Psychoeducation for the Soul is a monthly gathering where a licensed professional counselor explores mental health concepts through the lens of soulful, daily practice. The intention is to make complex clinical ideas accessible, lived, and meaningful in everyday life.

In times that feel disorienting and heavy, knowledge and connection become essential. These spaces are an opportunity to come together, make sense of what we’re experiencing, and build practices that support clarity, resilience, and collective care.

Come to gain resources to find your way in the fog <3

This month’s focus is DOPAMINE
What is it, really?
How does it shape motivation, pleasure, and behavior?
And how can we support our bodies in relationship to it, rather than becoming dependent on chasing it?

Removing dopamine from the brain doesn't simply paralyze it. Instead, it puts it in the dark room – a state of nonaction and nonexperience in which it does not feel compelled to do anything at all.

-Nikolay Kukushkin

Dopamine lives in tension; it pulls us toward novelty, reward, and movement. Together, we’ll explore how to work with that energy in ways that feel alive, grounded, and sustainable.

While not necessary, we encourage you to RSVP for this event. This helps us better prepare for the expected number of guests and accommodate the needs and feedback of our community.

RSVP

We hope to see you there! Please enter through the main entrance, located on the southwest side of the BUUF building, and follow the signs to the right to find the gathering space.

Add to Calendar

This month, we will be exploring Healing Beyond Words: What Animals Know That We Forgot.

If you’re needing a place to land, reconnect, and be in community, this space is here for you. Not the religious kind of healing, but the human, nervous-system-settling, belonging kind.

We hope to see you there! Please enter through the main entrance on the southwest side of the BUUF building, then follow the hallway to the right to find the gathering space.

I’ve been sitting with the feeling of Womxn Wasting Time, and it’s still lingering in my body in the best way. There was something quietly radical about walking into a room where nothing needed to be accomplished. No one was optimizing. No one was performing. People drifted between the craft table, little clumps of whimsical conversation, and unhinged smashing of buttons and joysticks. The usual undercurrent of “what should I be doing right now?” slowly loosened its grip.

We don’t get many spaces like that. Especially not as women and gender-expansive folks who have been taught, in a thousand subtle ways, that our worth is tied to our usefulness.

This gathering felt like a refusal of that story.

Thank you for coming without an agenda. Thank you for resisting the urge to turn it into a networking event or a self-improvement project. Thank you for trusting that being together without producing something measurable is still meaningful.

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK!

As we continue to grow, we want to learn from you. What worked, what felt meaningful, what we could improve next time. Please consider taking a minute to complete our feedback form:

CHL Feedback – Fill out form

…

We are already dreaming about what comes next. If you're interested in collaborating, volunteering, or exploring future events with us, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for being part of the Village.

With gratitude,
Ali + the Collective Healing Lab

RSVP

Womxn Wasting Time is a rest and leisure takeover! a chance to play and be, to exist alongside others who reflect pieces of our own identities, and to reclaim the simple, profound joy time free from the shoulds, coulds, and said I woulds.

Why This Matters…

And also… life is really hard right now. Have you noticed? Between the pressure to hold our own responsibilities, care for our families and communities, do more, be more, and the persistent feeling of never doing enough in the face of the world’s pain, it can feel exhausting to exist. Womxn tend to take on the emotional labor of our relationships and communities as well as the tangible obligations of being alive in America. We need opportunities to zoom in on the here and now. To rest even briefly, in a state of unburdened enoughness.

In a culture that constantly tells womxn how to produce, perform, optimize, or shrink—especially those who identify within other non-dominant cultures—“wasting time” can be an act of resistance. It’s a reminder that our time doesn’t only belong to systems of productivity or power, but first and foremost to our own bodies and to our most enriching relationships and communities.

A Note on Community & Safety

This event was created by and for womxn — including those who are queer, trans, femme, nonbinary, and anyone whose identity has been marginalized in typical “leisure culture.” We acknowledge that not all public spaces feel safe or welcoming, and we intend this to be a container of mutual respect, generosity, and celebration. Note that the event space is still open to the broader public during the gathering.

