Nicole Ford, therapy

12/31/2025

As we leave behind this year and all of the lessons, trials, shedding, alchemy, and insights we have gained, I am opening up spots in my schedule for Ceremonial Sessions to assist you in your journey forward.

This year coming to a close was the year of the Snake and also a 9 year which is a symbol of powerful cycles of completion and shedding.

Many people have had profound changes in their lives this year and have made shifts in their lives and relationships that may have been unexpected.

These Ceremonial Sessions are meant to help you deeply alchemize these changes and unblock, untether, and release the burdens that have held you back. They will also assist in helping you reclaim your power so you can move forward in a clear and potent way into this New Year.

Cord Cutting Ceremony

A 90 Minute ceremony designed to help you release energetic ties to people that are holding you back. These can be relationships that you have let go of in your life, or relationships that are near and dear to you and you are carrying forward; but would like to shift into a more harmonious dynamic. This ceremony is helpful for ex romantic partners, imbalanced familial ties, and other types of painful or triggering relationships in your lives. This powerful work will help you balance, harmonize, and neutralize relational entanglements and help you to feel more at peace, freedom, and energetic sovereignty.

Soul Retrieval Ceremony

This ceremony is one of the most powerful ceremonies that I have ever participated in and it is incredible the deep and far reaching shifts I see for people that come to have this ceremony. A Soul Retrieval Ceremony will help you reclaim parts of you that have been lost due to trauma over the lifetime. Symptoms that you might be experiencing from Soul Loss include: depression, lack of vitality and life force, anxiety, feeling stuck or blocked in any area of your life, bad luck, and feeling disempowered.

If you feel called to explore either of these ceremonies for yourself and to find out if they are a good fit for you, please send me a DM or email me at: nicolefordmsw@gmail.com

I am wishing you all a blessed transition into this New Year.

10/27/2025

This winter season, let’s dream together.

And remember that our dreams are gateways to our deepest selves and the realm of soul and spirit.

This November, I’m opening a sacred 5-month circle for women who feel called to go inward into the depths of their dreams.

Women’s Winter Dreaming Group is a journey into shamanic dreamwork, plant allies to aid with dreaming, intention-setting and manifesting through our dreams, and the magic that happens when we dream in community.

In this intimate circle, we will:

•Work with plant allies that will assist in deepening into our Dreamtime
• Experience guided Shamanic Journeys to understand and work with our dreams
• Learn dream recall, incubation & interpretation techniques
• Use intention-based dreamwork as a pathway for manifestation + healing
• Explore oracle dream messages + symbolic language
• Be held in a community of women who witness, reflect & dream together

What to expect:

✨ Two online circles per month (2 hours)
✨ Private community space for sharing dreams & insights
✨ Somatic integration, ritual & guided journeys
✨ Maximum of 8 women- to keep the container intimate and deeply held
✨ Begins November • Ends in March

Investment:

$685 & Payment plans available

If this group is calling to you, Comment “DREAM” or DM me for the details.

09/04/2025

CEREMONIAL SESSIONS

I am opening up space in my schedule for these powerful ceremonial sessions. Each session is curated especially to address your intention. Together with my helpers and guides we will create a safe and sacred space for deep healing and transformation.

Offerings Include

• Soul Retrieval Ceremony
• Cord Cutting Ceremony
• Shamanic Energy Healing
• Past Life Regression Journey beyond

These sessions will be held virtually or in person in Costa Rica.

If you would like to learn more or book your session, please DM me.

08/29/2025

The past few years in Costa Rica have been nothing less than an incredible stripping away, unraveling, alchemizing, and potentizing experience. As predicted, the ocean has been incredible medicine. And as I am learning to be in relationship with this land, the medicine of my ancestors and the plants of my homelands, those I’ve traversed in this life, and those only my ancestors have, have been calling me. In some ways I’ve felt like I’m on some sort of sabbatical. Other days I am being digested in the belly of the Anaconda. And sometimes, just listening deeply while simultaneously coming undone. Keeping an eye out for the golden through line. That silver thread of the soul that leads backward and forward.

And I know this; I love to work with people who are also in their own process of metamorphosis. Neither of us knowing what is coming next. Yet trusting Nature and her process. It’s a bit messy. A little scary at times. But also beautiful and miraculous.

I am opening up space in my schedule for Trauma Healing work and also Ceremonial Sessions. These sessions are all virtual. In person available currently in Costa Rica.

