We’ve been celebrated by:
I’m so honored that you’re here!
I’m Thérèse Cator (she/her/hers) and I’m the Founder of Embodied Black Girl and the host of the Embodied Black Girl Podcast. I’m also a mother, a Leadership Coach, and Embodiment Practitioner and Teacher, a Healer and an Artist.
I’ve spent over 14 years guiding visionary humans to remember their wholeness, reclaim their radiance and untether from colonial conditioning in life and leadership in the name of healing and liberation for us all. My work lies at the intersection of leadership, spirituality, healing, somatics, mindfulness, decolonization and social change.
This podcast centers how we can deeply embody our liberation, healing and leadership to weave the new world. There will be thought-provoking conversations with visionary humans, personal stories and lessons and more.
Please join our podcast circle to receive exclusive bonuses and more.
Thank you for being here!
xo
Decolonizing Therapy and Reclaiming Rage with Dr. Jennifer Mullan
Unpacking Unconscious Biases and the Power of Reflective Writing with Leesa Renée Hall
Reclaiming Radical Self Love with Sonya Renee Taylor
Join our podcast circle for the latest episodes, events and more.
Our 4th Annual Global Healing Festival by Embodied Black Girl is around the corner — happening on June 9th!🎉🌺⚡️
My heart is bursting with joy as I see the community that’s gathering for this.
This year our theme is The Future is Embodied: The Rest-volution ❤️‍🔥
I deeply admire these brilliant Black women who’ll be joining us...
Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry! If you haven’t read her book Rest is Resistance go get yourself a copy and get ready for the amazing conversation we’re about to have!
Dr. Jennifer Mullan, Decolonizing Therapy who’ll be guiding us in an exploration about embodiment and boundaries.
Tigidanka “TK” Saccoh, founder of The Darkest Hue who will guide us in a necessary and deeply nuanced conversation on colorism.
Natalee Facey, Somatic Healing Coach and Doula who’ll be leading us in a somatic practice to deepen our capacity to receive.
And it will be hosted by Thérèse Cator who’ll also weave a tapestry of embodied healing us in what will be an experiential and integrative session.
It’s going to be absolutely beautiful gathering! It happens only ONCE A YEAR!
The festival is online + 100% free to attend live! Join us for what will be a nourishing and healing day!
Sign up for free at:
https://embodiedblackgirl.com/ghf-2023 link in bio @embodiedblackgirl
#embodiedblackgirl #globalhealingfestival
Today, marks the 3 year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. May we always say his name and may the most privileged among us do their part in creating a world where we can all be truly free.
I’m grateful that a few members of our community gathered today for a somatics class. It gave us a chance to alchemize the emotions that arose.
The prayer we’ll continue hold in our hearts is simple…
May we all get free.
Rest in power Brother Floyd. 🖤🖤🖤
📸: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
One of the greatest of all time. An unforgettable legacy. It was an honor to witness your brilliance. Rest easy Ms. Tina Turner.
Repost from @tinaturner
•
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow. Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly. (© Peter Lindbergh)
Beloved Ones,
I`m overjoyed to share that the 4th Annual Global Healing Festival by @embodiedblackgirl is here and it`s happening on Friday, June 9th, 2023!!! 🎉🥳❤️‍🔥
This festival nourishes the healing and liberation of Black women and women and femmes of color!
Our theme this year is...
✨The Future is Embodied: The Rest-volution✨
This is your invitation to enter the dream space where rest is life and our bodies are revolutionary portals and oracles for liberation.
We’ve brought together today’s modern day visionary wisdom keepers and culture-shapers for a day where we’ll explore how we can cultivate true individual and collective freedom.
Who`s Invited?🌺
Our work centers Black women and femmes and extends to women and femmes of color. If you hold any of those identities please do join us!
Everyone is welcome to support this work so we can make somatics and wellness more accessible to our community. When you do you`ll also receive the festival recordings in gratitude! Thank you for your support.
Our Honored Guests🌺
We`re deeply humbled and honored to be graced by the presence and brilliance of these amazing honored guests! Here`s a preview of what`s in store...
Natalee Facey, @nataleefacey Somatic Healing Guide + Birthworker, will guide us into deeper attunement with our bodies and ground us as we expand our capacity to receive.
Tigidankay "TK" Saccoh, The Darkest Hue @darkest.hue will lead us in a necessary and nuanced conversation and exploration on colorism.
Dr. Jennifer Mullan, Decolonizing Therapy @decolonizingtherapy will lead us in an exploration of boundaries at the intersection of embodiment.
Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry @thenapministry will be in conversation with Thérèse Cator as they explore the depths of her seminal New York Times Bestselling book Rest is Resistance.
Thérèse Cator, Embodied Black Girl will weave a tapestry of embodied healing through song, somatics and poetry to commune with the depth and breadth of your being.
And that`s only the beginning, it`s going to be an absolutely beautiful and immersive day!
The festival is online+ 100% free to attend live! #embodiedblackgirl #globalhealingfestival
Join me ✨THIS WEEKEND✨ at The Doula Expo by @mamaglow founded by my dear sister, @glowmaven — Latham Thomas!
This is the 3rd annual gathering! I`ve attend every one and let me tell you, Latham knows how to curate a beautiful event! (Swipe to see a pic from last year) Not only is the space GORGEOUS, she also brings together the most amazing people and every aspect of the festival is exquisitely thought out!
The Doula Expo is a culture-shifting festival that centers a vision for the future of birth work. Tatyana Ali will serve as emcee and DJ Rashida will be spinning tunes!
You can expect an interactive festival experience that includes keynote conversations, expert panel discussions, TED style talks, demos, lounges, interactive booths, live performances and more!
This event is open to all people interested or involved in maternal and reproductive health, wellness, mental and behavioral health, and beyond.
I`m honored to be leading a session, so join me for...
Revolutionary Embodiment: A Sacred Somatic Healing Circle to Weave Our Village
My session is on Saturday, May 20th starting at 2:30pm in the Wellness Park.
​Join us and get your tickets! ​
Mama Glow is giving our community a generous discount too! Please enter CATOR at checkout to receive 25% off. All proceeds go to the Mama Glow Foundation.
Drop by and say hello!
www.doulaexpo.com #doulaexpo #MamaGlow #DoulaExpo23 #coachellaforbirthworkers #nyc #hudsonyards
In 2020, when I learned that Ahmaud Arbery was born on Mother’s Day it broke me.
Later this month, will mark the three year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd whose last words were calling for his mother. Today, let’s say a prayer for Black mothers, the ones who’ve been named here and the names we many never know.
I pray that our humanity and that of our children. May we be protected. May we be free.
A PRAYER FOR BLACK MOTHERS​
​(written May 2020)
Ahmaud Arbery was born on Mother’s Day in 1994.
​
There are countless Black mothers who’ve had to (and continue to) bury their children due to senseless hatred.
​
Today…
We pray for Wanda Jones, Ahmaud Arbery’s mother.
We pray for Allison Jean, Botham Jean’s mother.
We pray for Charmaine Edwards, Jordan Edwards’ mother.
We pray for Dominika Stanley, Aiyana Stanley Jones’ mother.
We pray for Geneva Reed-Veal, Sandra Bland’s mother.
We pray for Georgia Ferrell, Jonathan Ferrell’s mother.
We pray for Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother.
We pray for Lesley McSpadden, Mike Brown’s mother.
We pray for Lucy McBath, Jordan Davis’ mother.
We pray for Maria Hamilton, Dontre Hamilton’s mother.
We pray for Kadiatou Diallo, Amadou Diallo’s mother.
We pray for Monica McBride, Renisha McBride’s mother.
We pray for Samaria Rice, Tamir Rice’s mother.
We pray for Se`Quette Clark, Stephon Clark’s mother.
We pray for Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother.
We pray for Valerie Bell, Sean Bell’s mother.
We pray for Valerie Castile, Philando Castile’s mother.
We pray Yolanda Carr, Atatiana Jefferson’s mother.
​
We pray for all the Black mothers who have lost children to hatred.
We pray for Black mothers who’s hearts are weary, who are tired, who are afraid, who are grieving and who need comfort now.
​
May your children who are no longer here be held in our Ancestors’ embrace.
May all of our children who are with us be protected.
May you be granted sweet grace.
May love enter every cell of your being.
May you be comforted.
May you find peace.
May you be made new.
​
Àṣẹ. Aameen. Amen.
It’s been a minute, but we’re coming in hot!!! 🔥🔥🔥
✨SAVE THE DATE✨
Our 4th Annual Global Healing Festival is happening on Friday, June 9th, 2023!!! It’s going to be a such a beautiful and nourishing day with some of the most amazing honored guests!
So mark your calendar, take the day off and join us live — you won’t want to miss it!
Head over to www.embodiedblackgirl.com link in bio @embodiedblackgirl to join our mailing list and you’ll be one of the first to receive the official invitation! 💖💖💖
#embodiedblackgirl #globalhealingfestival
3 Embodied Ways to Honor the Spring Equinox and New Moon
Our ancestors have been
honoring the seasons for millennia.
