The Power of Weird in Healing Work
Reclaiming the ancient wisdom in what feels strange, unexpected, and transformative
The Power of Weird in Healing Work
In last week's reflections, we explored how healing often happens beneath our carefully constructed stories - in the realm of sensation, of felt experience. Today, I want to take this conversation further by honouring something I've noticed repeatedly in sessions: the profound wisdom that emerges when we allow ourselves to follow what might feel "weird."
Over the past few weeks, multiple clients have used the word "weird" to describe their experiences in healing sessions. And they were absolutely right. What happens in deep healing work often IS weird – and that's precisely why it works.
The Sacred Origins of Weird
Let's reclaim this word "weird." Its origins tell us everything we need to know: it comes from the Old English "wyrd," meaning fate or destiny. The word carries deep connections to the sacred feminine and ancient wisdom keepers. The Fates themselves – those powerful goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the threads of destiny – were known as the "weird sisters" in ancient lore.
These weren't just strange women – they were seers who could shape destiny. They echo back to the Norns of Norse mythology – three powerful entities who wove the threads of fate at the foot of Yggdrasil, the world tree. The term "weird" was once inextricably linked to wise women, witches, and seers – those who could walk between worlds and work with the unseen forces of destiny.
When we step into healing work, we're literally stepping into the weird – the realm of destiny and transformation. The body doesn't speak in PowerPoint presentations or linear narratives. It speaks in:
Metaphors that make no logical sense but feel deeply true
Images that emerge from nowhere but carry profound meaning
Sensations that defy ordinary description but lead to breakthrough insights
Archetypal experiences that connect us to something larger than ourselves
This "weirdness" is our birthright. It's the language of the unconscious, the wisdom of the body, the whispers of collective consciousness. When we allow ourselves to get weird in healing work, we:
Break free from rigid patterns that no longer serve us
Access parts of ourselves that logical thinking can't reach
Tap into ancient wisdom stored in our cells
Create new neural pathways through unexpected experiences
Connect with the collective unconscious in profound ways
The Medicine Comes From Within
What continually humbles me in this work is that I am not the source of healing for my clients. I am a witness, a mirror, a space-holder - but the medicine always comes from within them.
When someone reports a strange impulse to move their shoulders in a particular way, or describes an image that seems completely disconnected from their presenting issue, or feels a sound wanting to emerge that feels "ridiculous" - these are not distractions from healing. These are the healing itself emerging in its own unique language.
My role is to listen for these cues, to reflect them back, to create a space where what needs to emerge can do so safely. But the wisdom, the knowing, the healing direction - this comes from within each person. We simply need to dig beneath the stories to find it.
Trusting What Emerges
There is profound trust required in this work - trust that the "weird" sensations, movements, sounds, and images that want to emerge are not random noise but precisely the medicine needed. Trust that the body knows the way home, if only we can create the conditions for it to speak.
The edge of transformation is always weird. It has to be – because if it felt familiar, it wouldn't be transformation at all. That uncomfortable feeling of "this is different" is often the first signal that we're actually changing something.
When the body starts moving in ways we didn't plan, when an image appears that seems to make no sense, when words emerge that feel ancient and not quite our own – we're not doing it wrong. We're doing it weird. And weird is exactly where we need to be.
Embracing the Weird
Here's to the weird ones – the healers, the explorers, the ones willing to step off the mapped territory of the mind and into the wild unknowns of the body's wisdom. May we always stay a little bit weird, because that's where transformation lives.
Remember: Weird isn't wrong. Weird is wyrd. Weird is wisdom. Weird is the way.
What about you? Have you ever had a "weird" physical sensation, image, or impulse that turned out to contain important wisdom? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below.