THAT
TEENAGE
FEELING
reclaiming your wild heart
an 8-week soul retrieval ritual for midlife
with Sarah Kowalski
“Maybe midlife is just becoming who you were at 15 again, but loving yourself this time”
Oh my god you were so tender and bold, then. The world was so big and crushes were your entire life and you were an open wound of longing and a fragile cage of self doubt and a fertile meadow of righteous hope and it all felt so important.
. . .
There was this pounding instinct that any given Saturday night might radically change your life. You bought a new faux fur jacket at the Salvation army or that tall boy who was obsessed with the Smiths offered to give you a ride home or your best friend called you up and asked you to come over and dye her hair with Manic Panic and it was gorgeous and dreadful and you were really in it, this project of figuring out who you were, what mattered to you, what you loved, what you hated.
You were trying new things and taking risks and getting your heart broken and going right back out to risk it again.
. . .
Or maybe you weren’t.
Maybe you were lonely and isolated, misunderstood. Maybe you were quiet and private and everything was contained and you couldn’t let it out. Maybe you were wise beyond your years and living entirely in books and movies that helped you believe another world was possible, it just wasn’t happening yet where you were living. Maybe you never really got to rebel. You grew up too fast because you had to.
. . .
Either way, some parts of you got buried. Maybe you lost threads of yourself to bullying, illness, death, sexual assault, maybe there was shame and confusion, maybe you locked up those years for good reason and aren’t sure you even want to look back.
. . .
But maybe you do. Because there was also something so wild and alive in you then and you need it more than ever given where the world is now.
You need that fucking energy. The bloodthrum, the passion, the curiosity, the excitement. The playfulness, the way you felt every nerve ending alert.
. . .
THAT TEENAGE FEELING is about reclaiming all the life force, but this time, without the shame.
This time, we go get ourselves with love.
Why look back?
Because healing is a form of time travel. You know how at the end of Back to the Future Marty comes back to 1985 and his dad’s a successful author and his parents have a totally different relationship and Biff’s out back waxing the truck?
What if teenage you had been fiercely loved, protected, believed in, and understood?
What if you’d been surrounded by people who were
telling you exactly how important you are,
holding you in your grief, and
reminding you that you are never alone in any of it?
Who would you have become?
It’s not too late. You’re always becoming.
Maybe you need this…
if you’re parenting a teenager of your own right now,
or renegotiating your identity in the midst of personal change (career collapse, a big move, divorce, loss of a loved one, your own health challenges)
or feeling overwhelmed by the pain of the world and sense that feeling whole and energized in yourself is not selfish or separate from your resistance work on behalf of the collective.
THAT TEENAGE FEELING
will give you a burst of
CORE SELF REBELLIOUS LIFE FORCE
to power you up.
So you can infuse your relationships, your work, and your resistance with
more play, more joy, more YOU.
THAT TEENAGE FEELING
reclaiming your wild heart
an 8-week soul retrieval ritual for midlife
Week One: What is Identity?
Seeing our past selves with new eyes can rewrite our future.
In week one, we’ll begin to build a deeply supportive framework for how to meet ourselves and one another with more love as we time travel back to our inner teenagers. We’ll start building trust, gathering tools, and setting intentions for our transformations.
. . .
Week Two: This Precious Human Body
Reflecting on puberty, body image, fashion, and feelings.
How we thought about our bodies and our self-image as teenagers affected our whole trajectory. In week two, we’ll go back and extricate the shame and befriend our precious bodies.
. . .
Week Three: The Beloveds
BFFs, crushes, breakups, and belonging.
The people we loved — and longed for — and lost — as teenagers shaped us in profound ways. The relationship patterns and wounds that formed in teenage years kinda keep playing out, until we consciously choose to understand what they were teaching us.
. . .
Week Four: Home & Family
Parents, siblings, home - the water you swam in.
The dynamics of family life shaped our personalities. Were you the oldest, the “good kid”? The youngest, the rebel? What were the hidden rules, the energetic frequency of life? In week four, we’ll go wrap love around ourselves and our family system.
. . .
Week Five: The Secrets
Who you were in the dark, in the night, in the journal
Teenagers start keeping secrets. There were things you didn’t tell your parents. There were even things you didn’t tell your best friend. Those secrets matter. And speaking them aloud, even just to yourself, now, can heal decades of shame.
. . .
Week Six: The Path Appears
What lit you up, sparked your passion, made you alive
That one teacher who really saw you. That weekend trip that unlocked a whole new interest. The zine you started or the band you were in or the activism you poured yourself into. In week six, we’ll remember who we wanted to be, how we wanted to change the world, and how much that passion matters.
. . .
Week Seven: Soul Threads
Weaving in what got lost, powering up your present life
Here’s where things really start clicking into place. You’re seeing more now, about the true nature of your light, your gifts, and the places in your current life where stories are getting rewritten. In week seven, we’ll prepare to intentionally quantum jump into new timelines together, where we can live with our wildest hearts wide open.
. . .
Week Eight: Graduation
Integrating and celebrating our journey together
In this ritual closing ceremony, as we honor our time together, we will each bring our inner teenager fully into a circle of acceptance and belonging, reclaim our wholeness, and celebrate one another as we go forth into this wild and heartbreakingly precious thing called life.
when & where
Friday afternoons
12 - 2 pm eastern
(block your work calendar for a secret “meeting” every week & get in here with us!)
Live via Zoom
Every Friday*
April 17 - June 5, 2026
* Recordings will be sent out afterwards if you need to miss a week, but a VITAL part of this group is getting to witness one another in real time. Please consider whether you can commit to showing up live for most if not all sessions.
investment
$325 for the 8-week series
early registration discount - $295 through April 3rd
No one turned away for lack of funds. If you feel a strong yes to this and finances are a barrier, please inquire about payment plans and scholarships. We’ll make it work.
About Your Facilitator
Hi, I’m Sarah.
I’ve been fairly obsessed with teenagers for a lot of my life.
Like, I obsessively saved all my Sassy magazines, and wrote an undergrad thesis on the history of teen magazines, and went and got an MFA in fiction writing where most of my stories were about teenagers. I will admit to having rewatched Degrassi Junior High and My So-Called Life and Freaks and Geeks and Buffy the Vampire Slayer more times than a person probably should, and for years I kept listening to Tori Amos and REM and old Sleater-Kinney albums because there was something there, that for a long time I couldn’t quite figure out.
I’ve been through an intense process of my own soul retrieval and trauma healing, and come to a depth of love and understanding for my own inner teenager that has had profound, life-altering affects on growing me up and making me more available to my wildest life — a journey I’m very much still and always on.
I have a deep and genuine love for accompanying others in this work as a facilitator. There is a magic that happens in groups when we intentionally witness one another with love and faith in healing.
My background is diverse, and draws from yoga and Buddhist philosophy, writing and art (including study in Lynda Barry’s “Writing the Unthinkable” method), Radical Dharma and somatic trauma study (including years in Hakomi therapy), shadow work and inner child healing, and Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects. I aim to create safe, intentional, and radically loving experiences in which we can meet one another beyond the masks, at the level of the soul.
(I will totally want to see pictures of you when you were a teenager, btw.)