Contrary to what mainstream wellness will have us believe, these practices aren’t exclusive to white folks.
This is a time of rebirth and for planting the seeds that you hope to harvest.
Honoring seasonal thresholds is an embodied practice that reconnects us with the parts of ourselves, one another and the land that have been severed by capitalist-colonialism.
1. Set Your Intentions.
What are your big bold dreams? Write it down. Dance it through. Sing it out. Pray it up. Let it move you.
2. Make Space to Play
What did you love to do as a kid? Connect with your inner child through play. Take an impromptu trip to the park. Take a cold plunge in the ocean or in your shower. Connect with your sense of aliveness.
3. Gather
Picnic anyone? Invite a few beloveds to a potluck picnic. The invitation is simple: Bring a blanket and your favorite family dish. Give thanks, and while breaking bread, share stories about how the food you’re eating is rooted in your lineage.
Spring Equinox and New Moon Blessings. ✨🌱✨
#embodiedblackgirl
Happy International Women’s Day!
In the words of the incomparable June Jordan a reminder:
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!
Today’s let’s remember to celebrate ALL women.
That means…
The women who have gotten us to this point.
Raised us. Nurtured us. Challenged us. Believed in us.
It also means the women who have been historically excluded from this celebration…
Black
Brown
Indigenous
Asian
Trans
Disabled
Fat
Queer
Undocumented
Incarcerated
Houseless
Poor
Sex Worker
Happy International Women’s Day to all women!
#embodiedblackgirl #junejordan #internationalwomensday
A word. A prayer. A reminder. An affirmation. A proclamation. A protest. An invitation.
“You are a human being, not a human machine.
We are human beings, not human machines.
I am a human being, not a human machine.”
Repeat daily.
I’m signing off for the weekend (possibly longer). We’ll see. I’m being called to make space to play, to grieve and the muse is calling. Something beautiful is on the horizon…
If we’re not connected please consider joining our newsletter. Link is you know where. @embodiedblackgirl 💜 #embodiedblackgirl
Closing out Black Futures Month with a vibe!!!
I’m over the moon about the phenomenal group of Black women who’ve said yes to attending our upcoming retreat!
They`re artists, non-profit founders, teachers, therapists, entrepreneurs all doing culture-shaping work in the world!
And as I think of them I reflect on Audre Lorde’s words…
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
During this retreat we’ll center our care through sacred ritual and ceremony, transformational workshops, sacred councils, embodied breathwork + movement and sacred somatics.
Rooted visioning.
Expansive dreaming.
Embodied aliveness.
Wild devotion.
And today is the last day to receive early enrollment gifts ($1100 value)
If you feel called it would be an honor to have you there.
6 spaces are left.
All the details: www.embodiedblackgirl.com/mexico-retreat đź’ś
Link in bio @embodiedblackgirl
#embodiedblackgirl #blackfuturemonth
Reflecting on this quote by Audre Lorde today…
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” 🔥🔥🔥
I’ll be sharing more in an upcoming newsletter so if you want to receive it sign up at www.embodiedblackgirl.com link in bio @embodiedblackgirl
#embodiedblackgirl #audrelorde
“Community is the medicine.”
This has been a sacred prayer that I`ve shared with anyone who`ll listen.
If we have any chance of weaving a world where we all belong community is the answer.
We are biologically designed to turn towards one another. However, because of the harm and violence we`ve experienced both interpersonally and historically...
We turn away.
We isolate.
We don`t seek support.
Yet, it`s in orienting towards one another that we heal. It`s in orienting towards one another that we birth new worlds because new realities aren`t created in isolation.
Our orienting towards one another acts as a portal, a mirror and a chalice guiding us towards deeper reclamation of all that we`ve lost, all that was stolen, all that was forgotten.
It`s been my deepest honor to create containers where we can orient towards what`s possible for us individually and collectively.
Containers that challenge and catalyze.
Containers that initiate us to connect to our humanity and our leadership.
Containers that center community.
We`ll be doing this deeply relational work at our retreat in Zihuatanejo, Mexico and it`s with my whole heart that I invite you to join us for this transformative and heart opening adventure!
We`ll gather at one of the most sustainable retreat centers in the world. You`ll eat farm-to-table meals, sit in sacred council with other wise souls, participate in transformational workshops, sacred ceremonies and rituals, and there will be S-P-A-C-E to rest to allow the medicine of the experience to land deeply. We`re planning an absolutely exquisite experience and all you have to do is get there!
This is a space of...
Rooted visioning.
