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
Author: aleksandrastaneva
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with a proper rite of passage, modern humans deliberately and mindlessly bypass such parts of life, deeming them outdated, wishy-washy, and just unnecessary.… Continue reading On the need and the power of Rituals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
On intuition and its retrieval
♥️On Intuition ♥️This innate system that allows us to know, to truly KNOW! It’s our 6th sense that doesn’t fail us. It’s our best compass, inner wise Self. It exists on very little and it needs some trust, fanning and care. Some breath! Severed intuition does not work properly. It is an injured instinct that… Continue reading On intuition and its retrieval
On the unconscious manipulation of our children
Becoming a MOTHER opens up deeply rooted wounds. Wounds and pain we thought we had “worked through” and processed successfully. All of sudden we wake up into our own ambivalence, confused emotions, broken fantasies about the Mother we thought we would be. Have we mourned enough our own story? Our own parenting wounding? Children who… Continue reading On the unconscious manipulation of our children
I can rage when you hurt me, without losing you?
👧🏻 Inner child 👧🏻Reflecting on my own search of true self, you know…just a gentle weekend task of light existential dread…that those of us engage in on a regular basis (overintellualizing and its functions is part of what this post will be about, so bear with me). As Alice Miller, a great Psychoanalyst, shares her… Continue reading I can rage when you hurt me, without losing you?