And I’ve realized that it’s almost time for my business baby, Nest Holistic, to be composted into the next creative chapter of my work 🥺🥺🥺.

Nest was the name I gave my first solo retreat at Nectar Yoga on Bowen Island in 2023. It wasn’t originally intended to become a business name, but the name stuck. I fell deeply in love with it.

A loving space to land 💛

I knew that creating spaces in which people felt safe enough to rest, heal and be themselves was a big part of my purpose. And it was what I was looking for, and needed too. Hot secret - basically everything I’ve created has been a reflection of what I needed myself, and it has connected me with other people who shared those needs. That is a deeply beautiful and meaningful experience I am so grateful for.

I hosted 4 retreats at Nectar Yoga on Bowen Island. It became our annual summer rhythm. I also got to host one in Costa Rica and one in Ontario. As a true Virgo rising, I poured my heart into all of the details and would plan for months and months leading up to them.

I got to co-host them with some of my dear friends who are also brilliant artists like Michaela Van Beinum, Jess Janz, and Pascale Goodrich. Special thank you as well to Amanda Brown, Emma Scruton, and Sydney Taylor for their contributions on the branding and business side of things. The playfulness with colour and intentionally NOT TONING IT DOWN became our visual identity.

We also hosted various seasonal ceremonies, grieving ceremonies and even zoom classes at one point. I created a free resource library for trauma support. And I began to offer my psychotherapy and yoga therapy services under this umbrella, too.

Nest became a very colourful, artistic, playful brand that brought feelings of support and care, and it opened up those qualities in myself. As someone who grew up very fast and very young, getting to play with the art and visuals in these ways was deeply healing and personally meaningful in a way I didn’t expect. And I know it was healing for so many others, too.

Honouring our endings and beginnings together

And yet, when it’s time, it’s time…

I don’t fear endings. I trust in the life/death/life cycle, and though I’m not ready to share exactly what is next with you yet, I can tell you that something stronger, and more powerful is already emerging. I can’t wait to see how this new path develops, and to share it with all of you. I’m in an incubation period with it right now.

But in the meantime, I have one last nest retreat booked. And I’d love for you to come and join us for it. Let’s gather together to close old chapters and open new ones under the support of the September new moon. If you’ve ever wanted to come to a Nest Retreat - this is the time.

We have space left in our shared rooms for $825* (tax included) for the whole weekend. That includes your stay, your meals, all of our practices and a special gift to take home.

You can claim up to $600 with “psychotherapy” insurance, as I can issue a receipt for 6 hours of group psychotherapy after the retreat!!

Thank you for being here - your support genuinely means everything to me 🥹

Some of you are also new to this newsletter - Hi! Welcome! Watching the subscribers trickle in has felt very encouraging, thank you.

How weird for us to begin our time together with an ending. Isn’t life strange? Hang tight and we can morph together into this new beginning. Watch this transmutation magic in action 🪄

My therapeutic work will continue. My artistic work will continue. I’m currently writing a book, and I’m excited to dedicate more time to that work and to take you along for the journey. And eventually, to reveal to you how the seeds of nest are transforming into something new. 🌱

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

Harmony Dawn was custom designed as a green retreat centre overlooking Rice Lake on 50-acres of rolling meadows and healing forest.

Under The New Moon 🌑✨

Our retreat begins under the dark moon (also called the new moon), when the visible sliver of the moon disappears from view. Energetically, this is a slower, quieter time in the moon cycle that calls us inwards into restful and reflective practices that tap us into our intuition and replenish our energy.

Slowing down & listening deeply

We will explore lunar energy through silent mornings, slow movement practices, yin and restorative yoga, rest practices, deep listening and reflection, group circles and a releasing ceremony.

The insights gathered in our quiet time together will be carried home as intentions and seeds that you can plant, nourish and grow as the visible sliver of the moon expands. 🌙

read the full details here

Additional details

The retreat costs $825 for shared accommodations or $925 for a single room.

For the first time, I’m able to offer receipts for group psychotherapy which can cover most of your retreat cost through third-party insurance!!!

If you have insurance coverage for psychotherapy, your insurance may cover in full or in part $600 for our 6 hours of group psychotherapy including sharing circles, psychoeducation and practice of therapeutic techniques such as somatic movement, breath practice and guided relaxation techniques.

book now!

I’m really looking forward to winding down the summer in this restful time together! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions :)

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

I’ve been in literal and metaphorical circle with incredible women and queer people - raging, healing, weeping, praying, loving, and dreaming - at my Portal Retreat, the Everybody Scream tour with Florence and the Machine, in women’s & witches circles I’ve hosted and attended, at the Earth Daughters festival.

I’ve been reckoning with the patriarchy specifically, and how much it’s taken from all of us, all genders. Down through the ages, through the long lines of our families. The source of so much intergenerational trauma, of colonialism, of extractive capitalism. The havoc it’s wreaked, on our lives, on our psyches, on our bodies, on our communities, on our earth. It just takes and takes and takes.

