What Peru Is Teaching Me About Connection, Loneliness, and the Spaces We Create...

I’m writing this from the mountains of Peru, where life feels very different.

Slower. Quieter. More honest.

There’s a rhythm here that’s hard to explain unless you’ve felt it. The land, the rituals, the way community is woven into everyday life. People gather. They share. They belong.

Today, I took part in a despacho ceremony, a traditional offering to the land.

What moved me most was not just the ritual itself, but the connection within it. The intention. The presence. The quiet reverence for life.

I shared it with a woman I feel deeply connected to, a soul sister.

At the end of the ritual, she said to me, “Francesca, you are a real sister.”

And something in me really felt that.

What I took to heart was not just the words, but what they meant. That she felt seen by me. That she felt safe. That she felt loved.

And it stayed with me, because beneath so much of what I see in my work, there is this simple human longing.

To be seen.To be felt.To belong.

And yet, how many of us feel deeply alone, even when we’re surrounded by people?

This is especially true for those of us who are therapists, coaches, and space holders.

We are the ones others come to.We are the ones who regulate, support, and listen.

But who holds us?

It’s something I’ve felt personally at times, and something I see in so many practitioners I work with.

And for women, there is often another layer.

What I call the “witch wound”.

A quiet, often unconscious fear of being fully seen. Of being powerful. Of taking up space.

It can show up in subtle ways. Comparison. Self doubt. Holding back. Or even disconnecting from other women.

Being here, and living within different communities, has shown me the contrast very clearly.

I’ve seen what happens when women come together with self awareness, emotional responsibility, and a genuine desire to grow.

There is a lifting.An openness.A sense of safety that allows people to soften, expand, and become more of who they are.

And I’ve also seen what happens when unresolved trauma leads the space.

Where there is projection, disconnection, and a lack of safety.

Where people are not met, but triggered.

It has shown me, more than ever, how essential it is that we consciously create spaces rooted in integrity, compassion, and nervous system awareness.

Spaces where people do not just talk about growth, but embody it.

We do not need to deny the darkness. It is part of being human.

But as RuPaul says, “you can look at the darkness but don’t stare at it, otherwise you’ll go blind.”

For me, this is the work.

Not bypassing pain.Not getting lost in it.But learning how to be with ourselves in a way that is grounded, compassionate, and real.

This is what underpins everything I do as a somatic coach.

Over the past two and a half years, I’ve supported clients from teenagers to those in later life to move out of shame, overwhelm, and people pleasing patterns, and into something much more stable and self led.

My work is grounded in a framework I developed called The SASS Method.

Self Acceptance. Meeting yourself honestly, without shame.Authenticity. Reconnecting with your real yes and no.Self Compassion.

Softening the inner critic and building safety within.Self Responsibility. Learning to regulate and respond, rather than react.

But beyond any framework, what I offer is something much simpler, and often much rarer.

Space.

Space to be real.Space to be seen.Space to reconnect with yourself in a way that feels steady and sustainable.

Because when we feel truly seen and supported, something shifts.

We soften.We open.We come back to ourselves.

And from that place, connection becomes natural.

Not something we chase, but something we embody.