The World We’re Creating
We envision a world where people, especially those who spend their lives caring for others, have the space and support to care for themselves.
A world where rest is honored, healing is valued, and people are empowered to move through life with greater balance, connection, and purpose. Where success is not measured by how much we can carry alone, but by our ability to live in alignment with ourselves, our communities, and what truly sustains us.
Our vision is rooted in the belief that healing is both personal and collective. When individuals have access to care, reflection, and meaningful connection, they are better able to show up for themselves, their relationships, and their communities.
Grounded in liberation-centered values and spiritually rooted traditions, we imagine futures where wellness is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a practice rooted in dignity, reciprocity, culture, and belonging.
We believe transformation happens when people feel seen, supported, and held. When we create space to slow down, reconnect, and receive care, we open the possibility for a more compassionate and connected way of living.
A world where we remember that caring for ourselves is not separate from caring for one another.
Who we are
Soul Space Studio is a healing-centered social enterprise creating restorative spaces for women carrying the weight of work, caregiving, leadership, and life's many responsibilities.
We believe care is not something you earn after burnout. It is something you deserve along the way.
Through restorative care sessions, retreats, healing circles, workplace wellness, and community experiences, we invite women to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and receive the care they so often give to others. Whether you're navigating stress, burnout, grief, life transitions, or simply longing for more balance, our offerings are designed to help you return to yourself with intention and compassion.
Our approach blends evidence-informed practices with embodiment, spirituality, and culturally rooted healing traditions, drawing inspiration from social work, yogic philosophy, Taoism, Buddhism, curanderismo, and ancestral wisdom. We believe healing is deeply personal, but it is never separate from our relationships, our communities, or the systems that shape our lives.
As a social enterprise, our mission extends beyond the individuals we serve. A portion of every purchase is reinvested into accessible community care through lower-cost wellness offerings, community programming, and initiatives that expand access to healing for people who have historically been excluded from traditional wellness spaces.
At our core, we are committed to creating spaces that feel grounded, restorative, and deeply human. Spaces where you can breathe a little deeper, soften your shoulders, reconnect with yourself, and remember that caring for yourself is not a luxury. It is part of living well.
Because healing doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in relationship: with ourselves, with one another, with our bodies, with our communities, with the earth, and with something greater than ourselves.
Welcome to a space where you don't have to hold everything alone.
Meet the Team
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Meet the Team *
Karina Alvarez Espinoza, MSW, LSW
Owner, Founder, and Facilitator
I’m Karina: a healer, artist, and radical dreamer.
I was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and raised in struggle. My early experiences with mental health weren’t just about me, they were rooted in trauma, displacement, generational wounds, and the violence of systems never meant to hold us.
That pain became my teacher.
It lit a fire in me pushing me toward healing, toward truth, toward justice.
I studied social work not because I believed in the system, but because I believed in our people. I wanted tools to understand the conditions we live under and ways to disrupt them. I’ve worked across nonprofits, community orgs, and institutions. But I kept hitting the same walls: bureaucracy, tokenism, systems more invested in power than transformation.
So I stopped asking for permission.
I originally started a community care project alongside trying to build a business that could support me and my family. But I quickly realized I couldn’t do both separately. That’s when Soul Space Studio was born.
Soul Space Studio is my offering. My act of love. My rebellion.
It’s a space where we don’t just survive, we gather to heal, to organize, to dream, and to imagine something freer.
I believe that healing is political.
That care is resistance.
Inspiration & Credit Statement
Our work is possible because of the wisdom, labor, and vision of those who came before us in liberatory, healing, and justice movements. We honor and credit the thinkers, educators, and organizers who inspire us, including Angela Y. Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Paulo Freire, adrienne maree brown, and many others.
Their commitment to love, liberation, healing, and justice continues to guide our work. We recognize that we are students of their wisdom and that our role is not to replace or claim ownership of their ideas, but to carry them forward in our practice. If we ever fall short in giving proper credit or inadvertently cause harm, we invite accountability and commit to repair.
Land Acknowledgement & Accountability
As a values-led social enterprise grounded in healing and social justice we believe it is important to honor the land in which we work, live, and play in. Lake County, IL is the traditional homeland of the Potawatomi and other Indigenous nations, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Peoria peoples. We acknowledge the enduring presence and sovereignty of these nations, and we recognize the deep harm caused by colonization, forced removal, and ongoing systems of oppression.
This acknowledgement is not a replacement for action. It is a commitment to remembering, honoring, and learning from Indigenous communities, past and present. We strive to align our work with values of care, repair, and liberation, so that healing and justice are not afterthoughts, but central to the way we live, teach, and build together.
We are learners on this journey. Our hope is to share what we know while continuing to grow, unlearn, and listen. If we ever fail to credit where credit is due or cause harm through our words or actions, we invite you to call us in and hold us accountable. Our commitment is to repair, learn, and do better, always centering care, justice, and liberation.
Inspired by Oumou Sylla