Coming and Going: Building from a Stable Base

When the work you've built becomes the foundation for something new to emerge

Where This Begins

For the past several years, my work through the Somatic Integration Institute has had a clear focus: helping clinicians deepen their embodied presence with clients.

As a somatic and trauma therapist who has specialized in working with adults facing complex trauma, chronic health conditions, and addiction, I know how essential it is for therapists to develop an integrated relationship with their whole being. We can't guide others toward embodied healing if we're disconnected from our own bodies, our own nervous systems, our own capacity to stay present in the face of pain.

So I've offered trainings. Individual somatic sessions for educational purposes. Spaces where clinicians can explore what it means to be in their bodies while holding space for others.

This work isn't going anywhere. It remains foundational to everything I do.

But something new is trying to emerge.

And it's asking me to expand in a direction I didn't anticipate.

The Pattern I Keep Seeing

In my conversations with the clinicians I work with—especially those who've grown into leadership roles—I keep hearing variations of the same struggle:

"I built a group practice because I had a vision for how therapy could be different. Now I spend all my time managing staff and dealing with insurance."

"I started this program because I was passionate about a specific population. Now I'm drowning in operations and haven't seen a client in months."

"I wanted to create something meaningful. Instead, I created something that owns me."

These aren't clinical questions. They're not about somatic skills or trauma treatment protocols.

They're about what happens when you've built something successful... and then realize you're trapped by it.

They're about what it means to be a leader—not just a clinician.

And here's what I'm noticing: The same leaders who are most committed to embodied presence with their clients are often completely disconnected from their own needs, their own callings, their own bodies telling them something needs to change.

What Somatic Awareness Teaches Us About Leadership

When I work with clinicians on developing somatic awareness, we focus on learning to track what's happening in the body in real time:

• Noticing when your nervous system is activated
• Recognizing when a boundary has been crossed
• Feeling the difference between your energy and someone else's
• Trusting the body's wisdom before the mind has caught up

These aren't just clinical skills.

They're life skills. Leadership skills.

Because the same principles apply when you're leading an organization, building a practice, or navigating your own evolution:

• Can you notice when you're operating from obligation instead of alignment?
• Can you recognize when you're overriding your body's signals because you think you "should" push through?
• Can you feel the difference between work that drains you and work that enlivens you?
• Can you trust what's trying to emerge through you, even when it doesn't fit the plan?

This is embodied leadership.

And it's what I'm being called to explore more deeply.

My Own Journey: KAIROS as Foundation

I built multiple practices under one umbrella—KAIROS Counselings and Brighter Beginnings. They're thriving. They're serving hundreds of families. They have incredible teams, strong systems, and clear missions.

And they've become my stable base, my foundation.

For a long time, I thought that meant I needed to stay put. To tend the garden I'd planted. To be the person who holds it all together.

But something in me was restless. Ideas kept flowing. New visions kept emerging. I wanted to travel, to explore, to follow what was calling me toward something MORE.

And I felt guilty about it.

Shouldn't I be grateful for what I've built?
Isn't wanting more somehow... selfish?
If I step away, won't everything fall apart?

The Blueprint I Inherited

Then I remembered my grandmother.

She was a free spirit—an artist, a world traveler, a teacher. She was the second of seven children born to immigrants in the early 1900s, and she refused to be caged by convention. Her art reflected her unique perspective on the world, shaped by all the places she explored.

And through it all, she had a stable, grounded marriage.

She came and went. And the base held.

She didn't choose between her marriage and her freedom. She didn't abandon her foundation to fly.

She had both.

What I'm Learning

I realized: I'm a starter, not a maintainer. I'm a catalyst, not a keeper. My soul needs to move, to explore, to come and go—while my work continues to serve.

KAIROS Counselings and Brighter Beginnings are my base. They're not going anywhere. They're thriving because I've built teams who can hold them, systems that work, and a culture that doesn't depend on me being present every single day.

The Somatic Integration Institute is where I get to explore what's next.

The clinical training work continues—that foundation remains essential.

But I'm also being called to work with leaders in a different way. To help mental health innovators navigate this question:

How do I honor what I've built AND follow what's calling me next?

The Expansion: From Clinical Skills to Leadership Embodiment

Here's what I'm exploring:

What if the same somatic principles that make us better clinicians can also make us better leaders?

What if learning to "come and go"—to build a stable base while still allowing ourselves to move and evolve—is actually a form of embodied leadership?

What if the mental health field needs leaders who can model something different than burnout and martyrdom?

This is where The Catalyst Collective is being born.

It's not a clinical training. It's not about learning new therapeutic techniques.

It's a gathering space for mental health leaders who:

• Have built something (a practice, a program, a vision)
• Feel trapped by what they've built
• Are being called to something MORE
• Need permission to evolve without abandoning what they've created
• Want to learn how to "come and go" from their stable base

It's about applying somatic awareness to leadership itself.

Who This Is For

This work is for mental health innovators who are:

• Successful but suffocated by operations
• Visionaries trapped in management mode
• Ready to redesign their role so they can be vision holders, not just operators
• Called to write, speak, travel, create—but feel chained to their current structure
• Wondering if they can honor what they've built AND follow what's emerging

If you've ever thought "I didn't build this practice to become a full-time administrator"—this is for you.

If you've ever felt guilty for wanting more than what you've already created—this is for you.

If you've ever wondered "Can I have roots and still fly?"—this is for you.

The Through-Line

Here's what connects all of my work—the clinical training, the individual sessions, and now this new leadership offering:

Embodiment. Presence. The wisdom of the body.

Whether you're sitting with a client in crisis, leading a team meeting, or deciding what direction your life needs to go next, the question is the same:

Can you stay connected to what's true in your body while navigating complexity?

This is what I help clinicians develop in their clinical work.

And this is what I'm now being called to help leaders develop in their leadership.

What's Next

The Catalyst Collective is in early emergence. I'm still shaping it, listening to what wants to come through, having conversations with leaders who are navigating these questions.

If this resonates—if something in you just said "yes, this is what I've been looking for"—I'd love to talk.

Because here's what I know:

You don't have to choose between honoring what you've built and following what's calling you next.

You can have roots and still fly.

My grandmother proved it.

I'm learning to trust it.

And I believe you can too.

If you're curious about The Catalyst Collective or want to explore what embodied leadership might look like for you, reach out. Let's talk.

Helen Malinowski, LICSW, SEP
Founder, Somatic Integration Institute
Founder, KAIROS Counselings & Brighter Beginnings