Erin Doerwald

STAY SOFT

What if, instead of going hard on yourself, you could go soft on yourself? What if this softness is actually a strength? These are the essential questions guiding Erin Sibley Doerwald’s CreativeMornings talk. Through story, reflection, and embodied practices, Erin will explore what it means to cultivate the strength to keep your eyes and heart open—to tend and befriend yourself and others—even when the world feels hard.

Erin (LCSW, CMT-P, RYT-200) is the founder and CEO of Hello Wellness, a Santa Fe–based business whose mission is to be of compassionate service to individuals and communities while remaining grounded in joy and acceptance. Like all humans, Erin’s path has included its share of adversity—experiences that continue to shape her belief that resilience comes not from bracing against life, but from softening into it. Contrary to much of the toxic messaging of today’s wellness world, her business envisions and creates spaces where almost everyone can access support for the mind, body, and spirit—where wellness is defined not by self-improvement metrics, but by belonging, care, and opportunity, with delight sprinkled in wherever we can find it.

Since launching in 2018, Hello Wellness has grown into an ecosystem of offerings, including four primary hubs: a clinical psychotherapy team; collaborative holistic wellness retreats; the Collective Care Club, an online membership offering low-cost, live mindfulness and movement classes plus weekly home practice recordings; and the Dandelion Giving Circle, a community-powered fundraising initiative supporting collective wellbeing through pop-up events and merchandise sales benefiting selected local non-profits. Premium services help fund offerings with broader reach, and current funding sources include Medicaid and insurance.

Prior to launching Hello Wellness, Erin served as Program Director at The Sky Center of the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project, where she created the Toolkit for Wellbeing model. That approach—blending mindfulness, social connection, active hope, connection to nature, and physical wellbeing—continues to inform her work today. She integrates clinical expertise with embodied wisdom, drawing on neuroscience, narrative therapy, yoga, and mindfulness meditation—all in service of helping people stay soft and connected amidst life’s challenges.

In this talk, Erin will share personal stories, the science of resilience, and experiential practices that invite you to soften your own nervous system. Join us for a morning that is part story, part practice, and part invitation: a soft landing in a hard world. Learn how, in a life that often requires us to armor up, you can find a way to Stay Soft.

Valarie Budayr is a Board Certified Sound Healing Practitioner, Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator, and Transformational Human Design Coach who weaves ancient traditions from Gotland, Sweden, and North Karelia, Finland into modern healing practices. Through therapeutic musicianship, Human Design, sound, movement, breath, and connection to nature, she creates immersive experiences that support self-discovery, healing, and life transitions. Valarie will be on site with music & sound to lift and inspire us.

This month we’re opening the floor. Please bring a yoga mat or meditation cushion for seating during our gathering. A limited number of mats will be available on site for anyone who needs one.