Wolf Medicine Magic: Healing Self and Others

This year, we’re celebrating Pride by acknowledging the LGBTQIA+ community’s long-standing history of breaking down barriers and lifting each other up. Throughout June, we’re featuring customers who embody the reality that resilience isn’t only about being persistent—it’s also about becoming stronger than before. From building community, to fueling creativity and encouraging activism, we’re honoring the LGBTQIA+ community as a continual source of strength, evolution, and inspiration.

Community and identity are key to the healing services offered by Regina Rocke through Wolf Medicine Magic. Through Ayurveda, yoga, and breathwork, Regina helps clients find healthy ways to navigate challenging emotions and experiences. We talked to Regina about finding a path and growing a following as a healer, and why continually doing self-work is integral to being able to show up fully for clients.

SQUARESPACE: How did you begin your career in healing, and how has it evolved over time?

REGINA ROCKE: My journey began in 2009 when I broke out in some of the worst eczema I’d ever experienced in my life. It was a burning, itching rash on my face and arms. I was miserable and very depressed. Something told me to improve my diet and lifestyle as a way to get rid of it, and that’s when I discovered Ayurveda. I was hooked. In 2013, I began researching schools to attend in order to learn more, and I graduated with a certification to be an Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor. 

Since then I’ve gotten a 500-hr yoga teaching certification and trained to be a Breathwork healer. I would say that the biggest evolution I’ve made in my journey is that my purpose as a teacher and healer is to encourage people to connect to their bodies and feelings. I encourage people to focus not on the situation, but their reaction to it. I encourage people to be willing to confront all aspects of themselves in order to grow and transform into the best version of themselves because this is active work that I myself engage in daily. 

SQSP: How does your lived experience inform the work you do?

RR: Every day is an opportunity for growth. Of course I am less aware and willing to participate some days, but overall, I am constantly looking to evolve, learn, heal, and share with others. This daily practice of willingness to observe results in profound growth that I share with those who come to me. I am not separate from the work I do. I am very much someone who practices what I preach.

SQSP: What role has your online presence played in starting and growing your business?

RR: Having an online presence is 100% related to the start of my business and its subsequent growth. It is very difficult to sustain yourself as a freelancer/sole proprietor in the 21st century without a website or social media presence. Word of mouth will never go out of style but having a website and active social media are key. I learned early on to cultivate an online community as a way to grow and that has held true ever since. I am just as authentic IRL as I am online, and people are drawn to that. I love to interact with my followers and maintain that sense of community

SQSP: As a small business owner, how have you responded during this time of great change?

RR: I’ve responded as I always have.  My constant willingness to investigate all aspects of myself—love, fear, shame, anger, rage, pain—has prepared me for moments such as this.  Some people are experiencing a great deal of pain right now and want healthy ways to cope, and that’s what I am here for. I have done a lot of work to heal my own darkness (although I, too, am not completely healed or holding all of the answers) and am therefore ready to show up for those seeking help and comfort. I am not here to tell people how they should heal, I am simply a light that shines on a path for them to take of their own free will. I can’t tell them what they need, but I can help them discover it.

SQSP: Squarespace is exploring the idea of ‘resilience as a revolution’ as it relates to pride. How does the idea of resilience factor into your definition of pride and your experience as part of the LGBTQIA+ community?

RR: Pride is all about resilience. Being an LGBTQIA+ person, or anyone from a marginalized community really, already puts you in a position of being labeled as “other” on a daily basis. 100% of where the community is at now is due to a long history of people who fought and often died for our rights. There is always more that needs to be done, but I know my ability to be out at work, with family, and with friends is all due to people who came before me. My biggest wish is for those in the trans community (especially BIPOC trans folks) to be able to live healthy, abundant lives where they are celebrated, loved, revered, uplifted and taken care of.