In this episode, Vanessa Couto shares her unexpected journey with romance novels and how they helped her with grief and burnout.

We discussed the different layers of healing that this often dismissed genre brings to our own lives and the potential of healing the collective.

Discover the different sub-genres of romance novels and what's compelling with each of them beyond the plot.

You'll leave this episode wanting to pick up a romance novel of your own and experience healing with pleasure beyond the plot.

Some recommended romance books:

1) Emily Henry's Book Lovers

2) S E Wendel's Halfing

3) Callie Hart's Quicksilver

Follow Vanessa:

1) Website: vanessacouto.com

2) IG: @vanessacouto.stories

3) Substack: https://vanessacouto.substack.com/

About Vanessa:

Vanessa Couto guides people through life's thresholds using depth psychology, archetypal astrology, and the wisdom of story. A Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with an MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, she draws on decades of studying how myth and psyche illuminate transformation.

Through her podcast Romancing the Threshold and her writing on liminality, she explores how we navigate life's passages with curiosity rather than certainty. Her practice emerged from her own journey through multiple thresholds and years of dedicated study in archetypal frameworks. Recently, she's discovered romance novels as unexpected medicine—finding in these dismissed stories precise maps for desire and sovereignty. She hosts For Your Pleasure, a book club excavating romance's archetypal patterns, and is launching intensive programs using the romance arc as transformational curriculum.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Vanessa works with clients navigating their own crossings—those sensing something essential wants to emerge. Her approach honors both the psychological depth and cosmic timing of transformation, meeting each threshold as sacred passage rather than problem to solve. Her own understanding continues to deepen through lived experience, which means she meets clients as a fellow traveler, not someone claiming to have mapped every territory.

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About the host:

Michelle Wong, #BreathworkGuide, #CourageCatalyst #SpaceHolder is an initiator, visionary, and author of Set Your Own Sail: Fire Your Alarm Clock and Awaken to What's Possible. She mentors women to be unapologetically in full relationship with themselves. She uniquely blends breathwork, Human Design, intuition, self-care, and feminine leadership practices in her work with clients.

Download your free: ⁠"I Am Supported" meditation HERE⁠.

Let's Stay Connected!

- Email updates: http://eepurl.com/dLB9qU

- Substack: https://substack.com/@michellewongxo

In episode 166, Michelle interviews guest, Jonathan Hadas Edwards, LAc, on his journey of divination, working with the IChing, acupuncture, and what drew him to Vedic Astrology.

We dive deep into how he started working with divination, how he integrates the IChing with his acupuncture patients, what a good acupuncture session looks like, scents and the sacred.

His Wayfinding offerings, and his work with his wife, in the Heartward Sanctuary www.heartwardsanctuary.org

About Jonathan H Edwards, LAc.

Jonathan H Edwards, LAc. is an acupuncturist, herbalist and perpetual student of wisdom traditions. He holds a Bachelors in Religious Studies (Swarthmore College) and dual Masters in East Asian Medicine (NUNM) and Creative Writing (Warren Wilson College). Originally from New York City, Jonathan lived and studied in India and Nepal on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2008-9. While in Nepal he had a course-altering encounter with last-of-his-lineage Ayurvedic physician Keshab Laal, which inspired him to pursue traditional medicine seriously. Jonathan now lives at Heartward Sanctuary, an animist church org he co-founded with his wife, Julia Hartsell, in the North Carolina piedmont.

Connect w/ Jonathan:

Websites:www.jonathanhadasedwards.com https://www.kalamandala.com/

Substack: seedsfromtheworldtree.substack.com

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Host: Michelle Wong, #BreathworkGuide, #CourageCatalyst #SpaceHolder is an initiator, visionary, and author of Set Your Own Sail: Fire Your Alarm Clock and Awaken to What's Possible. She mentors women to be in full relationship with themselves, unapologetically. She uniquely blends breathwork, Human Design, Beliefetics (TM), Rapid Relief Technique (TM), intuition + self-care, and feminine leadership practices.

Download your free: ⁠"I Am Supported" meditation HERE⁠.

Let's Stay Connected!

-Instagram (⁠@michellewong.xo⁠)

-Facebook (⁠http://www.facebook.com/michellewongcatalyst⁠)

-Email community: http://eepurl.com/dLB9qU

- Substack: https://substack.com/@michellewongxo

Welcome back to the Sacred Emergence Podcast! After a 2-year hiatus, Michelle Wong returns with news and updates on her life + what to expect from this podcast moving forward.

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Host: Michelle Wong, #BreathworkGuide, #CourageCatalyst #SpaceHolder is an initiator, visionary, and author of Set Your Own Sail: Fire Your Alarm Clock and Awaken to What's Possible. She mentors women to be in full relationship with themselves, unapologetically. She uniquely blends breathwork, Human Design, Beliefetics(TM), Rapid Relief Technique (TM), intuition + self-care, and feminine leadership practices.

Let's Stay Connected!

- Email community: http://eepurl.com/dLB9qU

- Substack: https://substack.com/@michellewongxo