Full Moon Blessings dear friends,

For so much of my life, love felt like something outside of me—something to be earned, something I had to perfect myself to receive. My teenage years were steeped in self-rejection, tangled in eating disorders, self-loathing, and an ache for belonging. As a highly sensitive being, the world often felt overwhelming, and though I found solace in my love of dance, even that became a space where I measured my worth in impossible standards.

Looking back, I see that the greatest wound I carried was not my body’s shape or my perceived imperfections—it was my own inability to love myself. I could offer kindness to others, but when it came to myself, every thought was laced with criticism.

The turning point came at 30 after the painful ending of my first marriage. That rupture shattered the foundations of who I thought I was, and in the wreckage, I felt something stir—a call to dive into self-love. Not love in the way the world often speaks of it, but something more profound: a love that begins within. A love that is not contingent on achievement, beauty, or external validation, but rather the unshakable knowing of our own worth.

I threw myself into studying and experiencing all I could about healing—devouring books, immersing myself in teachings, and seeking wisdom from various traditions. I dedicated myself to therapy, yoga, dance, shamanism, and plant medicine—anything that could help me untangle the roots of my self-rejection. And the more I softened toward myself, the more I understood: this is the work we are all here to do. Not just to love others, but to love ourselves completely. To return to the truth that has always been within us—that we are already whole, already enough.

But the journey of self-love is also the journey of grief. Because before we can love ourselves fully, we must acknowledge the places within us that have not known love—the parts we exiled, shamed, or silenced to belong. This is what Francis Weller calls Second Gate Grief: the sorrow of self-rejection, the loss of the integrity of our soul. So often, we judge ourselves for these cast-off parts; our shyness, sexuality, or body shape, treating them as something wrong or unworthy, when in truth, they are simply waiting to be welcomed home.

Grief is the first step towards reclaiming all that we have judged. We cannot redeem any part of ourselves that we hold in contempt. We cannot grieve what we believe is unworthy of love. As we soften, and allow ourselves to weep over what was lost, something begins to shift. We find that the love we are seeking is not outside of us—it is within, waiting to be felt.

True self-love isn’t just a concept—it’s what allows us to fully inhabit our bodies, our emotions, and our lived experience without abandoning ourselves. It roots us in presence, in wholeness, in the sacredness of being here, exactly as we are. When we soften into love for ourselves, we become more fully here—not dissociated, not grasping, but present to the depth and beauty of our own existence.

I share this because I know I am not alone. We all carry wounds of self-abandonment, learned through the ways we’ve been conditioned to seek love outside of ourselves. But the journey of healing is a journey back to self-belonging.

This is the space I hold for others—the space I had to first create for myself. My clients often share that they feel truly seen, safe, and deeply supported in our work together. I believe this is because healing isn’t something we offer from the outside—it’s something we embody. The depth of presence I bring comes from having walked this path myself and continuing to walk it, from knowing firsthand what it means to turn inward, grieve and return to self-love.

As we approach Valentine’s Day, I invite you to reflect: What if the greatest love story of your life was the one you cultivated with yourself? What if this year, instead of seeking love elsewhere, you chose to come home to you?

If you are feeling the call to deepen—to soften toward yourself, to listen inward, to embrace the truth of your own worth—I invite you to explore my new website and reach out for a free 30-minute consultation. You are already whole. You are already love. It’s time to remember.

Much love & blessings,
Jemma