There is another way

And at the same time, I’m defiantly reclaiming everything I can that has been lost - connection to intuition, agency, ceremony, connection to the earth, community, JOY, personal value, strength… to name a few.

The ways of living in harmony with the natural world have been damaged, but they are not lost. They are shared by Indigenous people around the world, still. They are alive in the practices of embodied and trauma-informed yoga and the wisdom of yoga philosophy. I am excavating what I can find in my own Celtic lineage.

Reconnection is messy, and it is possible. We can’t afford to wait anymore.

We all belong here on this earth

We all have inherent value as threads in the fabric of nature. They can make you forget that, but that can never really be taken from you.

The earth recognizes you. Your earth mother has always fed you, held you, loved you. And she is always glad to welcome you back into a reciprocal, loving relationship.

I’m fired up right now!!!! Can you feel it?

I’m full of both feminine rage and deep hope, which are combining into a kind of fierce determination and and endless stream of creative inspiration. Ideas coming to quickly I can barely write them down fast enough.

Ideas so big and bold that they scare me a little, if I’m honest. I’m not really willing to cater to the norms that hold so much harm within them, often just beneath the surface, anymore. I see it and I’m not going to pretend I don’t. That is the value of the heat of the rage. It’s burning away complacency and conformity. It scares the parts of me that just want to be safe, accepted, and “normal”. So I have to be very intentional about supporting those scared/younger parts of myself.

I really had thought I had already done this work, lol. But it’s never really done, is it? Onwards!!! ⚡️⚡️⚡️

Here’s what’s coming your way…

🌑 The Dark Moon Retreat is an off-grid therapeutic yoga retreat happening at the Harmony Dawn Retreat Centre in Hastings, ON, September 11th-13th, 2026. This retreat will focus on slowing down, turning inwards and connecting to intuition.
** I’ve had a lot of interest in this one, so if you want to come - set your alarm! Registration opens Sunday, July 12th at 9am PST/12pm EST. You’ll receive an email here with full details first. This will be my last in-person overnight retreat until 2028!

🪄 The PORTAL retreat is designed to reconnect you with your creative magic and power. I’m currently transforming it into a virtual form so that it can be accessible when you deeply need some time for yourself, but a weekend away is simply not within reach. Once it’s ready, it will be available to you 24/7 for an accessible price.

🌟 Sister, Take My Hand is a book I’m writing about hurting, healing, and the magic of everyday existence. It’s a compilation of all of the healing wisdom I still need to anchor myself in DAILY. It’s honest, hopeful, and JOYOUS. It’s a spell designed to return you to your power. It’s part of why I'm taking a break from retreats in 2028 (in addition to getting married!). I want to give it my full attention to make it as magnificent as I can. I’ll share little excerpts with you here along the way.

** If you have any connections to publishing agents or publishing companies, I could use your help - I’m beginning to poke my head into that world now 👀.

Talk soon!

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

We had amazing weather, such a lovely group, and a variety of practices that supported us in reconnecting with ourselves, nature, and each other.

I spend months preparing for these retreats, but what I can’t orchestrate is how much our guests give to each other in the forms of presence, compassion, humour, and encouragement.

That’s the real magic.

I know a lot has to happen to make it possible to attend retreats like this, and just getting by is a struggle for so many of us right now. I really get that. It’s not easy to find the time, the money, and the support to keep our lives running while we step back into a retreat.

I hope you do get that opportunity at some point, but in the meantime, I wanted to make something more accessible to everyone.

🌈✨ I’m going to recreate the PORTAL retreat as a guided at-home retreat that you can do virtually over a weekend, anytime. So that the practices meet you right where you are, as you are.

I’m working on it! Stay tuned :)

And, an in-person retreat is coming to Ontario!

I am also hosting a weekend retreat September 11th-13th at the Harmony Dawn Retreat Centre in Hastings, Ontario, alongside Tesia Bryski, RP. Tesia is my therapy supervisor, also a yoga teacher, and owner of the Shine Mental Health Collective!

She also happens to be a living sunshine and we’re really looking forward to gathering into a little cocoon together as the summer winds down into fall.

Details will come soon for this, too. You are in the right place to receive the details first!

I’m so grateful to be able to do this work!

It feels so special to me personally to be able to call on many parts of myself — my therapy side, my yoga therapy side, my artsy side, my witchy side, my silly side, my person-who-is-also-healing side, my poet side, all come out to support people in moving through the barriers that hold them back from being themselves.

I love nothing more than watching your dreams come true.

Thank you for being here 🥹

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.

🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

Today on the podcast, Hope is Resistance, we launch Pascale’s new song, Rise Brighter. I have had the honour of seeing this song live, and have had it in my head and on my heart ever since.

This song can meet you in times of loss, grief, and endings, helping you to through to the other side to meet beginnings, renewal, and new life.

The Hope is Resistance Podcast is Expanding!

That’s a wrap for our second season!!! We’ve loved creating these episodes to guide you through the seasons, and more episodes are coming your way this summer, with some changes.

