Em Capito, LCSW

Em Capito, LCSW Soulful Resilience Therapist, Writer, Yoga & Meditation Teacher. Founder of Madrona, a nonprofit community of art and wellness for all beings.

This week, part 1 in a series of skills and reframes toward calm, confident and curious conflict resolution: “Like many ...
06/06/2026

This week, part 1 in a series of skills and reframes toward calm, confident and curious conflict resolution:

“Like many of you, I was raised in an environment where conflict was terrifying. It was loud, unpredictable, degrading, sometimes violent, and almost never a logical result of my own misbehavior.

We also simply didn’t talk about feelings. The only resolution that was role modeled was splitting up.

I learned: others’ anger leads to pain and abandonment. If I felt angry, I learned to swallow it down and withdraw...”

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When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’...
06/05/2026

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
By: WENDELL BERRY

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“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” - Thich Nhat HanhWriting to you from the...
05/29/2026

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Writing to you from the midst of a week-long meditation retreat in the gorgeous Utah desert:

“…The ego seeks to maintain the borders of our identity. Exploring beyond them threatens the safety of the status quo (even when we deeply wish for change). And so, we resist.

Coming into this experience, I became increasingly anxious over the loss of control and competence required to expand into new terrain…

…The stressors accumulated for 24 hours into a compelling story about escaping back home to my warm bed, son, cat, kitchen, and a bundle of free time.

There it was, the pivotal decision of every challenge: withdraw or surrender…”

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This week: Do you ever question your prior self’s audacity?…I am heading south for a week-long Zen retreat cradled in th...
05/23/2026

This week: Do you ever question your prior self’s audacity?

…I am heading south for a week-long Zen retreat cradled in the red rock beauty of Capitol Reef.

I am certain the frayed edges of my anxious self will be well-served by time to sit still long enough to return my feet to the ground, to release yet again the expectations that lead to striving, to surrender into the current of life’s beauty.

Given the pre-departure checklist, much of it overdue, I find myself with one foot already in the desert, toes wiggling in the sun-warmed sand, and the other triaging the impossible.

And perhaps that is the essential practice: there is always more than can be done, why do any of it without full presence and gladness? As the Zen proverb so astutely observes, “Let go, or be dragged.”

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An ode to my reliable writing partner ❤️“In reverie they emulate the noble moodOf giant sphinxes stretched in depths of ...
05/23/2026

An ode to my reliable writing partner ❤️

“In reverie they emulate the noble mood
Of giant sphinxes stretched in depths of solitude
Who seem to slumber in a never-ending dream“
- from Cats by Charles Baudelaire

What I took with me, how I prepared, how it all went sideways, and the integration. Plus, ask me anything!This is an off...
05/17/2026

What I took with me, how I prepared, how it all went sideways, and the integration. Plus, ask me anything!

This is an offering of gratitude for my contributing readers ($8). Thank you 🙏🏻

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“You are in it now, the new life.Step in wholly. Love it. Burn the oars.”- Joseph FasanoThis week: An invitation to step...
05/16/2026

“You are in it now, the new life.
Step in wholly. Love it. Burn the oars.”
- Joseph Fasano

This week: An invitation to step away, receive, and return to yourself.

“Next month, I get to return to Death Hollow, a place that returned myself to me.

Have you felt that way? Like you were just out of reach, around some corner in a maze? Everyday you wake up to go through the motions, to do all the “right” things, but you’re only treading water?”

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Thank you for being my wilderness vigil guide a year ago!

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Address

South Jordan, UT

Website

https://emcapito.substack.com/

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