Speaker 1: 0:02

yo, what's up everybody? It's your boy, anthony. Welcome to another edition of speed, this podcast. What's going on y'all? What's up? All right, I know it's august and it's been since May. Since I've posted and my bad y'all, it's just been a lot that has been going on a whole lot. So let me give y'all a quick synopsis of everything that's happened between May and now.

Speaker 1: 0:49

So my anniversary came about on Juneteenth, so initially I was going to release a episode. The plan was to release an episode on Juneteenth celebrating my five-year anniversary. Yes, me, I've made it five years in the business of podcasting. So that was going to be a huge thing of me releasing an episode, but it didn't happen. However, what was happening behind the scenes was I recorded a podcast called Inside the Mind of a man and volume. I'm going to create a series of it, allowing them to express how, growing up, either with or without a foggy figure, how that impacted their lives, how they handle emotions, et cetera, et cetera. So we had a whole podcast topic on that and it turned into a series and within that podcast, because it was so good, I turned it into my first docufilm, and so I released my docufilm. I released it. It was going to be released on Juneteenth, which was my anniversary, but I didn't have everything together so I released it at the end of June. So I released. It is now streaming on YouTube. You can actually check the show notes and you can click the link and you can actually see the movie yourself so you can check it out. Simply amazing. Their stories were so touching. I was just so moved. The whole segment was moving, everybody being so transparent and so honest and showing the emotion expressing their feelings. So definitely check that out.

Speaker 1: 3:41

And that was just volume one, inside the Mind of a man, volume one between me and my father. I've got like three more volumes that's coming out. The second volume is going to come out in 2026. Not only I'm working on that, but I know you guys are wondering okay, what's happened with Tricky Cards at Hand? Because that's my fictional series that was supposed to be coming out in 2025 as well. That is also in development as well, because that is my fictional, biblical, psychological drama. So that's a genre that I am creating.

Speaker 1: 4:32

So that's going to be a visual audio series and that will be coming out soon. I am pushing that date back, so it would just be. I'm just going to say it's coming out soon, not giving a release date because I want it to be top quality, and so, in the process of writing the first episode, I have a writer that's helping me out writing it and also, speaking of that the writer, I have a new co-host that will be joining me who is also the writer that is helping me with that script. So you will see my new co-host coming soon One of my real, real good friends, a brother to me in the upcoming shows and I hope you guys enjoy what we will be doing. So that will also be happening. So that is pretty much it, yeah. So, oh, sorry, I will be releasing the audio version of the movie that will be coming out soon. I'm still editing that because the video version previews and stuff. So I'll give upcoming dates and stuff soon.

Speaker 1: 6:31

But I hope you enjoyed this episode. It's going to focus on healing trauma and my guest. I loved her. She did an amazing job. She was a licensed therapist and I hope you are able to learn from her and her techniques that she gives. Other than that, I hope you guys Just enjoy it and stay tuned for all the previews that will be released soon Some special small movies that will be released soon.

Speaker 1: 7:13

I'll be getting the YouTube and stuff coming out as well that will be released. As far as my YouTube channel, that will be coming out soon. I'll be back on TikTok soon, so, yeah, y'all stay tuned. I'll be sending out all those updates. Other than that, enjoy this episode. Peace, everybody. I hope y'all are having um a wonderful day today. Um, we are finally spring, finally no more winter or anything like that, thank goodness, because this weather has been insane, but we're finally approaching warmth and everything like that, so I'm glad for that. But today I've got a really heavy, serious topic and it's dealing with healing trauma and I have a very special guest with me and I'm going to go ahead and introduce her in my special guest today is Alyssa.

Speaker 2: 8:50

Alyssa, how are you doing today? I'm doing wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and I would love to dive deeper into this topic.

Speaker 1: 8:56

for sure it's something I'm very passionate about. Yes, yeah. So, alyssa, tell everybody who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Yes, so my current career is a licensed mental health clinician counselor. I specialize in trauma and it's something that definitely is my life's mission and something I'm really. I feel like I'm honored to be able to do this work with people because I've dealt with that myself as well throughout my journey. And being assistance and providing that guidance and helping people to overcome certain experiences they struggle with is my life's mission and my life's goal, and I'm consecrated to God. I call it, I love to be you know of service when it comes to that part.

Speaker 1: 9:49

That is amazing. That's amazing. Well, welcome to my podcast. I'm so happy and honored to have you on and we're going to go ahead and just dive on in, okay, so tell everybody, if you can. I want to ask you what exactly is trauma and how does it affect the mind and the body?

