In June 2025, Show Your Spark, in collaboration with Emory’s Annex, hosted a powerful event called, The Worthy Project.
The Worthy Project was a one-day, trauma-informed empowerment experience where women reclaimed their self-worth through powerful photo sessions, affirming rituals, meditation, and EFT. Held at the Show Your Spark studio, this intimate gathering offered deep connection, creative healing, and bold self-expression — all in support of Emory’s Annex, an organization dedicated to empowering women to move beyond trauma and step boldly into the fullest version of themselves.
Below is an essay written by Catherine Sipher, one of the participants of the event, attesting to the power of healing old wounds through meditation, EFT, and photography.
“You are unlovable like this.”
These words, spoken to me by my ex-husband near the end of our 19-year marriage, haunted me for five years.
At the time, I had begun to re-evaluate my life, faith, and relationships. I could no longer tolerate being silenced, unheard, and unsupported. So, I began to advocate for myself.
As he witnessed me change, fear likely overcame him and he lashed out.
I’m not sure which hurt more, hearing him say those words or believing them to be true, and not just because they had come from him.
Much of my life, Evangelical Fundamental Reformed Christian theology taught me that I was never truly seen as loveable by God. His love was only extended to me through the sacrifice of Jesus’s blood. It was as if God wore the rosy-colored glasses of Jesus, which made me appear acceptable to him. But in truth, absent the glasses, I remained unloveable to Him on my own merit.
Living with that ideology caused me to see my unloveability everywhere I looked.
I operated strictly out of a mindset of conditional love, feeling as if I needed to earn love, acceptance, and kindness. When those things were extended to me, I judged myself as undeserving of them. These ideologies made me susceptible to relationships full of breadcrumbed affection and absent of deep love.
Even when people extended love to me, I refused to be the fool who could accept their lies. Didn’t they know, the unfiltered me couldn’t be enough to be loved?
The fingerprint of this belief not only impacted my relationships with others, but also the one with myself. I noticed how difficult it was for me to receive help, rest my body, advocate for myself, or even share my differing opinions with others.
When I began to navigate divorce and religious deconstruction, the abandonment of most of my friends further validated my perception of my unloveability.
In the years since then, though I dedicated myself to doing the inner work, unloveability continued to cling to me. Like a mosquito desperate for my blood, it hovered around me no matter how many times I swatted it away.
So, in June 2025, when I heard about a local event, hosted by photographer and subconscious coach Lindsay Hite of Show Your Spark and psychologist Mary Beth Sivakk of Emory’s Annex, focused on replacing the labels given to us by others with the words we claim for ourselves, I knew I had to attend.
It was time to release my unloveability with ceremony.
We gathered for an afternoon of meditation to reclaim our words, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to shake loose the power of the unwanted word, and photography to boldly claim our new words.
As Lindsay wrote the word “Unloveable” on my chest, I knew that would be the last time I would allow that word to touch my skin or soul in any shape or form.
No matter what anyone said, whoever walked away from me, or even what I tried to tell myself, that word would no longer have the power to harm me, diminish me, or take away my power.
I wept.
Lindsay clicked, and clicked, and clicked.
The resulting photos are some of the most raw photographs I’ve ever seen of myself.
We began the photography session with the word “UNLOVEABLE” written on my chest. In the resulting photo, I can see the pain of living under the oppression of those words for over 40 years.
Then, slowly and tenderly, with bold defiance and tear-filled eyes, I wiped away two letters, “U” and “N”, ushering in a new era in my life, my loveable era.
One where I don’t beg, plead, or try to earn the love of another.
One where I am fully myself in every situation.
One where, when faced with rejection, I hold my head high and never doubt my inherent value, worth, and loveability.
Finally, with joy in my heart, I proudly struck a power pose and declared I am LOVEABLE!
This experience was not just the replacement of a label my husband and the church gave me, but a declaration of who I truly am.
Loveable.
Most importantly, by myself, after so many years of self-hatred. Then, by the ones who matter, those who have the ability to see my light.
I’m sure unloveable isn’t the only word that I’ll need to replace as I continue to move forward. Some of the other women at the event chose to claim the words free, confident, unstoppable, and enough.
But it’s an important start.
This experience reminded me of the power of words to harm or heal. We all carry words that were never ours to begin with. When I choose the words that honor my truth, I choose myself.
Which is why, every day, I’ll always choose to see myself as loveable.
What will you choose?
Many thanks to Catherine for sharing this vulnerable essay with our community. To read more of her work, follow Catherine on Substack.
To be notified about future events at the Show Your Spark Studio, like the Worthy Project, sign up for our newsletter.
To those reading this, remember, you get to choose how you define and label yourself. Your life is yours to create. Abandon any words that no longer or never fit you. Claim the words you want to breathe life into
