In today’s episode of the Beats and Balance Podcast, host Tinora Locke- Terrefe sits down with Lyssa Bastet — a queer mother, poet, spiritualist, and community organizer — for a deeply moving conversation about mental health, generational trauma, and the power of emotional vulnerability.

Lyssa shares her journey growing up in Atlantic City, navigating homelessness, institutionalization, and mental health challenges, and how those lived experiences shaped her path toward healing and spiritual practice. Together, they explore the realities of surviving social service systems, the long shadow of generational trauma, and what it takes to interrupt cycles of harm for ourselves and future generations.

This episode is a powerful reflection on storytelling as medicine, vulnerability as strength, and healing as a communal act — not a solitary one. Lyssa speaks candidly about motherhood, spirituality, and the responsibility of creating safer, more honest spaces for marginalized people to exist fully and authentically.

About the guest:

Lyssa Bastet is a queer mother, poet, spiritualist, and active community member. She uses her lived experience with homelessness, mental illness, and systemic barriers to create spaces where others can draw power from vulnerability. Through spoken word, tarot readings, and community organizing, Lyssa works toward a world where marginalized beings can be their complete selves.

Support Lyssa’s work and follow her journey: linktr.ee/LyssaBastet

If this conversation resonates, consider supporting Lyssa on Patreon and subscribing to her YouTube channel to help sustain her healing-centered work.

More from Beats & Balance: linktr.ee/beatsnbalance