Speaker 2: 10:23

Right. So and I'm glad that you're bringing both of those aspects into play, because I feel like we have we're not knowledgeable enough about what trauma is, or we have this old kind of definition of trauma when we're talking about, you know, being in situations that are close to death, right near death experiences, being in combat, right being veterans of serving the country, being a victim of, you know, sexual abuse, domestic violence, things of that nature, and trauma. Now we're becoming more aware of what that is and how it can affect others, and there's a lot, of, a lot more literature now that we have available. We're actually living in a very fortunate times when it comes to that, because now I understand that a much deeper level. So trauma can be anything that impedes your progress, anything that prevents you from functioning in the best possible way. It doesn't have to be something that we just experienced, that near death experience or witnessing some horrific things. Also, not getting our needs met can also be a severe experience for children per se and that can develop afterwards in something that really prevents us from functioning in a society in the best way possible dealing with relationships successfully, our personal development, our emotional well-being, our physical well-being as well, because now we know how much stress can bring on for our physiology and what, what kind of problems we can experience afterwards. We know it can help develop cancer, autoimmune diseases, chronic pains.

Speaker 2: 11:55

There's so many aspects of trauma that before we had no idea about. Now we become more aware that it's not just mental. Trauma resides in our physiology and there's a lot of again books right now. Body keeps the score, the myth of normal. There's a lot of resources that help us understand that in a deeper way if we are ready to listen to that, because I know sometimes we don't think that. I want to dig back into what happened to me and you know it's a past, but we have to acknowledge whether this is something that it's still affecting me today and that can be not in a way of having a flashback per se, but struggling. Maybe I have a lot of low days when I'm really struggling to get out of that and that may not be even conscious in our mind or why I feel this way.

Speaker 2: 12:40

Because we have this, so we call it top and bottom brain physiology itself that keeps the score, that keeps those negative neural networks under which we have certain experience are being encoded as, let's say, negative beliefs about ourselves, but we have no conscious awareness of that when it comes to our conscious mind. So it's a very tricky thing that we're being triggered in our physiology but we with our mind we cannot distinguish why we're being triggered in our physiology, but we with our mind, we cannot distinguish why we're being triggered or why we're over overreacting, why we're acting that way and we're not able to respond to certain things. We're going to this we call it sympathetic dominance If we're being triggered in our physiology where we can't think straight, and so this is very important aspects of that. And I feel like, again, there's so much more that goes into that when we're talking about it and you know mechanics of it when it comes to physiology and the mind.

Speaker 2: 13:28

But I feel like, first, it's understanding what is trauma and again, it doesn't have to be something that can cause you, let's say, to think back and say, well, yes, I was severely abused, I've been bitten, I've been, I had all of this sort of negative experiences that impacted me. It doesn't have to be that way. Sometimes, again, not having one parent there and struggling to navigate, even being a child for some people, even though you've never had, let's say, physical abuse, it doesn't mean that you won't have trauma Again. We have a lot more information and kind of different aspects of trauma that we now begin to recognize as such, and so that's the advantage that we currently have.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Right, right, I do want to circle back to um, something that you said earlier and um, why do uh I guess you can say um are not forthcoming into really um deal, uh, really dealing with um, talking about trauma that's happened in their past, Like they, I guess you can say they they're not really ready to um, to speak on it or ready to relive it. Why do you think that?

Speaker 2: 14:55

Well, a lot of times. Number one we have to understand how trauma works as well. You know deeper. In that way, we have implicit memories and we have explicit memories. So explicit memory is something I can recall. I can say, well, yeah, that was in that year, that's what happened. I've had this argument with my parents, I've had this fight with my loved one, whatever that situation was, that's the explicit memory I can say. When that happened, I may even describe what happened. However, implicit memories is something that we experience going through that, and so sometimes those memories get repressed. It's not even that we're not going to have parts of the memories that are explicit, like remembering or recalling the details of the event. That can be one way, but another way again, because we have to function.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Function and sometimes, again, a minor thing if I think as an adult back and I think about my childhood experiences, I may not have access to how the child self felt during that situation, because for me now I'm thinking back well, that was nothing, you know, that was some minor thing. I know my mom was dealing with something or my dad was dealing with something. I understand that. Yes, we understand it as an adult now, but what's being triggered is that physiology that we experienced as children, that that was created during that impactful event, and the uh, the emotions and sensations and the negative kind of beliefs about ourselves that we had during that period as children can be outside of our conscious awareness because it was so far away. And for the child to process those experiences again, I'm not'm not an adult back then. So how can I make sense of what's happening for me if I don't get what I need from my parents and I may think, okay, well, I'm unlovable, I'm unsafe, people can't be trusted. There can be a lot of things that for us now it seems like it's a minor thing, but for a child it can be a huge experience. And so sometimes, again, going backwards can be a lot for a lot of people and even though they may not really have an idea that they experienced certain pain, in this moment again we have to pay attention to how am I being impacted right now? And I have people who say you know, I don't want to dig up the past, right, I'm fine, it was too much back there. Like it's too much to kind of bring back forth, okay. But these people are also calling 9-1-1 every single month because they're having a panic attack, right. So, again, we have to acknowledge how those experiences may be affecting us now. Again, there's no point of trying to go back and bash our parents about what happened. You know, if we're fine, if I'm fine right now, but if I'm struggling to navigate life right now in certain ways, we should address that.

