Amoxtli: Nahuatl word meaning "book" or "paper." Refers to the sacred codices and manuscripts that preserved indigenous knowledge, healing practices, and spiritual wisdom in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Ancestral Wisdom: The knowledge, practices, and spiritual insights passed down through generations. This includes traditional healing methods, cultural rituals, and ways of understanding the world that connect us to our lineage and heritage.

Authentic Self: Your truest expression—the person you are when societal expectations, trauma responses, and inherited shame are cleared away. The self that exists before conditioning told you who you should be.

Body Wisdom: The intelligence that lives in your physical form—your body's ability to know what it needs, sense danger, feel joy, and guide you toward healing. This includes gut instincts, physical sensations, and somatic memories.

Bruja: Spanish term meaning "witch"—a spiritual practitioner who works with natural elements, ancestral wisdom, and intuitive healing. Reclaimed as a term of empowerment for those who practice earth-based spirituality and folk healing traditions.

Coaching (vs. Therapy): A collaborative process focused on personal growth, goal-setting, and spiritual development. Unlike therapy, coaching doesn't diagnose or treat mental health conditions, but supports you in moving forward with clarity and intention.

Cultural Reclamation: The process of reconnecting with and honoring your cultural heritage, especially after disconnection caused by colonization, assimilation, or generational trauma. This includes learning ancestral practices, languages, and ways of being.

Decolonize: The active process of dismantling colonial systems and reclaiming indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, and ways of being. In healing contexts, involves moving away from purely Western models toward approaches that honor ancestral wisdom, cultural identity, and holistic integration of mind, body, and spirit.

Embodied/Embodiment: Living fully in your body with awareness and presence. Being embodied means feeling your physical sensations, trusting your body's signals, and integrating your mind, body, and spirit rather than living primarily "in your head."

Generational/Ancestral Trauma: Emotional and psychological wounds passed down through family lines, often from experiences of oppression, violence, or displacement. These traumas can affect how we see ourselves and move through the world, even when we didn't directly experience them.

Grimoire: A book of magical knowledge, spells, and spiritual practices. In contemporary healing contexts, serves as a personal collection of rituals, wisdom, and practices that support spiritual development and magical work.

Holistic Healing: An approach that addresses the whole person—mind, body, spirit, and community connections—rather than treating symptoms in isolation. Recognizes that true healing happens on multiple levels simultaneously.

Inner Child: The emotional, creative, and authentic part of yourself that holds both childhood experiences and natural capacity for joy and intuitive knowing. Inner child work involves reconnecting with wounded or neglected aspects of yourself, offering them healing, and integrating their wisdom into adult life.

Integration: The process of weaving together different aspects of healing, identity, or spiritual practice into a cohesive whole. This might mean integrating your cultural identity with your professional life, or combining therapy insights with spiritual practices.

Internalized Oppression: When we unconsciously adopt negative beliefs about our own identity groups (race, gender, sexuality, culture) that we've absorbed from oppressive systems. These beliefs can create shame, self-doubt, and disconnection from our authentic selves.

Nervous System Regulation: Practices that help your nervous system return to a state of calm and safety after stress or trauma activation. This includes breathing techniques, movement, and grounding exercises that signal safety to your body.

Ofrenda: A sacred altar or offering space, often used in Mexican and Indigenous traditions to honor ancestors, deities, or spiritual guidance. Can include photos, flowers, candles, food, and other meaningful objects.

Ritual: Intentional, symbolic actions that mark transitions, honor experiences, or connect us with the sacred. Rituals can be cultural traditions, personal practices, or ceremony that helps us process and transform.

Shadow Work: The practice of exploring and integrating the hidden, rejected, or unconscious parts of yourself. Your "shadow" includes aspects you've been taught to hide—anger, sexuality, cultural identity, or parts that don't fit societal expectations.

Somatic/Somatics: Healing approaches that work through the body and nervous system. Somatic practices use breath, movement, touch, and body awareness to release stored trauma and develop resilience.

Sombra y Luz: Spanish for "Shadow and Light"—the understanding that healing requires embracing both the difficult and beautiful parts of yourself and your story. All aspects of your experience have wisdom and deserve acknowledgment.

Spiritual Bypassing: Using spiritual practices or beliefs to avoid dealing with emotional pain, trauma, or difficult realities. Examples include forcing positivity, dismissing anger as "unspiritual," or using meditation to escape rather than heal.

Trauma-Informed: An approach that recognizes how trauma affects the mind, body, and spirit, and creates safety, choice, and empowerment in healing spaces. Trauma-informed practice actively works to avoid re-traumatization and honors each person's pace and needs.

Witnessing: The practice of seeing and acknowledging someone's truth, pain, or experience without trying to fix, change, or judge it. Sacred witnessing creates space for healing through being truly seen and accepted.