Pascale is going to carry the podcast forward as the main host, welcoming additional guests to share more hopeful work being done in the world. Her co-host for season 3 will be her dear friend Joanne, with additional guests and collaborators joining in. I will continue to be a collaborator on the podcast and join in seasonally.

❗️ This is the last episode of Hope is Resistance being hosted on this substack publication. To stay connected with the pod, I highly recommend subscribing on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so that you can stay posted on upcoming episodes when the next season launches.

Stay tuned for what’s next! 🪄

This substack publication will continue, although likely a little bit quieter over the summer. In the meantime, the free resource library is open for you 24/7!

The PORTAL opens soon 👀✨ — are you coming?

magic is real,
you are magic

and the answers you seek
are already inside

waiting for you
praying for you back

it’s a matter of:
getting free

free from being “likable”
free from being “acceptable”
free from being “good”

open the door, love
leave the cage behind

JOIN US⚡️

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

This episode was so special to record. Honestly, I was nervous, because it is a sensitive topic and a deeply important one. I wanted to find just the right reading to begin with, and I think we did. We landed on an excerpt from the Ugly Duckling story in Women Who Run With the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

Pascale and I talk about the feeling of being an outsider, what it’s like to find chosen family, and how different those experiences feel in our bodies.

If you haven’t found your people yet, please be so gentle with yourself and keep going — they are out there, and you’ll know when you’ve found them. They’ll need you as much as you need them.

The Hope is Resistance Podcast

We have one more episode to share with you to complete our Spring season! It has been an absolute joy to have these conversations and share them with you.

For our final episode of the season, we will be sharing Pascale’s new song Rise Brighter, which she has cocreated with her son and bandmate (and our producer!) for their music project, Vallée Des Loups.

We shared their latest song and explored the meaning behind it in our BEAUTY episode, and you can also listen to it on spotify.

We’d love to see you before then!

Join us in person this summer to put explore some of these themes in practice — resting, healing, reconnecting to nature, and reimagining our way forward from that place.

This is our fourth year gathering together at Nectar, and our last in this location! If you’ve been hoping to join us here, this is your chance!

We still have single and shared rooms available.

make the leap - sign up now!✨

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

On the weekend, I got to celebrate Beltane, which marks the mid-way point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. I’ve been getting to know my Celtic ancestral roots after years of dabbling in other earth-based wisdom ways, and it feels so right.

Wherever our people our from, our ancestors lived close to the land, paying deep attention to the seasonal shifts as they unfolded, each point of the year marking particular gifts, challenges, and celebrations.

As our podcast, Hope is Resistance, has developed over these last 8 months, we’ve decided to release our episodes in seasons aligned with the actual seasons from the perspective of the Northern Hemisphere, where Pascale and I both live.

The themes we share are chosen to reflect and resonate what’s unfolding around us seasonally, so that you can be held throughout the year. You can listen to the episodes at any time, of course, but if you listen to them as they’re released, you’ll find they resonate with the particular point in time that you’re listening.

Part of our work in resisting the harmful colonial and capitalist systems we live under is remembering ourselves as nature itself. We are not machines. We ebb and flow as everything living does. As the wheel of the year turns, we change along with it.

Finding yourself in all that’s unfurling all around you

This week, we’re exploring the act of unfurling, connecting the process we experience inside our bodies to the experience of the plants around us unfurling. We discuss this as a tender, beautiful moment in the process of unfolding.

Speaking of seasonal timing, our upcoming 🌟PORTAL🌟 retreat unfolds in some of the last days leading up to the Summer Solstice (so soon!!!). It also falls on the last few days of the waning moon, with our last retreat day falling on the new moon in Gemini on June 14th.

We’re going to work with this moon magic in our practices and ceremonies to finish something up, close a chapter and mark a powerful new beginning for us to live into throughout the rest of the moon cycle, summer season, and year 👀.

A portal is a doorway, an entrance, an opening.
Come with us to walk through that door!!🪞✨

Register by May 10th!

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🌦️Start here to learn how to heal from burnout and trauma.
🌈Visit the free resource library for information and practices to support your healing, resting, and dreaming.

Yet if we’re not careful, we internalize those expectations, impossible and inhumane as they may be, and our inability to meet them can breed so much shame and self-criticism. So we push forwards until we can’t anymore.

“The culture will steal you away from yourself every day,
And you have to steal yourself back every night”
— Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Many of us raised as girls have learned implicitly and explicitly to base our worth on what we can give others. Caregiving and service work are valuable, sacred endeavours, but they don’t represent the whole story of who we are or what we need to thrive. Our caring nature is often exploited.

It was beautiful to have this conversation with Pascale about how we can open ourselves to reciprocity, balance and wholeness through the act of receiving.

Like a sunflower orienting towards the light, we too can intentionally orient ourselves to receive warmth, care, love and presence from ourselves and from others.

We don’t need more selfless women.
We need whole, powerful, supported women.

