Imagine a full day of digging into your deepest wounds, pulling the messages and gifts out of them? Then a day of honoring them in a photo shoot?
What would that be like for you?
Would you be excited? Or??
That’s exactly what we do at Julie Foucht’s Art of Feminie Marketing Year long program.
Jen Harty
Jen’s wound was struggling with self-hate.
Jen’s wound was struggling with self-hate.
But Jen is one of the most courageous women I know. We asked her to strip down to her soul. To be fully in the pain of not feeling lovable, of not loving herself.
And she did. She even took a knife into the photo shoot, pressing the side of the cold blade against her skin. “My motivation was to show how I have treated myself on the inside.” Jen told me. “Even though I typically put on an amiable, mellow game face most of the time, I know I hurt myself in many ways. It happens through self-deprecation, being over apologetic, not listening to my own needs etc.
Even though I don’t cut myself or do physical harm, what I say and feel about myself is somehow equivalent. I was trying to show that with the knife picture. No facade, just the pain and ugliness of it right out in the open. “
When we did the second photo shoot I saw Jen let the city take her. Having broken free of shame and self-hatred she passionately embraced herself. She sighed in delight, adorned in silk and lace. In the sigh we saw the feminine rise in Jen. Fearless, powerful, sexy and sweet. Vibrating with a passion that will right the world.
Julie Foucht
Julie’s wounding was about being perfect, smiley, and happy. As a child she didn’t get love the way she wanted, and felt invisible and unimportant because she was born a girl, so she put on a pretty smile, saying it’s ok.
As an adult this left her feeling like a fraud – always wanting to look perfect for her clients.
“The fraud was crying out that only by looking good would I get the respect that I so desired. The fraud warned me that if I didn’t smile nicely, didn’t smile politely, my whole business, my whole life was in jeopardy." Said Julie
So for her wounds photo shoot she dressed in her oldest rattiest bathrobe. She stood exposed in her imperfection.
"I felt the smoke and mirrors of needing to present myself as perfect fall away. The reality is that life is messy, if we insist on being seen as perfect our clients lose all hope of ever achieving success. We’re not fooling anyone.” Said Julie
The first photo shoot was about getting ride of her mask, stripping away the pretending, allowing what is real to show up.
What showed up was HER POWER! There was no pretending, there was no denial of self, and the energy of keeping the messiness secret was allowed to be used somewhere else.
Here is what she said, “ THE GIFT OF SHOWING THE MESSINESS was gaining the knowledge that I am powerful even in my mess. I don’ have to pretend, I don’t have to work hard in being perfect, my power is always there, always powerful in my messy or not. This is the way of doing business in the feminine. No longer pretending, no longer being perfect and now from MY POWER.
This is how ease, abundance and joy are all possible.”
Becky Center
Becky’s wound was the Demanding Manipulative Bitch. “This is the part of me that seams to scares people. It scares them so much that I have shrank and hidden her away. I have tempered that part of me most of my life, calling her a demanding and manipulative bitch.
When her warrior queen came out in full steam. Then for second shoot the Rise of the Feminine shoot Becky softened. A Gentle Fierce Empress was able to rise. This was the part that we photographed in the second shoot. “I was able to sit in power and not say “Why are you not seeing me?” she just is. Powerful. That people could just be drawn to me in my power. It was a Relief. A full breath of who I am.” said Becky.
Linda Patton
Linda’s wound: “You are nothing but a messy, stupid whore. You aren’t worth following”
Linda had risen through the military to become protocol officer to a 4-star general, then carried her skills into the corporate world to become a leader there. While it seemed real, it was actually false leadership, built upon organizational rules and decorum. Her work is to teach true leadership to women who are way-showers of their own movements. And while she had all the skills and wisdom, inside the wound whispered: “You are nothing but a messy, stupid whore. You aren’t worth following.”
In the second shoot, Linda taped into the flirty, elegant, fully feminine essence of true leadership. She aligned with HER movement, slowly moving her body and feeling the power from within. She became so magnetic that a young man asked to dance with her in the middle of French Quarter. She was, and is, the living embodiment of Divine Feminine Leadership.
Yes, Linda Patton, we want more…
Mary Andrews Weaver
Mary’s wound:
That men only wanted her for sex. That her worth was how men could use her, and that she was a weak, worthless slut.
In her head, she knew differently. But deep inside, the wound was slowly killing her. It locked her up, and she buried her gift far underneath. And with that the goddess of love that we sometimes caught glimpses of on the edge of our vision, had also been shut out and buried under layers of protection.
So when it came to photographing the rise of the Gift…
We photographed Mary as her as her Goddess of Love and Mary was drawn to a black mask. For her it represented the identity of being a weak, worthless slut. And in front of the camera unfolded this beautiful ritual of feeling anger and letting go of the false identities so the goddess could be seen.
We where all in tears.
“I was finally done with what was the old normal way.”
Mary showed us the tears and the anger. And when she rose, SHE ROSE. SHE SHOWN SO BRIGHT. And then a thin ray of light fell just on her, leaving all of us in shadow.
“I cherished the support and felt the Feminine rising! It was empowering to feel an incredible energy. My pain that engulfed me was gone” Said Mary.
Ellen’s wound was being invisible worthless dog
“I don’t want ugly pictures!” she stormed when we explained what was going to happen during our day long photoshoot.. As a child, Ellen felt like the ugly girl in the group. She didn’t get the frilly dresses or the white Mary Jane shoes. She didn’t have bouncy blond curls. So she didn’t want ugly invisible photos.
But then during the shoot she curled up in a ball and held herself trying not to be seen. Then all of sudden she stood up and shook her fists. She glared at us. There might have been curse words hurled.
Her wound was being an invisible worthless dog, and it that moment she growled and got angry. All the anger of not being noticed rolled out. Thats when something shifted. Then we all laughed.
The next morning we previewed the photos. And she cried when she saw them. “I love them. I love that angry, scared, wanting to be seen woman.” She said. She softened in self-love.
For the second shoot, we asked her to go further. To JUST be fully alive and present in her skin. She hesitated, and said yes. At first it was awkward. And shot by shot I watched her drop into her body, more fully present, more alive. Without any frilly dress or fancy shoes she was transformed into the goddess she was born to be. I FELT the real Ellen.