This month, we will be exploring parts work. We will examine both the physical and psychological effects of engaging with internal parts, or the aspects of ourselves that can feel like distinct entities with their own identities, strengths, values, and roles. Many therapeutic modalities center on parts work, all grounded in the understanding that we are multi-minded beings who often hold contrasting forces within us.

Learning to tune in to and work with our parts, rather than banishing, punishing, or judging the aspects of ourselves that feel difficult or uncomfortable, is a vital component of healing and meaning-making.

“Befriending one's parts is not simply a therapeutic endeavor: it also contributes to developing the practice of self-acceptance, one part at a time.”

― Janina Fisher

While not necessary, we encourage you to RSVP for this event. This helps us prepare more effectively for the expected number of guests and better accommodate the needs and feedback of our community.

RSVP

We hope to see you there! Please enter through the main entrance, located on the southwest side of the BUUF building, and follow the signs to the right to find the gathering space.

Add to Calendar

I would like to take a moment to express our gratitude. The Winter Gift Pantry has settled in our bones in the best way. Tables were stocked, gifts were chosen with intention, and people moved through the space with gentleness and excitement. Children shopped for their elders. Caregivers found support without shame. Volunteers wrapped gifts like love letters.

This is what it looks like when we choose community over scarcity. When we believe that generosity is not a burden, but a relationship. Thank you for helping us build a space where giving and receiving felt reciprocal, where people could participate without proving their need, and where belonging was the baseline.

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK!

As we continue to grow, we want to learn from you. If you attended, donated, volunteered, or helped spread the word, we would love to hear your reflections. What worked, what felt meaningful, what we could improve next time. Please consider taking a minute to complete our feedback form:

CHL Feedback – Fill out form

We are already dreaming about what comes next. More opportunities to connect. More gatherings rooted in care. More practices that remind us that there is enough when we build it together. If you're interested in collaborating, volunteering, or exploring future events with us, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for being part of this beginning.

With gratitude,
Ali + the Collective Healing Lab

Dear friends,

As we move deeper into the winter season, many in our community are feeling the weight of the season, holiday pressure, winter fatigue, and the ache of wanting to offer something meaningful to those they love but feeling unable to do so. At The Collective Healing Lab, we aim to provide a unique giving experience, one rooted in reciprocity and shared abundance.

This year, we’re hosting our Winter Gift Pantry, a completely free event where the community can browse donated gifts, wrap them with the help of volunteers, sip warm cocoa and cider, create winter crafts, and simply share in a season of connection.

All ages are welcome. All identities are celebrated. All gifts are free.

🌟 WINTER GIFT PANTRY

Saturday, December 20th | 3pm–7pm
SPACEPORT – 112 E 33rd St, Garden City

Why This Matters

The pressure of consumerism during the Holidays is felt by all, and it often comes with emotional stress or financial burden. We hope to lean into abundance and invite members of the community to feel connection and reciprocity, free from cost. Kids who long to give something back to their grownups, siblings, peers, or elders in their lives often don’t have the chance or means. Caregivers may carry a quiet burden of wanting to offer gifts while struggling to afford the basics.

This event is intentionally designed to shift that narrative.
Here, everyone gets to be a giver.

How You Can Participate…

We would be honored to have you involved in whatever way feels right for you: donating items, volunteering onsite, or simply attending and participating in the joy.

🧡 Donate Gifts

We are currently accepting:

• New or gently loved gifts for all ages

• Cozy items (blankets, candles, mugs, winter gear)

• Toys

• Art

• Jewelry

• Craft kits, books, puzzles

• Household goods in good condition

• Gift wrap, bags, ribbon, and tape

You can drop off donations at

The Collective Healing Lab.
112 E 33rd St. Garden City, 83714

Or at any of the designated donation drop-off sites

💛 Volunteer With Us

The heart of this event is the people who show up in support.

The volunteer sign-up:

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0A4FACAE22AAFAC34-61108106-chlwinter

💚 Attend the Event

If you or someone you know could use a little support with gift giving this season, please join us.
If you'd like to bring your kids to pick out gifts for their caregivers, please come.
If you want to be surrounded by community care rather than the pressure of consumerism, come.

Come as you are.
Take what you need.
Give what you can.

