What does it mean to wield good power?
Dreaming into a new kind of leadership
Hey there, Soothers. What do you think of when I say the word, “Power”?
Power generally gets a bad rap, and for pretty good reason these days. Many of us, especially those who are highly sensitive, intuitive, or empathetic, hear the word power and might recoil. We associate it with control, with ego, with force. We might picture authoritarian figures barking orders, corporate CEOs squeezing profits, or political leaders consolidating influence while the rest of us suffer.
I think the thing is, though, that we’ve been under the thumb of harmful power for so long that we’ve forgotten that power itself isn’t inherently bad — it’s just been misused for generations.
We’ve confused abuse of power with power itself.
Which makes a ton of sense. Because we do know what it looks like to wield bad power. Because, well… we’re living in it. And we have been, for as long as we might be able to remember.
We see it in the way climate change is ignored while billionaires launch vanity rockets into space, in bans on abortion and books. In the criminalization of care, compassion, queerness, and truth. In systems that create fear, scarcity, and disconnection — then call it leadership.
We know what it feels like in our own bodies, too. Most of us have worked under it, lived beneath it, been shaped by it since elementary school when we got gold stars for being quiet, sitting still, and working hard.
Especially those of us who are highly sensitive — the deeply feeling, deeply aware, deeply intuitive ones among us. Many of us have only experienced power as something threatening or violent or cold. I can’t tell you the number of women I’ve worked with in my coaching practice who have had toxic or even narcissistic bosses, bullying coworkers, who worked in environments that rewarded burnout, and watched bumbling men fail upward while they held entire systems together quietly in the background.
It’s no wonder we’ve come to associate power with harm. It’s no wonder we avoid it. For many of us, power itself feels unsafe
Because when you’ve only experienced bad, or harmful power, all power starts to look like a threat.
So what I’ve witnessed is that based on their past experiences, highly sensitive women often run from power, hide from it, shun it. We assume that all power must corrupt. That the only way to stay safe or good or whole is to stay small, soft, quiet, behind the scenes.
As a highly sensitive woman and former corporate leader, I know this story intimately. For years, I chased approval from the patriarchy. I performed, achieved, people-pleased. I built a 15-year career in leadership without ever once having a woman boss. I burned out over and over, pushing widgets for companies that cared mostly about profit. And when I finally left at 40 to start my own coaching business, I didn’t realize I was carrying that same patriarchal mindset with me: extractive, performative, all about growth, output, numbers, more. I thought I was free — but I was still upholding the very systems I had hoped to leave behind.
It took me yet more years to unlearn the belief that power had to mean domination, that leadership meant pushing, that worth meant output. I mean, honestly, I’m still unlearning it. I might be for a lifetime. But regardless, it took me years to understand that sensitivity, intuition, and softness are not weaknesses in leadership — they are the leadership we’ve been missing.
And now I believe something radical: that power, in the hands of highly sensitive people, is not just safe — it’s sacred.
The problem isn’t power itself. It’s how we’ve been taught to use it. The old models — rooted in disconnection, domination, and scarcity — are collapsing. They don’t work anymore. And they never truly did.
So what comes next?
What if power could be relational, cyclical, nourishing — something we tend, not wield?
We don’t yet have many models for this. Most examples of leadership we’ve grown up with are rooted in a patriarchal, extractive, deeply imbalanced system. One that teaches us leadership means always being in charge, always being productive, always being certain, always being right. One that treats people like resources to be optimized. One that builds empires by burning out bodies. One that rewards disconnection and domination. One that creates scarcity, fear, and oppression — and then calls it “success.”
But I believe it’s time for a new model. One rooted not in performance, but presence. Not in power-over, but power-with.
This is the kind of power I call good power — and it’s what inspired me to create my latest and brand-new offering:
The Four Queens Leadership Council
The Four Queens Leadership Council is a six-month sacred container for a small circle of women — leaders, visionaries, creatives, healers, intuitives, changemakers — who are ready to reclaim power as something deeply feminine, deeply spiritual, and deeply good. We begin on the Summer Solstice, June 20, and this journey will carry us through the rest of the year — into deeper embodiment, integrity, and truth.
This council is not a mastermind or a performance space. It’s not about scaling or hacking or pushing harder. It’s about remembering that leadership can be devotional; that intuition is a valid form of strategy; that softness is strength; that the nervous system matters. And definitely, that your voice and your vision don’t need to fit the existing mold — they are the medicine.
Inspired by the archetypes of the Four Queens of the Tarot — the Queen of Cups (emotion and self-care), the Queen of Swords (voice, words, truth), the Queen of Wands (creativity and magic), and the Queen of Pentacles (embodiment and nourishing the physical) — this space mirrors back the wholeness of your leadership and gives you the support to live it fully. There will be one-on-one mentorship, group councils, rituals, energy work, microdosing support, somatics, and deep relationship with other women walking this path.
This will be a deeply spiritual group, with our eyes on doing our part to help end the patriarchy, return devotion, purpose and care to work, and creating legacies that will support our communities and our descendents.
The Four Queens Leadership Council is for women who are ready to lead differently and who want to be held, seen, and supported not just in their outward work, but in the spiritual transformation that underpins it. Who are done doing it the old way — and are brave enough to create something new.
This is what it means to wield good power: to lead not from fear, but from truth. Not from performance, but from purpose. Not from extraction, but from alignment. It means standing in your fullness and letting your leadership be a healing force — for yourself, your community, and the world.
It’s time to bring good power back to leadership, and I think highly sensitive people are just the ones to do it.
If this speaks to you, I would love to walk with you. You can learn more or apply here:
👉 www.catherinedandrews.com/leadership
We begin June 20. Four to six women. One circle. A new kind of leadership. Full of good power.
Yours.
With love,
Catherine
Details:
👑 Earlybird price: $3,500 until June 2; then goes up to $4,000. Payment plans available
👑 Book a free 30-minute call about the Council with me here (a no-pressure, no-salesy space to ask me any questions and feel if this might be a fit for you)
👑 Fill out the interest form here
👑 5 spots remain; is one of them yours?