Welcome to IFS-Informed with Axtaxia!
Where all of your parts belong
What Sessions Feel Like
Our sessions are often described as sharp, intuitive, grounding, compassionate, and deeply human.
Together, we explore your system with gentle curiosity. We get to know your protectors, exiles, and managers with an open-heart and an open-mind, instead of judgment. We look for the root causes of your system challenges and obstacles, and work to resolve them with ease.
Some days we may meet a protective part that has been working tirelessly for years. Other days we may sit in silent presence with sadness, grief, uncertainty, or possibility.
With a shamanic and animistic lense, I welcome any subconscious material as it arises naturally, such as, a dream, a memory, a body sensation, or an encounter in nature becomes the doorway into deeper understanding.
Rather than forcing answers, we learn to cultivate relationships.
Relationship with your parts.
Relationship with your body.
Relationship with your soul.
Relationship with life itself.
Managers
The Proactive Protectors
Primary Goal: Keep total control of your environment and relationships so underlying pain is never triggered.
Strategy: Planning ahead, perfectionism, over-analyzing, people-pleasing, productivity, and strict inner rules.
Energy & Tone: Vigilant, structured, cautious, highly organized, critical, or anxious.
Relationship to Time: Hyper-focused on the future. Constantly anticipating risks and preparing for what could go wrong.
The IFS Map
Firefighters
The Reactive First Responders
Primary Goal: Extinguish emotional pain, panic, or distress immediately whenever an Exile's feelings flare up.
Strategy: Impulse-driven relief, numbing, bingeing, sudden anger, extreme distraction, or complete emotional withdrawal.
Energy & Tone: Urgent, chaotic, forceful, intense, protective, or soothingly numb.
Relationship to Time: Locked strictly in the immediate present: "Stop the pain right now, regardless of tomorrow's consequences".
Exiles
The Vulnerable Burden Bearers
Primary Goal: To hold and process past pain, hurt, or emotional memories until it feels safe enough to heal and be seen.
Strategy: Reaching out for care, protection, or reassurance—or retreating into hiding when the world feels too unsafe.
Energy & Tone: Sensitive, tender, heavy, small, fragile, or emotionally intense.
Relationship to Time: Frozen in the past. Living in the memory, age, or emotional state of when the original hurt occurred.
Every part, no matter how disruptive the behavior, has a benevolent protective intent.
The three layers I work with
Where My work reaches
LAYER ONEThe Present
LAYER TWOThe Personal
LAYER THREEThe Ancestral
The Present
The layer of what is happening right now — the patterns, the reactions, the felt experience of your day-to-day life. How your parts show up in relationships, at work, in your body today.
Emotional reactivity and triggers in the present
Current relationship patterns and dynamics
What your body holds right now
The parts most active in your daily experience
The Personal
The layer of your personal history — childhood, early relationships, formative experiences. The events and dynamics that shaped how your parts developed and what they learned to protect you from.
Childhood wounds and early relational patterns
The origin stories of your protectors and exiles
How your nervous system was shaped by what you lived
Meeting the younger parts of yourself with compassion
The Ancestral
The layer beyond your personal history — what was inherited before you arrived. The patterns, traumas, beliefs, and burdens passed through the lineage. Some of what you carry was never yours to begin with.
Inherited patterns that precede your own experience
Ancestral wounds carried through the lineage
Shamanic work with the spirit of the ancestors
Releasing what was never yours to hold
The three lens that guide my work
A Holistic Approach
MINDIFS
BODYMindfulness
SPIRITShamanism
Mindfulness — Soma
The body is the anchor. This is the foundation of our work: noticing and being aware of sensation, tension, and breath as their own form of language. Staying grounded in the physical form.
Sensation. Nervous system. Breath.
IFS — Mind
Exploring the various territories of the mind through the framework of Internal Family Systems: the parts, protectors, and exiles that formed to keep you safe. Trauma-informed and deeply relational.
Mind. Parts work. Healing.
Shamanism — Spirit
Reaching past the personal into the invisible: spirit, energy, ancestral presence. The wisdom held in the more-than-human world. Approached through a shamanic and animistic lens.
Spirit. The unseen. Kinship
The Guiding Philosophy
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Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the foundation of interroception awareness and nervous system regulation. I model and guide this embodied skill in every session, helping you anchor deeply in the present moment.
