What is ecology of the human?
Let go of what binds you and become your authentic self
Hi, I’m Isa and I am the founder of ecology of the human. I started ecology of the human as a way of creating the community that I have needed with the hopes that it might resonate with some fellow humans out there.
Be the change you want to see in the world right?
So what is ecology of the human? I’m so glad you asked!
Ecology of the human is first and foremost a holistic trauma therapy practice. AND… I have imagination for so much more.
My tagline sums it up nicely, “Let go of what binds you and become your authentic self”.
Society has a way of conforming us into its image. What if you were made for more?
For as long as I can remember, I have had a fascination with the connection between mind, body, soul, and spirit.
This is a space that explores holistic well-being for adults who are living with complex trauma.
Complex trauma can cause all aspects of life to feel like climbing a mountain, even ordinary things become giant obstacles to overcome.
Worst still is the pretending…the pretending to be “normal” when you feel anything but. The truth is you don’t even feel like a person sometimes.
This can leave you feeling exhausted, isolated, lonely, and feeling trapped in reenactments and toxic spirals and relationship patterns–all you want is to feel normal! You just want to BE.
What’s in a name?
Ecology is the scientific study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment. A healthy ecosystem requires harmony across ecological processes. One process being out of balance can disrupt the entire ecosystem.
As humans, harmony in our particular ecosystems is essential. For some of us, this requires uprooting the foundation.
My background is in Art and Architecture. This has given me a holistic and spatial way of seeing my environment. It’s how I knew in graduate school when I was decorating my apartment that big yellow pillows in my apartment will uplift my mood and make me feel hopeful and having horizontal lines and natural materials will make me feel grounded and peaceful in the midst of the destabilization and the grueling, unforgiving work loads.
I created ecology of the human on the basis that everything is connected. The quality of these connections influences the quality of our lives.
Like a plant or a tree, to be well, we require a supportive ecology if we want to thrive.
If your beloved houseplant starts to die, do you blame her? Call her weak, stupid, and lazy?
Do you pathologize her symptoms by blaming her for her slowly dying?
Of course not!
Most likely, you get curious about her current conditions and explore what it is that might not be creating an ideal environment for her to flourish. Did she struggle as a seedling? How is her water intake? Is she getting enough sun? Too much? You ask–‘what was she meant for?’ and then you try to meet those needs through a series of trial and error. This requires patience! And tending to our own ecologies is no different.
This is especially true for those of us who have experienced trauma–we require a supportive ecology if we want to move out of survival.
Trauma is fragmentation. It separates you from all that we were made for, turning us inward protectively and sabotaging us from a full life. It puts our ecosystem out of balance.
Psychiatrist Gabor Maté states, “in the real world there is no nature vs. nurture argument, only an infinitely complex and moment-by-moment interaction between genetic and environmental effects.”
How you have responded to what has happened to you and what you have inherited has a large impact on who you are, how you feel, and how you relate to others.
This is good news! This means you can work to make changes, no matter how small, that will have a positive impact on your life.
As you begin to accept where you are and where you have been, this gives you the best possibility of creating an ecology of living that supports your well-being to help you grow into the healthiest of people, in mind, body, soul, and spirit.
Becoming a person after trauma
Ecology of the human is about becoming a person after trauma.
Founding ecology of the human comes out of my own struggle to be a person that has created in me a deep fascination with finding life in the midst of suffering and has given me a sensitivity to the connectivity of all things and how this impacts us for well or for ill.
Like how a simple bouquet of yellow flowers can relax the muscles in your face and put more oxygen into our chests, the dopamine released relaxes us and fills us with a sense of gratitude, pleasure, and hope. This comes from our biophilic connection with nature and is why we feel our mental health improve when we spend time in nature, put our bare feet in the grass, or simply look at a houseplant.
When the sun comes out after a few bleak overcast days, suddenly the world feels like a different place. We are impacted by our environments.
Ecology of the human focuses on the processes that turn darkness into light.
This is a space that explores the holistic elements of what brings inner and relational healing, which I argue involves learning to live with authenticity, creativity, and connecting with a deep sense of our original goodness.
Ecology of the human is a place where the human and all the realms of humanity are welcome, an outlet to explore questions like:
What is “the good life”?
Is healing possible?
Can we live as whole integrated persons in light of what has happened to us?
What does holistic well-being look like in light of trauma?
What are we made for?
Who am I?
I want this to be a place to explore with curiosity and creativity how we become whole, how we listen to our bodies to bring integration and connection to the self–that is to the biological body, ecological body, phenomenological body, social body, cultural body–and to bring ever growing awareness to the connection between us and to the communal and the relational.
Vision for a new ecology of living
Ecology of the human is about finding hope in community and coming back to life after (psychic and soul) death.
Wake up oh sleepers!
Ecology of the human is also a space to wake us up to what we were meant for.
We were made to receive and to give, to create, and to live as our unique True Selves and to live inter-dependently with others and with the world around us.
