How to Make Healing & Well-Being Last
This week’s article is inspired by a special episode of STOP & FLOW with K.O., featuring Meg Tobin, LMHC, psychotherapist and founder of Breathing Space Studio. Every interview on the show ends with an intuitive oracle card reading — and this time, something synchronistic happened.
At the close of our conversation, I misread the card title as Zebra — a word that had already surfaced multiple times that week, symbolizing rare beauty and unexpected healing. The card’s true name was Reborn, but the “Zebra” moment felt divinely timed, reminding us how transformation often shows up in surprising ways.
Read on to hear how this theme unfolded in our conversation — from the sacred landscapes of Ireland, to ketamine-assisted therapy, to the real keys to creating and sustaining well-being at work and beyond.
Ancient Lands, Modern Medicine: Creating Space for Profound Transformation
When ancient wisdom meets modern therapeutic approaches, profound transformation becomes possible. This week's enlightening conversation with Meg Tobin explores how retreats in sacred landscapes and innovative healing modalities are creating pathways for deep ancestral healing and personal rebirth.
The Call of Ancient Lands
What happens when we follow the dreams that have been calling us for decades? For Meg, a lifelong connection to Ireland became the foundation for transformative group retreats after the loss of a dear friend. "It really pushed me when she died to follow my dream," Meg shares, describing how she took her successful New York-based retreat work to the sacred landscapes of Sligo, Ireland.
The power of place cannot be underestimated. Sligo, with the highest concentration of sacred sites in Ireland and direct ley lines to Giza, Egypt, provides an energetic backdrop that participants describe as palpably transformative. Through nature mandalas, Hawthorn ceremonies, and deep shadow work, Meg’s retreat created a container where profound healing becomes possible.
The Courage of Complete Vulnerability
One of the most remarkable aspects of these retreats is how quickly participants discovered access to what they were each seeking. "The very first night, everyone expressed their deepest emotions," Meg reflects, noting how carefully curated safety allows people to release what no longer serves them, particularly ancestral burdens.
As Meg beautifully explains, much of the work involves "releasing and letting our ancestors take back with love what is theirs and no longer ours to carry." This intergenerational healing creates ripples that extend both backward and forward through time, creating new possibilities for future generations.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Modern Key to Ancient Wisdom
Alongside her retreat work, Meg offers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions that combine scientific understanding with sacred ritual. Unlike traditional psychiatric medications that work on dopamine and serotonin, ketamine affects the glutamate system — addressing mental health conditions by reactivating pathways that have atrophied and increasing dendrite growth.
"I think of the ketamine as about 25% of the entire picture," Meg explains. "The medicine is the key that opens the door. Maybe it opens the door. Maybe it just unlocks the door. Maybe it opens the door wide open. We have to walk through."
The Sacred Container
What makes Meg's approach particularly powerful is her integration of ceremonial practices with modern medicine. Drawing from her extensive training in plant medicine traditions, she brings "the same reverence, ritual, and ceremony" to ketamine sessions, creating sacred containers for transformation.
This reverence extends to acknowledging the scientists and medical professionals who discovered ketamine's therapeutic potential. "Every time I am in the presence of someone taking ketamine, I always do a ritual around thanking the brains that made this connection," she shares.
Integration: Where Transformation Takes Root
The medicine experience is just the beginning. Through integration sessions utilizing brain spotting, EFT tapping, internal family systems, somatic work, and creative expression, Meg helps clients translate insights into lasting change.
She encourages simple pattern disruptions that take advantage of increased brain plasticity: "Driving to work a different way, using your non-dominant hand, putting the cream in before the sugar... change it up because what that does is it tells the brain, change isn't so bad."
The Zebra Message: Seeing the Extraordinary
Our conversation concluded with an oracle card reading that perfectly encapsulated the journey we had explored together. The card’s actual title was Reborn, carrying the message: "Out of the ashes you shall rise and the tears you once shed will pave the way for all that is light and free."
But it was the "Zebra" misreading that invited us into a deeper metaphor. In the world of medicine, "zebra cases" refer to rare conditions doctors are trained to recognize. In our conversation, it became a reflection of how younger generations are stepping into spaces of healing, courageously facing ancestral wounds at ages many of us never imagined possible. As Meg noted about her 18-year-old daughter participating in this work: "Could you have seen yourself in a circle like that at 18? No way."
🌿 What It Really Takes to Make Healing & Well-Being Last
One of the most important insights from this conversation is that healing doesn't end when the retreat is over, when the therapy session closes, or when the workshop concludes.
Lasting well-being is built in the integration — in how we bring the experience forward into daily life, work, and relationships.
Whether you’re leading a team, supporting recovery, or showing up for your own wellness journey, here’s what truly makes healing sustainable:
✅ Safe, intentional spaces to pause and reconnect — because real change starts when we allow ourselves to stop, breathe, and notice what’s here.
✅ Simple, embodied practices — breathing, movement, mindfulness, emotional regulation — that help you anchor well-being in your nervous system, not just your mind.
✅ The courage to release what’s not yours to carry — ancestral burdens, workplace pressure, outdated narratives.
✅ Small, ongoing shifts in how you move through the day — because real transformation is built one intentional moment at a time.
✅ Community, leadership, and systems that support well-being — whether that’s in your workplace, your recovery circle, or your own internal practice.
This is the heart of the STOP & FLOW process — and why we focus not only on the breakthrough experience but on what happens next.
When we practice creating space, noticing what’s present, and making mindful shifts, healing isn’t just a one-time event. It becomes a way of living, leading, and working.
Connect with Meg Tobin and Breathing Space Psychotherapy
📱 Follow on Instagram and Facebook: @breathingspacepsychotherapy
🌐 Visit: www.breathingspacepsychotherapy.com
🗞️ Subscribe to Meg's Tuesday newsletter for mental health tips and retreat updates
📅 Upcoming events: Ireland Retreat (Fall 2025) and Upstate NY Summer 2025 Mandala Training
🌿 Insight & Invitation: Where STOP & FLOW Meets This Conversation
The wisdom Meg shares in this episode reflects what we practice every day in the STOP & FLOW community:
Healing isn’t just something that happens to us — it’s something we can learn to create, carry, and sustain.
Whether you’re a leader, facilitator, or simply someone trying to show up well in your own life, the question isn’t if healing is possible.
The question is: Are you creating the conditions for it to last?
If you’re ready to bring lasting well-being to yourself, your team, or your organization, we invite you to explore how STOP & FLOW can support you.
✨ Learn how STOP & FLOW can help you or your team:
🔹 Book a free discovery call → www.enjoychi.com/events
🔹 Explore upcoming programs & trainings → www.enjoychi.com
And if you’re called to deepen your personal healing journey, Meg Tobin’s work at Breathing Space Psychotherapy offers trauma-informed retreats and therapeutic services to support profound, sustainable transformation.
The truth is — healing isn’t just about the big moment.
It’s about how you carry your light forward.
And we’re here to help you do exactly that.