WHERE WE COME FROM~Ancestral remembrance group coaching Program: jULY 2022
Where We Come From is a 4 month group coaching program dedicated to remembering and reconnecting to our ancestors in order to embody their strength, power, and wisdom. During our time together, we will journey through this remembrance by grieving the ancestral wounds we have inherited and peeling back all the layers of the ways we have been conditioned to stay small. Through community, joy, creative expression, and rituals that honor both the Life/Death/Life cycle - we will begin to reclaim our power so that we can take up space and create the realities many of our ancestors could only dream of.
Ancestral remembrance is the journey of learning to trust our bodies, our bones, our DNA, our dreams and our intuition, as our first teacher-the vessel in which our healed and honorable ancestors are guiding us from beyond this physical realm.
Many of us in the diaspora have been disconnected from the magic of our ancestral practices as a result of colonization and white supremacy. Although at times it may feel like the richness of our cultures have been lost due to erasure and assimilation, it still lives on through us. In the memory of our bones. We look everywhere-mostly outside of ourselves for answers, but we don’t realize how innate it is to our very being. We don’t have to look far to unlock our blessings and wisdom that we have inherited. It will take unwavering courage, deep listening, and self trust to excavate and dig up what has been lost, but it is possible. We only need to open our hearts to it.
It begins with you…
Before our hearts feel safe enough to open up to this magic, we need to cultivate trust within ourselves. To do so, we need spaces to acknowledge and grieve our ancestral wounds so that we can remember and reclaim the ancient wisdom that is our birthright. We need a sacred container to grieve all that was not formally passed down to us through traditional rites of passages and intitiations- the stories, the knowledge, the richness of our culture, the connection and reverence to those who came before us.
In the words of my teacher, Lyn Pacificar, “We must find sanctuary in the soil of our origins. To feel rooted, we have to get into the dirt and soil. We must go into the earth where we originated from, to compost and transmute it into healing energy for ourselves and the world.”
I believe that healing our ancestral lineage is slow, life long work and therefore, this course is not designed to heal your lineage in the four months that we will be together. To weave ancient ways with the new takes time, deep care, intention, and imagination. My hope is that this program will serve as a safe container to open and start to heal the “soul wound” that colonization and imperialism has inflicted on our ancestors as BIPOC folks and to begin a connection to our ancestors that colonization has severed.
I honor the courage in you that listened to the call to begin the healing journey for yourself and your ancestors, the courage it took to step into the unknown, and the courage that led you here to deepen into this process with sacred support, guidance, and community. It takes strength to open and tend to these wounds, and we are often the first ones in our families to do so. I know at times it can be lonely and discouraging-I see and recognize your bravery.
This life expands beyond your own. You are generations past, present, and future. There are blessings and miracles to be received when we remember and honor our ancestors <3
“The Life/Death/Life nature is a cycle of animation, development, decline and death that is always followed by re-animation. This cycle affects all physical life and all facets of psychological life. Everything-the sun, novas, and the moon as well as the affairs of humans and those of the tiniest creatures, cells and atoms alike-have this fluttering, then faltering, then fluttering again.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves
During our time together, we will be attuning ourselves with the Life/Death/Life cycle, inspired by author Clarissa Pinkola Estes. In our opening ceremony we will welcome and honor one another’s presence as well as the presence of our healed and honorable ancestors. As we journey together, we will tend to our ancestral grief through a ceremony of Death, and honor new life as we rebirth into the embodiment of our ancestors’ dreams.
where we come from is a 16 week online group program honoring the slow remembrance of the ancestral wisdom that lives within you
It is a sacred space dedicated to:
Remembering and reconnecting to your ancestors
Opening the heart to receive support from your healed and wise ancestors
Incorporating rest as ritual + the body as your first altar
Creating + adorning your ancestral altar
Opening the soul wound
Making space for ancestral grief with a Grieving Ceremony
Tending to ancestral grief through dance + kapwa (the shared self/community) + connecting to nature through animism
Remembering enchantment through mythology + creation stories + dream journals
Tapping into the sacred feminine energy as our connection to the divine
Embodying your ancestors through imagination + sensuality + joy + creative expression
This is for you if you:
Are a Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color desiring to learn about ancestral remembrance through Mel’s lens of a Philippine diaspora experience
Feel disconnected from your ancestral roots and have been feeling a longing to reclaim the wisdom that has been lost in your lineage
Want to heal and break intergenerational cycles but don’t know where to start
Feel the grief of colonial wounds and want to open your heart to the ancestral guidance and support that is available to you
Feel overwhelmed at times and want to feel the support of something larger than yourself working in your favor
Want to honor the sacrifices your ancestors made and create gifts for the generations that will come after
Are ready to answer the call in unlocking the magic that you inherited from your healed ancestors
What’s included:
3 live 1.5 hour group coaching calls per month via Zoom which will include lecture, rituals and/or embodiment practices (last week of each month we will not be meeting in order to leave room for rest and integration)
3 optional care circle sessions per month held by Mel for additional support, coaching, and questions
Downloadable recorded guided meditations
Care packages as an invitation for deeper self reflection and community rituals
An intimate community who are also walking this path of ancestral remembrance