Expansive dreaming.
Embodied aliveness.
Wild devotion.
If you`ve ever experienced the power of one of our virtual containers, in-person will blow your heart wide open!
And we have some beautiful gifts for you when you join us by TODAY, Friday February 24th 11:59pm PST!
All the details can be found link in bio @embodiedblackgirl www.embodiedblackgirl.com/mexico-retreat
#embodiedblackgirl
Being Black isn’t a costume or an accessory.
Being Black is a lived experience.
Being Indigenous isn’t a costume or an accessory.
Being Indigenous is a lived experience.
Being a person of color isn’t a costume or an accessory.
Being a person of color is a lived experience.
And that means…
white folks can’t decide to become Black.
white folks can’t decide to become Indigenous.
white folks can’t decide to become a person of color.
And yet, there are many white folks doing this because at the root the colonial mind believes it has access to all things, all people and all experiences and it has no limits on the violence it will inflict.
After reading yet another story of a white woman pretending this time to be Latine, Arab and South Asian consider this a public service announcement. #embodiedblackgirl
Today is the 4 Year Anniversary of our annual Global Healing Festival gathering!!!
Over the past 4 years we’ve had thousands of Black, Indigenous and Folks of Color attend this gathering!
Thank you for attending and sharing how it has profoundly impacted your life!
We’ve received so many love letters over the years. Thank you! Your words keep us all going!
Thank you to all of our honored guests who shared their brilliance with such generosity! Literally so many gems have been dropped over these years!
Thank you to all the angels behind the scenes who make this happen!
This couldn’t be a reality without all of you.
I’m infinitely grateful for this community that has emerged from a vision that was planted by God! I had a new baby at the time and didn’t know how I’d make it happen but the way was made because it was a divine assignment.
Today we celebrated this beautiful milestone and it was soooo much fun!
Thank you everyone who attended today and sent heartfelt wishes of congratulations!!!
And YES the 4th annual Global Healing Festival is in the works!!! đź’– #embodiedblackgirl #blessed #grateful #globalhealing #globalhealth
🌺MEXICO RETREAT FOR BLACK WOMEN + FEMMES🌺
In case you haven’t heard, we’re heading to Mexico for a healing retreat for Black women and femmes!!!
And tomorrow, February 22nd we’re hosting a Retreat Exploration Celebration call!
You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming EBG retreat and we’ll announce *special limited time bonuses* in honor of the 4 year anniversary of Global Healing Festival! 🎉
If you’re interested in attending the retreat and want to celebrate with us join us live tomorrow! 💜
Link in bio @embodiedblackgirl #embodiedblackgirl
✨PERFECTIONISM IS A COLONIAL CONSTRUCT✨
Back in my teens and much of my twenties I wore perfectionism as a badge of honor.
* Perfectionism kept me striving
* Perfectionism kept me focused
* Perfectionism kept me achieving
* Perfectionism kept me going in the face of insurmountable challenges
At the same time…
* Perfectionism kept me doubting when I needed to trust
* Perfectionism kept me going back to the drawing board when I needed to keep going
* Perfectionism kept me comparing when I needed to stand in my own brilliance
* Perfectionism kept me quitting too early in some cases and not leaving early enough in others
I’ve spent the past decade healing from the wounds of perfectionism and in the process I`ve learned...
Perfectionism is a colonial construct.
A construct that keeps us trapped and chasing an illusion.
It`s also the fuel that keeps colonialist-capitalist-patriarchy running because it keeps us believing in our brokenness.
Perfectionism is also a trauma response.
Trauma responses are meant to keep us safe from threat like for example if you`re being chased by a bear in the woods.
However, when it comes to perfectionism, while the threats feel real they don`t necessarily carry life-or-death consequences like in the case of a bear chase.
For many of us, perfectionism keeps us safe from rejection, ridicule, and perceived failure, all things that can bring about intense emotions like shame, sadness and anger.
On the flip side, perfectionism is also keeping us from experiencing the unfettered joy that comes from being fully expressed in our life and work.
And when we reach down to the roots, perfectionism is actually an invitation to embrace our innate wholeness.
This autumn, the depth work of unmapping our minds, hearts and bodies from perfectionism and embracing our wholeness will come alive at our Embodied Black Girl Heal Deep Retreat for Black women and femmes.
Join us on 2/22 for our Retreat Exploration Celebration where I’ll be sharing juicy details about our upcoming retreat! Link in bio @embodiedblackgirl
p.s. Interested in supporting a Black woman attending this retreat? Please consider a donation. đź’ś#embodiedblackgirl