Inspired by her own parenting journey and her path of meditation and mindfulness to help her son, who was struggling with expressing his big emotions at daycare, Maxine created her business, The Nourished Soul with Maxine Joy. Discovering self-directed healing allowed her to let go of the old and make room for the new, and she is excited to be able to share this with other families. Self-directed healing is a revolutionary process of working through your emotions and where they show up in the body and is a great tool to help with emotional regulation. Here Maxine talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the passion behind her business, the challenges she has overcome, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
The journey that my own parenting has taken myself and my family on over the last few years has been the main driving force behind the start-up of The Nourished Soul with Maxine Joy. Daycare was a tough one for my son. There were lots of common behaviours that he displayed that I knew were not normal. The big emotions he was feeling at such a young age with minimal guidance on how to help him safely express himself bothered me. I knew there had to be more to it and more ways to help him other than ‘it’s just a phase’, or ‘he will grow out of it’.
This led me down the path of meditation and mindfulness and how it is so beneficial for all of us, no matter the age. So we began talking about emotions and feelings as they unfolded. We discussed how or what could be done better by all of the family unit in times when yelling and traditional punishments may have been handed out.
At times it was tough – extended family and friends thought we were a little crazy going against the social norms is always a challenge in its own right.
Then the changes in behaviour started showing through in situations where hitting and biting were his go-to. My son was taking himself out of the situation and taking a moment to calm down before he went about playing or talking to an educator. His room leader even noticed that he would intervene with other children who were having big emotions and he would help them through the steps of calming down.
This was when I knew that we were onto a good thing: something that I became passionate about sharing with other parents and care givers.
As the years went on and my daughter came along and my son got older, I started to look for new techniques to add to the tool kit for them, this is when I came across Self-directed healing and decided to become a practitioner.
Self-directed healing is a revolutionary process of working through your emotions and where they show up in the body. Kids are so well versed at this, and it is a simple process that they can learn and a handy tool to help with emotional regulation as it develops.
From all the work that I have done with my own children and family, it became very clear to me that there is a whole generation of parents who are doing their absolute best to help their children learn emotional regulation and how to feel, yet this is something the parents struggle with themselves. I know from my own experience that a lot of this journey so far for me has been triggering, or in some way confronting. I want to do better than the generation before, yet I struggled to let go of the conditioning and outdated parenting that I had grown up with. Finding self-directed healing has allowed me to let go of all the old and make room for all the new and I am so excited to be able to share this with other families.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
Like every business I guess, with lots of research and trial and error. There has been a lot of different techniques and therapies learned and tried over the last 6 years. There were lots of sleepless nights and lots of ‘what am I doing?’ moments and I am so grateful for them.
I am now in a relaunch phase as I put the finishing touches on a parenting program that helps you as the parent heal your inner child and learn what emotional health feels like so that you can then teach your kids.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough for my business has been the constant conversations about self-directed healing and a new way forward out of traditional parenting ways. I have been so blessed to meet so many lovely families and work with some beautiful individuals and help them along their healing journey.
