Inner work for real life.
The Middle is an IRL gathering in LA for people who feel the pull to grow, to heal, or simply to slow down.
We all have so much going on.
Work, relationships, family, the daily rush of keeping up with our obligations. Life hands us a lot. Most of us are handling it, because we can. We’re capable.
But often there's a part of us that wants to slow down. To drop below the noise and hear ourselves again. And to connect with ourselves and others in meaningful ways.
The Middle is a place to slow down, reconnect, and work with whatever life is asking of us.
A weekly pause and recharge in the middle of a full life.
It's a space to step out of the rush, do the kind of inner work that's hard to do on your own, and return to your life clearer and more alive.
People come for different reasons. Some are in pain and want a way through. Some want real connection. And some feel a pull toward something more spiritual. Whichever one is yours, this is for you.
Each week, we explore tools for everyday life: how to stay present, how to move through hard emotions, how to have the conversation you’ve been avoiding, how to relate to yourself with more kindness.
Part Meditation
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Part Conversation
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Part Connection
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Part Practice
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Part Meditation · Part Conversation · Part Connection · Part Practice ·
This is for you if you want to…
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Slow Down
Step out of the rush and hear yourself again.
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Cultivate Connection
Be in meaningful conversation with others.
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Live With More Clarity
Meet your life with presence, courage, and compassion.
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Work Through Challenges
Learn tools for navigating where you feel stuck or ready for change.
So much of what weighs on us doesn't come from what happens in life, but from how we treat ourselves when it does.
It’s so easy to be hard on ourselves. We often beat ourselves up without really knowing it. Our internal critic is quick to chime in with unkind perspectives, judgements, and the classic “you should have done ____” speech. This critic often flies under the radar, because it is run by subconscious beliefs that tell us we are not enough or worthy of what we desire.
The work we do in the Middle begins with bringing these patterns of self-relating into the light, and then learning to meet whatever we find internally with more kindness than we're used to offering ourselves. That shift, from self-criticism toward self-compassion, is where much of our freedom and experience of fulfillment begins. It changes how we move through our own lives, and it changes how we show up for others. Ultimately, we’re learning how to love ourselves more authentically and unconditionally.
About Lee
I’ve been drawn to inner work for as long as I can remember. I was a sensitive kid. I felt a lot, was sensitive to the emotions and energies of others, and had spiritual experiences from a young age that shaped how I saw myself and the world.
But alongside that sensitivity, I also carried a lot of fear. In fact, I was riddled with it.
For most of my twenties, I struggled with anxiety and a kind of existential dread that was hard to explain to other people. I was often terrified, overwhelmed, anxious, and at times, I was genuinely unsure how I was going to keep going.
In High School, I had to wear sunglasses in class because the fluorescent lights were exacerbating the anxiety and impacting my equilibrium. And if you’re thinking “wearing sunglasses in school sounds badass,” let me tell you right now, when it’s for medical reasons, it is very uncool.
While a lot of people my age around me seemed to be building their lives, I spent years focusing on my healing. Not by choice, it felt like the decision was given to me. It was one of the hardest times of my life. But I was committed to it. I knew that the only way out was through.
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A lot helped me find my way – good teachers, good guides, and good workshops and retreats. And ultimately, the thing that changed me most was learning how to be kinder to myself.
Not how to fix myself. But how to question the belief that I was broken in the first place. What healed was the belief that there was something in me that needed to be fixed.
Over time, I began to discover something underneath all the fear and self-judgment. It was a sense of my innate wholeness. A spiritual essence, a foundation that felt steady, alive, and beautiful and that I felt had been there all along.
That’s the heart of my work now: helping people see that they are not broken, that they are already whole, and that love is not something that is earned, but is realized in this moment right now. And the path to realizing it comes from choosing to relate to ourselves with more compassion, understanding and presence.
The Middle was built to help us actualize this new relationship with self. From there, everything unfolds: healthier relationships, more fulfilling work, deeper sense of purpose and contribution to something greater than us.
This is a space to slow down, listen to ourselves, be in honest conversation with other people, and practice bringing more presence, courage, and compassion into our lives.
Join Us In-person, In LA
One gathering a week to step out of the rush, go inward, and come back to your life more awake than you left it.