Navigating Relational Wellness with a Holistic Approach – Interview With Charon Normand-Widmer
Charon Normand Widmer LMSW is a licensed psychotherapist, somatic sex therapist and trauma specialist. She specializes in working with individuals and couples seeking support navigating erotic, gender and sexual identity challenges; queer and alternative relationships, and trauma, utilizing a strengths-based, psychodynamic, compassion-based approach. Many seek therapy to feel better; working with Charon entails learning how to get better at feeling.
Charon Normand-Widmer, Sex Therapist, Relationship Coach
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
My name is Charon, and I am a person who wears many hats-mom, partner, therapist, artist. I am passionate about learning. I am typically reading 3-4 books at once and enroll in a few classes at one time to satiate my need for mental stimulation. One of my passionate topics of study is sexuality. I came from a background where there was much shame around sexuality; later in my life, when I needed information around being sexual after a medical procedure, I found that accessing sexual wellcare was sparse and hard to locate. I decided that I wanted to be a sexuality educator. This folded nicely into my educational path at the time, which was completing my master's degree in clinical social work. I took education in sexuality as well as in somatic trauma processing, and have combined these in to the style of sex therapy and relationship coaching I do currently.
What inspired you to create your business, and what is the primary goal or mission behind this?
This is not my first foray into entrepreneurship. I had a thriving massage business that I would have continued if not for the fact that doing massage is hard on an aging body, even though I was training for it physically. My pivot into mental wellness meant that I would at one point become an entrepreneur, and here I am, one year out of the gate! I do well with handlers so starting my own business means that I get to navigate my day in a way that flows for me: time to read, take breaks, rejuvenate, walk my dog Goji.
The mission of my business is to assist people to uncover their relational wellness journey, supplying them with tools to navigate their own feelings and those of others who are in a relationship with them.. To raise the emotional intelligence of those wish to sharpen their skillset in this area of knowledge that is not taught in school. In essence: to get better at feeling.
Who is your target audience, and how do you engage with your community? Are there specific challenges or needs you aim to address within your audience?
My specific audience, are those who have sex, solo or partnered, those who have trauma, and those in relationships. I engage with these subsets mostly on social media and in some group forums that I run.
How does your business embody a holistic perspective, and what kind of benefits do you aim to provide to your visitors?
Holism includes not just the presenting symptoms but also other symptoms in any or all body systems. When my clients fill out paperwork for us to begin work, I have them answer questions about their eating and sleeping patterns, amount of exercise, physical diagnoses and the like. All data is important to consider when addressing mental health because mental wellness is a result of total body wellness. I offer to work in concert with their primary care or prescribing physicians. I also encourage and offer nutritional advice and referrals to other specialists if this seems appropriate.
Can you share a bit about your personal journey or background that led you to focus on holistic living? How has your own experience influenced the content and offerings on your business?
My ascent into holism resulted from having mysterious ailments in early adulthood that biomedicine could not and did not address. For example, I have latent vertigo that went untreated for years because nothing untoward could be found on scans. It was chiropractic that finally brought some relief. This brought me to massage as a healing modality with subsequent studies in herbal medicine, nutrition and energy work. I also took 200 hours of yoga teacher training. Studying these modalities solidified within me an understanding of the totality of addressing all body symptoms in the quest for wellness, not just treating the symptoms.
What are your future plans or aspirations of your business? Are there upcoming features, services, or content that your audience can look forward to?
I am looking to move more into group containers, live teaching modules, as well as recorded programs that people can work through on their own timing. I am of the mind that learning is best done when one can relax and go at a pace that suits them.