💛 Make a Monetary Donation

you may also donate to support this event and others like it provided by The Collective Healing Lab

Where to Donate:

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/chl-winter-gift-pantry

A Special Note on Inclusivity

The Winter Gift Pantry is intentionally welcoming to BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, immigrant, and refugee community members.
We know that not everyone feels safe accessing public events, especially during the holidays.

If you are part of a community or organization whose members would benefit from private invitations or additional support, please reach out — we will meet you where you are.

connect@collectivehealinglab.org

Help Us Spread the Word

One of the most impactful ways you can support this event is simply by sharing it.
Forward this email.
Post the flyer on your socials.
Tell a neighbor or coworker.

The more the community knows, the more magic we can make together.

Thanks for Reading!

Thank you for helping us make this event accessible.
Thank you for helping us build a village where people are cared for and connected.

We can’t wait to see many of you there.

This month, we will be discussing Ceremony and Rites of Passage. We will explore the physical and psychological effects of engaging with spiritual innovation, as well as how to incorporate culturally relevant and personally meaningful traditions into your daily life without relying on appropriation or colonized practices.

We’re born expecting what our deep-time ancestors experienced as their
birthright...the container of the village. We are born expecting a rich and sensuous
relationship with the earth and communal rituals of celebration, grief, and healing
that keep us in connection with the sacred.

-Francis Weller

RSVP

While not necessary, we encourage you to RSVP for this event. This helps us prepare more effectively for the expected number of guests and better accommodate the needs and feedback of our community.

We hope to see you there! Please enter at the southwest side of the BUUF building and follow the signs to the gathering space.

Add to Calendar

WE HAVE A VISION…

Hello Neighbor, and welcome to The Collective Healing Lab.

We’ve just incorporated and are eager to expand the meaningful work being done here in the Boise, Treasure Valley! Here is what we have for you today:

1. We will tell you a bit about what’s going on organization wide. We’ll break it down into the “what”, “so what”, and “now what” of it all.

2. You’ll also find reflections and knowledge from the most recent Psychoeducation for the Soul, a free monthly group providing innovative and soulful tools for well-being in a time characterized by separation and hatefulness.

3. A soulful practice meant to help you integrate the wisdom of the village in your daily life.

4. A breakdown of upcoming groups, gatherings, and workshops.

5. A recent highlight from the “That’s My Therapy Podcast.”

Let’s Goooooooo!

What?

We Have a Place to Gather and Create! The Collective Healing Lab now has a gathering space for creative partners and collaborators in Garden City right off the Boise Greenbelt. This is a place less so for holding programs, as those will all be happening within and around the community at large, but will serve as a place where vision can become reality with collaboration, creativity, and connection. . .and a printer.

We Have Befriended a Neighborhood Cat! It is an incredible feeling when you meet an animal who has the same color soul as you, you know the feeling? This little creature has been a touchpoint of joy and connection around our new office space…and is possibly looking for a home? Reach out if you want a little more Chill in your life (what we have decidedly and without authority started calling her).

We’re Brainstorming, Bodystorming, and Belonging…storming? We don’t have many groups planned for the finale of 2025 and are using the natural winter urge to shelter, digest, reflect, and project. We are asking questions like…how do we best tap into the needs of the community at large? How can we combat the lie that human flourishing must be resource-intensive? What is the path of least resistance for humans in Boise to connect and grow together?

We’ve Presented Our Ideas at the AEE International Conference! The major work we’ve been doing these past months has been preparing presentations for the yearly international conference for the Association for Experiential Education. We presented on LGBTQIA2S+ care in times of political tyranny as well as Experiential Resourcing through the Foundations of Decolonization. Ali, our founder, also helped lead a therapeutic climbing intensive. This is what the Lab is all about: experiencing, educating, and enriching the ways humans show up.

These workshops are available to the Boise Community as well,if you or your agency is interested in hearing more, please email…

ali@collectivehealinglab.org

So What?

Having a home base for collaboration means we are not just dreaming about community care, we are building it in real time. We’ve prioritized a creative, dynamic place to gather, create, and conspire ideas into action. It means fewer barriers, more accessibility, and more offerings grounded in real atunement, not guesswork.

