In this episode, Alyssa sits down with Jolene McDonald, an Indigenous wellness practitioner and the founder of a healing business that weaves together yoga, Reiki, life coaching, and community facilitation in the North. Together, they explore the power of grassroots care and small, practical ways to begin reconnecting with your own self and your community.
Jolene Ross is a Teetł’it Gwich’in woman from Teetł’it Zheh (Fort McPherson), NT, now based in Yellowknife. She is a certified life coach, Reiki practitioner, yoga teacher, and wellness consultant. Through her business, Shidrìi’—which means my heart—Jolene offers embodied, heart-centered life coaching. Grounded in her Gwich’in identity and values, she approaches her work from a deeply spiritual and community-minded place. Her philosophy is simple: WE heal. With support, healing awakens within, takes root in the heart, and radiates outward—shaping your life and touching the hearts and lives of those around you.
Transcript
00:00:01 Louise
Hello, and welcome to Season 8 of the Canadian Women’s Foundation podcast, Alright, Now What? Gender equality and justice where we live, work, learn, and play is the goal, and it makes life better for everyone. Alright, Now What? remains a space where we ask, how do we move from awareness to action?
But this season, we’re also shifting the story. Through powerful storytelling, expert interviews, and bold conversations, we’ll explore what true equity can look like, especially for those who are too often silenced or overlooked.
The work of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and its partners takes place on traditional First Nations, Inuit, and Métis territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgments are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.
00:01:07 Louise
Today we are joined by host Alyssa Carpenter from the Canadian Women’s Foundation. In this episode, Alyssa sits down with Jolene McDonald, an Indigenous wellness practitioner and the founder of a healing business that weaves together yoga, Reiki, life coaching, and community facilitation in the North. Together, they explore the power of grassroots care and small, practical ways to begin reconnecting with your own self and your community.
00:01:37 Alyssa
My name is Alyssa Carpenter. I am the manager of the Northern Gender Strategy. I am joined here by Jolene, who I’m going to ask to introduce themselves to everybody.
00:01:52 Jolene
My name is Jolene McDonald. I’m a Teetł’it Gwich’in from Fort McPherson. My parents are James and Mary Ross, so Ross on my dad’s side and Firth on my mom’s side. And I’m adopted, so I’m figuring out how to get that in there. But, I really want to honour my biological mother and my biological grandmother as well. My biological grandmother is – my dad that raised me, that’s his sister- so they kept me in the family. And my biological mom is Georgina Degernes. And yeah, I just really want to ground myself in my family and who I am and my lineage and just even as I close my eyes to kind of do that, my grandmother comes forward. My grandmother, Bella Ross, is someone who I often think about her and my grandmother, Rosie. I feel like whenever I do any type of work where I’m speaking or sharing, I like to call in my grandmothers so that I feel like they’re here with me and I’m not doing this alone.
00:03:38 Alyssa
I think that’s beautiful and help shape who you are and it’s reminders what you’re telling people are important to you and modelling that. And I think that’s a big reason why I asked you to kind of just like join this podcast episode with myself. It really helps us get to like your journey. Can you share the journey that brought you into the work that you’re doing? Can you introduce that the work that you’re doing?
00:03:56 Jolene
The work that I do is through my business called Shidrìi’—which is my heart. And what I do through my business is a combination of things, things that I’ve picked up along my journey. I’m a certified yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, and life coach. And I sort of bring all of those gifts together along with facilitation and workshops to offer what I’m calling heart healing to as many people as possible.
Currently, the work that’s really filling my cup, really touching my heart is specifically with Indigenous women. And I think that’s just because a lot of what I do is based on my own personal experience. I feel like the work that I’m doing really is about sharing what I have. Like it’s things that I’ve picked up along the way. It’s experiences that I’ve been through, tools that I’ve used, healing that I’ve done, like it’s a combination of things that have worked for me and a combination of my own unique gifts and the skills and tools that I’ve picked up along the way to really support as many people as possible to do their own healing so that they can come back to their heart and live from the heart, contributing their unique gifts to their families and their communities.
Yeah, that’s the work that I’m currently doing. I’ve done a lot of different things for a lot of years, and I only started my business this year. So I’ve been doing this type of work like in different communities across the north in different capacities and now I’m just bringing it all together, with the hope that I can reach more people and do the work that really like connects with my heart and comes from my heart. I think that’s why I’m doing it now, because I feel more connected to my heart and more aligned with the work that I’m doing. Like it just feels the most authentic it’s ever felt. Like when I was doing the work before, yes, it was authentic, but I feel like I’ve grown as a person, and I’m in a different place, so the work that I’m offering reflects that.
And really just, it comes from a place of wanting to serve, wanting to make an impact, wanting to offer, like I said, specifically Indigenous women, what other women have offered me along my journey, which is support, encouragement, love, community, all the things.
