hI, I'm Michelle LONG, MA
founder of The practice
I’ve been studying and working with women for more than 20 years. I am here to be your sacred mirror and help you see your true self.
I am here for the woman standing at the edge of her own personal revolution.
For the woman who has been initiated by the trials of life and is desperately excited to meet her true self and stand in her full radiance.
I am here for the woman in midlife who has checked all the boxes, followed all the rules, and has woken up to the realization that this life, this way, is no longer serving her.
I am here to help women remember who they truly are and rise up out of the cage that we have collectively been raised in.
The Practice is my art. It is my medicine. It is my teacher. It is the fullest expression of all my wisdom and knowledge. It is a gift to all women, including my mother, my grandmother, and my daughter. It is my gift to you.
The Practice is my soul’s legacy and my offering to the world.
The Practice weaves together of all the experiences I have had as a woman.
The Practice is recognizing my mother in myself.
It's a tapestry of the moments that have colored my life. These include holding my mother’s hand as she passed away from breast cancer and not shrinking back, mothering my children without my mom in a patriarchal world, and building a village of sisters around me when I needed support.
It's having the courage to see the patterns that took her down, the self-sacrificing, the self-abandonment, the over-giving, and the belief that that she was not enough. It's seeing that these patterns were not just hers. They are mine too. They are part of my feminine lineage, and they go way back. They are ready to be healed.
The Practice is liberation. It allows us to be be reborn. Set free. Uninhibited. Uncaged. Wild Grace. The Practice is a choice to live fully.
The Practice is listening to my deep inner wisdom that calls me closer to myself.
It is listening to my body and feeling the scorching pain in my womb. It is my hysterectomy, the loss of my maiden youth, and the reverence I feel for this aging body that carries and holds so much.
It is standing at the bedside of my grandmother while she leaves this world and accepting my rise into matriarch of the family. It's leaning into my gift as a soul midwife and helping her transition. It's stepping into my true role as a healer and a medicine woman and letting others see my truth.
The Practice is my sacred calling to keep spiraling deeper into myself.
This is The Practice.
the practice is a reclamation of the feminine and our true selves
The Practice is turning my wounds into wisdom and allowing all my grief and pain to make me whole.
It's making hard decisions and being willing to disappoint others in order to honor my own needs. It is me choosing to close my business, relocate my family, and take time off to heal. It is slowing down so I could listen to myself.
the practice is becoming the leader of my own life.
the practice feels like grace. Like a homecoming. Like a slow dance with yourself.
It is a sigh of relief.
It is a path back to yourself.
It is love, compassion, and a death and a rebirth of your truth. It is a personal and collective revolution of the feminine soul. It is the healing that we need and that the world needs.
It is sitting in the fire with other women until the old patterns that keep us living small are burned away; until we see the reflection of our true selves in each other. It is re-mothering and co-mothering each other through our own personal revolution.
It is listening to our intuition and the callings in our hearts to live a different way. It is finding the courage to honor the call.
The Practice is accepting ourselves and rising into our fullest most beautiful expression.
It is healing our feminine lineage and writing a new story for women.
I am here to help you chart a new path forward and become the woman you are meant to be. I am calling women together to sit in sisterhood and have conversations that will change our lives forever.
THE PRACTICE WAS BORN FROM THE WISDOM GAINED FROM HEALING MY OWN WOUNDS, MY EXTENSIVE EDUCATION AND TRAINING, AND MY EXPERIENCE AS A BUSINESS OWNER.
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My Education and Professional Experience
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formal education:
I have a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Even at 18 years old I had a passion for understanding women. I majored in Women, Culture, and Development.
After college I went on to earn an MA in Holistic Health Education with an emphasis in life and wellness coaching. Since my mother's cancer diagnosis, I have wanted to understand health from a more natural perspective.
I have studied women's health, spirituality, and leadership.
spiritual training:
I have sat at the feet of amazing spiritual teachers, professors, yogis, and gurus. I started out as a Bikram yoga teacher, studying with Dharma Mittra, Jane Austin, and Mark Horner. I went on to form my own style of yoga that is rooted in the feminine. I have studied feminine spirituality and have been initiated into the 13-Moon Mystery school and priestess lineage. I am a lifelong seeker, always working with a mentor and teacher. Spirituality, to me, is learning to listen to my deepest truth and wisdom and to find the courage to honor what's real.
I've been studying yoga and spirituality for more than 20 years.
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business experience:
It was the manifestation of my Master's thesis, and a true integral healing center for women. We had services for the body, for the mind, for the heart, and for the part of us that yearns to connect and be supported. It was magical, transformative, and I am forever grateful to the women that walked through those doors. It's where The Practice was born, and where I had the honor of witnessing thousands of women on their own healing journeys, which deepened my understanding of who we are collectively.
I owned a women's healing center in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost a decade.
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experience leading women:
As a manager and a business owner, as a women's yoga teacher, as a support group facilitator, and as the leader of The Practice. I have led retreats around the country and taught feminine leadership trainings. I have now been leading trainings and circles online, and I offer a free weekly Sunday Service to women each week in our global community. Leading women in this way fills my heart. It is my gift and true purpose.
I've led and supported thousands of women over the last 20 years.
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I am Here
to live fully for my mother and to light a new path for my daughter.
I am here
to hold my light as high as I can to help other women live their truth.
“Can you disappoint another to be true to yourself? Can you bear the accusation of betrayal to not betray your own soul?”
— oriah Mountain dreamer
WORdS i LIVE BY
a couple more stories...
My Mom's Parting Gift
My mom is the reason we are meeting here now. This is the story of what she left for me.
Why I closed my business.
This is a story of how I made a drastic life decision to change and finally put my own needs first.
want to go deeper?
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The Practice Programs
We are now enrolling. The Practice® is an integration of feminine spirituality, mentorship, and sisterhood. In a circle of like-minded women you will dive into your truth and find the courage and clarity to lead the life that's calling you. We offer programs both online and in person in Portland, Oregon.
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