioning.
Transcending is going beyond your current perceived limitations.
Transcending your conditioning is freeing yourself from what and who you were taught you have to be in order to have your needs met, so that you can be free to be who you choose to be and do what you choose to do. It allows us to live a life of true freedom instead of habitually doing the same things over and over; causing the same effects.