Finding Your People: Why Community Is Part of Healing

When Baristanet recently profiled me, what really stayed with me wasn’t the story about me. It was the reminder that everything I do starts with community. It’s never just “me.” It’s always “we.”

When we say “healing”, too often we think of an individual alone on a cushion, in a silent room, perched above the fray. That image receives a lot of airtime, but it is misleading. Real healing happens when you find your support systems that hold you when the ground shifts. The ones who don’t just cheer you on, but also ask the tough questions. Because you deserve both tenderness and challenge.

In my practice and in life, the communities I lean into—clients, colleagues, friends—are the scaffolding. They remind me that words like resilience and enlightenment are collective achievements. When I read about myself, I saw the surface signs of my journey. But underneath? The friends who showed up while I refocused. The clients who mirrored parts of me I was too scared to name.

If you’re on a healing path, look beyond the “fixing” self-talk. Ask yourself: Who is in this with me? Who sees when I wobble and still believes I can rise? Who reminds me that my next lift doesn’t have to be perfect?

Community doesn’t erase the work. It complicates it and makes it messier. It sometimes exposes the parts you don’t want to see. But that’s the point. Healing is the light, the dark, the in-between, the “how do we get up together?”. When you find your people, the deep work of healing stops being a solo show and becomes an act of belonging.

If your “why” is freedom, your “who” has to be the people who keep you human. Let this be your reminder: you’re not meant to walk it alone. And when you build a circle that actually supports you, you heal differently.