Inspiring Conversations with Katrina dela Cruz of Fire Moon Medicines

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katrina dela Cruz.

Hi Katrina, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Many of my social work mentors have said to me that our work is “a calling,” and the evolution of my practice is as much that now as pursuing my studies in Social Work was 12 years ago. After graduate school, I worked in hospitals for over a decade, with almost every possible kind of patient, from the beginning of life to the end of life, and many things in between. Along the way, necessitated by stress, as well as by the need for self-fulfillment, I was building my own wellness toolbox and deepening in my spiritual connection by seeking opportunities that lit me up – things like yoga teacher training, energy healing attunements, herbalism courses, and sound healing certifications. I was quick to realize that the things that were helpful to me in my own healing journey could be helpful to my patients, but the medical system we employ in the U.S. is far behind many other established health modalities when considering the Mind-Body-Spirit connection. In 2020, I started Fire Moon Medicines to provide services which integrate Western psychology with Eastern, Ancestral, and Indigenous healing traditions. I offer psychotherapy, energetic guidance, and other sessions to assist in your growth which are truly holistic and reflect the intersection between Science and Spirituality.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
As with many creative offerings, my greatest challenge (and opportunity for growth!) has been to turn a passion into a functioning contributor to livelihood. I am not a natural money-maker, but I love what I do, and I’m good at it. Learning how to market and promote so that I can allow a greater audience of those who resonate with me to find me has been a huge learning curve. If it wasn’t for Fire Moon Medicines, I’d probably be the owner of an extremely sparse Instagram page, the purpose of which is only to see pictures of my loved ones and what they’re up to! Yet, because of Fire Moon Medicines, I know how to build a website, cut together a video, and so many other things that I didn’t know how to do and was afraid of doing.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Fire Moon Medicines?
I’m proud to offer individual psychotherapy and coaching sessions for those seeking to tease out negative, often subconscious, behaviors and thought patterns from their lives, instilling and solidifying positive coping mechanisms and lifestyle changes in their place. I specialize in grief and loss, particularly death and dying, and the emotional and spiritual work surrounding other significant transitions, rites of passage, and life cycles. This includes work around the end of life, pregnancy loss, traumatic birthing processes, and plant spirit medicine integration.

I also offer one-off, bespoke sessions, workshops, and ceremonies to groups and individuals, which can consist of any combination of my repertoire of services, including guided meditation, intuitive readings, and plant medicine consultation. My website and Instagram page are the best places to find out more about what healing arts I can collaborate with you to facilitate.

My practice operates on an honor system sliding scale, and I enjoy interacting with everyone with whom I work prior to beginning any session together.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Like many, I look up to some “big names” in my field- people who will likely never be my own personal practitioners and whom I may never even meet. It sounds very simple, but invest in a mentor whose work you know intimately and have benefited from. This is not to say that you should freeze reading Brene Brown (a fellow social worker) or Gabor Mate (also focused on the link between physical, mental, and perhaps emotional or spiritual health), for example. But my greatest teachers are those with whom I’ve actually sat with in session. If you are seeking to emulate work that you haven’t actually seen personally, in practice, seek closer to home. If you want to teach yoga, ask your favorite yoga teacher about their journey. If you are looking to hone your intuition, seek out workshops or classes from an intuitive guide whose style you admire and after experiencing readings from multiple other intuitive. Networking with someone whom you can actually offer tea to, pose the hard questions to, and receive very candid answers from, will go a very long way when it’s your turn.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.firemoonmedicines.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firemoonmedicines/