Let’s talk hormones during the critical times for women: • post partum • menopause • pre-menstrual You don’t hear me go about these too much and there are reasons for this, some of them: ✔️Women’s mental health has been historically labeled and dismissed as “hormonal” and “hysteric”✔️Postnatal depression has been overwhelmingly researched through the Biomedical… Continue reading Let’s talk hormones
About Aleksandra
The essence of emotional holding
People ask me how I work. The easy answer is that I hold. I hold space. I hold tight. Her Resistance. Her intense polarization. The pull between extremes. Her Ambivalence. Her Deep longing. Her Trauma. Her “I wish she loved me more”. Her “How can I ever forgive?” Her “I am ready!”. Her laughter, her… Continue reading The essence of emotional holding
Podcast: the Soul-Work of Mothering
Fancy that! I was on a podcast with Dr Sophie Brock - The Good Enough Mother, where we had the best chat about: • mothering as Soul Work • Mother Wound and the legacy trauma • Death Mother Complex • Dream analysis • Inner child work • Morning pages All things Feminine: the caring, wild… Continue reading Podcast: the Soul-Work of Mothering
This belongs…this belongs
My partner took this image of me when we snuck in a coffee together before work and right after doing the school drop off. It felt big for many reasons. Both personal and collective. I have been in and out of the Covid vortex and the exhaustion felt too real. In my bones. The fear,… Continue reading This belongs…this belongs
Defenses against early abandonment
All of us, but certainly in different degrees, have abandoned parts. Abandoned inner parts which have been ignored, rejected or abused when we we little.Children though come up with the most ingenious defenses against abandonment, which are usually deeply unconscious. 🖤 Denial - a common one. This never happened to me. Life was awesome. I… Continue reading Defenses against early abandonment
On Mothering without the Village
The horror of COVID 19 for our family was not about getting infected and not making it, or losing work that much, or closing my practice. It wasn’t about missing our families in Europe and saying goodbye to another year that we couldn’t go back to visit…It wasn’t about dreading the homeschooling and being stuck… Continue reading On Mothering without the Village
On the need and the power of Rituals
The importance and need for ritual has been pushed away from dominant cultural norms. If primitive men and women engaged in rituals on a regular basis and acknowledged and celebrated each milestone with a proper rite of passage, modern humans deliberately and mindlessly bypass such parts of life, deeming them outdated, wishy-washy, and just unnecessary.… Continue reading On the need and the power of Rituals
Dream Work
I started working with my Dreams in my early 20s - 2000-2001, when I began my Psychoanalytic training as part of my Psychology degree in Bulgaria. I remember the trepidation, self-awareness, and tingle with which we started each session. Those were group discussions on Classical Freudian Psychoanalytic Dream analysis. We gathered weekly for 2 years… Continue reading Dream Work
Parenting during a Pandemic
As part of my research work at Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness 🍑🧡 I have been investigating the impact of COVID-19 on mothers. I got to speak with some Super Women whose stories of incredible resourcefulness while on the brink of mental collapse were just hm..how do I put it - otherworldly! Pregnancy, birthing and early… Continue reading Parenting during a Pandemic
Inner un-rose-ing
I attended a gorgeously connecting women ritual as part of welcoming the Winter Solstice here in Australia on June 21st. We all created a flower mandala, slowly and patiently working in silence. As I was arranging my little piece. I was slowly unwrapping these rose petals, and reflecting...on how this was a very similar process… Continue reading Inner un-rose-ing
Aleksandra Staneva, PhD - Internal Family Systems & Jung 