I'm starting an experimental women's group
if you'd like to join, please apply by Jan 30th!
I want a nurturing, safe, and generative container where I can learn and grow with other women.
Think of it like a research pod where we discover what sort of connection we want with each other and what conversations want to emerge.
I started on this journey to explore what it means to be a woman a few years ago, when I was working in tech, most of my friends were men and I felt like I lost my intuition.
I also literally felt like a man sometimes, pushing myself to achieve goals, have a routine, and perform consistently every day.
Fast forward, I now feel like a woman most of the time, I’m finding a work rhythm that is more cyclical and I am exploring my emotions, sexuality, and creativity. And I want to explore it with other women!
This is an invitation to join me in an 8-week experimental women’s online group:
there is no required participation - how you engage and when is up to you
when you join, you set yourself an intention that you want to explore during the experiment, e.g. I want to learn to listen to my body more or I want to explore self-pleasure
the main mode of interaction is an online community I created on Discord where you will have your personal channel (aka feed) to use as a journal as you explore your intention
I will also host a few optional online calls where we can connect in person, host a workshop, or a group experience (you can also initiate a call if you feel called to!)
At the end of 8 weeks, we’ll reflect and see what wants to happen next.1
If you’re feeling a “hell yes, I want to be a part of it” I’d love for you to join :)
If you’re a “maybe” or “I’m not sure if I have time for it”, I recommend you wait and see how this unfolds - I will be sharing future experiments and opportunities to get involved as more clarity arises.
I want to start the experiment on the 1st of February and run it until the end of March. If you’d like to join, please apply by Jan 30th. Feel free to share it with other women friends who you’d be excited to experiment with :)
Why am I starting my own group?
One of the key drivers in my exploration of femininity has been a desire to create more integration between my thinking and strategic side (aka masculine) and more emotional and intuitive side (aka feminine). Attending existing women’s groups and workshops has been hugely impactful for my exploration and made me excited about creating women-only spaces. They showed me how to explore my body and heart but often they also came with a certain vibe that felt unwelcoming to the parts of me that like reason, making sense of things, and using my mind to understand things.
I want to create a space where I can feel more like myself and find other women who want to use both their minds and bodies to explore what it means to be a woman.
What we might experience together?
feeling like it's easier to journal daily and connect with issues that matter to you
encountering new ways of thinking about or being with things that challenge you
finding other women whose experiences and inquiries you resonate with
feeling that being witnessed by other women is helping you see yourself more clearly, reducing self-doubt and a sense of aloneness
Who is this for?
I’m looking for you if you’re a “yes” on any one of the following:
you're a woman or identify as a woman and want to actively explore that part of your identity more
you already have your journalling practice or want to re-start it; you feel open and excited to collective sensemaking with other women and expressing yourself in a safe space
you’re excited about becoming more vulnerable with other women and exploring topics like jealousy, fear of other women, difficult relationships with mothers/grandmothers, immature feminine patterns
you are curious about topics like femininity, power, leadership, emotional processing, embodiment, sexuality, cyclical living, menstruation, motherhood, relationships
you have some practice of exploring your inner world, for example: therapy/coaching, meditation, relational practices (circling, authentic relating), tantric practices, embodiment practice, journalling, group therapy or experiences, intentional use of psychoactive substances
you feel curious about eliciting and sharing your experiences and thoughts with other women, perhaps even hosting workshops for women down the line (this could be your playground)
How am I designing this space?
For this 8-week experiment, I’ll host the group on Discord (I’ll ask you to download the app!) and use Zoom for group calls (those are optional and I will try to adjust it to different time zones).
I want it to feel cozy and safe, so we can treat it like like our communal space, where you can reflect on your intention, process your everyday experience, and witness what others are going through and how they’re making sense of it.
What will you need to do?
There is nothing that you need to do, but there are three strong invitations:
most of all - do what feels right and what makes sense for you, which includes discovering that this group is not right for you2
consider sharing your, thoughts, experiences, or questions with other women during the experiment
consider interacting with other women’s posts: share the way it’s impacting you, share stories or experiences that arise for you, or actions it makes you want to take
What will you receive from the space?
when you join, you get your dedicated feed where you can journal about your experiences, emotions, confusions, things you’re learning, or ideas that excite you
you also get access to everyone else’s feeds
I’m going to host a regular drop-in gathering online for the duration of the experiment, so we can connect in person or host mini-experiences (e.g. watching a short film about women and anger + discussion)
you can initiate calls or workshops for the group if you feel called to
If you’d like to join, please apply by Jan 30th or share it with women who might be interested. Thank you!
Some possibilities that I imagine unfolding: we love it and want to continue, inviting more women to join, some of you join me in running this space, we change the design of the space, or maybe we discover that it was not quite right and we close the group there. In the spirit of challenging traditional leadership models, I want to commit to nurturing this container for the next 8 weeks and listen to the signals about what wants to happen next, without expectations.
I imagine some people will share every day as a part of their journalling practice and some people will only read and react but not share themselves. That’s all ok and is an interesting signal in itself.
Heck yes, Sandra!