Even the small moments, like befriending a cat that has the soul of a familiar ancestor, remind us that human flourishing is sustained in 1%-5% increments. Joy, any joy, is a resource. Presence, short-lived presence, is a resource. And cat people understand what it means to have the approval of such a creature: it feels like we could accomplish anything.

The upcoming pause in active programming is not stagnation. It is composting. It is the necessary wintering that allows us to grow offerings that are responsive, sustainable, and deeply aligned with the rhythms of the community we serve. It is an invitation to slow down and listen. What is needed? What is missing? What wants to emerge?

Presenting our work at an international conference signals that the conversations happening inside our little slice of Idaho are actually part of a much larger movement toward healing, justice, and community resilience. It means our local efforts are informed by global dialogues, and our community is connected to the wider web of experiential and liberation-focused care.

In short, every reflection, every cat encounter, every brainstorm, every workshop, is about stitching together a stronger fabric of care in a time that desperately needs a net not built on the tired and frayed strands of the mental health industrial complex. It is about reimagining what it means to belong to each other and recognizing that healing is not meant to be solitary work.

Now What?

Come Gather → Explore what collective healing feels like in real time. Check out the upcoming events in this newsletter or follow along on the CHL calendar.

Lead with Us → We’re seeking voices of passionate community builders to help shape our work. Email connect@collectivehealinglab.org to learn more.

Share a Story → Season 3 of That’s My Therapy is underway, and we’re seeking hyperlocal stories of healing and connection. Share interest and ideas to thatsmytherapypodcast@gmail.com.

Spread the Word → The simplest way to support is often the most powerful: invite friends, family, and neighbors into this village by sharing the newsletter, the podcast, or an event.

Zooming in and Zooming Out: Healing from Chronic Separation

“The primary source of mental anguish and emotional suffering in the modern world is separation. Separation from nature and native lands, separation from our ancestry and our spirituality, from our communities, and inevitably, separation from our own internal worlds. The primary agent of our separation being colonization”

Psychoeducation for the Soul September Recap: In this month’s session, we explored colonization and the collective wound of Separation. Colonization separated us from the natural world, disrupting our sense of place. We looked at how it cut us off from ancestry and history, leaving many of us carrying generational trauma without knowing the stories behind it. We reflected on the separation from the sacred, especially in cultures where spiritual innovation has been discouraged or punished. We explored the separation from our innate joy, our inner aliveness, and our ability to experience awe. And we named the disembodiment that results when we are taught to mistrust or ignore our internal worlds. Finally, we acknowledged how these layers of separation often lead to pathologizing normal human experiences, framing them as individual symptomology or disease rather than collective symptoms of disconnection.

We then explored ways to respond. We practiced awakening “the noticing brain,” the part of us that witnesses without judgment and helps us reconnect to ourselves. We talked about the power of zooming in to honor focus and presence in the here and now and zooming out to see the larger systems shaping our lives, join forces, educate ourselves, and take action. Throughout the discussion, the focus was on reclaiming connection: to body, to land, to lineage, to spirituality, to joy, and to each other. Together, we began weaving back threads of wholeness, remembering that separation is not natural to us.

Note: While we all must notice, cease to perpetuate, and heal from the wound of colonization as an ongoing collective trauma, it is the felt and voiced healing of BIPOC communities, whom colonization was designed to exploit, that are the metric of true progress. It is through decolonization and reparation that all of us will experience our collective liberation.

Capital “R” Rest

“Rest is about a mindset shift that values being over doing and allows us to connect deeply with our truest selves.”

-Tricia Hersey, Rest is Resistance

Psychoeducation for the Soul October Recap: This month in Psychoeducation for the Soul, we explored the theme of Rest with tenderness and curiosity. We began by turning toward one another and reflecting on our personal histories with rest: how our families modeled it, how it feels in our bodies, and what stories we’ve inherited about when rest is allowed. We named that rest is not only physical but cultural, emotional, and ancestral, shaped by the conditions we’ve lived in and the lessons we’ve absorbed. We talked about the body’s physiological need for rest, about rest as resistance to systems that overvalue productivity, and about rest as emotional re-centering. We also honored the ways rest can become forced when we ignore what we truly need: depression, shutdown, dissociation, and burnout as the body pulling an emergency brake. Together, we remembered that humans are rhythmic creatures. We are meant to move through cycles of effort, celebration, and restoration.

