Embrace
A deeper practice of belonging to yourself & the world.
You don't need another project to work on.
(You are not another project to work on.)
You deserve somewhere to belong.
Embrace is a yearlong experience of nervous system support, meaningful connection, writing, rest, and becoming more fully ourselves - together.
For neurocomplex women and kindred humans navigating midlife, later-in-life discovery, and the wonderfully complicated experience of being alive.
What if you could stop trying so hard to make yourself make sense?
Maybe you've spent much of your life feeling like you belong everywhere and nowhere.
You're capable in ways that sometimes surprise even you: you can figure things out. Get things done. Handle complicated situations. Build a business, raise a family, navigate an adventure, or hold an extraordinary amount together.
And yet, other parts of life can feel impossibly hard.
You might be deeply sensitive and wildly adventurous, independent and longing for connection. Confident in one environment and completely out of place in another.
You may have spent years wondering why you seem to experience everything so intensely. Why certain things come so naturally while seemingly ordinary demands leave you overwhelmed.
Maybe you're finally discovering that you're Autistic, ADHD, gifted, highly sensitive, carrying the effects of complex trauma, or some beautifully complicated combination of experiences.
And perhaps, somewhere in the midst of perimenopause, menopause, or another profound life transition, the ways you've always managed everything have stopped working.
There's relief in understanding yourself more accurately.
But there can also be grief.
Welcome to Embrace.
I'm so glad you're here.
For the years you didn't know, for the parts of yourself you've hidden or questioned. For all the energy you've spent adapting, accommodating, performing, or trying to become easier for other people to understand.
And maybe for the relationships, experiences, and dreams that haven't unfolded as you hoped.
You can love your life and still grieve what's missing.
You can be extraordinarily capable and still need enormous amounts of support.
You can be adventurous, playful, and full of life while carrying tender parts of yourself that have never quite felt safe or known.
None of those things cancel each other out.
And you don't have to figure out how to reconcile them before you belong.
Maybe you're not broken. Maybe you've just needed more support.
If you're here, I'm guessing you've already tried a lot.
The books. The therapies. The courses. The tools. The practices. The endless attempts to understand yourself and make life feel easier.
Perhaps some have helped tremendously.
Perhaps others have left you exhausted, frustrated, or feeling like you're somehow failing at healing.
And maybe you're starting to wonder:
What if I don't need another thing to fix about myself?
What if the next chapter of my life isn't about becoming less sensitive, less intense, less complicated, or more conventional?
What if I could stop measuring my progress by how well I manage everything?
What if I could have more support, more spaciousness, more connection, and more room to actually live?
That's what we're exploring in Embrace.
Not how to become a better version of yourself.
But what becomes possible when you begin offering your whole self the care, understanding, and support you deserve.
And when you don't have to do it alone.
Less fixing. More living. A whole lot more belonging.
Embrace is a yearlong community and deeply embodied experience built around a simple invitation:
What becomes possible when we stop treating ourselves as problems to solve and begin creating the conditions that help us flourish?
Not just through insight or information.
But through repeated experiences of support.
Through meaningful relationships.
Through discovering what nourishes our particular nervous systems.
Through writing, reflection, creativity, nature, laughter, rest, and the little moments that make life worth living.
Because our nervous systems don't exist in isolation.
They're shaped by our relationships, environments, histories, physiology, and the support available to us.
And when we have more support, we often have more capacity.
More capacity doesn't mean becoming better at tolerating circumstances that aren't right for us.
It means having more room to recognize our needs, make choices, receive care, experience pleasure, navigate difficulty, and participate more fully in our lives.
We aren't aiming for perpetual calm or perfect emotional balance.
We're making room for the full spectrum of being human.
The tenderness and the fierceness.
The grief and the gratitude.
The exhaustion and the excitement.
The ordinary moments and the wild adventures.
All of it belongs.
For the women who have never quite fit the mold.
[PHOTO GALLERY: A lively, authentic collection of Shelby's photos—ranch work, horses, skateboard, motorcycle or dirt bike, a beautiful feminine portrait, travel, and quiet moments. These should feel like glimpses into an interesting, multidimensional life rather than a conventional branding shoot.]
For the cowgirls and creatives.
The motorcycle riders and mountain wanderers.
The business owners, mothers, makers, deep thinkers, unconventional women, and wildly sensitive souls.
The women who can be tough as nails in one moment and tender as can be in the next.
Who love their independence but also long to be deeply known.
Who can manage extraordinary things yet sometimes struggle with the seemingly ordinary.
Who might be most at home on a dirt road, beside a river, in a workshop, surrounded by animals, or curled up somewhere beautiful with absolutely nowhere they need to be.
And for the women whose adventures look nothing like these, but who recognize something of themselves in the experience of never quite fitting the expected mold.
