For more than 20 years, the concept of informed choice has woven through my personal and professional life, evolving with each experience — from Massage Therapy to child and youth work, to healing sessions, birthkeeping, and supporting others.
At its essence, informed choice is empowerment. It is the ability to make a decision based on full knowledge of your options, the pros and cons, and all available information, free from bias, manipulation, or coercion.
To be informed is to know all that is available about a treatment, remedy, session, or opportunity — and to make a decision that is right for you.
It is not dictated by the professional sharing the information. It is your body, your mind, your spirit, your choice.
Informed choice is especially vital when it comes to our bodies, our health, our pregnancies, and our births.
It requires us to bring the information inward, to contemplate how it resonates within us before giving consent. We check in with our bodies, listen deeply, and honor what we feel.
Susan Weed’s Healing Wise outlines a framework that beautifully embodies informed choice — a gradual, intentional process for empowered consent.
We begin by resting, unplugging, and creating space to receive information. There is no doing here — only quiet awareness.
The “detective within” takes action. Collect information from all sources — books, conversations, research, divination — and hold it for consideration.
Invite the voice of intuition: prayer, ceremony, affirmations, laughter. Here we connect to the energy of the situation and acknowledge its uniqueness to us.
We always know what’s best for us.