Let us pour into you - you can join us in BC this for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨

⤵️
what’s on the other side of this doorway?
you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

🌟 sign up here 🌟

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity, and how it feels like the only thing that is making sense to me in a time of so much destruction (and AI💀).

What we make with our hands, for ourselves and for each other, matters so much!!!! To make is such a human endeavour. In this episode, we’re talking about creating from a place of hope, raw expression, the cosmic origins of creation itself, and more.

I welcome you to listen to this episode, even (or especially) if you don’t consider yourself an “artist”. I promise you, you’re creating every day, with the mediums of meals, moments, conversations, and so many more.

So, what do you want to create?

Join us this summer in BC!🌈✨

I’m honoured to be joined by guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast!

She is bringing her gifts in the forms of song, ceremony, and movement.

REGISTER BY MAY 10TH!🫶🏻

Our last retreat at this location 🥺

If you’ve been wanting to join us at Nectar, this is your chance.

I first went to Nectar after I lost my nonprofit, Warrior Yoga, and got very very sick with meningitis in 2021. It rained the whole time I was there (which was a relief), and I curled up in my cute little cabin and cried and cried and mourned my old life. It was a tremendous blessing to me to have that sanctuary.

I returned the following year to host my own retreat, and I have been bringing you all back there annually ever since. I love going to Nectar (as a gal with 5 Virgo placements lol) because they’ve tended to every detail of the experience so that you feel truly taken care of and able to unplug. In recent years, they even added a thermal spa on the property, it really is a dream.

However, this will be my last year hosting at Nectar Yoga 🥹. In 2027, they’re pivoting to offer just 2 main meals per day (brunch/dinner) but I know my girls like to eat… so I don’t think that will work for us. :)

Don’t worry, Nest Retreats are not going anywhere (except to a new location)! I still plan to offer at least one retreat per year. Stay tuned to find out where our 2027 location will be, and please feel free to reply with your requests/recommendations.👀

💝 Can I ask you for a favour?

If you’re not joining us this summer but you wish you were, could you share about it with someone who would love this experience?

For the most part, I’m a one woman show, and I really appreciate you helping spread the word so I can keep focusing on making these experiences for us, including the pod!

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

I’m writing you after the Sanctuary event I got to hold yesterday with my dear friend and former student, Ally Trick 🥹

We need reprieve

The intention for the event was to offer a ceremonial healing space in which we didn’t have to *keep it together*. We are living through collectively heartbreaking times, and many of us are carrying our personal heartbreaks, too.

This, juxtaposed with the need to go to work, show up as caretakers, and overall keep up with all the tasks required to sustain our lives amidst overlapping crises at this point… it’s a lot. And it’s really easy to make up a story that everyone else is fine, which can be a really lonely place to be.

We need sanctuaries 🕯️

Gathering together in circle, we get to hear what is really happening for each other beneath the surface. And here’s what we find out: many of us are not fine. Each in our own ways, we are all angry, grieving, and exhausted.

And that makes perfect sense. There is a lot to be heartbroken about. And our heartbreak at violence, injustice and suffering is human, natural, and valid.

We also talked about the healing that happens when we come together, when we remember to the earth as a sacred living being, when we embrace our rituals, when we let ourselves express what’s really inside, when we support our bodies with rest and movement, when we keep creating, when we are kinder to ourselves.

These are not just self-care strategies, they are violence prevention strategies on personal, collective, and ecological levels. Staying close to what makes us human really matters!!!

Hope is Resistance

If you weren’t able to join us this time, I welcome you to listen in to our podcast, Hope is Resistance, for our regular exploration of these themes.

Every week, Pascale and I are sewing seeds of hope for a liberated and loving world, discussing individual and collective healing, and how those things aren’t as separate as we may think.

This weeks episode is on resonance, and I hope it holds you in your day today 💛

Join us in BC this Summer, June 10th-14th for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨

⤵️
what’s on the other side of this doorway?
you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

featuring guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast ⚡️

🌟 sign up here 🌟

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

We just wrapped our final session of the Befriending Your Body Yoga & Therapy Group last night. For the last 8 weeks, we’ve been diving into discussions, reflections, and practices supporting our ability to listen and respond to our bodies needs.

Listen, real magic happens when we value the wisdom of our bodies and work together in reverent partnership.

Our bodies are often telling us what they need, but many of us never learned how to listen. We never learned how to speak the language of sensation. If we’re being honest, many of us never even learned that our bodies have information worth listening to.

If we don’t know that their sensations and symptoms hold valuable information for us, if we never learned how much they love us, it’s understandable that we can end up in hostile relationships with our bodies.

Yet our bodies are our companions for life. They are our instruments for experiencing the world around us. They serve us every minute of the day via heartbeat, breath, digestion, immunity, and so much more.

You can return home to your body as a loving friend

I’ve experienced what it’s like to finally start listening and responding instead of silencing my body and postponing her care. Honestly, I got to a point that had no choice because of escalating physical and mental illness. But repairing my relationship with my body was a gift from that time, and something worth protecting.