From there, we explored rest along two axes: passive to active, and restorative to destructive. Passive rest invites the body to be still, while active rest invites the body to be engaged. Restorative rest disconnects us from obligation in ways that refill our cup and expand our capacity to reengage with the world. Destructive rest disconnects us in ways that make it harder to return to ourselves and to the people we love. We looked at the four categories that emerge from these scales: passive restorative rest (healthy sleep, mindful pauses, moments of awe, gentle touch), active restorative rest (play, creativity, movement, nature time, hobbies), passive destructive rest (unhealthy sleep cycles, numbing behaviors, endless scrolling), and active destructive rest (binging, substance misuse, unhealthy sexual patterns, self-harm).

In small groups, we reflected on which forms of rest we lean into in this season of life, which patterns drain us, and which forms of restorative rest we feel called to cultivate.

Next PFTS Gathering:

12/10/2025 @ 5:30pm

BUUF 6200 N Garrett St. Boise, ID.

Topic: Ceremony and Rites of Passage, Approaching the Holidays with Innovative Spirituality

Consider engaging with this mental health tool in the coming days…

Upcoming Groups, Gatherings, and Workshops…

That’s My Therapy Monthly Highlight…

The highlight below comes from season 2 of the podcast, where hosts Ali and Manda meet with Katie Asmus, the founder of the Somatic Nature-Therapy Institute about creating intentional/sacred space. The next Psychoeducation for the Soul will discuss many of the ways we can honor transition and create meaningful ritual in our daily lives in order to care for ourselves and those around us.

Check out the clip and then take a listen to the full episode, here

We’re currently looking for hyperlocal pockets of deep connection in and around Boise. If you have an idea for a theme or would like to be interviewed on the podcast, please connect!

Thanks for reading all, and stay tuned for all the happenings at the lab.

This month, we will be discussing rest. We will identify what happens physically and psychologically when we engage with rest, respite, and recreation and also discuss rest as an act of revolution and cultural practice!

RSVP

While not necessary, please consider RSVP’ing to this event, this helps us prepare better for an expected number of guests and better accommodate peoples needs and feedback.

“Loving ourselves and each other deepens our disruption of the dominant systems. They want us unwell, fearful, exhausted, and without deep self-love because you are easier to manipulate when you are distracted by what is not real or true.”


― Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

We’ll be working with this tool and more as we find ways to rest in a world that feels like it demands constant vigilance and action.

We hope to see you there! Please enter at the southwest side of the BUUF building and follow the signs to the gathering space.

Add to Calendar

So it begins!

Hello Neighbor, and welcome to The Collective Healing Lab.

We’ve just incorporated and are eager to expand the meaningful work being done here in the Boise, Treasure Valley! Here is what we have for you today:

1. We will tell you a bit about what’s going on organization wide. We’ll break it down into the “what”, “so what”, and “now what” of it all.

2. You’ll also find reflections and knowledge from the last Psychoeducation for the Soul, a free monthly group providing innovative and soulful tools for well-being in a time characterized by separation and hatefulness.

3. A soulful practice meant to help you integrate the wisdom of the village in your daily life.

4. A breakdown of upcoming groups, gatherings, and workshops.

5. A recent highlight from the “That’s My Therapy Podcast.”

Let’s Goooooooo!

What?

We’re Official! The Collective Healing Lab is now incorporated as a nonprofit here in the Treasure Valley.

We’re Building Our Community-Led Leadership Team! We’ve started the process of gathering a board of thoughtful leaders and participants who will nurture this work.

We’re Serving the Community! In late August, we hosted our very first free, open-to-the-public groups: Psychoeducation of the Soul and The Cost of Caring. These groups will continue to be held on the last week of each month.

We’ve Partnered with the That’s My Therapy Podcast! The beloved podcast is now part of the Lab, adding to the voice and reach of the village.

So What?

Each of these milestones shows that the Lab is moving from vision into reality. Incorporation gives us the roots to grow sustainably and serve for the long term.