Speaker 2: 17:30

And I always give this metaphor when people say I don't want to go backwards, right, I say, well, imagine you have this open injury. Imagine you cut your arm, for instance, right, and I have this open wound. Then the wound heals, on top right you have the scar, but inside of that wound there is the infection that continues to impact you and you have fever. You're feeling bad. When you look on top of me, like you know what, it's healed, it's fine, I don't see anything, because I don't see what's going on on the surface of that. I may not even understand the impact that this wound is creating from the inside because of that infection.

Speaker 2: 18:05

And so we continue to live like that and say you know, I'm not going to dig into that, that's fine, and we're going to continue to have that fever, you know. However, it's going to affect me, shivers and throwing out whatever, whatever is going to be created within me. But again, I'm refusing to go in just because, you know, maybe it was too much, it was too painful, that wound was too painful. We have to pick and choose. Am I sick and tired to be dealing with that? Or, you know, do I want to continue healing and I want to address that and it's yeah, it's not for everybody. People can be afraid and I feel like taking your time for when you're finally ready to do that. It's an important step because you know you don't want to be digging when the person does not want to go there. It can create more tension and stress than heal heal. Heal them from that trauma.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Right, right, yeah, that's uh, I completely, um totally uh understand that. So, um, what uh, um are the different? Uh, actually, I'm sorry. How does unresolved trauma impacts a person's mental health and their relationships and a personal growth? Like, for instance, let's say, if someone just decides again like I'm not going to deal with it, and how would that affect, particularly, like, their relationships with people?

Speaker 2: 19:37

Well, again, it depends. Everybody has to make their own judgment. In that way, I feel like first we have to become honest. Am I living my best life? Am I the best version of myself? Or there's something in my life that I don't like and I want to change, but I'm incapable of doing so, and so I feel like, when we find that brick wall that I'm not able to cross and that's something that's really bothering your life, right, it's something that is not. You don't want to live like this anymore, but you also don't have the solution. I feel like this is a great moment to consider that. That might be because of the traumatic experiences.

Speaker 2: 20:13

Again, usually the consequence of that can be all of the major things that we know substance use, anxiety, depression, right, inability to build connections and we don't even know why it's there, right?

Speaker 2: 20:26

Sometimes, again, I'm not even feeling confident to come and talk to that person, or I'm not able to communicate my needs to people around me, or I'm not able to establish new connections. I'm not able to perform at work, right, maybe it's the concentration, maybe it's tiredness, maybe it can be so many different things in which we can experience that dysfunction, I would say, and just being honest with ourselves first Is that the person I want to be, or there's a better version of me? And why am I not making this leap forward? When I want to and I'm ready, then there's something going on inside of me that may be preventing me from that and I feel like first, again, it's becoming more aware on in which way our life right now is not working well. Right, and that's the starting point. And then we try to go out there and start seeking solutions, and it can be in different ways. Right, some people can use self-help kind of strategies, and sometimes you need to go for professional help and really get into, you know, treating and healing those parts of ourselves.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Right, right. So, um speaking of uh dealing with trauma, can you share um your particular story and how um trauma you experiencing trauma, how that shaped uh your path and what was some of the biggest challenges that you faced in your healing journey?

Speaker 2: 21:56

Oh my God, so many, so many. And that's why exactly that's my point, that sometimes we need to wait for the right time, just like I feel like there's also just like we have natural cycles in nature, right, we have natural cycles in our lives and even sometimes, if I want certain things to happen now, I may not be ready for that because it maybe needs to be a lot of work. Maybe I need to get to a different place, maybe I need to first change my environment, because maybe the abusive environment that's preventing me. So it's a lot of steps to that. And so, in my personal case, well, I've been an immigrant since I was 18.

