Reclaiming Your Story
An 8-Week Self-Compassion Program for Coming Home to Yourself
Founding Cohort · March 23 – May 14, 2026
A guided journey using creative self-expression to reclaim the parts of yourself you've abandoned and learn to show up whole again.
“Somewhere along the way, you learned to abandon parts of yourself.
Maybe to be loved. Maybe to be successful. Maybe just to survive.
This course is about reclaiming what you left behind.”
You know something needs to shift.
Maybe you woke up one day and realized you don't recognize yourself anymore.
You've been so busy being what everyone needed you to be- the high achiever, the caregiver, the strong one, the reliable one- that you forgot who you actually are.
Maybe you're navigating a major transition, divorce, career change, loss, or a new life chapter, and you need more than good intentions to process what you're feeling.
You need structure, guidance, and permission to be honest without self-judgment.
Maybe you already journal but find yourself stuck at the surface, performing even in your own private pages. Or maybe reflection feels foreign to you, but something tells you there's healing in slowing down enough to witness your own story.
Here's what you need to know:
Creative self-expression, like journaling, reflection, audio notes, art, or whatever medium works for you, can be a powerful path back to yourself. Not because you need to become a "writer" or a "creative," but because witnessing your own story with compassion changes everything.
You're here because something in you knows it's time to stop abandoning yourself and start coming home.
What This Course is…
A space designed for high-achieving Black and brown professionals and anyone else who's been carrying patterns of self-abandonment and is ready to reclaim the parts they left behind.
It is a space for processing major life transitions (divorce, career change, loss, identity shifts), navigating burnout, overwhelm, or the sense that you've lost yourself.
This is a self-compassion journey that uses creative self-expression as the pathway back to yourself.
A community practice to help you build a sustainable self-reflection practice (or deepening one you already have) and better understand the patterns that keep showing up in your relationships or your work.
This is a course for people who don't identify as "creative" but want to discover new ways to heal, grow, and take care of themselves that aren’t rooted in overthinking and analysis.
And a place for writers and creatives looking for meaningful support as they work to be more embodied in their work.
And here’s what it is NOT…
This is not a workshop on writing technique or creative output.
It is not a place to optimize your productivity and keep hustling.
It is not for you if you are not ready to reclaim yourself and your life with honesty and courage.
What You'll Learn
Self-Honesty Without Self-Harm
How to be truthful with yourself about your patterns, your wounds, your story, without tipping into self-criticism or self-punishment. Awareness doesn't have to mean self-flagellation.
Devotion Over Discipline
How to build a sustainable practice from internal commitment (devotion) rather than external obligation (discipline). You'll learn to come back to yourself with care, not force.
Collective Care as Essential
You don't heal alone. We'll explore how to build circles of support and why community is part of the practice, not optional.
Unpacking What’s Been Hidden
When did you learn that being fully yourself wasn’t ok? What parts of yourself did you exile to be loved, accepted, successful, or safe? We'll map the timeline of your self-abandonment with tenderness.
Witnessing vs. Wallowing
The difference between holding your story with compassion (witnessing) and circling in shame (wallowing). You'll learn how to go deep without getting stuck.
Embodied Presence
How to stay with yourself in your body and your life. How to reclaim desire. How to live your story, not just write it.
Key questions we'll explore:
Where in my life do I feel most disconnected from myself?
How has self-abandonment served to protect me or create external success?
What has it cost me to leave parts of me behind?
What am I devoted to and why? How do I live out my values?
What lights me up and makes my life, work, and relationships feel fulfilling?
How can I shift my life to align with who I am and what I truly want?
“Working with Esther has been a life-affirming financial investment that has allowed me to truly elevate my well-being.”
The Journey
8 Weeks, 4 Live Sessions + Closing Ritual
This course is designed with integration in mind. We meet live every other week (4 teaching sessions + 1 closing ritual over 8 weeks), with guided practices and prompts for the weeks in between.