We can move past shame, blame, frustration and forcing. We can move towards presence, care, and a million tiny imperfect (!) attempts to provide our bodies with the support and nourishment they need. When we’ve taken the action we need to take, those alarm bells can finally stop ringing, and we can have experiences of peace (not like, all the time, but still…).

Healing is a creative process, you have to find what works for you

Our group was a powerful collective experience in recognizing that our needs are often different than others, or different than what we’re “supposed” to need. And yet, they’re still valid. And they’re still our needs.🤷‍♀️

We’re often looking outside ourselves for answers; and while learning, researching and consulting care providers are valuable and needed steps on the healing journey, so is the step of listening in for our own bodies responses and requests.

If you’d like to join us in this exploration, the program will run again in October 2026, and you can join the waitlist. You can likely use psychotherapy benefits to cover the program cost, if you live in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut, Canada.

You are the expert on your own body

🌀 In the meantime, I’d love to introduce you to Dr. Kaeri Schaefer, a holistic medical doctor in Oregon. She created a toolkit called You Are the Expert on Your Body: Guidance Towards Embodied Agency in Medical Settings.

🌀 She also has an upcoming event called Saying Hello to Your Body on April 30th at 10am PST/1pm EST - an introductory workshop for the person seeking safety, support, and trust in their body so that they can show up for their people and their communities. I’m planning to attend!

Both of these resources are absolutely free! Let’s explore what happens when we treat our bodies as the sacred life-partners that they are 🩷

Join the next Yoga & Therapy Group

Dr. Kaeri's Agency Toolkit

Dr. Kaeri's Body Workshop

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

In our last episode of Hope is Resistance, EMERGENCE, we touched on discipline.

I knew as we were recording that I wanted to talk to you about devotion. To me, devotion is discipline rooted in love.

And I can’t think of many things more important than that right now. We need to devote ourselves to caring for ourselves, each other, and the earth so much right now.

Join me in Ottawa for SANCTUARY 🕯️

⏰ April 12th 1-5:30pm 📍335 Catherine St, Ottawa ON

Sanctuary offers a ceremonial space lovingly created to wrap us in warmth and care while we move through personal and collective heartaches. A past student and friend of mine, Ally Trick, will be joining to share more about spiritual resourcing!

Because Collective Movement generously donated the space for this event, we are able to offer sliding scale pricing $0-120🥲

🌟sign up here🌟

Join us in BC this Summer, June 10th-14th for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨

⤵️
what’s on the other side of this doorway?
you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

featuring guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast ⚡️

🌟 sign up here 🌟

The Free Resource Library is open 24/7

Browse practices designed to support you in resting, healing and reimagining your way forward.

🌟browse the library🌟

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

When we reach the time we’re ready to heal, we’ve usually been underwater for quite a while, struggling to keep up with even the most foundational parts of our lives like food and sleep.

It can be a big leap, then, to summon the executive functioning, and the energy, and the hope required to set out on a new path. The enormity of that leap can keep us stuck, even when all we want is to move forward.

I created this resource because I wanted to hold your hand through the process. I lay out all the things I’d want you to consider so that you can choose the right way forward for yourself.

🤝 I walk you through, step by step, things that you’ll need to consider for setting out on a healing journey, beginning/returning to therapy, and calling in all the additional supports and resources that will sustain you as you go.

OPEN THE GUIDE

🌟This guide is and always will be free!

📌 If you’re not quite ready now, but want to return to it in the future, I welcome you to bookmark it.

🌱Like seeds in the wind, please help me spread it to those who need it! Drop it in the group chat, share it however you see fit! It’s a community resource.

🫂 If you have a loved one who is struggling and ready to heal, it could be really supportive to sit down with them (with their consent of course) and walk through the guide with them, helping them make the steps that they need.

I’m cheering you on, celebrating every single step you take.

The Free Resource Library is open 24/7

Browse practices designed to support you in resting, healing and reimagining your way forward.

🌟browse the library🌟

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

🎧 If you haven’t listened to our spring episode yet, I’d start there, and then come back to listen to emergence.

Join me in Ottawa for SANCTUARY 🕯️

⏰ April 12th 1-5:30pm 📍335 Catherine St, Ottawa ON

Sanctuary offers a ceremonial space lovingly created to wrap us in warmth and care while we move through personal and collective heartaches. A past student and friend of mine, Ally Trick, will be joining to share more about spiritual resourcing!

Because Collective Movement generously donated the space for this event, we are able to eliminate financial barriers by offering sliding scale pricing $0-120🥲

🌟sign up here🌟

Join us in BC this Summer, June 10th-14th for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨

⤵️
what’s on the other side of this doorway?
you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

featuring guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast ⚡️

🌟 sign up here 🌟

The Free Resource Library is open 24/7

Browse practices designed to support you in resting, healing and reimagining your way forward.