Maybe you've spent years trying to decide which version of yourself is the real one.
The competent one?
The sensitive one?
The independent one?
The one who longs to be cared for?
The adventurous one?
The one who's so tired she can barely imagine leaving the house?
What if they're all you?
What if you don't have to choose?
What if belonging doesn't require you to become more consistent, more conventional, or easier for other people to understand?
And what if the parts of you that still feel uncertain, lonely, angry, tender, or afraid are just as welcome as the parts you're proud to share?
You don't need to be a badass to belong here.
You don't need to be soft, either.
You get to be the whole, complicated, extraordinary, ordinary human you already are.
What if Embrace were something you belonged to, rather than something you had to complete?
For one full year, we'll move through life together.
Through changing seasons, changing needs, unexpected challenges, beautiful discoveries, and all the wonderfully messy experiences of being human.
You'll have regular opportunities to receive skilled somatic nervous system support, explore new perspectives, connect with kindred humans, and discover what helps you live more ease-fully inside your particular brain, body, and life.
There will be thoughtful teachings and practices.
There will be meaningful conversations, laughter, tenderness, and opportunities for deeper reflection.
There will be invitations to write, rest, spend time in nature, notice what brings you alive, and explore the stories you've been carrying.
And there will be room to step back when life asks you to.
You don't have to earn your belonging through participation.
This isn't another program where you fall behind.
It's an ongoing relationship with yourself, with community, and with the life you're living.
Something you can return to, again and again.
A year of living into ourselves
Our year together unfolds through four seasons, each with its own invitations, experiences, and rhythm.
[VISUAL DIRECTION: Four beautiful seasonal landscape images, ideally incorporating Montana scenery, rivers, aspens, mountains, and intimate natural details. This should feel like a journey through the year.]
WINTER — Rest & Receive
Finding our ground. Receiving support. Beginning where we are.
Winter invites us to slow down and turn toward what helps us feel supported.
We'll explore the particular needs of our nervous systems, our relationships with rest, urgency and burnout, the effects of carrying too much for too long, and what it might mean to stop continually overriding ourselves.
We'll make room for the tenderness of being human, including the parts of ourselves that have spent a lifetime trying to feel safe, understood, or enough.
A season for listening, softening, receiving, and discovering that rest doesn't have to be earned.
SPRING — Emerge & Explore
Curiosity. Possibility. Discovering what wants to grow.
Who are we when we're not continually organizing ourselves around other people's expectations?
Spring invites us into curiosity.
We'll explore identity, unmasking, boundaries, self-trust, relationships, desires, and the surprising possibilities that can emerge when we stop assuming we already know who we're supposed to be.
We'll experiment with allowing more of ourselves to show up.
Not by pushing past our capacity, but by discovering what becomes possible with enough support.
A season for exploration, imagination, and letting ourselves become a little more visible—even to ourselves.
Summer: Savor & Live
Aliveness. Pleasure. Writing. Rest. Letting life be part of the practice.
Summer is intentionally different.
Rather than maintaining our usual weekly gatherings, we'll shift into a more spacious retreat-inspired rhythm.
Each month, we'll offer two extended virtual mini-retreats weaving together:
Guided nervous system support.
Reflective and creative writing.
Spacious independent exploration.
Opportunities to spend time outdoors.
Rest, nourishment, and time away from the screen.
Optional sharing and meaningful connection.
One retreat takes place in the morning and another in the afternoon/evening, on separate Thursdays.
Join one, both, or whichever works for you.
Throughout the summer, you'll also receive optional weekly writing invitations and supportive somatic practices to explore in your own time.
This isn't about adding more to your summer.
It's about experiencing more of it.
A season for savoring, wandering, playing, resting, and discovering that life itself can be part of our practice.
AUTUMN — Gather & Integrate
Honoring our experiences. Gathering our stories. Bringing it all home.
Autumn invites us to notice what's shifted.
What have we discovered about ourselves?
What feels different in our bodies, relationships, choices, and everyday lives?
What have we learned about our needs, our capacities, and the things that nourish us?
What are we ready to release?
And what would we love to carry forward?
Through reflection, connection, embodied practices, and writing, we'll make room to honor our experiences without needing to measure or prove our progress.
Not because we've arrived at some final, improved version of ourselves.
But because we've spent a year learning what it feels like to more fully inhabit who we've always been.
Writing, reflection & the art of listening inward
One of the special elements of Embrace is our seasonal writing experiences.
These aren’t writing workshops where you're expected to produce something impressive or journaling assignments you have to keep up with.
And they’re definitely not another invitation to endlessly analyze yourself.
You might think of them as opportunities to slow down, listen, imagine, remember, play, and discover what wants to be expressed. We might explore personal stories, memories, desires, creativity, imagination, or the small moments that make a life.