Because healing happens in the pauses, not just the doing.
March 23 – May 14
Live Teaching Sessions are 90 minutes each, every other Thursday at 7 pm ET. Alternating weeks are for integration, and you will get guided prompts and practices to do on your own. A private WhatsApp chat will be available for sharing progress and building community.
Live Session Schedule:
Week 1 - March 26: Permission to Feel - The Courage to Be Honest
Week 3 - April 16: Witnessing Your Story - Naming What You've Carried
Week 5 - April 30: Rewriting the Narrative - From Discipline to Devotion
Week 7 - May 7: Living Whole - Community, Presence, and Sustaining Practice
Week 8 - May 14: Final reflection, completion, and honoring the journey
All live sessions meet via Zoom and are recorded for your access during the program. Recordings are available for 2 weeks after the session date. All participants are encouraged to join live because that’s where the real magic happens.
What's Included
This isn't another generic online course. Here's what you get when you join Reclaiming Your Story"…
✓ 4 live teaching sessions (90 minutes each) via Zoom
✓ Closing ritual & reflection circle (45 minutes) to honor completion
✓ Guided prompts and practices for integration weeks
✓ Frameworks and tools you can use long after the course ends
✓ Private community space for sharing, processing, and support
✓ Recordings of all live sessions (in case you miss one)
✓ Multiple pathways for expression (journaling, audio reflection, art, collage, whatever works for you)
✓ Bonus content and opportunities for personalized support; register before February 21 for advance access to VIP coaching and more
Why This Course Stands Apart
✓ Small cohort intimacy — Limited to 15 participants maximum for genuine connection and depth (not a massive webinar)
✓ Led by a Black woman therapist with 23 years of clinical expertise — Culturally attuned, clinically informed, strategically delivered
✓ Integration weeks built in — Healing needs space to unfold, not just content to consume
✓ Multiple creative pathways — Journaling, audio notes, art, collage, movement—not just writing
✓ Grounded in proven frameworks — Self-compassion as salve, devotion over discipline, collective care as essential
✓ Community that continues — Connection beyond the 8 weeks through shared practices and ongoing support
This is the framework that made my own reclamation possible. And it's rooted in the same culturally attuned care I bring to Compassion Collective retreats - now available in a format that's tailored to a broader audience with busy schedules.
Who This Course is Designed For
✓ High-achievers who've abandoned parts of themselves to be successful, loved, or acceptable and are ready to reclaim what was lost
✓ Anyone navigating a major life transition, like divorce, career change/loss, heartbreak, identity shifts, and needing space to process
✓ People experiencing burnout or overwhelm who sense the problem isn't just workload but a deeper pattern of self-abandonment
✓ Those seeking a sustainable self-compassion practice, whether you journal already and want to go deeper, or you're starting from scratch and need structure and guidance
✓ Black and brown professionals navigating the burden of brilliance, ready to reclaim authority over their own narrative
✓ Reflective practitioners (therapists, coaches, educators, healers) doing your own inner work alongside the work you do with others
✓ Writers and creatives working with emotionally honest material wanting frameworks for accessing vulnerability without self-destruction
Founding Cohort Pricing
You’re helping bring this work into the world. Founding Cohort members receive special pricing to honor your early commitment, and if you register before February 22, 2026, you’ll get advance access to bonus features.
The Investment
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$299
Secure your spot with a $75 deposit; balance due March 1
Pay in full and save $50 - only $249
Get advance access to bonus content and special add-on features
Valid until Feb 21
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$299
Opens Feb 22 for public launch
Pay in full (checkout offers Klarna/Afterpay options)
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$499
Fall 2026 Cohort
Pay in full (checkout offers Klarna/Afterpay options)
Early Access Ends Feb 21
Why This Course Exists
I'm in the process of writing a book about heartbreak, self-abandonment, and what it takes to come home to yourself.
