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"All Great Journey's Are Seeds, Ready to Bloom"
- Ali Moto
I've been writing things down my whole life. Here are some of my thoughts, experiences and teachings. There are links I've shared for you to explore further. I encourage you to click on those, to open up even more understanding for you to know if I'm the guide for you.
Thank you for taking time to get to know me a little bit more. Namaste!
My healing and journey towards supporting others on their healing journey, started at age 16. I was loaded with resentment, self-loathing and had no real guide to show me why or how to get out of trauma, depression and maladaptive coping. I turned to alcohol and drugs, and desperately wanted a relationship to feel seen and loved. Needless to say, this went horribly wrong, and my parents sent me to live with my sweet grandparents for a couple of weeks, until they could figure out what to do with me. This reality check and a profound experience I had later in my teen years, awoke me to something, I can only describe as a "spiritual" experience. I call it my awakening. (The understanding that everything is connected or one.)
Thus, began my healing journey. It took me 30 plus years to find EMDR and have my true healing. However, every piece of my journey, has given me the perspective I have today, which allows for expert guidance to the people I serve in my practice.
I'm here as the person I wish I had had while I was on my healing journey. I know I would have gotten the healing I needed sooner, and in a way that served me best.
While on my journey to healing my childhood trauma, (learn more here) and other traumatic events that happened throughout my life, I spent time in an abusive marriage, (blog about my marriage) was a single mom raising 2 children, both suffering from trauma themselves, all while going back to get an undergrad degree and then a Masters. I understand desperation all to well, the sickening desperation a single parent feels, in particular single mothers. I grew up in poverty, but this was different from that. Raising children in poverty is unimaginably stressful. It's a kind of desperate that eats you alive and almost did several times.
Also, during this journey, I dated for over 13 years. I believe, that alone, qualifies me as an expert on the subject. (blog on dating)
Seriously! When I understood Attachment and how it affects us, It was as if a light bulb had been turned on to all humanity!
My healing journey and experience as a guide included outreach work out in the desert as an "Outreach Wilderness Instructor." We'd take children and teens out into nature, (most didn't want to be there). This was not only healing for them, but for me as well.
It was as if we were both growing up together. This was profound work and was the reason I pursued my Master's degree in Social Work. I was determined to take what I learned in my life, as a tool to guide other's on their healing journey. I was unaware of what a challenging road that was going to be with little to no support. However, my resilience kept me going.
While finishing my Master's in Social Work, I met an amazing partner and things started to change. I was feeling secure in my nervous system and in my life for the first time, EVER. I was coming out of a threat response I'd been in my entire life, and things were starting to shift everywhere around me.
I finished my Yoga Teacher 500 hour training and also received my Dance Movement Therapy certification. I started teaching Somatic principals at Universities, public speaking hospitals about the body-mind connection, and healing role of the use in therapy. I also, started to see clients as a therapist, working with somatics to reprocess trauma. It was this time I decided to seek out the experts advise on trauma, I knew my security was healing me, but there was still all my complex trauma that had not been addressed. Thanks to Bessel vande Kolk's advice to seek EMDR, I found a therapist who was able to free me of a lifetime of threat responses due to trauma, in 3 months.
It may seem unbelievable, and it's true. I am trauma free at this time and will be until the end. I no longer suffer from crushing low self worth, or anxiety. I no longer feel so overwhelmed I can't function or think straight. I no longer doubt my heart and decisions. I can see clear people's behaviors and have empathy for ALL people, no matter the situation. A world at one time shut off to me, is blown wide open, and full of possibilities. Wonderfully, I finally have the worth and confidence to journey out and bloom as I was always meant too.
It is my greatest honor to be the guidepost on your journey to resilience and freedom. I'll give you hope when you feel there is none. I'm not perfect, I am a human being
AND, I know when your ready, I am capable, skilled, and have so much love for you. You are in excellent hands. I've been to hell and back, I assure you, I can get you through it too.
Thank you for spending time getting to know me a little more. You'll here more when in session with me or if you see public speaking or teaching. It's my pleasure to share my life's story with you.
Much Love & Hope to You
Sincerely,
Ali Astrid Moto
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