I first came to the concept of Holding Space when a friend suggested I would resonate with the work of Canadian author and facilitator Heather Plett (https://heatherplett.com https://centreforholdingspace.com). This concept immediately resounded and continues to an important part of my everyday life.
At the time Heather’s work was recommended to me I had been through a pretty rough period personally and my experience was that many people couldn’t be present to my pain and distress. Some in fact disappeared completed from my life, and others had a shopping list of suggestions about what I should or shouldn’t do, or anecdotes or when they’d experienced similar things or people they knew had. All I needed was to be around people who could listen and sit with my big feelings without trying to fix, moderate or eliminate them - holding space for me.
I think holding space is a concept we can all learn from and about. How we hold space for ourselves, and how we do it for others. In a culture where we are often socialised that our value is about what we do … often what is needed is that we can be.
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