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Nonviolence
I approach our work through nonviolence, which means trusting your natural timing. Together, we allow transformation to move at its own pace while honoring everything that emerges along the path.
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Organicity
I hold space for your intention without rigid agendas. I trust your innate intelligence, tuning into what organically emerges in real time. I support your transformation as it organically unfolds.
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Wholeness
I see you in your wholeness from your personal journey to your ancestral roots. Working across mind, body, soul, and spirit, our work honors the culture and land that shape who you are.
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Relational
I believe that our coaching relationship itself is the container for transformation. Together, we cultivate a safe, intentional space where real learning, deep integration, and lasting growth naturally take root.
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Agency
I respect your independence, agency, and personal wisdom. Our work together is rooted in mutual respect and trust, which means no unsolicited advice or direction. Only space for collaborative discovery.
Session Details
Session Duration
60 | 75 | 90 minutes
All listed rates are for a standard 60-minute session. Should you wish to add extra time to your session, the updated fee will simply be calculated using your base rate.
Resourced Rate | $150
Choose this tier if you are fully resourced and financially stable.
You have steady income, savings, housing stability, and discretionary spend for wellness, travel or personal development.
You do not worry about paying for rent, groceries or utilities.
You can comfortably afford regular extras like dining out, buying coffee, new clothes and entertainment.
You are able to save money, take vacations, invest in ongoing personal development without it causing financial stress.
Paying this rate is an investment, but it will not impact your ability to pay your bills.
Supported Rate | $110
Choose this tier if your basic needs are met, but you have limited expendable income.
You consistently cover your rent, groceries, and bills, but you have to budget carefully to do so.
You might occasionally eat out or buy extras but you plan for those expenses.
You might have some debt you are paying off, or you have only some left over to put into savings at the end of the month.
Paying the standard rate would mean having to sacrifice other necessary self-care or put a strain on your monthly budget.
Community Rate | $85
Choose this tier if you are currently experiencing significant financial hardship.
You frequently stress about covering basic survival needs like rent, groceries, and utilities.
You are living paycheque to paycheck, and rarely if ever have money for extras, like dining out, entertainment, or new items.
You might be experiencing a systemic barrier, a sudden loss of income, or an acute life transition that has destabilized your finances.
Paying anything higher than this rate is simply not possible for you right now.
Our Journey, Together
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Foundation
Before we deeply explore your system, or any parts, our priority and first focus is on building a container of trust and safety. The container is, and always will be the sacred space for transformation to occur. Therefore, we tend to the space as much as the system.
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Deepening
As the work naturally deepens, and we allow it to unfold organically. We listen to whichever parts of you are stepping forward in the present moment, while continually returning to and re-tending the parts we have explored in previous sessions.
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Integration
Healing is a spiral, and each time we revisit a layer, we meet it with greater safety, softer understanding, and deeper integration.
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Closing & Renewal
We reflect, and celebrate the sacred shifts within your system. From this grounded place, we offer a meaningful completion, or choose to renew the next evolution of our work together.
How To Begin
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Book A Call
Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation call with me.
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We Connect
On the call, we can chat about your journey and what you are looking for. We draft a plan of working together.
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We Begin
Sessions happen virtually, weekly or biweekly, whichever rhythm feels right for you.
Words from Clients
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"I'm so happy that I got these sessions."
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"We always go to a really sacred space, and I always get wisdom in sessions with you — not from me, but from a place beyond ourselves. I always feel liberated and enlivened. I'm back to being a kid — I feel like I'm back with lighter burdens, to be honest. I mean that."
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“So powerful. That's so powerful. I don't know how you did that. I loved it all. I feel a bit more centered, a bit more whole. Before it all scattered. I did not feel whole even though I was trying to pull the pieces together... it doesn't feel effortful this time around. You brought me home. You helped guide that little girl home. So, I appreciate you so much for that, truly. I love you, girl. Thank you so much. I just feel so much settled and calm, and just back to the little girl has returned home. That was so helpful for me.”
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“The thing that was really important and emotional for me was the feeling of 'I don't want to be alone with this.' Working with this part in the ritual — being around new parts that were listening and encouraging, and taking a second to be grateful for the burden before releasing it — was really helpful. This was really an important journey for me. It was really helpful for me to have these kinds of dialogue, to realize I as a self can be the part that's protecting my parts rather than them trying to do everything themselves"
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“Thank you so much. I really appreciate you and this work really means a lot to me."