Speaker 2: 22:33

I moved here to the United States from Russia and I was very young I didn't have my parents with me. That was a very big change, that also. I wasn't even sure why there were reasons for that, but mentally I was like there could have been ways to figure that out, but the pain of me living there. So I've had certain traumatic experiences, but not in the way of what we again perceive as something serious or endangerment or abuse. Right, I didn't have that. I didn't have a dad, but again living. I was born in Soviet Union, so it was a very, very kind of poor life, but I never felt like it was poor. But again, we didn't really have much. So living there and my mom was dealing with a lot of things too. So that started my kind of feelings of hopelessness initially, which again I was addressing. Still till today I'm still working on that to address those feelings, because that's how deep our childhood traumas can be. And when I moved here my first romantic relationship was abusive. It was a sexual abuse.

Speaker 1: 23:37

It was domestic violence.

Speaker 2: 23:38

It was a lot of really really tough experiences.

Speaker 2: 23:41

And that was a very big thing to overcome for myself and it started. I've spent quite some time in the victim mode myself and trying to figure out life and turning to substance use and struggling with depression and anxiety and whatever you can think of it was a bouquet of different things, but help comes in many different shapes and forms and I was able to navigate it, first from a standpoint of my health and first attempt of quitting drinking and working on my mental state and clearing out my mind completely, changing the mindset. There's one quote that I always love to provide from Albert Einstein we can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it. If we're remaining in the same mind, nothing is going to change. But if I start to take different actions, make different steps, if I begin to look for different ways and different information and talking to different people getting out of different social circles too, so I feel like that's the first step of beginning to address how we think, and so that was my first step.

Speaker 2: 24:45

But again, it didn't kind of. It was a long time for me to be working through that as well, and that gave me a lot of freedom to to choose how I respond to things, to become a different version of myself, improved version, and the next step was spirituality. That was the next way for me to, or the next, you know, kind of journey to address and to find deeper meaning of my traumatic experiences. And that's what gave me even more kind of understanding of traumas and understanding how we can feel after we make peace with it. Because I feel like the natural progression of that is to look back and to be, in certain ways, to see positive aspects of that traumatic experience and how it was on my development.

Speaker 2: 25:33

And then finding and saying you know what, what? Because of that I am where I am today and so I'm grateful that I had that, because it brought me here and I feel like this is the healing we seek. I mean, we can't say I'm happy about that and I can't say that, you know, I would wish that on anybody, of course not. But I'm happy that I am here now because it led me to this mission to be on purpose, to be of service, and I found this new meaning of that and that was a spiritual aspect of that. And now, from the last couple of years, actually it was more of the addressing physiology, because this was the new step of that.

Speaker 2: 26:05

And again, trauma was not already affecting me in that way, but I've discovered more aspects of the trauma that I never addressed away. But I've discovered more aspects of the trauma that I never addressed. And so that became my next kind of journey as well, with EMDR and processing and working with somatic kind of exercises to really navigate the physiology of it and to look different, to begin to break down those neural connections that have been created for decades of my life. So, yeah, there was a lot of steps to that, even though the whole experience was probably 15 years ago. So, yeah, there was a lot of steps to that, even though the whole experience was probably 15 years ago.

Speaker 1: 26:36

So yeah, wow. So can you explain a little further some specific, the specific techniques that help, that can help people heal from trauma, such as, like the different types of therapies, such as some asthmatic therapy or logo therapy or any, or, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 27:11

Right Of, of course. So I would start with something that I feel like we need to address before we move into, like those more subtle and more deeper parts of ourselves is our mind, and I feel like navigating and becoming more aware of what kind of thought patterns we have, because naturally we're creatures of habits and the mind is the first thing that gets influenced, and it gets influenced pretty quickly because we're always on the phone, we're always on media. You know we're a lot of people watch tv and garbage in, garbage out. If that's what I take in, then my thoughts will be influenced by that information and becoming more aware how that information also serves me in navigating the struggles that I may have right. Maybe it's adding me to feel more agitator, feel more unsafe or feel more angry, and I feel like again becoming more aware of our mind processes altogether, and that's what CBT allows us to accomplish. It's looking at how our cognition, our beliefs, can affect our lives, and so the moment we become more aware of what's going on in our mind, our beliefs can affect our lives, and so the moment we become more aware of what's going on in our mind because naturally in our lives our mind is the only thing we have control over, and I know we're all control freaks and we want to predict everything we have scheduled or, you know, scheduled for months ahead, but we can do nothing about it if something goes sideways. So I feel like navigating.

