No Such Thing As Safe Spaces: Insights From 30 Years In Psychotherapy | Taylor White Moffitt 🎙️

Relationships are inherently risky - so how do we navigate them with emotional intelligence?

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Dear friends,

When I walked into Taylor’s yoga class for the first time in 2014, I knew something different - special - was about to happen.

One decade later, I still find it challenging to put words to her magic.

You know how some people naturally live their lives with such candor, humor and generosity of spirit that your own spirit feels elevated simply by being in their presence? That’s how I feel about Taylor.

There is no such thing as a perfect human, and Taylor is no exception. What makes her special is the way she embraces imperfection and struggle as the most normal, underappreciate and beautiful aspects of being human. It’s the way she teaches from lived experience, speaks with refreshing brevity, and invites everyone in her life - from family members to students and clients - to aim at a uniting ideal.

Taylor believes in calling people in vs calling people out. She believes there is no such thing as “safe spaces” - only brave spaces and brave people. She’s a psychotherapist, mother, wife, yoga teacher and leadership facilitator.

As a licensed psychotherapist, Taylor would be forbidden from touching her clients (like offering private yoga sessions) or acknowledging them at the grocery store. Given this materialistic reductionist reality of institutionalized professions in the healing arts, Taylor is transitioning to coaching in order to provide her clients and community with the best possible care.

While she and I have our differences of opinion on some topics (like boundaries, as you will hear about in this podcast), Taylor is one of a small handful of people in my world that I trust unequivocally to always invite me to speak my truth, to speak hers candidly with me, and to find common ground even when we disagree.

Episode highlights (timestamps available on YouTube and Spotify):

• The Risk of Intimate Relationships

• Why We Suffer in Relationships: Loneliness and Rejection

• The Individuation Paradox: Balancing Autonomy and Belonging

• Cultivating Vulnerability: A Parent's Journey

• Untangling Physical and Emotional Pain

• Practical Tools for Regulating the Nervous System

• Mindfulness and Personal Responsibility: Keys to Growth

• Navigating the Paradox of Change and Acceptance

• Rethinking Boundaries: Speaking Your Truth

• Facing Our Own Pain: Essential for Healers

• Healing from Trauma: Repairing Relationship with Self and Others

• Three Keys to Transformation: Curiosity, Courage, Willingness

I hope you enjoy this episode!