The work of excavating my own story required me to face every way I'd learned to make myself smaller, more acceptable, less threatening. It required self-compassion, devotion, community, and self-trust. It was not and still is not an easy journey, but it is one that has been deeply transformative and healing. I developed my own practices and structure for the process of reclaiming myself.
And along the way, I was reminded that I'm not alone in this. What I experience is a universal human journey that so many other people must face.
So many of us, especially high-achieving Black and Brown professionals, especially people who've learned to be everything for everyone else, carry patterns of self-abandonment we learned in chapters of our lives that we have long forgotten about. We've spent lifetimes learning which parts of ourselves are acceptable and which need to be hidden.
This course is the framework I wish I'd had sooner. It's an introduction to the practices that made my own reclamation possible.
And now I'm offering it to you, because you deserve to come home to yourself. And because that work, the tender, necessary work of reclaiming what you've lost, requires more than good intentions.
It requires practice, structure, and community…
that's what Reclaiming Your Story offers you.
Meet Your Guide
Esther Boykin is a cultural strategist, speaker, and wellness thought leader whose work explores self-abandonment, self-compassion, and what it means to reclaim the parts of ourselves we've left behind.
Drawing from 23 years of clinical experience as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her teaching. She's currently writing How's Your Heart?, a book that explores these same themes through her own story of marriage, loss, and lifelong patterns of self-abandonment.
Esther is the founder of the Compassion Collective, a wellness community for high-achieving Black women, and a meditation teacher with a growing presence on Insight Timer.
Her signature frameworks—self-compassion over self-care, devotion over discipline, and collective care as resistance—center the experiences of Black women while offering universal pathways to healing.
My Promise to You
Join us for Week 1. If after the first live session, this isn't the right fit, I'll refund your investment in full—no questions asked.
I'm that confident this practice will meet you exactly where you are.
Reclaiming Your Story is offered through Esther B. Consulting and draws from the frameworks cultivated at Compassion Collective, an experiential wellness company rooted in culturally attuned care for high-achieving Black women.
While this program is open to all (regardless of gender, race, or background), it is grounded in practices that honor the specific experiences of Black professionals and other historically marginalized communities.
You'll find a space here that sees you fully and holds space for the complexity of your story.
Ready to Reclaim Your Story?
Limited to 15 participants
Frequently Asked Questions
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Absolutely. This course offers multiple pathways for self-expression: journaling, audio/video notes, art, collage, movement, or any combination. The goal is honest self-reflection and compassionate witnessing—not perfect prose. You're invited to find your own way in.
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Yes. Many regular journalers find they've been staying at the surface or performing even in private pages. This course teaches you how to go deeper with self-compassion, witness without wallowing, and build sustainable practices beyond the page.
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No. Private practice is encouraged. You're invited to share what feels right in our community space, but nothing is required. This is about your relationship with yourself first.
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No. This is a self-compassion practice using creative self-expression and a group coaching model as the pathway back home to yourself. It's clinically informed (drawing from my 23 years of clinical expertise), but it is not therapy. It can be an excellent complement to therapy or help you decide if therapy might be a good next step.
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No problem. Send an email via our contact form and I will personally respond to you.
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90 minutes for each live session (4 total)
45 minutes for closing ritual on May 14
Self-paced integration work during off-weeks (as much or as little as serves you, I recommend at least 90 minutes)
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All live sessions are recorded and available for your access until May 31. Integration weeks are also built in specifically to give you space to catch up and process at your own pace. Attendance at all live sessions is strongly encouraged to get the most value out of the process.
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That's what the 1:1 Coaching Upgrade is for—two 45-minute individual sessions where you can explore your specific patterns and get personalized guidance. Limited to 5 spots.
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The next cohort is planned for early Fall 2026 at $499. This Founding Cohort is your chance to join at the lowest price and help shape this work.
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Yes. Join us for Week 1. If after the first live session, this isn't the right fit, I'll refund your investment in full, no questions asked.
