Our Story
The Wild Within Healing is the witchy, wild division of Positive Force Movement, LLC.
The Positive Force Movement (PFM) was built through the commitment that spouses Christine Walker-McSpadden (they/them) and Lore McSpadden-Walker (they/them) have for using their skills in the interest of empowering individuals and dismantling the forces of injustice and inequity.
Although PFM is most commonly thought of as a gym, it is so much more than that. Christine and Lore’s focus is to invite joy, healing, and education into the lives of all of the people they serve, and they do so through a multifaceted approach: the three divisions of Positive Force Movement, LLC are Positive Force Movement, Fat Folks Can, and The Wild Within Healing.
Our work at Positive Force Movement focuses on helping folks who have faced systemic oppression learn about their physical selves through movement, education, and facilitated conversations about important topics related to understanding, empowering, and freeing our bodies.
In addition to offering movement-related education, Christine makes amazing works of art through their sewistry at Fat Folks Can, the most colorful (and glittery!) division of Positive Force Movement. Their focus is on providing fat folks, trans folks, witchy folks, and disabled folks attire and accessories that celebrate their full selves; Fat Folks Can is also the home of our Etsy shop.
Through The Wild Within Healing, Lore offers handmade micro-batch herbal healing products (using herbs they grow themself whenever possible!) that bring together ancestral witchy wisdom, medical herbalism research, and their deep desire to help folks heal and believe in their inherent, embodied empowerment. They also offer restorative movement coaching; Reiki healing; and education regarding meditation, traditional uses of herbs, and kitchen witchcraft/green witchcraft. They are furthermore pursuing a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling at SUNY: The College at Brockport, and look forward to adding counseling to the services they can offer upon the completion of their degree.
The Wild Within Healing grew from Lore’s lifelong mystic path. Their father has been a member of the Rochester Zen Center since long before they were born; he introduced Lore to valuable knowledge about—and, more importantly, direct experience with—meditation, gardening, composting, energy healing, mindful food preparation, and patience.
Lore lived at the Rochester Zen Center as a full-time Zen trainee between 2003-2004, and again between 2005-2006. During their years there, they worked in the kitchen, where they were taken under the wing of the head cook, Maria Elena. Maria Elena taught Lore about the healing potential of different foods, herbs, and teas; she also taught Lore about the practice of Jin Shin Jyutsu, a gentle form of acupressure therapy.
In the years since, Lore has continued their meditation practice, as well as their process of gaining knowledge and direct experience about herbs; teas; gardening,; energy healing; yoga; tarot; and Celtic Pagan holidays, practices, and ceremonies.
In addition to self-study and guided mentorship, they are a student at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine’s Herbal Immersion Program and have taken courses through One Willow Apothecary and Tarot for the Wild Soul.
They received their Level 1 Reiki attunement in 2017 and their Level 2 Reiki attunement in 2018. They became an Advanced Reiki Training (ART) Reiki Master through the Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki lineage in 2019.
Raised on Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) land in what is currently called Indiana, Lore now resides on unceded Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee) land in what is currently called Rochester, NY.
Lore descends from Celtic ancestry from Northern Ireland and Scotland, and offers the deepest gratitude and acknowledgment to the folk traditions, magic, medicine, and ancestors that came before them.
To learn more about the land you are living on, please visit Native Land.
As a division of Positive Force Movement, The Wild Within Healing is boldly and unapologetically:
pro-fat,
pro-LGBTQ+,
pro-Black,
pro-neurodiversity,
pro-science,
anti-racist, and
anti-ableist.