Episode 165: Surviving & Thriving With Plants, Breath, and Words With Jennifer Patterson

04/06/22 • 69 min

Jennifer Patterson is a grief worker who uses plants, breath, and words to explore survivorhood, body(ies) and healing. A queer and trans affirming and centering, trauma-experienced herbalist and breathwork facilitator, Jennifer offers sliding scale care as a practitioner through her private practice Corpus Ritual and is a member of The Breathe Network. She has facilitated workshops at healing centers, LGBTQ centers, a needle exchange and harm reduction clinic, online with the Transformative Language Arts Network, sexual violence resource centers, at colleges and universities, veterans hospitals, the collective What Would an HIV Doula Do? and a Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish healing center. She is also a teacher in training programs with The Breathe Network and Breath Liberation Society. She is the author of The Power of Breathwork: Simple Practices to Promote Wellbeing (Quarto). Editor of the anthology Queering Sexual Violence: Radical Voices from Within the Anti-Violence Movement (2016), Jennifer speaks across the country, and has had writing published in places like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, 580 Split, OCHO: A Journal of Queer Arts, Nat. Brut, The Establishment , HandJob, and The Feminist Wire. She was also the creative nonfiction editor of Hematopoiesis Press. A graduate of Goddard College’s MA program, Jennifer is finishing a book project focused on translating embodied traumatic experience through somatic practices and critical and creative nonfiction. You can find more at corpusritual.com. In This Episode:

Jennifer shares her origins story and how she came into trauma and sexual violence counseling and healing.
What prompted Jennifer to start studying herbalism, healing from mainstream spaces, and psychedelics.
How she started creating safe spaces for survivors and centering queer, trans, and non-binary people.
What led Jennifer to leave New York City and move to Northern New Mexico.
Her thoughts on how trauma has now become a mainstream word.
Jennifer's approach to healing to mitigate trauma and harm reduction.
How plant medicines helped Jennifer to understand the trauma in her body.
Rewriting the narrative around dissociation and the protective tools that we use as children and adults that are not necessarily negative.
How Jennifer incorporates writing and breathwork into her healing practice.
Jennifer's experiences in unwellness spaces and navigating these spaces.
Jennifer's current favorite plants.

Full Show Notes:

Jennifer shares her origins story and how she came into trauma and sexual violence counseling and healing.
What prompted Jennifer to start studying herbalism, healing from mainstream spaces, and psychedelics.
How she started creating safe spaces for survivors and centering queer, trans, and non-binary people.
What led Jennifer to leave New York City and move to Northern New Mexico.
Her thoughts on how trauma has now become a mainstream word.
Jennifer's approach to healing to mitigate trauma and harm reduction.
How plant medicines helped Jennifer to understand the trauma in her body.
Rewriting the narrative around dissociation and the protective tools that we use as children and adults that are not necessarily negative.
How Jennifer incorporates writing and breathwork into her healing practice.
Jennifer's experiences in unwellness spaces and navigating these spaces.
Jennifer's current favorite plants.

Full Show Notes:

Previous Episode

Episode 164: 40 Times Around The Sun With Laura Chung

In this episode, I talk about the energies around the Spring Equinox, the Aries ingress, and my 40th time around the sun! My intention is to bring more love and light onto the collective consciousness right now. My mercury in Pisces goes off on tangents as always and I share personal stories and reflections on this milestone birthday. Thank you all for your love and support. I hope you enjoy this episode. Full Show Notes:

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Next Episode

Episode 166: The Qi of Flowers With Lisa Li

Lisa worked in fashion for 10+ years and was feeling very burnt out. Before then Lisa was born and raised in a small coastal city Northeast of Beijing. While her single mom worked full time she used to have tea time with her grandma often as a child. Wanting to go back to a time and place where nourishing oneself's wellbeing was simple and wonderful just like tea time with grandma Lisa went on a transformational trip to Shangri-la, Yunnan - the birthplace of tea. There she discovered the Roses that the locals enjoy as a flower tea and delicacy in pastry. The sensory experience was so special and transformational that she made it her mission to empower others to feel more joy, beauty, and nourishment on a daily basis through a cup of flower tea ritual. In This Episode:

Lisa's origins story and her tea rituals with her grandma.
How her experience with her mom during a rose tea ceremony was the catalyst in starting her company, The Qi (pronounced: chee)
How Lisa was able to start The Qi while working in fashion.
When did she know it was time to quit her corporate job.
How Lisa was able to get press and exposure in publications like Vogue, New York Times, and Forbes.
Why Flowers?
The energy of flowers and why they are healing.
What is Qi Gong?
Where they source the flowers and their stories.
Lisa's experience as an immigrant in the United States. How Qi Gong has helped her in her forgiveness journey.
Coffee versus tea culture.
Lisa's mission for The Qi.

Full Show Notes:

Connect with Awaken and Align:

If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it and tag me!
Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
Follow on Instagram @awakenandalign
Let me know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.