Dr. Shannon Simonelli: Why Feeling Lost Is a Wake-Up Call, Not a Breakdown

Thank you.

I'm so excited to have you because I was lucky enough to get for you to forward an advanced copy of your book.

So I've been able to read it.

And I have to say, it's just such a creative, it's therapy and sort of change and how we get a better version of ourself.

But it's not traditional therapy in how you're thinking of it.

Talk a little bit about what the inspiration was to write this book at this time.

Sure.

First of all, I'm happy to be here.

Thanks so much for having me.

I am a creative arts therapist and the work is the Circulatio is written from a perspective of the group work that I've been developing over several decades.

So it's Therapeutic work, it's healing work, it's work that's accessible to people that are therapists, certainly, but also people who are just interested in their own growth and transformation or people who are educators, things of that nature, coaches, leadership, because the work and the book is focused around how to approach change.

transformation, not only with the ways that we work, which are different modalities like movement and art and reflective writing and breathwork.

Was it breathwork? Yeah.

But also, there's a system that has been developed over the course of working with people that creates a trajectory and a way to develop themes for people to dive into their own exploration.

But also, as I was writing the book, I really realized there's a way of working that's become very central.

Some people would call it a pedagogy from an educational perspective.

I don't particularly like that word.

But the way of working really... holds us in a commitment to group process and a devotion to the cycles of nature, because this body that we live in is kindred to this body that we live on, this earth that we live on, and how nature works.

really informs us if we allow ourselves to tune into the rhythms of nature.

And I think that sometimes getting alienated from that, which many of us do, creates a lot of anxiety.

So those are just a couple of elements that are involved in this way of working, as well as really a very strong commitment to Creating a ritualized safe space and way of coming together.

So those are just a couple of components of that way of working.

Yeah.

Well, I think the thing that I thought was so interesting about this is it like the nonlinear nature of the work.

You invite people in the book to, you know, of course, reading it, reading it.