Sacred space to be supported and seen as your fullest/messiest self
Program flow(Subject to change according to the group’s needs:
Week 1: Welcome ceremony + Reconnecting to our ancestors
Week 2: Setting up a living sanctuary + rest practice
Week 3: Connecting to plant relatives through animism
Week 4: Break for rest and integration
Week 5: Opening the soul wound: grieving the intergenerational trauma of colonization
Week 6: Life/Death/Life Cycle : Identifying what cycles we are laying to rest in order to breed new life
Week 7: Making space for our ancestral grief: Death as ceremony
Week 8: *Break for rest and integration
Week 9: Sound healing by guest facilitator
Week 10: Connecting to ourselves and the shared self
Week 11: Tapping into our sacred feminine power + The body as our first altar
Week 12: *Break for rest and integration
Week 13: Remembering enchantment through folklore, mythology and creation stories
Week 14: Embodying our ancestors through sacred self portraits
Week 15: *Break for rest and integration
Week 16: Closing ceremony + Welcoming of new life
*DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE ACCORDING TO NEEDS OF COHORT*
On the other side of this program you will:
Feel a strong sense of rootedness and power within yourself as you start to gain clarity on the story of your origins
Understand how intergenerational trauma has been passed down in your lineage so that you can break the cycle
Have clarity on what traditions/traits you’d like to pass down to the next generation, and what needs to be left behind
Have tools to connect with and embody your ancestors’ joy and wisdom
Feel the guidance, protection and support from your healed and honorable ancestors to awaken to your most sovereign and authentic self, the one who is underneath the limiting beliefs and the conditioning of colonial, capitalist, white supremacist patriarchal values
Self investment:
Early bird pricing: $2,000 (4 or 5 month payment plans available)
After June 15th: $2,222
Enrollment ends July 1st
*early bird special: if enrolled by Friday June 3rd, you will receive a gifted 1:1 session with Mel*
Testimonials
“I’ve grown tremendously throughout this group program filled with so much love, ease, sisterhood, and tenderness. To have found kapwa (community) that make me feel at home, seen and appreciated for the woman I am today is truly a gift. So much wisdom has been learned, so much ancestral wisdom has been uncovered. I am not the same woman I was when we started this program. I see all the ways I needed to be held, all the ways my self-esteem needed to be nourished, all the ways I was so disconnected from my body. But I thank that past self for who she was and always trying to be a better version of herself everyday. Today, I am so thankful to be able to witness all the ways I have changed. I feel powerful knowing the strength of my healed ancestors runs through my blood. I embrace my gentleness and tender emotions. I see the spark of my inner child being reignited. I am joyful, loving, soft, compassionate and powerful. All this to say this program has changed me and I am forever grateful to Mel for her guidance along the way.” Mariah Rye (Group Coaching client)
“Those who come after me have an entirely different trajectory because of Mel’s love and boldly yet softly walking in her authentic truth through this group program.” Katrina Alaia (Group Coaching client)
“Thanks to Mel, the sisterhood, and the remembrance she co created with us, this moment in time will never be forgotten. This group nourished my heart in a way I have unconsciously craved. The program opened me up to sides of myself that I knew were there but I was never told were my strengths. Thank you Mel for allowing me to be soft, seen and a witness to your power in vulnerability. This program has taught me how to hold my heart, allow space for others to see and make room for them to feel comfortable in holding as well.” Jasmine Matos (Group Coaching client)
“Mel helped me better understand myself and I know that it will help future generations as well as helping to heal past generational trauma. What I really loved about the mentorship program was that our Filipino culture was incorporated and infused-ex: lighting guava leaves, connecting with healed ancestors, writing down and discussing dreams. I have to admit that I am still in the infant stages of learning about my culture and heritage, but this has been a great stepping stone in wanting to heal ancestral trauma as well as helping future generations.” - Jasmine Agito (1:1 Mentorship client)
“I never learned about my ancestors before and Mel helped me see the gifts that our ancestors have given us. If you’re thinking about working with Mel, just do it! It is so worth it. Trust yourself in choosing this and in being supported.” Nikki Concepcion (1:1 Mentorship client)
“In working with Mel, I feel like I am returning to who I used to be, and feeling grounded in who I am deep down under all the conditioning. Mel is able to practice her culture even without living on the homeland which is hard for many of us. She found a way to bridge modern life and ancestral power. I felt like I internalized and inherited a lot of the self hatred of being Filipina from the generation before me because of colonization. I resonated with Mel and the call that she felt in connecting to our culture as Filipina’s, in its purest form. It’s also helped intergenerationally- in healing my mom’s idea of being Filipina as well. I appreciated the energy she brought to each session. She provided an environment that felt safe and grounded. I never felt like she was pretending to have all the answers. She trusted that I knew the answers but just needed the guidance.” Chloe Babauta (1:1 Mentorship client)
“What is “good” remembering? It means to remember that which grieves us, for it is the grief of loss, suffering, cultural amnesia - that renews our desire to live differently.”
- Leny Mendoza Strobel, Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous
About Mel
Mel is a meditation guide and the creator of A Certain Softness, a spiritual coaching business dedicated to the healing of the Filipinx and BIPOC community. She believes that reclaiming our roots and remembering who we truly are through ancestral remembrance is a vital step on the healing journey towards collective liberation. As part of the Philippine diaspora, Mel is on her own lifelong journey of ancestral healing and is learning under her teacher, Katuuran Lyn Pacificar of Herbalaria. who has been a huge inspiration on the creative vision for A Certain Softness and the community she seeks to build.