00:07:09 Alyssa
All the things that I think are really needed. And even just like reminders that exists within us, that exists around us, and how important it is to pay attention to your heart, because I know there are a lot of distractions around us within our communities, and it’s especially around harder times when we have to cope and are trying to regulate ourselves and find good people to be around. Like, I think that’s so important, but that’s, it’s beautiful and I can attest to that. There are little gifts you’ve given myself and I’ve seen and witnessed it from other people, because that’s the role I have is like, how do I make space and how do I I help bring individuals together that need to share space and encourage what we see of them and hopefully that they take that with them wherever they go. That’s beautiful.
00:08:16 Jolene
And I actually was just thinking about, as you were talking, how it’s really been sort of my life experience that has shaped what I do. So thinking about, you know, creating that space for healing, it really started for me because I needed my own healing. And I mean, that’s a you know, that’s a journey that never ends.
I’m still healing. But what can I offer from my heart through my unique gifts from where I’m at right now? I feel like if we all do that, just like you were talking about your role, I think that will, if we’re all honoring our unique gifts and bringing what we’re gifted at to our communities, that’s really how we’re gonna thrive. And yeah, I just had to, I just wanted to say that, yeah, a lot of what I do is informed by my own life experience and my own healing.
Like it really, a lot of what I do has come from, I needed this for myself first. What are some of the biggest challenges or barriers in the space, in this line of work, especially being from the community that you’re from, the area that you’re from, where sometimes resources aren’t always there or like even just the specific line of work that you’re offering and creating, because you’re bringing something that is like being requested and needed for folks.
00:09:57 Alyssa
So what are some challenges and barriers you faced? But also on the other side, what are you seeing just by putting yourself out there saying, I’m ready to help and offer this?
00:08:13 Jolene
So really the challenges are what you spoke to. Resources are a big one. So the work that I do is like Reiki and yoga and life coaching and putting it together and offering like, yeah, that type of healing.nBut that type of healing is not necessarily regulated too. So access is a big issue, actually. Like the money to access my services is a challenge. So how I get around that is I’ll approach different organizations and they pay me and then I’m able to offer my work to like their members at no cost. So that’s, yeah, what, that’s the biggest barrier I would say.
And that’s also why I have been, actually my plan initially was to go into counseling, because that’s regulated, and then to offer my services that way, which that might still happen down the road, but it’s like, it’s a systemic barrier, because certain things are recognized and certain things are not. So certain things are paid for and certain things are not.
That’s a real challenge for me to offer what I do and to get paid for my work and for people to be able to access it.
And I mean, I would say the other thing is a barrier is just flexibility for people. Like what I was thinking about this morning was just how healing really is like a full-time job. Like you, people have said that before, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. And we live in a society where if we want to survive, if we want to be able to pay bills, like we need a job that pays us. So that’s like 8 hours of our day.
And the woman that I have worked with, the Indigenous woman that I’ve worked with, every single one is giving back to community, caring for their families. So where do you even fit in the time to do your own healing? So I think even just the way our things are set up, is a barrier for people to access healing. And I would really love to see more flexibility for people to be able to work, but also honor their needs for healing and the things that come up when you’re healing.
Even if I, you know, think about myself, like there were times when I was going through hard things in my life where I wasn’t sleeping. And I still had to show up at work and put in eight hours, like it’s almost impossible, to be honest, to do the work that you need to do and to survive. So for me, something that would be helpful is more flexibility and also just building a culture of wellness within your workplace so that you can honour people’s needs and where they’re at. Because really when you do that, you’re getting the best version of someone to show up at work anyway.
So it just makes sense to me. And offering like the benefits and the time for people to be able to access what they need to access in order to heal and grow and be well.
00:13:56 Alyssa
If you could shift one narrative about this issue, what would it be? and it’s really like…for context, it’s tying to the podcast’s mission of shifting the story. So you kind of have the floor and what’s your advice to that as you do this important work? It’s changed your life and it’s helping other people and it’s being something that can really help others.
00:14:28 Jolene
Yeah, I think before I answer that, I just want to go back to one of the things that you talked about too, because to me, that’s also a solution. Like I talked about, systemic changes and flexibility, but also where I’ve seen a lot of success and the thing that always just makes me feel like in awe is those grassroots efforts, like people in community who see a need and then offer a solution. And I just, I think about someone in my own home community. She went off to treatment and then she came back to McPherson and she saw a need, which was for, people who are struggling with alcoholism to just have a place to go. So she just opened her home and offered coffee. Like so simple, but such a, such a big impact.
And I think kind of what you were talking to is that community piece, right? Like we are all community members and we all contribute in our own ways. We see a need and we offer our gifts to that. And that’s where I really think, yeah, if we had the time and the space and the resources to really do our own healing, really get in touch with our own gifts. Like we, our communities would thrive because everyone would be connected to their heart and their gifts and offering their unique gifts to support community.