My vision for ecology of the human is to eventually create a collective community of healers and artists who are looking to collectively find their way out of bondage and into freedom:
To learn how to become human in the midst of an ever dehumanizing world.
To learn how to live a creative life that helps us connect and stay sensitive to our humanity and the humanity of others.
To help us stay close to our hearts and see the world through the eyes of love.
In this community of co-creators I hope to engage with curiosity the questions:
What is the meaning of life?
What am I made for?
What makes me feel alive?
What is my unique purpose and how do I live a meaningful life?
What does true well-being look like? Feel like? Taste like?
What does collective well-being look like?
How do I live in reciprocity and abundance rather than competition and scarcity?
How do I live a creative life?
It is part psychology, philosophy, ontology, embodiment, spirituality, intentional living, artistic recovery…down to the practicality of how to schedule your time or plan your calendar each week (you’ll thank me later) in order to feel your best and move towards a life you can enjoy–without the toxic chronic stress, the anxiety, depression, isolation, avoidance, and all of the symptoms of what has happened to us keeping us stuck.
It is a place where those of us who have chosen to take the red pill of Reality rather than continue on the path of the anesthetized blue pill–yes that is a Matrix reference!
This is a space for people who want more than just to be getting by week to week, month to month, year to year, stuck in the same old patterns.
My hope is to create a space to imagine what thriving might look like in exchange for just surviving.
The backstory
I created ecology of the human because living with complex trauma can be a lonely and hopeless road.
Before becoming a therapist, I worked as a Landscape Architect, driven by a desire to create spaces of beauty, harmony, and containment for human flourishing.
This came from a place deep inside me that was looking for a semblance of safety and goodness in the world.
Living with childhood trauma in undergrad was incredibly difficult but I made it through to the other side, with the imagination that I would finally be okay.
After college, I got the right job, eventually moved to my dream neighborhood in a two bedroom apartment I loved with a spare room for doing art or any of my countless hobbies I kept collecting.
It all felt like a dream, a dream I had fought very hard to achieve.
I now realize the dream was an illusion…
Even with the “right” job
the “right” relationship
the “right” apartment
the “right” community
Although I had the life I thought I wanted, my soul was bleeding beneath the surface.
And I felt like a fraud, like my life was not my own.
This is what is called mimetic desire, when what we want isn’t coming from an innate desire but is actually the result of years of social conditioning starting from a very young age, often from our family of origin and the realm of influence expanding from there.
This left me confused, didn’t I have everything I was supposed to want? Why wasn’t I happy? Why didn’t I feel well now that I was out in the real world “making it”?
I felt like I had been tricked.
I felt more like a prisoner than ever. Now I was in the adult version of the rat race of survival, in the game of the capitalistic American Dream to build wealth through “passion”, being a “team player”, by working against my limits through sheer will power and “life hacks”, and by allowing myself to be exploited at work without pay.
I no longer had time to think, I was in the grind.
With crushing, never ending deadlines and neglectful perfectionistic project managers who refused to listen or to help, this was a recipe for disaster.
A difficult situation for anyone to go through, my childhood trauma exacerbated became too much for me to bear and after lockdown during COVID-19, something gave way.
It wasn't until my relationships, my life, and my body broke down that I found the courage to seek healing.
Without the extra commute and obligations, lockdown was a time to reflect. I began to ask questions, is this what life is about? Is this what I have fought so hard to survive for? There had to be more to life.
I came to a crossroads: I could continue down the path of work really hard and keep my head down, get the promotions, get married, buy the house, have the kids, don’t question the path I’m on, the path I was forced on.
Or…
I could take the red pill of Reality and face the terror of leaving the hamster wheel I was on into the unknown.
For me, the red and blue pills from the Matrix served as symbols of an existential choice: the red pill invited me to awaken to a profound and unsettling truth about my life, shattering my illusions, while the blue pill offered me the comfort of ignorance, allowing me to remain within the familiar confines of a constructed but reassuring world that if I worked really hard and didn’t commit any crimes, everything would be okay.
A + B = C, right?
Can you guess which one I chose?
It has been a wild and frightening ride but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
A quote I have deeply resonated with on this journey has been from Georgia O’Keefe:
“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”
Choosing to begin the journey towards a more true way of being can be terrifying and make us feel vulnerable. I started ecology of the human because I believe we were never meant to be on this path alone.
Healing from trauma isn’t about being “fixed”—it’s about coming home to yourself. One step at a time.
GOALS
My long term goals for ecology of the human:
To create a hub of resources that can be used for holistic wellbeing in the categories of (self, relationships, spiritual, physical, calling/vocation, work/life balance, rest, play, creativity, solitude, Beauty, etc.)
To create a community where co-creators can learn to become human and live as their true or authentic selves
To create a collective of artists and healers. Becoming artists is our way back to aliveness and integrity with ourselves and the world.
Reading Recommendations
The Artist’s Way
Braiding Sweetgrass
Women Who Run With The Wolves
The Deepest Well: Healing the Long Term Effects of Childhood Adversity
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
This Here Flesh
What my Bones Know
Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving
