7 Powers, Mary Magdalene

And the sacred container

I was at the Mary Magdalene Revealed retreat and one the first day Meggan Watterson asked- how can you bring this love out into the world. And all I heard from within is- go on the microphone and tell people what you do. So I did and now it’s my turn to tell all of you readers.

I am a registered ®️ Psychotherapist in the province of Ontario Canada. I am trained in art and expressive therapies as well as ACT and DBT and I will be starting somatics focused on trauma in the fall. I approach my practice from this lense: where are you trapped in your egoic powers, what happened to you that made you adapt in this way, and what sepperates you from yourself and that inner self trust/self compassion. It’s a trauma informed, culturally informed, anti-oppressive, equitable and anti-racist lense (or to my best ability as it’s always an ever evolving learning).

I use the 7 powers from the Gospel of Mary as a road map, that tends to twist and turn and fold in on itself. No power is usually stand alone and no one is stuck in just one power. It’s a spider web of complexity and it’s a delicate balance between our messy ego and our true soul self. What I aim to do is map it out, listen deep and reflect with love “I think you are trapped in darkness here…. And also without a place for that anger to go- I think your trapping yourself in darkness and taking it out on yourself instead of who caused you that pain” My work requires deep listening, patience, reflection and being open to not having any answers. The answers come from the people I work with. And they come from them willing to get unstuck and seeing what happens.

Why I do the 7 powers of the ego work in a therapy setting is because- I am a sacred mirror, reflecting back the what based questions- they never dared to ask themselves. What if it works out, what if this isn’t all there is, what if you are worth it, what if you didn’t know any better, what if you need to speak up, what if it wasn’t your fault. And then we take those what if questions into the soul voice meditation and they ask those questions to their soul selves. And they find what they need to find there: more material for their liberation, more layers peeled off the trauma onion, or compassion for self and liberation from fear.

That’s what I do. I once heard the phrase - to honour and embody me is to walk as me. And that is my aim everyday in what I do. I aim to walk as Mary Magdalene would- she stood up in the face of fear and said we already have the grace we need, it is within us. And I take that to heart everyday- the people who seek me out are not broken people, they are humans suffering in their humanity. And I simply aim to return them back to themselves and allow them to find what they need in order to be who they want to be. Hopefully that is a -true human being oscillating back and forth from messy ego to compassionate loving soul.

Why I want people to have support- is because this work isn’t easy. Yes the soul voice meditation can be done alone for sure. You don’t need me or anyone mediating your relationship with yourself and your soul. That’s not what this is about, I am doing this work in a therapy setting because sometimes we need a container. We need support, we need to know that we aren’t alone in the dark. And let’s face it even Mary magdalene wasn’t alone. She had Jesus and the community who were her mirror, who held her in right relationship and helped her when the ego got in the way of her soul. She didn’t work alone- and you don’t have to either. I think we all deserve to be held and supported while battling it out with our ego and trying again and again to meet the compassionate unconditional love that resides within us.

This is what makes me do what I do, in the way I do it. It’s what makes this work so powerful, when you aren’t alone you can dare to do things you wouldn’t dare to do solo. You can learn to trust yourself because you can risk taking the chances. You can learn that you have all you ever needed from within because you were guided back there- over and over.

I am thankful I get to embody Mary magdalene everyday in my work. If I only affect 7 people a day thats 35 people a week who get to be reminded that they are worthy, they are capable and they can trust what they know from within.

If you want to contact me more about my practice you can reach me at www.ameara.ca Website