about
Favor Ellis, MA, CH, LMT #9207
she/her/kin
“Favor grew up wild eyed and wild deep on a small hill hidden in a forest. From the beginning, she practiced survival through story. She creates worlds, truthful and dark, peopled by the magical and small, the gorgeous and the grotesque. Small warm worlds that offer sanctuary from the loud fluorescent outside.”
When I was little girl, I was pigtail braids, scraped knees and dirty hands, always reading a book or writing stories. Sitting by the stream or nestled in the roots of the fallen Good Old Tree. Always asking the world for stories so I could make sense of my place in things. I fell in love with the stories I could hear when I really listened. I fell in love with the place right there, where wind meets skin, voice meets song, where tops of trees touch bottom of sky. Look up, look up. And when I got lost or scared or small, I learned to save myself with deep listening and touch and words. I listened hard and deep and I learned some of the ways my stories put roots in my flesh, grief heavy in my lungs, fear in my kidneys. That's how it started.
I can find my way around any forest or city, and walk eyesclosed along any water's edge without falling in.
I am afraid of heights but not depths or distances. I listen best with my hands and heart.
I think in metaphor and magic and minister to the tenderest parts.
I am an intuitive massage therapist,
bodyworker, and counselor,
a spell-casting wordwitch, a wildhearted queer,
an intersectional, intentional, & inclusive feminist,
a threshold doula,
a circle practitioner, a holder of heart-centered space,
an explorer of liminal spaces.
“
Favor is an expert believer.
She believes in people’s basic goodness; in their genuine kindness;
in their humor and intellect.
She believes, and models so gracefully, that feelings are meant to be felt, and cared for, no matter how big or strong or scary or old. ”
I hold a Master's degree in Transformative Language Arts, Imaginal Psychology, and Embodiment Studies. What this means is that I engage metaphor, dreams, and vulnerability, and am always exploring the ways we can live more soulful, connected, and embodied lives. I've spent the last twenty-five years holding space for, working with, and counseling homeless, runaway, and street-dependent young people, queers, trans & nonbinary & gender expansive folks, and college students. Most recently, I've trained with the Center for Courage and Renewal’s Academy for Leaders and worked with Heather Plett to become a certified Holding Space coach & facilitator. I'm a full-spectrum doula and a humanist chaplain & celebrant. I became a massage therapist and bodyworker at the Santa Fe School of Massage, formerly the Scherer Institute for Natural Healing.
My lens is healing-centered, intersectional, intuitive, and empathetic.
I am especially curious about stories of transition and transformation: birth, death, grief, loss, identity, relationship, and growth, and the ways our bodies interact with these stories. How we live our narratives, how we can choose to be who we need.
I am a touchstone at the thresholds. A threshold doula.