Collective Spotlight: Simon Wolff
Meet Simon Wolff an ancestral healing and somatic practitioner.
Why did you want to become an ancestral healing practitioner?
I’ve had the honor of being in relationship with yoga since I was introduced to it by my father when I was 21. When I became politicized and developed an antiracist white identity starting in 2010, I began to both be troubled by my own complicity in cultural appropriation of yoga in the U.S., and longed to know the earth and body based ways of being/living/relating of my ancient ancestors.
In 2018, after organizing around immigrant rights and racial justice for many years (and teaching yoga “on the side” from 2005 to 2015), I came out of the “woo closet” as a politicized healer. I dove into rigorous study and practice of somatics through Somatic Experiencing International and generative somatics, and ancestral healing through Ancestral Medicine. I’ve been weaving my intersectional political analysis together with my understanding of trauma and body and spirit-based healing ever since. I offered 1:1 and small group somatic work for the past seven years, and these days, as a white racialized Jewish person, I feel called to help other white people (Jews and non Jews) to heal from the ancestral wounds that undergird the societal ills we are collectively facing.
What have you gained from this work?
Ever since I began my personal journey with ancestral healing in 2017, I have felt a renewed sense of rootedness and belonging to my people and the Earth. My familial relationships have become more vibrant and healthy, and I had the honor of being able to support my mother’s transition to ancestorhood when she passed in 2019. I have also deepened my relationship with the plant and animal worlds and my physical and mental health have improved considerably. Through this work, I am also contributing to cultural and political healing, among both my Jewish and Christian-descended ancestors, and preparing to be a well ancestor myself, when my time comes to transition. One of the biggest gifts of this work, which I have experienced firsthand, is healing intergenerational internalized oppression and shame, and cultivating secure attachment with the ancestors, which in turn serves as a reference point for tending healthy intimacy and relationality with the Earth and other humans.
What do you hope your clients feel after working with you?
Many people don’t know where or who they came from beyond more recent ancestors, perhaps especially people living in diaspora and adoptees. It is also very common, especially for white-bodied people, to feel averse toward their ancestors due to histories of racism, patriarchy, and colonialism. While these histories are very real, what is also true is that we all have many, many generations of well and loving ancestors who are available to connect with and collaborate with us to bring healing toward the unwell ones and thus increase wellness and blessings in our own lives and the world. I guide this work because I hope my clients experience the gifts I have been blessed with through this work, including a greater sense of belonging, connection, self-esteem, purpose, and resilience.
How does your work inform your activism or understanding of the world?
My approach to ancestral lineage healing is informed by earth and body-based ritual arts, somatic and spiritual healing, and a lifelong commitment to nurturing collective liberation. When we reconnect with our well ancestors, we deconstruct the isolation of individualism and root into the vast and nourishing mycelial network of ancestral blessings, medicine, and magic. For many people, cultural practices of ancestral reverence have been lost through centuries of colonialism, migration, and assimilation. Thankfully, each of us has wise, well, loving, earth-honoring ancestors lovingly waiting for us to turn toward them. Ancestral lineage healing helps us reconnect directly with the wisdom of our lineages, without unconsciously appropriating traditions of other cultures. Much of what ails today’s world is rooted in unmetabolized ancestral pain and trauma, which influences living humans by way of the troubled dead. As we learn to establish and maintain boundaries with our troubled ancestors, and reconnect and collaborate with our well and loving ancestors to heal and transform the wounds and burdens in our lines, we not only experience healing in our own lives and families, we also help shift collective consciousness.
What’s your favorite season of the year and why?
I love fall because as a triple fire sign, it’s when I feel the coolest in the brisk air. I also unapologetically love pumpkins and squash.
What has made you smile recently that you feel the need to share?
I am such awe of the more-than-human world, especially as I continue to get to know these lands after relocating here from Michigan in June of 2024. I adore rose blossom season and am increasingly amazed by the birds here, especially the bald eagles and blue herons.
To learn more about Simon’s work, visit https://www.simon-wolff.com. To learn more about the Ancestral Medicine approach to Ancestral Lineage Healing work, check out the recently published open access digital book, Ancestral Wisdom: Sacred stories of contact, healing, and care, which features a poem and linocut print of Simon’s, and https://ancestralmedicine.org/ancestors.
