In today’s episode, I am joined by Johannah Reimer to talk about holding circle for our girls and the female-bodied youth that are in our lives. Johannah is a soulcentric educator, ceremonialist, teen mentor, and an artist of many trades. Trained as a Waldorf teacher, Johannah has been working with children of all ages for over 20 years and holds a particular passion for tweens/teens striving to meet their developmental needs for mentorship and initiation in a culture that has forgotten how to do so. Johannah founded Wakeful Nature & Girls Group as a means to fill the initiatory void for girls crossing the threshold of childhood into adolescence with guidance, ceremony, and community.

Johannah and I share our passion for the healing that can happen through circling and ceremony and in this conversation I get the change to get nosey about her incredible work facilitating girls groups, the impact this work has on her as a space holder and so much more. Above all, Johannah calls for the ‘village aunties’ to step up, cultivating more awareness around what today’s generation of girls is moving through and weaving together multi-generational embodied wisdom.

Tune in to hear more from us on:

• Remembering how to be village aunties and engage in re-villaging work
• Creating a safe space for younger girls
• The challenges faced by girls in today’s society
• Working with the elements and ancestral remembrance
• Ritualizing the first bleed and normalizing menstrual cycle awareness through storytelling and archetypes
• Modeling imperfection and the human experience as a facilitator
• Allowing the girls to grow capacity within circle
• Experiencing grief as a facilitator whilst also carving the new path for ritual and ceremony
• Stepping into our role as matriarchal leaders and how we can move into a post-patriarchal society

Resources + Links

• Find Johannah’s work on wakefulnature.com and Instagram @wakeful.nature
• Find out more about Johannah’s Girls Group Facilitator training
• Learn how to craft a meaningful rite of passage for your daughter’s menstrual cycle with Johannah
• Book: ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt
• My book, Root and Ritual: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self
• Connect with me on Instagram @beccapiastrelli

Timestamps

[0:00] Introduction

[09:43] Remembering How to be Village Aunties

[12:17] Challenges Faced by Girls in Today’s Society

[18:00] Creating Safe Spaces for Girls through Long-Term and Ongoing Support

[26:48] Social Media Use by Teens and Navigating Belonging and Connection

[34:32] Ritualising & Normalising the First Bleed through Ceremony + Ritual

[40:22] Being a Girls Group Facilitator

[43:47] Moving into a Post-Patriarchal Society