Building a community-led board ensures this work is guided by many voices, keeping us collaborative and accountable.

Our first free groups, Psychoeducation of the Soul and The Cost of Caring, revealed the heart of this project...neighbors gathering to learn, share, and heal together.

And by bringing the That’s My Therapy podcast into the Lab, we’re raising voices so these stories and practices ripple throughout and beyond Boise.

Now What?

Come Gather → Explore what collective healing feels like in real time. Check out the upcoming events in this newsletter or follow along on the CHL calendar.

Lead with Us → We’re seeking voices of passionate community builders to help shape our work. Email connect@collectivehealinglab.org to learn more.

Share a Story → Season 3 of That’s My Therapy is underway, and we’re seeking hyperlocal stories of healing and connection. Share interest and ideas to thatsmytherapypodcast@gmail.com.

Spread the Word → The simplest way to support is often the most powerful: invite friends, family, and neighbors into this village by sharing the newsletter, the podcast, or an event.

The Natural World as the Foundation of Healing

“Somewhere along the way, we forgot that healing is natural to us, innate to who we are. Not just a service to be paid for, nor a skillset to be learned, but rather like singing is to birds or making honey is to bees...it is just what we do.”

Psychoeducation for the Soul August Recap: Our first gathering! We began by recalling moments when nature spoke to us. Whether beautiful, frightening, tranquil, or challenging, these memories reveal our universal bond with the natural world.

We discussed the deeper truth that nature is not a “tool” for self-care, but the ground we come from and the kin we belong to. We explored emotions as sensations and imagery, and how natural metaphors open gateways to self-understanding.

Next PFTS Gathering:

10/1/2025

BUUF @ 5:30pm

6200 N Garrett St. Boise, ID.

Topic: Zooming in and Zooming out, accessing soulfulness while navigating colonization

Consider engaging with this mental health tool in the coming days…

Engaging with The Elements: A Nature-based Experiential Practice

Upcoming Groups, Gatherings, and Workshops…

That’s My Therapy Monthly Highlight…

We’ve partnered with the podcast “That’s My Therapy” to spread the reach of our mission and engage creatively with the unique and diverse ways people are finding healing in Boise.

We’re currently looking for hyperlocal pockets of deep connection in and around Boise. If you have an idea for a theme or would like to be interviewed on the podcast, please connect!

The highlight below comes from season 2 of the podcast, where hosts Ali and Manda discuss the concept of Experiential Therapy, a modality we draw a lot from here at the Lab.

Check out the clip and then take a listen to the full episode, here

Thanks for reading all, and stay tuned for all the happenings at the lab.

In this episode, Manda and Ali talk about experiential therapy, that is Experi-ENTIAL, not EXPERIMENTAL (no lobotomies here). We know now that our systems are most keen to learn, change, and grow when engaging tangibly with our feelings through attention and action in the here and now. 

In this episode, Manda and Ali discuss the Ladder of Safety, a common concept in trauma therapy. The ladder is all about how we respond physiologically to distress and how to return to a place of "safety." 

In this episode, Manda and Ali explore the "dumb phone" or, more specifically, the "very smart but often misunderstood phone," the CAT S22 Flip Phone, which Ali has been using for almost a year now. We talk about the phone itself but also how technology, in general, has captured our attention away from ourselves and our worlds. Let's talk about pursuing healing within the modern era of social media capitalism. 

In this episode, Manda and Ali dive into the world of parts-work. Manda breaks down Internal Family Systems (IFS), not just as a therapeutic approach but as a powerful framework for understanding and navigating everyday life.

Manda and Ali talk with researchers and experiential counselors Jackie and Clara about therapy on wheels, or near wheels, or with wheel-like metaphors. 

Part 1 of 2! We talk with Katie Asmus, founder of the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, about trauma-informed care in adventure therapy and the healing power of choice. 

Part 2 of 2: We continue our conversation with Katie, founder of the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, as she guides us through designing our own unique and meaningful ceremonies. 

We talk with Liz Hardwick, an expedition guide and integral life coach, about finding healing in wild places. 

We debrief Ali's Wedding and how leaning toward earnest intentions brings people together, how crying together bonds us, and how to not poop one's pants when it's game time.