🌟browse the library🌟

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

Sunday April 12th, 1-5:30 at Collective Movement 🕯️

📍335 Catherine St, Ottawa ON

Sanctuary offers a ceremonial space lovingly created to wrap us in warmth and care while we move through personal and collective heartaches.

In our mini-retreat experience, we’ll explore:

• collective altar making

• trauma-informed yoga asana practice

• journalling and reflection

• group sharing

• guided rest practice

A past student and friend of mine, Ally Trick, will be joining to share more about spiritual resourcing!

Because Collective Movement generously donated the space for this event, we are able to eliminate financial barriers by offering sliding scale pricing $0-120🥲

sign up here!

In-person therapy appointments available at Shine Mental Health Collective

📍 280 Albert St, Suite 203, Ottawa ON

I’ll also be seeing clients for in-person therapy April 13th-17th*. New and returning clients welcome! We can continue our work virtually upon my return to BC.

I specialize in supporting survivors of relational, sexual, and childhood trauma with chronic stress, burnout, PTSD and C-PTSD.

I see your experiences through the lens of the nervous system, which helps us understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are shaped by your body’s efforts to keep you safe and connected.

Learn more about my approach to therapy here, you are welcome to book a free 15-minute consultation.

book your session here

*The Jane scheduling app will only display “virtual psychotherapy” as an option, but if you’d like to join in person, feel free to pop that in the notes upon booking. I’ll be in the office, either way :)

Warmly,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

Welcome to spring 🌷✨

Season 2 of the Hope is Resistance podcast begins today! Our conversations plant seeds of hope for a more liberated, loving world. 🌱

We weave a web of topics within individual and collective healing practices, drawing on personal and professional experiences from artistry, therapy, yoga, activism, teaching, athleticism and more…

We’re leaning into themes of renewal as we begin the astrological new year and feel the land around us waking up. In a world where many of us live disconnected from nature, meeting seasonal shifts with reverence is an act of resistance to reclaim our place as nature, ourselves.

We’ll be in your inbox with new episodes on Mondays 💌.

Join me in Ottawa for SANCTUARY 🕯️

April 12th 1-5:30pm: a ceremonial healing space for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people

I’m excited to be hosting a mini retreat experience weaving movement, rest, reflection and ceremony. Space was donated for this event by Collective Movement, so I am able to offer this event on a sliding scale (as if I couldn’t love that place any more 🥹).

I’m finalizing some details currently, keep an eye on your inbox for the full details coming your way soon. 👀💌

In the meantime…

The Resource Library has special (FREE!) spring practices to walk you into this new season🌀…

Melting into Spring: Trauma-Informed Yoga Nidra Practice

45mins of deep rest: Let the rigidity from the cold winter months soften along with the earth itself as you release effort and melt into ease with this yoga nidra practice.

time to lay down 💤

Rinse: Trauma-Informed Yoga Ceremony for the Spring Equinox

90mins of intentional practice: Attune to the endings and beginnings happening in your inner world as we open a new seasonal chapter with movement and reflection.

time to dive in 🌊

Join us in BC this Summer, June 10th-14th for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨

⤵️
what’s on the other side of this doorway?
you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

featuring guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast ⚡️

time to gather 🫂

Love,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

The Spring Equinox arrives this Friday, March 20th. I’ve got some FREE practices to support you in marking that seasonal shift within yourself 🫡

Melting into Spring: Trauma-Informed Yoga Nidra Practice

45mins of deep rest: Let the rigidity from the cold winter months soften along with the earth itself as you release effort and melt into ease with this yoga nidra practice.

🎧LISTEN HERE

Rinse: Trauma-Informed Yoga Ceremony for the Spring Equinox

90mins of intentional practice: Attune to the endings and beginnings happening in your inner world as we open a new seasonal chapter with movement and reflection.

🌱 PRACTICE HERE

The next season of the Hope is Resistance podcast will begin March 23rd!

We’ve got themes of renewal and rebirth coming your way soon! You’re in the right place - you’ll receive them right here in your inbox. 💌

🎧 CATCH UP ON SEASON 1

Join us in BC this Summer, June 10th-14th for our most magical retreat yet ✨

por•tal: a doorway, gate or other entrance, especially a large and imposing one. 🪞✨
what’s on the other side of this doorway? you, reconnected to your magic, creativity and power.

featuring guest teacher Pascale Goodrich, teacher, musician, activist, athlete, and cohost of the Hope is Resistance podcast ⚡️

TELL ME EVERYTHING 😮

PS. Ottawa people…. save the date April 12th 1-5:30pm, ok? More details coming your way soon 👀

Take care and rest deeply!

Love,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

They’ll tolerate a half-free woman. A woman who will work a job, but for less, plus more care work on top. A woman who speaks, but not at her full potency. A woman who sees, but only partially. You get the idea. You’ve seen it, felt it.

