What are your Healing Words?

“¿Cuáles son tus Palabras de Sanación?”

es una invitación.

¿Qué palabras estás practicando dentro de tu propio cuerpo?
¿Qué podría cambiar si las practicaras de manera consciente — y permitieras que fueran presenciadas?

Nuestras experiencias compartidas contienen una medicina que va más allá de nosotras mismas. Cuando una persona habla con honestidad sobre el dolor, la supervivencia o la esperanza, otras reconocen su propia historia y se sienten menos solas. La verdad presenciada suaviza el aislamiento, y la empatía transforma la sanación individual en sanación colectiva — el valor de una persona se convierte en permiso para muchas.

Cuando una voz sana, su eco se expande.

~ Kate Van Doren

~ Mujeres presentadas en esta fotografía

Julissa Diaz, Scottie Elliot, Tara Khaler, Danielle Bush Simmons, Camille Simmons, Libbey Hart, Mae Hart, Martha Patsy y Kali Martinez, Michelle Wedderbern, Miriam Haley, Citlalli Parra, Brigid Muhammed, Emma Wilder, Gigi Vega, Lisa Attridge de Gordillo, Anna Sinclaire, Charlene Phipps, Kate Van Doren, Aria Rose Van Doren, Elle Van Doren, Kajsa Ackerblom Litzen, Lilian Avilés, Yoli Avilés González, Laila Gutiérrez, Jenny Reichert Angulo, Jodi Pincus, Isabel Castejón, Abi Stage, Divya Thomas, Scarlett Rizvi, Brooke Van Hensbergen, Sara Picazo, Poppy Victoria

Fotografía asistente: Eugenia Tinajero

What are your Healing Words? 

Healing Words Project

On a spring afternoon, beneath trees lit by shifting sunlight, more than thirty-five women gathered in circle — women and young girls from ages eight to eighty, from many different backgrounds and walks of life. Three generations standing side by side. Elders, mothers, daughters. A living lineage.

Each woman chose her healing words—a mantra reflecting what she had survived, what she was carrying, and what she was ready to practice into becoming. One by one, we wrote those words onto each other's arms. Then each woman spoke her mantra aloud and shared why she chose it. Some cried. Some laughed. Some remembered ancestors. Some trembled as they named their truth for the first time.

A healing word is not magic. It is practice — choosing, again and again, to speak to yourself with love, especially when old narratives can be deafening.

“What Are Your Healing Words?” is an invitation.

What words are you practicing inside your own body?

What might shift if you practiced them intentionally — and allowed them to be witnessed?

Our shared experiences carry medicine beyond ourselves. When one person speaks honestly about pain, survival, or hope, others recognize their own story and feel less alone. Witnessed truth softens isolation, and empathy turns individual healing into collective healing—the courage of one becomes permission for many.

When one voice heals, it echoes.

~Kate Van Doren

~ Women presented in this photograph

Julissa Diaz, Scottie Elliot, Tara Khaler, Danielle Bush Simmons, Camille Simmons, Libbey Hart, Mae Hart, Martha Patsy and Kali Martinez, Michelle Wedderbern, Miriam Haley, Citlalli Para, Brigid Muhammed, Emma Wilder, Gigi Vega, Lisa Attridge de Gordillo, Anna Sinclaire, Charlene Phipps, Kate Van Doren, Aria Rose Van Doren, Elle Van Doren, Kajsa Ackerblom Litzen, lilian aviles, Yoli aviles gonzales, Laila Guitierrez, Jenny reichert angulo, Jodi Pincus, Isabel Castèjon, Abi Stage, Divya Thomas, Scarlett Rizvi, Brooke Van Hensbergen, Sara Picazo, Poppy Victoria

Assistant photographer~ Eugenia Tinajero