Hey,

As you hopefully saw in the previous email - I’ve moved over to Buttondown, and will be writing from here going forward.

I shared that there had been a lot going on and I’ll do a quick (non-comprehensive but still a lot of stuff) overview of what’s been happening.

• In May we got called for an operation that we’d been waiting for for my son (this was one of the worst experiences of my life - for many reasons that I’m trying to gather into coherent shape).

• Shortly before that I got an amazing offer from my teacher, mentor, friend (and now boss!) to join her teams at two major parent coaching organisations - so work has been exciting and full on trying to get up to speed on teaching 3 separate curriculums!

• Later in the summer we endured the heatwaves and the existential terror that these carried for us all, including smelling the smoke of wildfires. This combined with worsened sleep for us all (2/3 of our family having sleep apnea and therefore 100% of us having impacted sleep!)

• In July I finally (after months of watching youtube videos of women and non-binary people doing it) cut all my hair off for donation and then shaved my head

• And currently we find ourselves in a painful but hugely educational form of PDA burnout within our family, that feels totally overwhelming and devastating, and also like it’s gradually showing us the necessary way forward (in a windy / stretchy/ impossible feeling way)

So yeah, it’s been a lot…

And yet I’m so excited about work. It’s become a place that feels so meaningful and necessary to me, and I really want to be in a place to share more of it with you.

I’ve been writing letters to you in my mind throughout all of this time, and it’s as if they’ve all got swept into one of the many piles of my semi read non-fiction books that live in the corners of my desk.

So I’m going to try to write more regularly. To attempt a routine as a kind of net to catch all the reflections and thoughts I’ve been longing to share with you.

I’m hoping to write once a week.

And also, as I learn more about my neurodivergence and experience more of my son’s, I wonder where the balance needs to be with routine versus flexibility. We shall see!

I also hope to create some more podcast episodes, as well as series I’m cooking up to host over on The Portal. If you have any requests for podcast episodes or meditations you can submit a voice note to me here!

Monthly Free Co-tending Session

Something I’d love to start offering, is a free monthly group ‘co-tending’ session for you as someone on this list.

These are sessions that I run weekly as part of The Mycelium membership, and they are based on the principles of ‘body doubling’. Meaning that you have the supportive presence / accompaniment of other people when going about a certain task.

We gather together on a zoom call (or some people join from offline and we include them in our check-in) and we spend an hour together - with an invitational arrival practice, space to check in about what we’re ‘tending’ to, and then sitting on mute together while we spend the hour together, then check out.

These sessions are really lovely, and people tend to all sorts of different needs - from life admin to meditations, housework to naps.

I’ll be hosting this month’s free co-tending session on Weds 28th October, 3-4pm UK time (I’ll share the link and reminder closer to the time)

Thank you for welcoming me into your inbox again

(and also please know that you can leave at any time with no hard feelings - simply click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email or let me know and i can take you off the list 💚)

Warmest wishes

Harriet Hamid-Collett

(she / they)

Ways to work with me

Join The Mycelium (monthly membership)

CC Toolkit - I’ll be putting out dates soon!

Tender Toolkit for Overwhelmed Parents & Caregivers - self-paced and available now (I’d love to find one or two people to ‘test’ it out for free / in exchange for feedback - let me know if you’re interested!)

Parent Coaching - 2 spaces

Somatic Coaching - 1 space

Who is writing this? I’m Harriet, and I work under the name ‘Tender Being with Harriet’. I am a coach, facilitator and guide who is particularly passionate about supporting neurodivergent, sensitive and deeply feeling people and families.