Speaker 2: 28:30

Navigating, becoming more aware, becoming your best friend in your mind and knowing how to lift you up, how to get you through the struggle. Learning the stress, tolerance, tolerance skills, right, becoming more again hands-on, having tools, the mental health tools that can allow you to really say a, b, c, d. This is what I'm doing when I'm start to feel low. Right, because naturally every emotional experience comes from our thoughts or the triggers of physiology. So there are a few components. But naturally is, what meaning do I give to the situation? What do I think that means to me, what just happened? And everybody will have a different perception of the same thing. So, becoming again more aware of is my perspective on at life or of life, is it healing me or killing me?

Speaker 2: 29:16

because, sometimes when we have one event and I look at it and I'm completely destroyed by that, or I see an opportunity in that. So you know what, in spite of that, I'm gonna, I'm gonna master myself, I'm gonna have a different reaction to that or response. Rather, I'm not gonna have a reaction, I'm gonna have a response. So I feel like starting with mind and anything that will help anybody to become your own best friend, to know what, what responses you have naturally to a lot of things that happen in life, and that would be number one, right. Uh, moving deeper again, and that's going to be mind and emotions together, because naturally we'll find a way to kind of feel differently, because I choose to think differently. Also, practicing more of a mindfulness meditation, anything that gives you that control over your mind too, because naturally, if you're able to be more in tune with how you react to things, then it's more likely than in triggering situation you'll have a little more control over that. The logotherapy that you mentioned is beautiful, beautiful, um, existential therapy or existential approach, right is again, it's finding that deeper meaning of that, and I think it's more of a spiritual kind of perspective. Maybe that can come even after we address more physiological things with somatic and EMDR right, but logotherapy it's a created art piece for society by Viktor Frankl, who went through Holocaust, he was a Holocaust survivor and he created this amazing book and the technique in general for therapeutic world. And that's a beautiful gift to just explore and how to make sense of your trauma right without being a victim, or even if you are a victim, right but not see yourself as such, because naturally it's how we see I can become the master of myself going through something like this and, you know, find a blessing in anything, and that's what he, I feel like, proved to the world that we can too. The physiological component as the next part of that.

Speaker 2: 31:14

Um, so everything that we experience in life, naturally it's not going to be just a mental process, like if we think back and even when we're watching a movie, if we're watching a scary movie, we get scared, not just mentally, we really feel scared. We have heart palpitations, we have shaking, we may have indigestion, we have response of the body. So anytime we experience anything, our neurons fire and wire together, creating neural connections within ourselves, whether it's good or bad. But underneath that is what we don't know is that there is either a negative or positive belief about yourself and when we have a very distressing experience as childs, as children or as adults as well, it doesn't matter where we are. The neurons will find we are together, creating this connection, and from this point on we may attract or go through experiences that will reaffirm this connection. And so if we're children going through that and we have this negative neural network that continues to form, then it may start to affect me from that point on as a child.

Speaker 2: 32:13

And imagine if you're three or four and you have a negative belief about yourself internally, that I'm not safe, people can't be trusted. How is it going to impact a child going into school? Right, you're not going to be making connections, you're not going to be taking new opportunities. You'll probably be more reserved or antisocial, whatever you know, we label kids nowadays so much in schools too, with all sorts of problems. But the problem can be that the child is struggling something from even before that school and maybe there's something that he needs to address, or he or she.

Speaker 2: 32:43

And so that's what EMDR now and somatic work allows us to do is to become more aware of our physiology and practicing we have this term that's called interception. It's learning to be aware of the bodily sensations, learning to be inside of your body and to not want it to get out or feeling uncomfortable, and learning to self-regulate by being inside too. And that's what somatic work offers us to do right. It's allowing us to really observe, even when I'm talking about something distressing, and if I'm able to maintain the level, that's what somatic work offers us to do right. It's allowing us to really observe, even when I'm talking about something distressing, and if I'm able to maintain the level of relaxation within my body, I'm not going to have a symptom of PTSD or anxiety. And now we have a proof for that. So you can't have anxiety, stress or PTSD symptoms in relaxed physiology.

Speaker 2: 33:30

So the stress that we experience, it's not just the mental thing, it's literally constriction of our muscles within our body, because naturally, that's what happens when we think about something traumatic, because our thoughts do not, our mind does not distinguish something we observe in reality or something we think about or something we witness on the TV.

Speaker 2: 33:47

And that's exactly why we're able to watch you know, watch movies and enjoy them, not to think okay, this is special effects, this is this, this is an actor. We really get scared, we get really immersed into this experience exactly for that reason, because our brains do not distinguish something like that from reality to non-reality, and so all of these things that we watch or listen to or think about, especially when it comes to our past, can trigger physiological response just like we used to have back in the day. And then we're surprised that again. Why am I feeling so bad right now? What's happening right now? Of course, that's what I was thinking and I'm going backwards with my mind and I have the results of it in this point, here and now.