• Trauma therapy sessions (75 min) – blending EMDR and Somatic Experiencing in a modality called Natural Processing. These sessions are helpful for processing traumas, anxiety, depression, or essentially any ongoing issue or pattern that you haven’t been able to move through.
• Ceremonial sessions (90 min- 3 hrs) – including cord cutting, past life regression, soul retrieval, shamanic energy clearing, and power animal journeys.

If you would like to dive deep into this work in a safe and sacred container, please feel free to reach out.

If you would like to stay in touch, receive helpful content, and up to date on my latest offerings (group work, retreats in Costa Rica, online workshops) please feel free to join my newsletter. The link is in the comments section below.

And if you would like to follow along my journey and read my more intimate heart inspired writing, I have just started a Substack. The link is also in the comments section below.

From the shores the Pacific Ocean,

Nicole

11/04/2024

I took this photo of my beautiful friend Elodie O'brien when she came to visit me in Costa Rica. We were driving on a dirt road and caught a glimpse of the golden pink sunset setting over the ocean. We quickly made a detour toward the ocean and made our way to the beach to see this beautiful sunset.

It started to rain and we were fully clothed, but couldn’t resist the ocean so her, Gracie and I ended up jumping in the water in our clothes to experience the sunset.

Elodie put together this video today about the retreat that we are holding together in December. It is truly an honor to work with a soul sister on this retreat. We had another woman sign up today and we are so excited to welcome her to this transformative experience.

If you are feeling called to join us, there is still time! Reach out and we can chat.

Sending you all love.

🩵

🌿🌹Return to Love Retreat🌹🌿A Journey Back to Your Heart in Costa RicaDecember 3rd-9th, 2024Imagine yourself surrounded by the lush embrace of Costa Rica’s...

10/01/2024

Sending you all so much love as we navigate these times.

May we rest in beauty and peace
May we come to know and honor ourselves deeply
May we remember our true nature
May we trust

08/10/2024

Facing Fear - Part 2

I knew when I moved to Costa Rica that I wanted to develop a relationship with the ocean. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I longed for the bathwater temps of the more Southern parts of the Pacific Ocean.

As I began to acclimate here and learn about the land, I kept feeling a deep desire to learn to surf. And I was scared. So intimidated. The ocean is such a vast and powerful energy and I wasn’t sure if I could even try to contend with her.

I began taking surfing lessons recently. During my first lesson while facing the waves crashing in front on me, there came a voice from inside that said “I can’t.” Almost immediately following that voice was a feeling of collapse in my body.

This showed up again a few days later when I was singing. I have been working through a deep shame around singing and my voice. And a previously held belief (that was dispelled by a voice coach) that I was not able to sing in tune.

As I was working my way up the scale during a voice exercise I felt the familiar voice... “I can’t” and immediately I began to feel dizzy and felt the collapse.

This is how trauma shows up in our body. We get imprinted with these beliefs so early in life that they simply feel like reality. And we can’t just “positive think” our way out of these beliefs because many times they are unconscious and also stored in the nervous system. I believe I can’t and immediately my body collapses and feels like I actually can’t.

Likewise, it isn’t helpful to stronghold, bully, or criticize ourselves out of these feelings. These are parts of us that are most often from childhood. We want to treat ourselves with the tender loving care and patience that we would treat any child.

Of course, I am dedicated to the path of working through my own trauma and limitations (which is why I feel so passionate about helping others to do the same). I questioned my “I can’t.” I stayed with the feelings and sensations in my body. And as I kept my conscious awareness on this piece, the feelings moved through. And there was another side to the “I can’t” and the collapse.

And because I moved through the initial automatic response, I was able to have an embodied experience of I CAN.

And I just did.

I can work with the ocean and paddle out further into the ocean than I have ever been. I can sing notes higher than I have ever thought possible. And the feeling of a complete paradigm shift into who I understand myself to be occurred. I felt and saw the limited unconscious box I had myself in since the beginning of time.

It felt exhilarating.

If I can do these things... what else can I do? Who actually am I?

What an exciting question.

08/04/2024

Facing Fear - Part 1

About three months ago I was stung 4 times by a scorpion. I had been very hypervigilant about the scorpions here, and especially paying attention because some months prior 3 had shown up in my path within 24 hours, and I hadn't seen any before or after.

I knew it was a sign and when I had my first encounter I did a shamanic journey to the scorpion to get the message.

