“What I can own, I can change”
My personal journey
My life has not been linear, it has been wild and strange. I have experienced and created drama and have suffered from many conflicts inside myself and with others. I am well acquainted with the darkness of depression and have often felt deeply sorry for myself, helpless and utterly confused. I ran through life as a whirlwind leaving behind, amongst other things, a trail of confusion and chaos.
Too emotional, too honest, too direct, too loud, too confronting, too dramatic, too angry, unstable and unhappy. At times I felt that all that I am is simply intolerable and unacceptable.
This is a narrative about myself that is not untrue, yet it is incomplete. In this version, half of my experience is missing. And yet this is how I felt, for many, many years of my life.
When accused of being the villain, I often felt like the victim
I began receiving feedback as a teenager, when I was told and mirrored that my way of communicating can be hurtful, cold and uncaring. I was told this by people that I loved and trusted, often. I could see people's reactions and was shocked and hurt by them, leaving me feeling utterly misunderstood, wrong and helpless.
Driven by frustration and also a sense of isolation I began my own shadow work journey, inquiring tirelessly and relentlessly into the split of what it is I was feeling and how I was perceived. This inquiry has taken me into the very depth of my own being, into my deepest fears of inadequacy and into all that died in me because of it.
I was shocked and appalled and was dwelling in the fires of shame and self loathing until right there in the heat of the flames a transformation took place.
The fire ate right through the fear and the shame, the defense and protection. That which was beneath all of this baffled me to the point if disbelief.
I discovered that my anger is also my passion, that my confrontational nature is based in a deep care for everything, that my bullshit radar is my clarity, my lethargy is my unexpressed Joy and that my deep grief and sadness comes from the immense love and appreciation I have for everything that is alive. Liberation for me has been the acceptance of my inherent polarities and the peace that comes with this.
Being able to offer myself the kindness of compassion, the sweetness of acceptance and the permission for being me makes me feel excited and confident about myself, my work and my life.
I love to help people fall in love with themselves.
I offer this work because I know of the immense impact a liberated and joyful being has in the world.
I want you to feel alive and at peace with yourself, to feel the power of walking with confidence and with grace.
I seek for you to feel the delight of being alive, unapologetically so. To experience the calmness of feeling good about who you are so that you can feel great about showing up in the world.
I wish for you to know the importance of your presence and the worth of who you are and all that you bring.
If you feel ready to embark on this journey towards your wholesome self, I am excited to work with you.
I will be with you along the way, fearlessly and full of trust. I will accompany you with a lot of enthusiasm, compassion and love.
Curious? Get in touch!
hello@elizacharuhermsdorf.com
+49 157 59579163
Maria de la Salut
Mallorca, Spain
Berlin Schöneberg
Qualifications and Experience
Regarding my career and certificates I believe it is of interest to know that I hold a Bachelors Degree in Economics and began my working life as a Project Manager. I was highly motivated to use my experience in a project of my own and was very excited when Kanika Frings and I embarked on the Journey of co- founding DIMA, a Centre for Conscious Living in Mallorca in 2014. It is now the DIMA Mystery School with which I still hold close ties and where I spend many weeks during my year as a student.
I have had the great pleasure and honor to feel so kindly and lovingly accompanied and challenged by countless teachers, therapists and mentors that have all left their imprint in me, my approach and my work.
After leaving DIMA I began to train as a Mediator and am Licensed by the Federal Association of Mediators in Germany . I have been a part of the Mediation Training team with IKBerlin since 2018. I am also a certified Facilitator and have facilitated the Train The Trainer education and training in Berlin.
I am certified as a non medical practitioner for Psychotherapie.
Trainings in psychotherapie include Gestalt Therapie, Trauma Therapie based on concepts from Francine Shapiro and Luise Reddemann as well as Systemic Therapy.
For its simplicity and clarity I have used the idea of C.G. Jung's approach to the “Shadow” as the basis of my work. I have found that triggers and conflicts are a short cut to the unconscious, the avoided and the suppressed. I feel closely related to the assumption that we can become whole by making peace within ourselves and that it is here that we create freedom for ourselves and others.
For this we go deep into all that makes us who we are, all that has brought us here, into the world. This begins with our birth parents and takes us back to our ancestors and the family's history which is embedded in the society with all the changes it has undergone in each generation. Here I have found much clarity and guidance in training with Thomas Hübl in his Collective Healing Journey, in which he speaks on the interrelatedness of individual, ancestral and collective trauma.
Coming from a systemic perspective, I have always been interested in the interactions and intricate relations in any and all relating and have found that working with constellations can bring immense insight, clarity and healing into a system. I have had the great pleasure and honor to be learning from Donald Guß for three years by now and have additionally been influenced and inspired by many, many more practitioners of all ages and schools.
Carrying the deep knowing that the undercurrent of love is always flowing, constellations can help reveal where the flow is stuck and can help heal and bring love to the part of the (family) system, where it has not been felt.
Mediation and the mediative approach has helped me to let go of ideas of right and wrong and rather enter a process in which I learn to dive deep under the story and support the feelings and emotions to surface. We as humans share the same emotional base, understanding and compassion are generated by allowing ourselves to “feel” the other, allowing ourselves to be touched by, to resonate with someone's experience. In order for this to happen, we must let go of our own story, of ideas of right and wrong, true and untrue and enter into the mystery of subjective experience which is individual and unique. I learnt from and am still working with Isabel Kresse who has been offering Mediation and spreading the mediative approach in Berlin for more than 30 years.
For three years now I have been attending the work offered by Jennifer Millar in her Cellular transformation. In this group process deep healing takes place by addressing and expressing trauma, way beyond the story of the past. Through feeling the effect these fractures had and by understanding which mechanisms and behaviors we have developed because of them, we can consciously decide to change our behavior. This work has led me to a deep understanding of my own reactions as well as the pleasure of experiencing collective healing.
Having been raised with Oshos teachings and having had the opportunity to experience many of his therapeutic concepts as well as meditations, I feel especially grateful for the freedom and love I was able to grow up in as a child. Walking amongst his disciples has imprinted me with a joy and passion for life, for expansion, for evolution, for honesty and depth as well as for celebration. To experience life as a dance, as an adventure.
The therapists that were trained during Osho's life are amongst the best I have met.The Path of Love was an eye opening process and until today, 10 years later, the teachings and also the network are still very much alive and present in my life and in my work.
Since I can remember I have felt an intrinsic calling for the earthen path. I have been intrigued by indigenous cultures and peoples living closely tied to the natural rhythms and the knowing and wisdom that emanates from their teachings. I find great peace and comfort in simplicity and experience healing and connection whenever I have the honor to sit in ceremony. I have experienced many of the master plants, having a particularly strong connection to Ayahuasca offered to me by the Huni Kuin and the Yawanawa´s and to Peyote offered to me by the Native American Church as well as by the Huicholes.
From indigenous peoples I have learnt reverence for all beings and things, the importance of ceremony and ritual as well as the power of prayer and of intention. I am inspired to surrender my Self, to walk with love and kindness, to live in deep gratitude and in the humbleness of acceptance.