Speaker 2: 34:30

So why do I choose that? But but again, there's so many steps to that before we even dive deeper into the physiology right, getting becoming more aware. So, yeah, there is a lot, there's it's a lot of work, and I know it's. It's hard to do it, but it's so worth it if we allow ourselves to really become a new person. If I want to change who I am, if I really, if I'm hungry for that, if I'm tired living where I was living, then it's worth it. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Speaker 1: 35:03

Yeah, yeah um, I know that uh um, I was reading um within your uh bio that you've explored also different types of alternative approaches in helping with trauma healing, such as plant medicine and light therapy and sound healing energy work, so can you expound on that? How does that help with trauma healing, especially with the plant?

Speaker 2: 35:57

with the plant. Oh yeah, that's a that's a big one to cover again. So, um, let me start that with sound healing, light therapy and energy work. It's something that I did, I did and I do for a while. I love it and it all started with plant medicine as well, but this is something that I do provide.

Speaker 2: 36:10

Currently is the again, sound healing sound healing, pandora star it's. It's a light therapy, it's a strobing light. It's not for everybody because there are certain contraindications to that, but it helps to people to learn how to meditate and also there's so many benefits to that producing different serotonin and dopamine and endorphins through certain settings that it has allowing the brain again going dopamine and endorphins through certain settings. That it has allowing the brain again going into different brainwave length because of that strobing light. But you're sitting with your eyes closed and it goes. The light goes through the redness of your eyes and kind of affects your brain. It's actually used in clinical. Um, there was lucia star. That's the one that's used in clinical trials and in clinical settings too. It has helps with performance, with cognitive functions, with insomnia, with hormones, with so many depression, anxiety, of course, and so many different benefits of that.

Speaker 2: 36:59

But I feel like it's fascinating. I feel like it's more productive together with sound healing, because sound healing is another beautiful modality that allows to. Also because, again, again, everything within our body, uh, vibrates. Every single cell has a vibration but when we?

Speaker 2: 37:15

experience pain or stress or things of that nature. The parts of the body where that's happening is becoming incoherent, the energy within our field, and you know how sometimes we can see people walking in the room and maybe they don't look anything special but we naturally feel drawn to them, or the opposite, we can be really like wanting to get away, even though the person didn't say or do anything yet. Right, we're reading their vibes. We're natural telepathic and empathic humans and we forget that we read energy and we should be much more in tune with our energetic capabilities, so to say Right, but not often we can really distinguish that capabilities, so to say right, but not often we can really distinguish that. Sometimes we have those experiences that really show us how well we can feel someone right and it's a beautiful experience. But naturally, again, it takes sometimes time because our mind can overpower a lot of energetic kind of fluidity that we may have within our body and so sound healing allows to penetrate, especially if it's done in a closed room and and the sound bounces off the walls, penetrating the body and shifting that vibration, changing that vibration from that incoherent to more coherent. And actually I've done this classes in rehab, even in detox and seeing people struggling with withdrawal symptoms. That had beautiful experiences and they were able to fall asleep. If they couldn't sleep, they stopped having anxiety for the time of the session. They even didn't have certain sensations that were bothering them, like pain right. A lot of people go through pain too, so it was a very it was incredible to see what that practice can do alone in itself, with a little bit of meditation, of guiding them and energy work.

Speaker 2: 38:51

We have Reiki, we have other types of energies that people can also find within themselves. It's just connecting more, and your spiritual practice should be one of the important things of your life, to be supported, to go in and tune in. However you do it, whether it's you have a religion that you belong to and congregation or you do meditation. All of those practices are spiritual in nature, especially if we use them as such. You know, we can really connect with the deeper parts of ourselves, that energy that runs through all of our bodies right now, right as we speak. We're so fortunate to be able to have this conversation today, and why? Because we have this essence within ourselves, this energy that's still running this body. That's why we're still alive. We're not the bodies, we're that essence and um, plant medicine oh, that's cool. Another beast, I would say I've. Um, that was the second stage and that's that that.

Speaker 2: 39:44

I mentioned the spiritual kind of development for me. Again, I make, uh, the statement clear here it's not for. So I feel like it's important to seek professional advice before you go into something like this and again consulting with yourself and, again, your medical providers. For me, that was a life changing experience that I never expected that would be so, and working with ayahuasca, that was the medicine that was still with me from 2017. I've done a lot, of, a lot of work on myself with that and also studied with shamans and was fortunate to be able to serve as well in that setting, and it was incredible experience. Uh it.

