This is matriarchy, baby.
If you’ve been following along, you know things are shifting in my business. New space. New offerings. New rhythms. From the outside, it might look like a pivot (or a series of them!).
But this isn’t chaos. This is circulation. And circulation is the root of life.
That’s true in acupuncture, and it’s true here.
What’s happening behind the scenes is devotion to the new way I am committed to leading my life, and my business is inextricably woven throughout my life.
I’m 42, raising a family of four in Westchester, and — like many women I know — I’m trying to build a life that actually holds. One that isn’t hollowed out by overwork, under-care, or pretending to be someone I’m not.
There’s no finance salary cushioning this life. There’s just me. My hands. My brain. My ethics. My work.
And honestly? I’m proud of that.
But it means I have to be very intentional about how I spend my energy, and how I structure my business.
Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword.
It’s the difference between “barely holding on” and “held.” And when I’m held — when my life is set up in a way that allows me to thrive — I’m better at holding you, too.
A Matriarchal Model
If you’ve taken one of my courses or heard me speak about Proof of Life® (or… speak at all), you know I believe in systems that prioritize care, not extraction.
That’s what matriarchy means to me.
Matriarchy isn’t about flipping the dominance from men being in charge to women being in charge, from men being valued to women being valued. Matriarchy is life affirming, outside of sex or gender. It’s a structure rooted in nourishment, in values, and in continuity.
So what does it look like to run a matriarchal business in a high-rent, late-capitalist world?
It looks like this:
Letting go of a beautiful Dobbs Ferry space because I knew I couldn’t stretch that far without the money coming in to support it
Reimagining the Sleepy Hollow in a new light (more on that to come if and when the idea turns to reality!)
Building a home life where my partner takes on more of the domestic load (hello, house spouse), because someone needs to pick up the kids while I keep this ship afloat
Honoring that I have a body — apparently a chronically inflamed, sensory, real body — and building in care around that: acupuncture, workouts, sleep, boundaries
Launching Public Acupuncture as a way to stay accessible, communal, and rooted in care while also protecting my nervous system and income
Continuing to work on virtual and scalable work while also increasing my in-person group work
Moving forward with Feminist Facials as part of my business’s core ideology
Many women have the impetus that drives me and under patriarchy it comes through as martyrdom.
In matriarchy, it’s regenerative care.
As a small business owner, mother, step mother, and woman in the world, I can tell you that there is a machine out there designed to ingest me, feed off my energy, and spit me back out as a husk of myself and I refuse to engage with that machine.
My work here is a reflection of what I believe:
We deserve to be well.
We deserve to be supported.
We deserve to build things that hold.
Thank you for being part of that. Every session, every conversation, every new step forward: you’ve been in it with me. And I don’t take that lightly.
Here’s to what we build next!
