An interview with Rebecca H.R.
“I had to break first” – A Four-Month Soul Journey with Helena Willow
🌿 Introduction
“I needed to be broken first… so I could be put back together differently.”
What followed was a journey not of productivity or personal development—but of soul retrieval, spiritual homecoming, and healing at a cellular level.
Here’s what happened when she stepped into 1:1 mentorship with Helena.
When Rebecca H-R, counselor and mother of two, returned to Sweden after five years living abroad, she brought with her more than just culture shock. She carried grief, displacement, and a growing disconnection from herself.
It wasn’t a homecoming—it was a collapse. What began in grief and confusion would, over four months, become one of the most intimate and soul-shifting processes of her life.
In this conversation, Rebecca opens up about her personal journey inside Helena Willow’s 1:1 mentorship. What it meant to unravel. To remember. To be witnessed. And to finally—truly—come home.
Rebecca has walked on the spiritual path and with Helena for a decade, becoming Usui Reiki Level 2 healer and certified Helena Willow Shamanic Drum Journey Guide and Shamanic Practitioner, yet this was the first time she finally invested time, energy and dedication to her own deep process beyond group setting and occasional healing sessions.
🧭 “Where were you when this started?”
After years living on a different continent, where spiritual connection and natural rhythm were part of everyday life, she returned to a country she associated with loss and depression.
Rebecca:
I had just come back from living abroad. We didn’t choose to leave, and returned to Sweden in the middle of winter… It felt dark. Heavy. Spiritually cold, almost. It brought up a lot of old sadness.
I felt broken. But in a strange way—I was also wide open. Like something was ready to be rebuilt… if I had the courage to do it.
💬 “What made you step into this process?”
I’ve known Helena for ten years. I’ve done many trainings with her in groups. But this… this was different. I was finally in Sweden long enough to go deep.
And honestly, I was fed up—with fear, with patterns, with myself. That’s when Helena’s work called her.
“I had wanted to do this for a long time. Being back in Sweden finally made it possible. And maybe… necessary.”
“I think I had to be that broken to even be ready. I needed a complete disassembly… to come back to something more true.”
🌀 “What did that unraveling look like?”
In the early stages of the mentorship, Rebecca entered what she calls “a necessary dismemberment.” Her identity as caretaker, mother, and counselor began to dissolve.
“At first, it was like a dismemberment.”
Helena talks about this a lot—soul remembering. That space between who you were and who you’re becoming.
For me, the caretaker identity had to go.
“I’ve been taking care of people my whole life. It’s what I do. When that was taken away, I had to ask… if I’m not that, who am I?”
There were months of emptiness. It wasn’t depression—it was more sacred than that. Like the womb of transformation. Still. Uncomfortable. But necessary.
In that raw, empty space, something new began to form.
👣 “What did the actual work involve?”
Each week, there were different layers—ritual, guided journeys, reflections. Helena gave me tools, but never did the work for me.
One of the most beautiful and surprising parts was being required to go into nature—even when it was -10°C. I would sit in snow. Barehanded. Listening.
“That saved me. I didn’t expect to fall in love with Sweden again. But connecting to the land… it healed something ancestral. It brought me back to my roots in a way I never imagined.”
❤️ “Did the people around you notice a difference?”
Before the mentorship, Rebecca’s voice in her relationship felt dimmed, emotionally overloaded, or misunderstood. Through the process of soul-level work, her communication and energy shifted.
“I still lose my temper. I’m still a mom. But something is lighter now.”
Not only did Rebecca experience emotional and energetic clarity—her family felt the shift too.
“Even in motherhood—I feel more choice. More presence. Less reactivity.”
Yes. Especially my husband.
“My husband listens to me more now. Not because I changed him—but because I reclaimed something. I think it’s authority. Not control—real presence.”
And I think our relationship is softer now. More mutual. It’s subtle—but everything’s shifted.
This is the unseen transformation.
When a woman reclaims her power, her entire relational field recalibrates.
🔮 “What role did Helena play?”
She was my witness.
“We’re not meant to do this alone. Having Helena there—to hold space, to guide, to open doors I couldn’t open alone—was everything.”
“You can’t do this work alone. I couldn’t. Helena was there the whole time.
Her presence, her wisdom—it’s what opened the door.”
“I remembered that healing is possible. That anything is. I found myself again.”
She didn’t rescue me. She didn’t fix me. She just stood with me while I remembered.
That’s what makes this work different. It’s not performance or healing for show. It’s soul work. Sacred, slow, and deeply personal.
🔥 “You’ve worked with Helena before… How was this different?”
Rebecca:
Yes—I’ve been with Helena for a long time.
Over the last ten years I’ve trained with her in Reiki Level 1 and 2, and will eventually do Reiki Master Teacher training. I completed her year-long Wheel of the Year Shamanic Practitioner training…
I was certified in shamanic drum journeying through her 3-month program…
And I’ve been her private client in healing sessions for years.
I’ve done a lot. I’ve learned a lot.
But this was different.
“I’ve trained with Helena before—but this was personal. It was mine. And that made all the difference.”
When you’re in a group, there’s energy and support—but it’s shared.
When you’re in a sacred 1:1 space… everything sharpens.
You’re seen. Fully. There’s no hiding.
“This wasn’t just training—it was a rebirth.”
💎 “What do you carry with you now?”
“Anything is possible.”
That’s what I believe now. Truly. If you saw me at the start of this process, you’d call it a miracle. I still have moments of struggle—but the fear is different now. I’m not living from it anymore.
“I remembered how much I can heal. And that I’m not alone. Not anymore.
“I don’t want to live in fear anymore. I’m staying in this energy. And I’m going to keep this work alive.””
🧡 Final Words
Rebecca’s story isn’t just about healing—it’s about becoming whole again.
It’s proof that even when the world falls apart around you, you can still find your way back—
and forward.
In a world of quick-fix solutions, this is what happens when a woman slows down, says yes to her soul, and lets someone witness her through the fire.
“We’re not meant to do this alone. We need witnesses.
And Helena was mine.”
It’s not always pretty. It’s rarely linear. But on the other side?
Clarity. Power. Homecoming.
