Emily Souder, LCSW-C, PMH-C is a licensed clinical social worker in Maryland (www.emilysouder.com), as well as a writer, intuitive guide, and Reiki Master practitioner. She writes books to help readers find space to explore personal stories. She wrote Birth Story Brave in 2017 to walk parents through reflecting on their birth experiences, and published an updated version of this called Birth Story Brave, Reimagined in 2021. Her book Sparks is a self-help/memoir blend designed to inspire readers to intentionally step away from fear-based actions and move toward amusement, inner knowing, and trust. Emily's newest book, Birth Story Held for Loss, is a special space for readers who have experienced perinatal loss to explore their pregnancy/gestation, birth, and loss stories.

Emily is married with two children and loves tea & all things personal growth. She believes in doing deep personal healing work, and hopes you will join her.

Join Tekla's conversation with Emily, full of so many topics, including healing from birth loss and birth trauma through storytelling. Tekla & Emily have known each other for over a decade and have shared a similar healing journey- they have so much to share about:

Connect with Emily and buy her books! 

 website (www.emilysouder.com) 

IG (@overstimulated.mom.therapist) 

email: [email protected]

Her page on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B079KH4NDZ?ingress=0&visitId=6f352425-8fd6-46a9-80e3-49fda8fd55ce

Miranda McDaniel is no stranger to diverse groups of people, progressive minds and inclusive ways of being. Born and raised in the California Bay Area, she grew up rooted in communities that embraced these values, which served as the catalyst in wanting to create similar spaces and experiences for others. Miranda has received and led training in Restorative Practices, has served as an adult trainer in Be the Change Youth Development curriculum, and later went on to work as a CalSAC trainer and Chapter Representative. Now living in the Tampa Bay Area, Miranda works to create community and sisterhood through co-leading Black Girl Boss, a networking group for Black women entrepreneurs in the St. Pete area, and helps companies with their strategic DEI initiatives with The Unpacked Project. She looks forward to challenging the status quo by utilizing her voice to educate allies and shed light on social inequities across marginalized groups of people. 

Join the conversation with Tekla and Miranda, including Miranda’s experience in DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and Restorative Practices work, especially inviting in white women to the work- not only why they need to be doing the work, but HOW. Miranda’s past podcast, The Unpacked Project, is full of great information and conversations about why white women especially need to be aware of their own bias, internal racism and how to effectively make change, through their own internal work and learning. 

Tekla and Miranda discuss:

A bit about Tekla’s journey doing the internal work that is antiracism work, and how she has worked to release white guilt and fragility to be able to talk about these topics and invite more white women into the conversation.

Miranda’s experience of being a WOC and teacher, educating allies and white women, and how she does not take on the labor, but educates and opens the eyes to those wanting to re-educate themselves. 

Miranda’s self- care practices, including the power of journaling, and how she made choices to take herself out of the grind culture that was not supporting her highest self.

Miranda’s approach to building bridges through her education and coaching work.

The info-guides Miranda created, and places to start with antiracism work, More than Just an Ally and The Basics of Bias- and how she has seen these starting places support people on their journey. 

The observation of the expansion of DEI work in 2020 and how in the past 2 years the support has dwindled- and how to keep doing the work even when it isn't as "popular" and the importance of the work.

They discuss Tekla’s aversion to social media and Miranda shares the ways that she supports and helps entrepreneurs to use social media, giving some helpful tips and how she can be a great support to entrepreneurs. Contact Miranda for a discount for listeners of this show! 

How to connect with Miranda:

[email protected]

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesocialcontentlab

Podcast The Unpacked Project: Join us in crucial conversations that will challenge barriers to equity and inspire action towards a more compassionate and inclusive future.

On Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2VQqzg4gHbtwvCrOjEsyIJ?si=c4e9db0ebace42da

Black Girl Boss- Community & Sisterhood Entrepreneur Group for Black Women in the Tampa Bay/St. Pete, FL area-, find them on Facebook: Black Girl Boss

Tonja Reichley shares her journey of her pull to Ireland as a teenager, and how when she finally visited Ireland in her 30s, she knew she had to return. Her journey of returning, of learning and becoming an herbalist and teacher. She now lives in western Ireland and leads pilgrimages with people who want to connect with the land in a spiritual and ancestral way, to heal and connect to the ancestors before there was the label and construct of whiteness. Tekla will be leading a retreat/pilgrimage to Ireland September 15-22, 2025 with Tonja - details coming soon at teklacayers.com. Throughout this episode, Tekla and Tonja discuss:

More about Tonja: She is a tender of hearths.  She tends to the hearth of her home in Kinvara Ireland where she welcome pilgrims and hold sacred space for guests. She tends the hearth of community, of the Earth, of the Cailleach, who guides her way on.  She tends to the hearth of her ancestor’s, the nameless ones who through the mists of time have created herbal remedies, as she does.  She tends to the hearth of the wise woman, the bean feasa, the hag, the crone, the witch, those who ever seek, as does she, to live outside of dominant culture with values of sovereignty, simplicity and participation.  She tends to the hearth of storytelling, sharing the myths of her heritage through lived experience and story, keeping them vibrant and relevant and ever new. She is a student and teacher of herbal remedies and of the Irish Wisdom Tradition, as she has for over 20 years.  Her legacy to these learnings includes her Way of Brighid Oracle Cards, honoring Irish goddess and saint Brighid, her book Wild Irish Roots: A Seasonal Guidebook of Herbs, Ritual and Connection.  Her latest culmination project, released November 2022, is The Way of the Wild, An Oracle Experience into the Irish Wisdom Tradition.

Connect with Tonja here:

www.dancingwiththewild.com- her website

https://tonjareichley.substack.com/- her Substack- subscribe to receive her daily sacred act haikus seasonal spellbooks

https://www.instagram.com/tonjareichley- her instagram

We talked about White Supremacy Culture and the incredible resource of https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/ and invite you to explore.

The Be Rooted podcast returns from a brief break with Tekla sharing a solo podcast about how she learned to do the work that she does, because it can be challenging to say in just a few words what work she does. She shares the highlights of her education of the past 15 years and how she brings her own healing and education to her students and 1:1 clients. She explains how Reiki isn't "just an energetic healing practice" and how she integrates somatic awareness and healing, and how intuitive work supports to release trauma from the body. She shares how her own education has trained her to hold space for others and how she teaches others to do the same with somatic and energetic awareness. Tekla appreciates you taking the time to listen, to hopefully get a better idea of what she brings to clients and students.

Tekla is grateful to her teachers over the years and for how they have supported her to integrate her practices to be able to be a healing presence and space holder for others.

You can read more about Tekla's teachers and mentors here: https://www.teklacayers.com/gratitude-to-my-teachers/

Please sign up for Tekla's newsletters on her website, as she is not on social media and her newsletter and this podcast are her ways of connecting! https://www.teklacayers.com/

You can schedule a free 30 minute phone call with Tekla here if you have any interest in working with her: https://calendly.com/teklacayers/free-call

Crystal Chinn is a Japanese American raised in Honolulu, HI, and who found Reiki to support her grief from 3 miscarriages. Through this conversation, Crystal shares her journey discovering Reiki and the Reiki lifestyle, including meditation, trust in her intuition, and letting go of the corporate grind culture. She is one of Tekla's students who has moved into sharing distance Reiki and teaching Reiki. She discovered Crystal Singing Bowl Healing by following her intuition, which she learned to listen to and trust, through her years of practicing daily self-Reiki, receiving Reiki and sharing Reiki with others. Listen for stories of Crystal's journey with Reiki including:

More about Crystal and how to connect with her:

