Stephanie Garcia recently opened Volver Counseling with a passion to connect the natural world, our communities, and bodies in the healing process.

One of my earliest memories is laying in the grass in my aunt’s garden. It was a magical place where I could listen to the birds sing while they splashed in the concrete bird bath that marked the center of the yard and counted the ants that marched in a line going about their daily duties. She passed down to me a deep respect for nature and animals, reminding me to greet the sun every day along with all the beings that lived in this seemingly endless ecosystem in her front yard in Houston. This was the first time I can recall feeling a connection to the natural world. I was remembering something that I had known inside of me and was reignited through my aunt’s invitation. Nature became my first friend.

This remembering has been a theme that has reemerged recently as I have continued to follow my interest in learning about how our connections to nature, our bodies, and one another can be a great source of healing. I had been interested in meditation since first learning about it in college, visiting various Buddhist temples in my city and taking classes led by the monks. It felt like a secret superpower, that when properly accessed, gave me a taste of what it felt like to drop into my body and witness my emotions flow through me, expanding my capacity to be with myself and cultivate a sense of inner peace.

However, it wasn’t until I attended a training on traditional Mexican Sobada, or massage therapy, that the threads of wisdom that my aunt had shared with me so long ago began to weave together. I was thrilled to learn about the wealth of information in indigenous knowledge and I began to realize what incredible gifts have been passed down to us by our ancestors. The more I learned the more I realized that these connections and their capacity for healing were what modern western psychology was slowly becoming more open to and science was now able to “validate”.

As a therapist, I find it incredibly hopeful that there are so many ways to heal and so many different things that can help us in this process. It’s interesting that sometimes there is the idea that there is only one way or the “best” way. As humans we need many different types of medicine including plant, human, animal, and community.

If I could share one message with you from all the healing modalities/healers that I have encountered thus far, I’d share one from the tobacco plant that was delivered by scientist Monica Gagliano, which she speaks about in her book, Thus Spoke the Plant.

“In each moment, humanity can open its eyes to close the rift that separates it from the whole by realizing that there is no rift at all. This realization heals the root cause of humanity’s pain,” says Gagliano.

Why is self-compassion so healing? Because if we can look at ourselves through the lens of how we view the beauty of nature, our favorite pet, or a loved one, we can see that we are so deserving of love, kindness, respect, and care. We ARE all those things; separateness is an illusion. This may take practice and coming back to again and again, but we are worth it.