Sometimes the invitation will be reflective.
Sometimes playful.
Perhaps sometimes surprising.
You might write pages of flowing prose, a few scattered words, a list, or a letter. You might use speech-to-text, speak into a voice memo, or simply sit with an invitation. There is no requirement to share what you've written.
And you don't have to consider yourself a writer.
Like everything in Embrace, writing here is an invitation, not an assignment.
As Kindred grows, I envision bringing these experiences into the physical world through optional in-person retreats: writing, resting, spending time in nature, connecting with horses, sharing meals, and gathering in beautiful places where there's room to simply be.
For now, we'll begin wherever we are, bringing some of that same spirit into our virtual community.
What becomes possible with a year of support?
I can't promise life will become easy.
I can't promise that difficult experiences will disappear or that you'll never feel overwhelmed again.
And I wouldn't want to suggest that being human should feel wonderful all the time.
But I can offer a space to explore what might happen when you no longer have to navigate everything with so little support.
You may begin to:
Recognize your needs with greater clarity and less self-judgment.
Understand your particular nervous system without treating your differences as problems.
Develop greater capacity for the full range of human experience, including grief, intensity, tenderness, pleasure, and joy.
Discover where you've been masking, overriding yourself, or living according to expectations that don't fit.
Build a more compassionate relationship with your energy, boundaries, and changing capacity.
Reconnect with creativity, curiosity, imagination, adventure, and the things that make life meaningful.
Experience relationships where you don't have to continually explain or edit yourself.
Become more comfortable asking for and receiving support.
Find more room to enjoy the life you're living, even while some parts remain difficult or unfinished.
Not perfectly.
Not all at once.
And not according to anyone else's timeline.
You don't have to get your life all together to belong to it.
Who is Embrace for?
Embrace is especially created with neurocomplex women navigating midlife and later-in-life self-discovery in mind.
Many people drawn to this space are exploring or navigating:
Autism, ADHD, AuDHD, giftedness, and other forms of neurocomplexity.
High sensitivity and deep-feeling nervous systems.
Complex or developmental trauma.
Autistic burnout, chronic overwhelm, or the exhaustion of years of masking.
Perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, and other midlife transitions.
Changing relationships, identities, needs, and desires.
The grief and relief that can accompany later-in-life neurodivergent identification.
The experience of feeling both remarkably capable and profoundly overwhelmed.
You don't need a formal diagnosis.
You don't need to know exactly how you identify.
And you don't need to fit neatly into any of these descriptions.
While Embrace centers many of the experiences of neurocomplex women in midlife, people of all genders who resonate with its focus and values are welcome.
What matters most is a willingness to approach yourself and others with curiosity, compassion, and respect.
We don't need to be the same to find meaningful belonging with one another.
What you'll find inside Embrace
[This section will be finalized once participation tiers and pricing are confirmed.]
Regular live Thursday gatherings
Three Thursdays each month, with two time options:
9:30–11:15 AM Pacific
4:00–5:45 PM Pacific
Attend whichever gathering works best for your schedule and capacity.
Each gathering weaves together somatic nervous system support, thoughtful teaching, meaningful conversation, and opportunities for embodied exploration.
The intention is to make participation accessible to people across different time zones while preserving the intimacy and connection that make Embrace special.
A community that continues between calls
A private space for connection throughout the year.
Share discoveries, ask questions, celebrate ordinary moments, connect with kindred humans, or simply enjoy knowing the community is there.
Participation can be quiet or conversational.
Both belong.
Seasonal experiences
Four distinct seasonal explorations, including our special summer writing and nervous system mini-retreats.
A library of support
Recorded practices, accessible teachings, and resources you can return to whenever they're useful.
There's no need to consume everything or keep up with a curriculum.
Two ways to participate
We're developing two levels of support so you can choose the experience that best fits your needs and capacity.
Embrace Community
The full yearlong group experience, seasonal gatherings, writing experiences, resource library, and community connection.
Embrace Deeper Support
Everything in the Community experience, with additional individualized somatic support and potentially intimate small-group gatherings.
Final details and investment will be announced soon.
A different kind of belonging
There's something extraordinary about spending time with people who don't need you to become less sensitive, less intense, less complicated, or more conventional.
People who understand that you can be brilliant and overwhelmed.
Capable and exhausted.
Independent and longing for connection.
Wildly adventurous and deeply tender.
Grateful for your life and still grieving parts of it.
We make room for all of it.
You can arrive on a wonderful day, a tender day, a scattered day, or a day when you don't quite know what you need.
You don't have to come prepared with a list of things to process.
You don't have to figure out what needs fixing.
You don't even have to know what you need.
We can begin right where you are and discover together what becomes possible when there's more support.
Hi, I'm Shelby.
