Bodyful Episode #24: Mary Reynolds Thompson on the Powerful Archetypes of the Wild Soul Woman

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By Valerie Martin

Every now and then you come across a writer whose words and ideas just hit you bone-deep.

For me, most of them have been people whose words make me feel more intimately connected with the world around me: Mary Oliver, Robin Wall-Kimmerer, Richard Powers, Bill Plotkin— and most recently, Mary Reynolds Thompson.

When I started digging into Mary’s work in preparation for this conversation, I felt that rare but familiar deep resonance. In her latest book, A Wild Soul Woman, she explores five landscape-based archetypes she’s written about previously, this time specifically in the context of how they show up in womens’ lives.

In this episode, we explore about everything from burnout and addiction recovery to defining what it means to move through the arc of the human experience in your own “shero’s journey.”

🎧 To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or visit this link to find the episode in your favorite podcast player. There will not be additional new episodes of Bodyful, but the existing episodes will live on in Valerie’s main podcast feed (which is now Bad B*tch Therapist podcast).

About Mary Reynolds Thompson (she/her)

Mary is an award-winning author, internationally recognized speaker, and a facilitator of poetry therapy. A pioneer in the spiritual ecology movement, her focus is on the transformative power of landscape archetypes and nature metaphors to reveal our true purpose and right relationship with the planet.

Author of A Wild Soul Woman and Reclaiming the Wild Soul, a 2015 Nautilus Award-winner, Mary’s writings have also appeared in numerous other publications and anthologies. Through her books, courses, and talks, she reaches creatives, change-makers, and seekers who long to awaken to their most courageous and Earth-connected selves and have the impact they desire.

To learn more or contact Mary, visit maryreynoldsthompson.com and follow her on Instagram @wildsoulwriter.

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Bodyful Episode #12: Jill Dunkley on Being in Right Relationship with the World Inside & Outside

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by Valerie Martin

I am not a naturally “calm” person, and it’s not often that I meet someone who instantly makes me feel calm in their presence. But when I met Jill Dunkley in 2019, that’s absolutely how I felt.

Jill is grounded, real, warm, kind, smart, and wise, and I’m grateful to call her a friend.

In this conversation, Jill and I explore:

  • what it means to be in right relationship both inside and outside ourselves

  • how trauma-informed practices and ecopsychology can support us in developing those capacities

  • the relationship between our individual healing and our commitments to the work of decolonizing

Learn more about Jill’s current and upcoming offerings on her website here.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Jill Dunkley (she/her)

Jill Dunkley lives on unceded Algonquin Land in rural Eastern Ontario with her husband, ecopsychologist, Andy Fisher.  For most of her adult life she has explored the question “what does it mean to be in right relationship with the world inside of me and the world outside of me?”  Now in late adulthood, she currently lives with that question at the intersection of trauma-aware mindfulness, yoga that adapts to the needs of the individual, and the earth. Jill is also a certified yoga therapist and mindfulness instructor and has found many great insights about her questions in the field of radical ecopsychology.

 

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