Free women are tolerated only when their freedom mirrors their cage 😤

When they don’t upset anyone, don’t piss them off. When they pick up on the invisible code that says “you can be powerful, just not as powerful as me”. And they could have gotten away with it, could have kept convincing us to be grateful for our half freedom, for breadcrumbs. But they took too much. They took too much from us, from the human family, from the earth and all of her inhabitants.

Haven’t they heard about the superhuman strength a woman has to protect her young? Nothing awakens a woman’s survival instincts like a threat to someone she loves. Everyone knows that.

Did they forget that women mother the world?
That everything living is our offspring?
That every child is our child?

There is nothing more beautiful than a liberated woman ⚡️

Uncaged. She is strong, she is angry, she is joyful, she is loving, she is free. She does not accept payment in half, love in half, or effort in half. Full will do just fine, thank you.

A free woman at her full potency is a danger to imbalanced power dynamics, but a gift to everything, everyone else.

A free woman at her full potency is a weapon for good. The resistance armoured and supplied. The resistance rested and well fed. The resistance sung a lullaby, a battle cry, a prayer to the sky, in any order.

A caged woman withers 🥀

A caged woman performs. A caged woman gets on her knees for a system that might pay her, but will never love her. Will never set her free. A caged woman has anxiety, digestive issues, headaches. A caged woman has autoimmune disease. A caged woman will cage herself. Will snare others. Will think it is safer that way. Will fail to see the trap.

We’re all caged and uncaged 🐅

In truth, there is no dichotomy between a free woman and a captive one. We’re all caged in some ways, and free in others. Don’t tell yourself that freedom isn’t for you when the path to freedom courses through your veins in this very moment.

Why else would you be reading this? You’ve tasted freedom, thrown off some cages, but remain bound by various others, known and unknown.

You’re here looking for the keys. I’m here, looking for the keys. We gather together, looking for keys. We find that you have some, and I have some, and she has some. We start passing them around, trying keys in locks. Some doors open, some doors don’t. But I know that you know the feeling of stepping through to the other side, into the cool freshness of the moonlight.

It’s new, but familiar. It’s frightening, but true. It’s lonely, but only until we find each other, so I can show you the door I walked through, too.

With the cage door fully open, the world opens to you. They told you you’d be alone out here, but the whole earth holds your hand.

You’ll grow and grieve with the moon 🌖

You’ll be escorted through time with the seasons, and you’ll find a friend in every plant, too. You’ll find your inner compass and realize you always knew where to go, if you only knew which voice in the choir to listen to.

You’ll never be alone because the earth will become your family, the universe your cocreator, the great mystery your muse. You’ll track the stars like weather, and they’ll keep track of you, too. They told you you’d be alone out here, but you’ll never be alone again, so long as you remember your place in the nature of things.

You’ve just read an excerpt of a book that is currently pouring out of me!!!

I always planned to release a poetry book someday, but it’s quickly becoming much more. It’s becoming a collection of lived experience, research, instruction, poetry and illustration.

I can tell it’s time because the words pour right out, even in inconvenient moments😂.

Listen, loves - there’s a lot that I don’t know. Of course. But what I know in my bones is that a return to the earth is the pathway through this moment. It’ll be a while before this book comes out, but I hope to share snippets with you here, and I would love to hear your thoughts!

In the meantime, some practices for you….

🌀NEW Earth Mother Trauma-Informed Yoga Nidra Practice is now live in my free resource library.

🎧LISTEN HERE

🌀NEW Resting As You Are SHORT guided rest practice is also now live in my free resource library. For when you need a Yoga Nidra, but only have 17 minutes.

🎧LISTEN HERE

And, also….

🌀 Our next episode of Hope is Resistance will launch us into our second season just after the Spring Equinox on March 23rd! We’re bringing lots of juicy themes surrounding rebirth and renewal.

🎧CATCH UP ON SEASON 1

🌀 If these themes are resonating with you, you probably want to join us this summer for 🌟PORTAL🌟: a therapeutic yoga retreat for women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people, designed to reconnect you with your magic.

👀DOESN'T HURT TO LOOK

Take care and rest deeply!

Love,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Registered Psychotherapist (qualifying)
Certified Canadian Counsellor (CCC)
nestholistic.ca

Are we going to hold onto it, defend it, and sustain it, or are we going to let it BURN?

I’ve been FIRED UP the past couple of weeks. I have been studying and unpacking men’s perpetration of sexual violence and exploitation of girls, women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people for over a decade, but there is something about what we’re collectively unpacking this time that, to me, feels different.

The sexualization of young girls

We’ve long known that girls are sexualized from a young age, but now we also know that brands we revered as young girls (Abercrombie, Victoria’s Secret/PINK, Bath and Body Works, etc) were owned by Les Wexner, who is a part of Epstein’s trafficking operations.

These companies sold us ways of being desirable. Any of us who lacked supportive connections as young people with developing brains were especially vulnerable to learn the warped belief that being sexual was a route to being loved. It wasn’t actually love, just a perversion of it, but if we weren’t taught any better, we couldn’t tell the difference.