[PHOTO DIRECTION: This section should feel like a genuine introduction to Shelby as a whole person. Use several contrasting images: professional portrait, skateboard or dirt bike, horses, ranch life, travel, and a soft or playful candid image.]
I'm Shelby Leigh, a somatic psychotherapist, neuro-affirming Autism and ADHD assessor, meditation teacher, and fellow neurocomplex human.
For more than 20 years, I've been immersed in somatic psychotherapy, complex and developmental trauma, mindfulness, attachment, and embodied nervous system support.
But there's quite a bit more to me than that.
I'm also a cowgirl, skateboarder, dirt biker, adventurer, writer, lover of wild rivers and open spaces, and a woman who feels just as much at home in dusty boots as I do getting dressed up for a beautiful evening out.
I've traveled the world solo, competed in a snowboarding halfpipe, kayaked whitewater, driven big trucks, and followed my curiosity into all kinds of adventures.
And I'm also someone who loves tenderness, affection, beauty, deep connection, and the quiet sweetness of ordinary life.
For a long time, I quietly questioned whether I really belonged in all these different worlds.
As though I needed to prove I was a real cowgirl, a real athlete, a real adventurer, or a real professional.
It has taken me a long time to recognize that I was never pretending.
These were all parts of me, all along.
And yet, underneath a life filled with extraordinary experiences, there's also been profound tenderness.
Parts of me that still carry grief from not feeling fully safe or understood.
Parts that remember the loneliness of being different.
And an adult woman who genuinely loves the life she's created while still carrying deep longings for experiences and relationships that haven't unfolded the way she'd hoped.
My life can look wonderful.
And in so many ways, it is.
But I certainly don't have it all figured out.
I'm just human.
And I'm learning, more and more, to embrace the fullness of that.
My professional work and my personal experiences have led me to question some of our most deeply ingrained assumptions about healing.
Especially the idea that we must continually work harder on ourselves to finally become worthy of ease, connection, or belonging.
I believe we need more spaces where our differences are understood, our humanity is welcomed, and our nervous systems receive support without pressure to perform.
Embrace brings these pieces of my world together.
My professional expertise.
My love of people and the more-than-human world.
My curiosity about what helps us feel supported, connected, and alive.
And my belief that we don't need to become different people to find our place in the world.
We need room to be who we are.
And perhaps, most of all, we need each other.
Come spend a year with us
What if the next year wasn't about becoming a better version of yourself?
What if it was about having enough support, connection, and spaciousness to more fully experience the life that's already yours?
A year of returning. A year of discovering.
A year of writing new stories and finding more room for the ones you're already living.
A year of remembering that you don't have to become less of anything to belong.
A year to Embrace.
Join the interest list for our next yearlong Embrace community.
Details about dates, participation options, and investment are coming soon.
I'd love to have you with us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Want to know something that’s not listed here?
Send an email and we’ll get back to you within a few days.
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Because short bursts of insight or inspiration are wonderful, but meaningful change often needs more time if it’s going to be sustainable over the long term.
A year gives us time to experience different seasons of life together. We have room for connection, exploration, integration, stepping back, and returning.
Rather than continually starting and finishing programs, you'll have an ongoing place to receive support while your real life unfolds in real time.
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Embrace is designed with real life in mind.
Our regular gatherings are 1 hour and 45 minutes, with two Thursday time options.
You can participate in the resources and optional practices as much or as little as feels supportive.
During summer, we'll shift to longer, retreat-style gatherings, with opportunities for spacious exploration and rest.
You don't need to participate in everything to belong here.
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You can't.
This isn't school.
There are no gold stars, assignments to complete, or performance points.
Some seasons you may participate frequently. Other times you may need more space.
Both are welcome.
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Absolutely not.
Embrace is neuro-affirming and especially welcoming to late-identified and questioning neurocomplex adults.
You don't need a formal diagnosis or a particular label to participate in Embrace.
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Embrace is intentionally centered around many of the experiences of neurocomplex women navigating midlife, later-in-life discovery, and significant life transitions.
People of other genders who resonate with the experience and its values are welcome.
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Not at all.
Our writing experiences aren't about writing well, producing something impressive, or completing assignments.
They're invitations into reflection, expression, imagination, and curiosity.
You can write paragraphs, fragments, lists, voice notes, or simply spend time with an invitation.
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You always have choice in what you share.
You're welcome to participate in conversations, listen quietly, or pass on an invitation.
We value connection, consent, and honoring each person's capacity.
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Embrace can complement other forms of support.
It's a community-based somatic learning and support experience, not a replacement for individualized psychotherapy or crisis care.
You don't need to stop other care to participate.
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Wonderful!
The seasonal writing experiences within Embrace are a natural introduction to the kinds of writing, nature, rest, and horse-centered retreats I envision offering in the future.
Those retreats will be optional, separately arranged experiences as they become available.