Speaker 2: 40:26

It changed everything for me personally and I call it they call it in circles too.

Speaker 2: 40:32

It's terribly beautiful.

Speaker 2: 40:34

It's gonna be rough to be going through that, but it's so, so healing and it's so beautiful to be able to get that level of healing that's so deep inside of ourselves and also so far out of ourselves too, because there's a lot of spiritual kind of wisdom that we received from that and understanding that probably we won't have the imagination enough as humans to really experience what we are fortunate sometimes to experience through those kind of ceremonies.

Speaker 2: 41:02

So that was a huge, huge experience for me, and it helped people integrate too. If they're struggling with something or they want to integrate their experience from the medicine, I'm usually there and supporting them through that and providing the education that I know about it and that I was taught, and I'm trying to be available for that as well. So it's a beautiful experience. If anybody you know are called to go for that, yes, just verifying that it's safe for you personally to do that. But if it's something that you can, then and you want to, it's it's definitely an experience that can make a lot of impact in a positive way. Okay, okay, okay um.

Speaker 1: 41:44

So how, um Moving forward? What are some daily habits or mindset shifts that help people stay resilient in their healing journey, as far as trying to heal from their trauma?

Speaker 2: 42:11

Well, I think we're all going to have a different protocol for that. I feel like, starting with three areas it's mental, emotional, rather mental spiritual and physical, because, again, emotional will follow if we have those three. And learning. Number one being open to everything. Because I feel like if we're not open to trying new things and willing to integrate that and being ready to really dedicate ourselves to this new routine, because again you're breaking yourself, you're breaking your cycles, you're breaking your patterns. It's not for everybody. I know a lot of people who get stuck for much longer than what they can get stuck for, right, because again it's a rough. It has to be commitment. We have to be committed to this change. But I feel like navigating number one, the mental area, right, the mental part of it, again. What do we watch? What do we listen to? Who is in our circle too? Who is the person that I consult with and do they make me feel great, right or not? If it's not that, then maybe we should change the circle as well.

Speaker 2: 43:15

Positive affirmations, gratitude journal has been proven to be to increase mood, to improve mood and to improve sleep as well through studies, right, so there's always that scientific basis for those things that I usually recommend to people. Meditation can be another one, right, I feel like anything that will help to domesticate your mind, because our minds are often this wild horse that's jumping everywhere. I always give this metaphor and so first we'll need to domesticate this horse so that it serves me well, so that I can use this horse to work for me, and that will again include scheduling those activities out and staying consistent with that, and it doesn't take too much time. Journaling is another one, right. So people have to try what works for them and then be consistent too. But to give it a not just well, I tried it once. Yeah, I have a lot of people say well, meditation doesn't work for me. Of course it doesn't work because it takes time. It works if you work it, if you stay consistent with that, then you're able to gain those benefits.

Speaker 2: 44:20

Second one physical. I feel like having dedication and starting small. You don't have to start big, but, if you want to, again taking that class because life is movement. So if I allow myself to move, whether it's yoga, whether it's trying completely new things, a new class, maybe going to the gym, signing, signing up for that, maybe taking walks outside, starting again, something that's easy, that doesn't create a conflict with your responsibilities, because I know people can have kids, they can have, you know, spouses, jobs that are very demanding. So I feel like adding small bits and pieces into that can be a very good beginning and spiritual component for sure for me.

Speaker 2: 44:52

Again, not again, not, I know some people may not agree with that, and that's fine. I feel like meditation can afford us to experience some of the spiritual kind of aspects of life as well, but I had it. For me, connecting with my higher power made so much difference and every single night I'm on my knees on the floor right next to my altar and I'm praying, I meditate, I'm doing all of the things that I know are good for me, just like I brush my teeth and I always say you know, when we don't want to commit to something, are you brushing your teeth regularly? People are like well, of course we have to have enough energy to give ourselves our higher self some time out of the day too, and I feel like that can create a better connection with you as well with yourself, if we align with, again, our spiritual nature.

Speaker 1: 45:39

Right, right, okay. So, um, what are some of the biggest uh making misconceptions about, about trauma and healing, that you would like to debunk?

Speaker 2: 45:54

Well, number one is one size doesn't fit all. Sometimes we have to do some soul searching in order to find either a professional that we can align with Cause I actually that was my own experience too, when I went for therapy for the first time and the person did not understand me at all. I was like, well, this is all BS, I'm not going to even continue because all of the therapists will be like that. That's a huge misconception. Just like we find again professionals that clean our houses, doing our nails, doing our hair right. We have to find the right person. It's not going to be probably the first person we go to that we stick with for a while.