The legacy of sexual trauma

Many of us, myself included, racked up years and years of trauma, pain, self-doubt and shame as a result that we are still navigating today. And this manifests not only in our beliefs, but in our bodies.

It manifests as tension, chronic illnesses, anxieties and so much more that is often downplayed, and dismissed, by a medical system that barely bothers to test their treatments for women. The harm just MULTIPLIES.

What really breaks my heart the most, is how much we internalize it.

We blame ourselves. We think we are broken. We doubt ourselves. We know in our bones that something is wrong, but we question if we are over-reacting, we think that since everyone else is acting “normal”, we must be the thing that is wrong. I hear variants of this this every single day from my clients, and I know it from the inside too.

It feels wrong because it IS WRONG

It feels unsafe because it is. And it’s so pervasive it’s become normalized. If we aren’t around people who understand it, we’re going to feel crazy.

This heightened moment is a really important opportunity we can take to redirect the shame and blame outwards, where it belongs, on the perpetrators of abuse and their enablers.

We are being presented a fork in the road:

Are we going to continue to close our eyes to the DAILY harm perpetuated by the patriarchy, continuing to feed it, protect it and uphold it within ourselves, making ourselves and the planet sicker and sicker?

Or are we ready to build something else? Something more connected, reciprocal and life sustaining for us and the planet?

Are we going to walk through this portal of massive change and overhaul nearly everything or are we not?

This question can be contemplated on an individual level and a collective one. I really think this is where we’re at.

A better world is possible

Our podcast, Hope is Resistance, is rooted in our belief that there IS another way forward. We can access it by imagining, dreaming, gathering together and creating, using our voices to reshape culture.

Women and queer voices are urgently needed now. But we also have so much healing to do to root out the cages that have kept us small, weak, and compliant.

This has always been my life’s work, but I’m even more urgently devoting myself to it now. What I’m saying is: support is available. People that “get it” exist, and we can gather ourselves.

Here’s what I have available to you right now:

❤️‍🔥 PODCAST

The podcast episode from this week, PORTAL. We are speaking to transformation, and all that comes with it (discomfort) and all that comes from it (liberation). Plus, all of our past episodes.

listen to the podcast

❤️‍🔥 SUMMER RETREAT

My upcoming retreat this June 10th-14th, is also called PORTAL. I named it last year, intuitively, and now the name makes complete sense to me. We need to gather in safe, supportive spaces to heal, transform and quite literally remake the world.

I’ve decided to contain the space to women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people only. It’s designed to reconnect you to your magic through the portals of yoga, ceremony, nature and community.

learn more about the retreat

❤️‍🔥 MUSIC

Pascale + Max from the pod have released their song Beauty from their music project Vallée des Loups (Valley of Wolves). It speaks to calling our beauty and power back, and the timing of this release couldn’t be more perfect.

listen to beauty

❤️‍🔥 FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY

Visit my website for a multimedia resource library that includes articles that address why we minimize our trauma, the shame we carry, how to heal, and then also practices that help us reconnect to our intuition, ground ourselves, and feel safe enough to rest and sleep.

take me to the resource library!

❤️‍🔥 INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

I have room for a few more individual trauma therapy clients. If you need someone who ~gets it~, I would love to support you in healing and reconnecting to your power right now.

learn more about trauma therapy

🔊🔊🔊 AMPLIFY: Are you talking about these recent events with your friends? Drop the link to this substack publication in the group chat so we can begin moving forward together ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Furiously yours,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
registered psychotherapist (qualifying), yoga therapist (C-IAYT)
nestholistic.ca

We have a very special episode for you this week. Our podcast co-host Pascale Goodrich and our producer Max Goodrich are releasing their song, Beauty, through their music project, Vallée des Loups. You’ll hear it here on the podcast first, TODAY! Please, give it a listen!

This is such a special song, I’m so excited to share it with you in place of a poem today. Permission to dance along 💃💃💃

I know for some of you this will be your new anthem. It’s about reclaiming your energy from places it has been misused, and it’s a beautiful anchor to support us all through that experience, reminding us of what is important.

Very soon, this song will be available on Spotify & iTunes - I’ll let you know when you can save it!

Join us!

Join us for our most magical retreat yet, this June 10th-15th in BC!

🌀This retreat is designed to guide you back to your magic—your creative power, fed by connection with yourself and the natural world.

🌀In the last breath of spring, we’ll spend the days leading up to the summer solstice in deep nourishment: silent mornings, movement, journaling, meditation, yoga nidra, song, expressive arts, group circles, and ceremonies, grounded in reverence for the land and its ancestors.

🌀Pascale will be joining as a guest teacher, bringing her gifts in the realms of ceremony, song, and movement!

🫂 If any of these resources resonate with you but you’re unable to attend, please share with someone who needs them! Word of mouth is the best, most human (and my favourite) method of amplification.

Take care and rest deeply,

Cassie Connor, M.A. (she/her)
registered psychotherapist (qualifying), yoga therapist (C-IAYT)
nestholistic.ca