About me, IFS, inner child, lived experiences, polyvagal applications, reflections, Self-care, therapy

Healer, hold yourSelf

aleksandrastaneva


There’s a paradox in the helping professions, we hold space for others while sometimes bypassing our own exhaustion. We teach nervous system regulation while running on fumes, listen to suffering while dismissing our own fatigue. At some point, the fire that fuels us begins to consume us 🔥

Burnout isn’t just about doing too much, it’s about an inner imbalance. The Healer archetype thrives on transformation, yet when unbalanced, it over-identifies with suffering, carrying burdens that were never ours to bear. The Wise Healer knows rest is essential, yet the Wounded Healer whispers, “Just one more client.”

From an IFS and Jungian lens, burnout signals a loss of balance between giving and receiving. The overworked, hyper-responsible part takes over, exiling the softer parts that need rest, play, and nourishment. But we cannot model depth, presence, or wholeness if we are running on depletion.

In my practice, I hold this awareness for myself and for other therapists that I support. It’s easy to over-identify with the Healer and forget the human.

But there is a sustainable, regenerative way to do this work. If we are to walk this path for a lifetime, we must tend to our own inner ecology, honour our own seasons, and remember, we, too, are deserving of care.

The truth is, we cannot model depth, presence, or wholeness for our clients if we are running on depletion. Our work demands that we not only teach balance but embody it. That means fostering an ongoing, internal dialogue with our own parts, the driven one, the exhausted one, the one that longs for stillness. It means remembering that rest is not a luxury; it is a necessity for depth work.

With softness,
Aleks 🤎

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Published by aleksandrastaneva

Aleksandra She, who remembers. I work at the threshold, where psyche speaks in symbols, and the soul remembers. Rooted in Jungian depth psychology and Internal Family Systems, my work invites women and seekers into the quiet, often forgotten places within: the underworlds of grief, the wild terrain of desire, the sacred chambers of the inner child, inner mother, the Shadowlands, and Self. With a background in women’s heath research, in ritual, and in lived experience spaces, I do not offer diagnosis or treatment, I offer devotion to the unfolding Self. On the threshold of becoming- where we always are. Through dreams, parts work, myth, and the body, I walk beside those ready to meet themselves fully, fiercely, and tenderly. This is not fast work. It is sacred work. It is not about fixing, it is about remembering. I do not promise certainty. I promise presence, and a deep trust in the wisdom already within you. My work is rooted in the wild: in the seasons and the body, in the wisdom of the land, and in the deep ecology of the soul. I honour the personal as political, and the psychological as inseparable from the cultural. Feminism, ecopsychology, and embodied awareness are not add-ons here, they are the soil this work grows from. I offer one-on-one soulwork sessions, women’s circles, and immersive psychoeducational experiences that weave together depth psychology, parts work, and embodiment. Some of this work unfolds indoors, some in wild places—always with reverence for the wisdom of nature, the nervous system, and the feminine psyche. Welcome to the HORÓ nest. I think you might just be ready to re-member your Self.

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