Speaker 2: 46:31

Sometimes we have to do some soul searching in other areas or you know people can relate to, maybe like finding babysitters for their kids too. Right, it's going to. It's going to take some time. So I feel like number one is giving it a try and also not giving up right away. Give it some time, try different things, contact someone with it for a consultation, get their kind of what they're doing, how they are, see if you guys can connect first, and also, again, not giving up with just trying one modality that you're given I feel like giving it a little more time, because trying doesn't mean I did it once and it doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. I mean you go to the gym one and then once, and then you think you're going to have a killer body until the end of the year. No right, consistency is the key.

Speaker 2: 47:19

So if you stay consistent with that, it's going to start giving us those benefits. That's number one. Number two trauma does not have to be something that you experienced. That was either near-death experience or sexual abuse.

Speaker 2: 47:33

Sometimes traumas can be a lot of other things. For instance, again, not getting proper care by your parent or caregiver, not getting your needs met as a child too. That can lead to really severe kind of consequences in adulthood. So, again, consulting and going over with a professional of your experiences if you feel like there may be something there in your childhood but you just can't pinpoint because there was no abuse, it doesn't mean that you didn't have trauma. So I feel like looking deeper into that and getting more literature too, getting more educated on that too, for yourself.

Speaker 2: 48:06

If you don't want to consult with professionals at this point yet, yeah, and just again, just being ready to address that. We have to be really hungry to change, because it's going to be quite a fight and you will be fighting yourself and that's a hard one. But if you win over this fight, you will win all of the other fights that come afterwards, because you will know yourself so well that you cannot trick yourself, you cannot lie to yourself, you're honest and open and you can look at yourself objectively and say okay, I really I definitely need to change this trait right now. I definitely want to change that and I need to change that and I'm ready to change that and start doing these adjustments in my schedule, in myself and my patterns, in order to have a different result.

Speaker 1: 48:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Um definitely feel that. So um uh, in closing, um, this has been a really good episode, um, to address trauma, and I definitely actually want to continue talking on trauma and definitely wanting to do a part two on this, and I would love for you to come back and to be a part of a panel that I'm going to put together, so would you do that?

Speaker 2: 49:31

With my honor and pleasure, everything I'm with you for sure.

Speaker 1: 49:35

Thank you, thank you so much, thank you so much. So, yeah, I feel like that this topic is such a big topic and that leads to so many other subtopics that people are dealing with and I definitely want to address more on this specific topic. So, yeah, I'm definitely going to put together a panel so we can continue this conversation and I really just thank you for coming on to the podcast and just sharing your knowledge, sharing your story, and I'm just very appreciative. Thank you so much, thank you.

Speaker 2: 50:24

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's an honor and pleasure.

Speaker 1: 50:29

So any final words of advice to any listeners that are listening to this episode that is struggling with trauma and they've heard this episode but they're just still on the fence about it. So any you know, final words of encouragement.

Speaker 2: 50:52

So, any, you know. Final words of encouragement yeah Well, number one, you're not alone. Again, there are a lot of people that are struggling, and being in this field showed me how all of us are more alike than we think. And even though nobody will understand you 100% it's impossible we can get close to it by asking questions, by being there, of course, but nobody will really really feel what you're feeling. You can change that, it's possible. There is a way out. You can do. You. You will be able.

Speaker 2: 51:20

If you do the work, you will be able to change how you feel and how you experience life, and your life can be better. It's, it's possible, it's there, I've it, I've seen people doing it and again, it's. The credit always goes to the person who is doing the work. Even when I work with people, I give the information. What they do with that, it's up to them, and some people take it and they heal. Some people don't Right, but you can heal. It's possible, I've seen it, and it doesn't have to be that way. So just, there is hope, there is light and you can do it.

Speaker 1: 51:56

Yeah, yeah. And I just want to say one thing just don't be afraid to let people in. Don't be afraid to let people in and to allow people to help you within your journey. And again, like you said, you're not alone. So, yeah, definitely with that, don't be afraid and don't feel ashamed of whatever you've gone through, whether it's small or large, you know it's still your trauma, is still your journey and again, you don't have to do it alone.

Speaker 2: 52:39

Yes, beautiful.

Speaker 1: 52:42

So, um, thank you again for coming on and, uh, listeners, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this episode and we are definitely going to come back for a part two series. So, definitely, um, y'all tune into that and um, until next time. We'll see you guys later. Thank you, my listeners, and y'all listen to my outro music, you.