The Work I Do
I chose the name Heart of the Turtle for a few reasons, the main one being that I understand true healing takes time, commitment, and self-love. From my own experience, I have come to understand that true healing takes time, commitment, and self-love, especially for our more deeply rooted wounds. The journey is where the growth happens, and it cannot be rushed; it must be tended to with care and grace. My approach invites you to be messy and to show up exactly as you are. Together, we will create a safe environment for all of your parts to be seen and build the security needed to gently reconnect with your body. My aim is to be a shimmering light in your corner as you traverse what is alive in your life.
Connor Mack, Licensed Therapist, LCSW-A
My Connection to Men’s Work
How heavy is the armor around your heart?
For me, my armor was quite thick and strong. And, it still shows itself in protective measures that are unhelpful to my current state. Most men have grown up in a way that has related safety with emotional repression, hiding ourselves, and masking our true nature. When we were younger, perhaps this was the way to stay safe. Now, as an adult, it only holds us back from a deeper connection with ourselves, the people we love, and other men.
Some of my most meaningful breakthroughs have happened in containers where I was held by a group of brothers I trusted deeply. That wasn’t always easy. Blocks, insecurities, shame, emotional masking, and fear of being seen were all present. What I came to understand is that I didn’t need to get rid of these parts of myself to connect more deeply. I needed to let them be seen, held, and expressed.
Throughout our work together, we will identify the ways our fearful parts hold us back from our truest expression.
This could include diving into:
Feelings of isolation
Porn addiction
Connection to sexual nature
Deeper union to self
Blocks that hold us back from deeper connection
Deeply rooted shame
Teenagers experiencing depression and loneliness
My Relationship With Grief
I am, first and foremost, a tender of grief, adhering to the wisdom that the depths offer.
Grief does not just show up in the ways of physical death. It is the grief that follows a divorce, a dream that is no longer, a shame that is hidden so deep you don't even fully know the words to describe it, a deep pain in feeling the ways that our planet and it's inhabitants are suffering, a memory, or bodily remembrance, from childhood of how your parents did not show up for you in the ways you deserved. To me, to grieve, is to be alive. And for many of us, we have become disconnected from our grief which has led us to a state of constant freeze.
My goal as a partitioner is to create safety for you to tap back into your full range of emotions. To work with the parts that at one point in time, did keep us safe, and now, keep us from fully being alive.
“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss, and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.”
- Francis Weller
Contact me
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Insurances I take: BCBS, Aetna, all Medicaid plans