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"It feels like there's quite a sacred space that you create, and it's just really nice to be in it. It's very different doing it with you — I need that. I could actually be free now. That was really, really tender. Wasn't expecting to go back to that. I am really glad we did. Sometimes you just can't do it by yourself.”
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“Thank you for the guidance and the space — a lot of my system has a lot of trust and feels very comfortable, and that's I think one big reason that I feel like I'm in a healing process. I wasn't convinced, but wow, it was very very nice. Thank you so much because you're making this possible. I really feel guided and safe, and I know my parts are quite trusting of you. It was so great with you and you're doing such a great job. I feel like you're bringing a lot of healing to me — but to all of your clients I'm sure”
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“I got a lot more from our work together than I had expected. I'm really grateful that you provided for me a space to just exist in with everything that I had to bring. I have this weird feeling that I have more space within me — my words are not just in this tight little space trying to be as little as possible, but they have space to stretch. I often had fears that facing those emotions would be too painful to bear. But somehow it was not beyond my strength or my capacity to hold. So I'm always going to be grateful for that, and I will always think of you with a lot of love in my heart.”
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"It's landing in my body. My intellect knew this, but we'd forgotten it in a way, and now it lands in the body, so it's a good feeling. Thank you for validating my feelings — I just got tears in my eyes because that really resonates."
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“It was great getting to know the part that way — that was new for me, and I'm excited to do more parts work like that. We shared that moment together that really allowed me to slow down, and I don't know if I would have done that for myself today. Thank you so much. It felt really good, and I was really feeling connected to you after what you said. It felt like I'm not doing this alone.”
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" It feels amazing when you ask questions — it feels good, because you're asking great questions. Wow, that was amazing. Thank you so much. I appreciate you so much and I'm looking forward to seeing you next time."
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"I think it was definitely easier coming to this after 18 years of meditation practice. I think I would have struggled without that. Wow, that was really deep, really lovely. Thank you."
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"There's a certain sense of peace and calm and quiet, and I think there's more confidence building — that we can go through things without crumbling."
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"It's really helpful seeing your face, like your face is alive and you're smiling — and I can feel that and trust you're not judging me”
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“You're so different from the other practitioners that I've worked with, who are old and serious, and they lean into excavating the hard stuff. That's just what I've been used to for over two decades of doing therapy — therapy is heavy, it's hard. And when I connected with you I just felt that playfulness... what I've been doing for over 20 years isn't working. I want lightness so bad. My heart feels kind of warm, finally saying those things out loud.”
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"Thank you so much for your time and your expertise and your sweet gentle presence. It's really been a pleasure to work with you."
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"What a gift to be with you and to have the experience of sharing that together. Thank you."
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"I just love how flowing and expansive it was — how we went from daily routines to this ancestral pattern... expansive is the best word I have for it. Thank you so much, Axtaxia. It was so good to be with you, and thank you for your expert guiding.”
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"I'm shocked that we just went through an hour and fifteen minutes and I wasn't even aware. That in and of itself is beautiful and wonderful... all I'd like to say is thank you and look forward to more."
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"I wanted to thank you for just being able to hear what I had to say and make it feel easy and good to talk about what I need to talk about. I definitely felt like I connected with my little girl and was able to relax into that place. I appreciate it."
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I'm appreciative of the somatic approach that you take, and even just the breathing. I think that you held a lot of space and I appreciate it. And I feel less ashamed — the shame's coming down. I feel less guilty.”
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"Thank you so much for sharing your perspective that healing doesn’t operate in a rushed time — it gives me hope. When you mentioned six to twelve months, it was almost a release, knowing I don't have to do this in the next two months."
A note on scope
What this work is — and what it is not
I am not a licensed clinician, therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist. I do not diagnose, treat, or claim to cure any mental health condition or illness — and I am not able to serve as an emergency contact for active suicidal ideation or any acute mental health crisis. If you are in crisis or facing a medical or psychiatric emergency, please contact 911, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or your nearest emergency room.
What is within my scope: helping you heal relational patterns left over from past difficult or traumatic experiences, working with your nervous system to support regulation, and shifting relational patterns with yourself and others toward more love, self-compassion, and confidence. This also includes processing deep or intense emotions that may have been suppressed for a long time, in a safe, contained, and consensual space.
This work can stand alongside licensed mental health care. It is not a substitute for it.