Marianna Jaross I built a life throughout my twenties that was based on adventure, learning, and travel. I was also working towards a career that ‘made sense’ (psychologist), while also being deeply uncomfortable at times with how we went about and conceptualised healing. I have taken a break so I can think about and work in different arenas. Growing up, I learned reiki and how to read tarot at around the age of eleven. My mother was a minister I was separated from. In my fir

Marianna Jaross Each developmental period brings about unique challenges. For many people, your twenties can be about experimenting, trying to meet the milestones you feel pressured to; and looking around to see what everyone else is doing. You are navigating young adulthood, the call of independence, ideas around study and career, and milestones you are filtering through. Dating? Marriage? Babies? Travel? A degree? By your thirties, you may have accumulated a whole lot of ex

Marianna Jaross I have spent a lot of my life in higher education, chasing opportunities and degrees with the thought that I would finally land in the place that felt right. The life I built hasn’t been sustainable. It has been characterised by burn-out, periods of rest, and not being able to function in the same way I am used to. I have gone from someone high energy and ever-curious to someone who still has these traits, but cannot maintain this pace in this season of life.

Marianna Jaross I have existed in a range of arenas pertaining to healing and spirituality. I was exposed to the New Age as a child, trained in Reiki around the age of 11, learned to read tarot, and my mother was a minister; with whom I have not lived since I was child. I trained as a psychologist, and I was also running off to ‘woo-woo’ workshops and women’s circles in my spare time throughout my studies; which had both opportunities for healing, and challenges. I have retai

Marianna Jaross Late last year, I allowed my registration as a psychologist to lapse, and it wasn’t because I was jumping into something new and shiny. It was the quiet space required for me to think about my career, and to recalibrate my body and what I want moving forward. I reflected on the fact that I had tried to make this career work for me in a variety of ways over several years, and how clinical practice did not always seem like the right fit. My body was also giving

Marianna Jaross Have you ever sat in the space between the old and the new? When your old life doesn’t fit anymore, and you’ve realised what does not align with who you are or what you want now. Typically, when we have reached this space; we have often exhausted every possibility to ‘make things work,’ to make tweaks, adjustments or significant shifts. When these don’t work AND we have the data to back this up; we can sometimes have to figure out whether it’s a case of ‘try o

Marianna Jaross Being a therapist doesn’t make me immune to the challenges of life, or the mental blocks or habits that can hold us back. I am starting slow, and starting again late in the year. I don’t want to wait until the new year, a birthday, or a milestone to start building some new momentum in a more supportive direction. 1.) Morning routine. We can fall into the chaos of our lives, the siren call of our phones, or the mental loops that we fall into when we wake up. Fr

Marianna Jaross There is a saying in Hungarian around life and our journey throughout it “sometimes being on wheels, and sometimes on foot.’” I like this, because it normalises the challenges we are inevitably going to experience. This is not to say that we can’t be a victim to systems, or that we need to ignore when other people don’t treat us well. Rather, this is about learning to move through the challenges, keeping the hope alive, and continuing to show up. There are no