Crystal Chinn is a Japanese American born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and currently resides in Colorado with her husband and 3 daughters. She found Reiki about 5 years ago after struggling with multiple miscarriages and fertility struggles. Her initial journey with Reiki was for self-healing purposes and she quickly fell in love with the community of people and was shocked to experience the level of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing from Reiki. When the pandemic hit, she started practicing Distance Reiki on family and friends and soon fell more in love with the power and simplicity of energy healing. Crystal specializes in Distance Reiki and works with clients over the phone and incorporates powerful meditations and visualizations to intensify the Reiki experience for her clients. Through this journey and with the assistance of Reiki energy, Crystal has learned to incorporate sound healing into her Reiki practice with Crystal Singing Bowls, and now offers group sound bath sessions in her community. Her goal is to empower her clients to take charge of their own energy with the blessings of Reiki and Sound Healing by teaching them about energetic boundaries, awareness and incorporating daily meditation practices to strengthen their mind, body and spirit. 

Tekla's incredibly talented podcast producer and friend, Carin Huebner, joins Be Rooted today to share her stories and her journey of healing. There is a lot of reflecting on the past and growing up in the grind culture, how it affects mental, physical and spiritual health. Carin also shares her journey with healing religious trauma, and her wisdom from being a spiritual director for 8 years. Listen with the amusement and laughter that Carin brings to the conversation, and how an open mind to different ways of healing can bring even more healing!

Specifically they discuss:

Tekla is grateful to have Carin as her podcast producer and highly recommends scheduling a call with her if you are at all interested in podcasting. Tekla would not be doing this without Carin's expertise and support. Carin is also an amazing artist, creator, and guide. Check out her websites about art, podcasting, and coaching here:

Website: https://www.carinhuebner.com/

Art Website: https://www.carinhuebner.art/

Instagram: @carinhuebner

CW: religious trauma and spiritual abuse

Dr. G (Dr. Giavanni Washington) joins Tekla to share her wisdom and knowledge, and her process of creating The Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck. Dr. G is on an ancestral mission to make the world safer for Black bodied people, and she is doing it through building community, her oracle deck, educating others, and one-on-one ancestral healing sessions. Listen to learn about her Oracle deck as we discuss:

More about Dr. G and how to connect:

Called to the medicine of ancestral restoration, Dr. Giavanni creates healing opportunities  to reconnect with lost histories and ignite hidden ancestral wisdom. Dedicated to amplifying Black Beauty, reconnecting to the deep roots of Black Divinity and encouraging the full expression of Black Joy, Dr Giavanni Washington's latest creative endeavor is the Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck.  Dr G, as she is affectionately known, is an intuitive healer, mother, speaker and spiritual guide who holds a doctorate from UCLA’s department of World Arts and Cultures and was recently selected for the California Creative Corps Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowship by the California Arts Council. 

Website: https://blackgoddesswithin.com

IG/TT: [email protected]

Learn all about The Black Goddess Within Oracle Deck here- you can even pull a card virtually on the website! Check it out, it is very cool- https://www.drgiavanniwashington.com/deck

Cynthia Taylor is in her second phase of life, with her grown children and husband supporting her as she is the new business owner of South Coast Organics & Bulk Foods in Wakefield, RI. She shares her journey of being a Child Life Specialist, while finding her own healing journey through the Applied Healing Arts program at the Tai Sophia Institute. She was Tekla's accountability buddy in graduate school and they share stories of learning how to be a healing presence. You can feel Cynthia's healing presence by listening to this conversation- be inspired by her experiences and storytelling as they discuss:

More about Cynthia:

Cynthia blessed to have a loving husband of 26 years, Will Taylor and two amazing adult children, Nick and Kaila Taylor. She earned my Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University in Child Development specialized in Child LIfe in 1997 and she earned her Masters of Arts degree from Tai Sophia University now known as Maryland University of Integrative Health in Applied Healing Arts in 2013. She worked as a Certified Child Life Specialist for 15 years at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore Maryland from 2006 - 2021. She started studying spiritual herbalism in 2020 with The Gaia School of Healing & Earth Education. She finished her first year certificate in 2022 mainly working on healing herself and family and in 2023 started working on year two on how to serve others. On her journey during and after Tai Sophia I earned my level 2 as a Reiki practitioner. Her life has taken her on an adventure from raising a family and working in western medicine in Pennsylvania and Maryland to downtown Wakefield Rhode Island owning an organic bulk food and herb shop, South Coast Organics & Bulk Foods, being a part of and serving a loving and nourishing community.