So I just, I had to talk about that first because I see a lot of beautiful things happening in community, people just stepping up and doing what needs to be done. But I also want to say just that I think it’s important also to acknowledge that there are times in our lives when we need to be a little more selfish. Like when, like for me, you know, I went through a life-changing experience and it brought up so much for me. Like I, you know, I went through a divorce, which doesn’t, when you just say it like that, doesn’t seem like a big thing. But in reality, like what happened for me was I, you know, all of my core wounds came to the surface. I was grieving a life that I had dreamed of. I was now in this new phase of life questioning like, who am I? Where do I go from here? Like it was a big, a lot of stuff came up. And it was like, in that time, I feel like I gave myself permission to be in what I called my sacred container of healing. It was like, I’m coping with more and my capacity is less.
I love that we give. I love that we see a need and we step up. But I also would love to see us honouring our needs for caring for ourself and taking time that we need to rest, to connect with our loved ones, to experience joy. Like I think those things are so important. And I just, I don’t want to just not bring that into the conversation because I think it’s important to acknowledge.
00:18:14 Alyssa
It’s okay to choose you. It’s okay to be, it’s not even selfish, but we have to say it that way right now, I feel like in society, because choosing yourself is the last thought of thing. And if more of us did that and paid attention, and again, unpacking wounds that come up in times of loss and grief, because for you, that is you, that’s a partnership, that’s a life that brings up so many raw things in unexpected ways. Loss does that, right?
And it’s, I’m so happy and relieved to hear that you were able to say, I need to look at me right now. I need to pay attention to me and I need to say in the best way, I can’t do these other things for other people or how I show up in a workplace or my family or my other commitments. And yeah, I hope that was really understood for you.
00:19:16 Jolene
Yeah, like I said, I’ve called it my sacred container of healing because I really have looked at it as, like, this sacred time in my life to be with my grief and to be with the things that have come up and to not, yeah, just try to carry on with my life like nothing’s going on, because in reality, I was going through a lot and…I just, I gave myself the permission to do less.
And that, and then now, how that plays out is like, now I’ve got this new business and I have this inspiration and I’ve had time to create and like connect with who I am and what I truly want. And that’s how a lot of my work has come about. So I think it’s important and necessary and just really sacred, like a, yeah. It’s a beautiful time, as hard as it is, to like really go within and to get to know yourself. And I just, yeah, like you said, we would all benefit, I think, from more time to be able to do that in whatever ways we need to.
00:20:31 Alyssa
To those kind of listening, what are meaningful ways that you give advice of where to start? Because I think sometimes we don’t know where to start and what would you be willing to share to others?
00:20:47 Jolene
Well, first of all, just your question about shifting the narrative too, that’s still in my mind, ’cause I do think one thing to understand is it’s, for me, I believe it’s really not us. It’s the system that’s set up against us, that, um, makes it hard to heal and to do the things that you need to do to care for yourself. So the narrative that I would want to shift is like, it’s not us, it’s the system. And that makes it a challenge for us to like be in community, to heal, to connect, to experience joy, because we’re working to survive. We’re trying to survive on top of all of these other things. So if I could shift the narrative, that’s what I would say.
And then if I had advice for people of where to start, it’s, I guess it’s pretty cliche, but like it starts with you, which I think I’ve touched on in different ways throughout our conversation, but it really is about making that time and space to connect with yourself, to do your own healing, to get in touch with your own unique gifts. And all of these things, I believe, contribute to your own personal fulfillment. And when you’re personally fulfilled, your cup is overflowing, and that overflows into your relationships, your families, your communities. So it really does begin with self.
But like I said, I also understand the barriers. Like, you work a full-time job, you’ve got a family, you’re contributing to your community. So something I like to do, especially when times are busier, is just where can I create space in my day? Even a minute, even a minute to breathe and get quiet. Even, you know, 15 minutes outside on a walk, for me, that’s like, boom, it resets me completely. So if your life is really busy, if you’ve got a lot going on, how can you still honor who you are and what you need in even the smallest way possible?
And, you know, just bringing it back to community too, I think there are two things about community. I think you can create a community that supports you in this, but sometimes that takes a lot of work too. And I think what I want to say is just that don’t let a lack of community be a barrier.
So if it means you have to do some of your own healing work on your own, access outside resources, spend more time on the land, but people are busy, so you gotta do it on your own, like I think do that. And then where you can, if you have the capacity, definitely find community. And if you have to and you have the capacity, create community.
Like small things, one thing that I did last year was a book club for Indigenous women around the book by Thosh Collins and his wife, The Seven Circles. That one, oh my gosh, I’m sorry, I’m forgetting the book name, but you know what I’m talking about. Anyways, yeah, so yeah, and I just got Women Together once a month. And I just created that space and that time and there was intention. So we would get together, read the book, talk about it, and then people had the opportunity to pair up or do things as a group. And I really, for me, what I did was, my intention was create the space, create the time, and then let the magic happen.
And I think that’s one thing that people can do, like I said, if they have the capacity, but don’t, I think don’t let it be a barrier to your healing if there isn’t already a community or if you don’t have the capacity to create one, like do what you need to do to take care of yourself.
00:25:33 Louise
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