Yet, here I was. Laying in bed. Gracie sleeping beside me. And I get 4 excruciating stings so quickly I had no idea what happened until I flipped on the light and saw it crawling away on the floor.

For a moment, I panicked. I had no idea how my body would respond to scorpion venom, let alone 4 doses. I felt all of the fear set in of being a single mom in a foreign country.

Who would I call at this hour if I had an adverse reaction? I surely couldn't risk driving myself to the hospital with my daughter in the car.

I felt into a deeper part of myself that said, "everything will be okay. This is important medicine."

The next morning, after a terrible night of sleep, I released the scorpion out on the land. I did another shamanic journey back to scorpion. It gave me a long teaching. And also a message...

"It is time to work on your fear."

Fear? Really? Do I have to? Can't I just focus elsewhere? Is it really THAT important? (and enter every other bargaining tactic, denial, etc.).

Yet again. Part of me knew. It was time. I felt the way that I carried around this deep deep fear. Fear of trusting life. Fear of trusting my body. Fear of losing who I love. Fear of rejection. Fear of abandonment.

I started to go into this deeper layer of fear and as I processed what was there, I found an unconscious place in myself that was afraid of my own repressed emotions and trauma memories from childhood. I was afraid of my own experience.

As I took a breath and faced this fear, I was able to not only be there for my younger self, but released a huge amount of energy that was bound up in my nervous system unconsciously repressing these things.

This came with relief and spaciousness. It freed up my life force. And I am reminded again the importance of trusting the process.

07/31/2024

Welcome to all of my new followers. It is an honor to have you in my community. And for those of you who have been here with me over the years, thank you for sharing space with me.

I adore each of you and treasure this community we have built.

I have worked in the mental health field for 20 years and have been specializing in EMDR and trauma work for over a decade.

My work in trauma lead me into shamanic work, where I came to understand the spiritual and energetic aspects of the journey of the soul. I find that these approaches blend together beautifully.

The work that I've done with people over the years has been so sacred and such an honor. I am always moved at the depth of courage, vulnerability, love, and wisdom that flows from people who I hold sessions for.

The ever unfolding process of being human is so beautiful and heartbreaking and messy. For clients and therapists alike.

Each of us will face our initiations, trials, deaths, and rebirths. And what I have found particularly helpful in these types of portals is to have someone who can hold us through. To hold up the light while we find our way through the dark. To remind us that in accordance with the rhythm of life, an expansion will always follow a contraction. To reflect back to us our power, truth, and light.

It is my prayer that we can all feel a belonging to each other, belonging to ourselves, and belonging to the web of life.

photo by the very talented

07/29/2024

The healing power of Nature is truly unmatched. And there is something particularly incredible about the power of the Ocean.

Anytime I am having stuck or big emotions, I go to the ocean. When Gracie or I wake up in a cranky mood… ocean. When I’m feeling stagnant or unclear about something? Ocean. When I need a presence to hold big grief for me to release… Ocean.

Mama ocean will also put you face to face with the wild, unbridled, chaos. I’m learning how to stay steady in it, and it’s truly a training ground for all of life.

I am truly grateful for this medicine.

Of course, I wasn’t always so lucky to live 3 minutes from a warm ocean. And if you don’t live near an ocean, I recommend finding your nearest lake, river, waterfall. Each of these carrying different energies, but all ultimately cleansing and reconciling.

07/05/2024

I recently sat down with my soul sister Amanda Zeglinski to chat about the incredible journey of the soul that lead us both to Costa Rica.

When I arrived in Costa Rica with my daughter I did not know anyone. It was the biggest leap of faith that I had taken possibly in my entire life. Quickly after I landed in Costa Rica, I connected with Amanda and we became instant friends. In this episode we talk about healing and what a healing crisis can look like. We dive into the depths of a Dark Night of the Soul and the beautiful practices, mindsets, and rituals that keep us going and assist in the understanding of the medicine that life is dishing up.

And of course, we weave in the magic and mayhem of living in the jungle of Latin America.

This podcast will definitely inspire you if you're feeling like you're lost or stagnant, unsure if you want to take that giant leap that is calling you, and if you are longing for a life that you feel more present and alive in. Give it a listen!

‎Show The Pegasus Tribe, Ep Snakes, Scorpions, & Butterflies; Taking a Leap of Faith & Trusting the Wild Feminine with Amanda Z. - Jul 5, 2024