Connect with Cynthia:

South Coast Organics & Bulk Foods in Wakefield RI email is [email protected] and the web page is http://southcoastbulkfoods.com

Michele Bickley has practicing and teaching yoga and dance for over 20 years. She is an entrepreneur who continues to hold a kind and loving space for her students, in person, on zoom, on retreats, and in the public school classroom. She is a teacher with her own inspiring story of recovery, healing and growth through meditation, yoga and 12 step work. We dive into all these topics together. Join us as Michele holds an authentic and kind space with Tekla as they discuss:

More about Michele and how to connect with her:

Michele is in love with yoga and the art of sharing it creatively, in all areas of life…on and off the mat.

She grew up dancing and teaching in Baltimore (studied at Baltimore School for the Arts), then moved to L.A. in 1998 after receiving a degree in Fine Arts and Dance from SMU in Dallas, TX. While living in Los Angeles, Michele had the privilege of studying with some of the finest teachers on the planet.

In 2002, Michele co-founded Muv Dance and Yoga, an innovative arts organization that brought Yoga and Dance to hundreds of LA public schools, creating spaces for children to shine. She created the Yoga for the Classroom DVD that was used in schools all over the world.

Over the last decade, Michele has developed “Shake Your Shakti,” a Dance / Hip Hop Yoga Method that offers a style and space for people to experience high levels of joy, freedom, connectedness, and health.

Michele currently lives in Maryland where she is a proud mama of two lil’ yogis, teaches classes and workshops, leads retreats locally and internationally, and adores creating events to bring communities together to help promote peace on the planet.

Her passion for creating a safe space, nurturing the spirit, moving creatively, uncovering freedom in our body, and exploring the depths of this ancient yoga practice in an accessible way, are the foundations for her teaching.

Anyone can practice with Michele via her zoom classes :-)

LoveLifeYoga.org

Facebook: LoveLifeYogaWithMichele

Instagram: @YogaForRealLife

Twitter: @YogaForRealLife

Robyn Young shares deep wisdom through storytelling, to connect the listener with the philosophy and wisdom of 5 Element Acupuncture, which shows our human connection to the cycles of the seasons and the earth. She shares her experience being a mom, being a lifelong learner and someone who is in practice. She shares inspirational stories about the transformational practices she learned at the Tai Sophia Institute studying Applied Healing Arts, Acupuncture and Herbalism, and is where Tekla and Robyn met.

Topics that Robyn shares:

More about Robyn Young:

Robyn has more than 30 years’ experience educating and counseling women about reproductive health including contraception, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, post-partum care, transitioning into motherhood, and peri- and post-menopausal care. She also has extensive experience working with people in recovery from addiction, co-dependency, and trauma. Though she specializes in the care of women, Robyn is equally committed to providing a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment for all people regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, body size, socioeconomic status, and nature of illness. Using acupuncture, qi gong and the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, Robyn midwifes others through major transitions and developmental stages in their lives.

​Robyn holds masters degrees in Applied Healing Arts, Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, as well as a post-graduate certificate in Women’s Holistic Health from the Maryland Institute for Integrative Health (formerly Tai Sophia Institute). Her undergraduate degree is in Sociology and Family and Community Development from the University of Maryland. Robyn lives in Silver Spring with her family, and is a 20+ year veteran homeschooler/unschooler.

How to connect with Robyn:

Website: https://seasonsoflifeacupuncture.com/welcome

Email: [email protected]

Mama Love Collective for Healing Circles for Mothers: https://www.themamalovecollective.com/about.html