This week's Healing Her Story episode explores a phase that doesn't often get its own episode.

The waxing gibbous moon.

That last stretch between the first quarter moon and the full moon. The anticipatory energy right before the peak. And as we move through Libra season, this phase carries a really specific invitation, to create more balance and harmony before the bloom.

In this episode Riva shares three ways to work with this energy, drawing from her own very real and personal experience navigating hormonal symptoms, GI issues, headaches, and the choice to meet it all with curiosity instead of spiraling.

Notice — what keeps coming up in your body, your inner world, and the world around you. Research on serendipity shows that people who are more present are significantly more likely to act on meaningful coincidences and unexpected pathways.

Take it in as good information — nothing is inherently good or bad. It simply is what it is. Studies show that when we interpret challenge as information rather than threat, cortisol levels drop and our capacity for problem solving stays intact.

Calibrate — this is the week to make refinements before the full bloom arrives. Readjust a routine, shift a dynamic, change how you show up somewhere. The flower is right on the edge of opening.

Resources to Support You This Week 🌹🤲🏼

Somatic Breathing to Hear Your Body's Wisdom — this week's donation-based somatic meditation on Insight Timer.

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode arrives at a perfect bridge moment, between Virgo season's energy of clearing and Libra season's invitation into beauty and balance.

And today's guest has spent her life living at that exact intersection.

Paula Agudelo is an interior designer behind Sacred Interiors, helping women transform their homes into sanctuaries through intentional design and ritual. With 14 years in luxury interiors and two decades of metaphysical, psychological, and spiritual study, her work blends Feng Shui, the Bagua, ritual, and somatic awareness to help women create homes that mirror their truth and support who they're becoming.

Her path to this work came through loss. Her father was murdered when she was nine. And somehow, in the grief that followed, she turned to art, flowers, and rearranging furniture. Beauty became her first healing practice.

In this episode Riva and Paula explore:

What sacred actually means and why it has nothing to do with religion

Why your home is not just where your life happens but where your life is being created

The nine areas of the Bagua map and how each one connects to a different area of your life

Why clutter affects cortisol levels in women and what the science says about our environments and nervous system regulation

Creating containers for grief including a 20-minute timer practice that changed everything for Paula

Why systems are not the opposite of spirituality but the container that allows flow to happen

Practical rituals for busy women that have nothing to do with Pinterest perfection, fresh flowers, a clean stove, coffee in peace

This episode is for every woman who has ever felt like her home was holding her back instead of holding her up.

Connect with Paula Agudelo:

Website: sacredinteriors.design
Personal site: paulaagudelo.com
Book: House of Becoming — a poetry collection exploring the soul of the home and how to create sacred space for yourself
Instagram: @sacredinteriors
Resource: The Feng Shui Bagua Map

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

Libra season is here, and with it comes one of the most meaningful invitations of the year. As we step into the waxing moon and welcome the energy of Libra, this week's Cycle Sync episode explores what balance actually means, not as a fixed point we're meant to hold perfectly, but as a constant, gentle recalibration as we move through our lives. If this year has felt intense, fast-moving, or just a little too much, this episode is for you.

In this episode, you'll explore:

⚖️ Why balance is not a fixed point and the beautiful walking metaphor that reframes everything

⚖️ How the waxing moon and follicular phase call for tenderness and intentionality, not hustle, and the science behind why pushing through doesn't always get us there faster

⚖️ Why building pause into your day is one of the most productive things you can do for your nervous system and your creativity

⚖️ How play, real, agenda-free play, is essential for creativity, resilience, and emotional regulation according to research

⚖️ What co-creation actually looks like in practice and how to stop trying to do it all alone

And more.

Enjoying the show? 
🌹🤲🏼

We are approaching our two-year point with Healing Her Story, and this show is truly a labor of love. If these episodes have been supporting you in any way, one of the most meaningful things you can do is leave a rating and review or share this episode with a friend. That is how this show grows, and growing this show means reaching more women who need it.

Thank you so much for being here. It truly means everything. 

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode touches on something that doesn't get talked about enough on the healing journey.

How much are you allowing yourself to be supported?

As Riva continues through Virgo season, the season of the helper, this solo episode explores what happens when service to others becomes a way of avoiding our own needs. And why so many women, especially those in caregiving roles, have never learned how to truly receive.

In this episode Riva explores hyper-independence not as a personality trait but as a trauma response, one that forms when early bids for connection were met with inconsistency or unavailability. She shares her own memory of being told to brush off her feelings as a child, and how that small moment shaped the way she related to her own needs for years.

She covers why we build our worth around how much we give, the research on co-regulation and why healing in relationship shifts the nervous system in seconds, why our relationships naturally begin to change as we heal, and why women especially need reciprocal connection to thrive.

This episode is for every woman who gives endlessly and quietly wonders why no one ever asks how she is doing.

Resources to Support You This Week:

Fighting for Our Friendships by Danielle Barrard Jackson — the book anchoring Riva's women's circle, The Spiral

Learn More About The Spiral — Riva's women's group in Sacramento, closing September 22nd

Book Your Complimentary Get-To-Know-You Call

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode arrives at a potent moment.

Eclipse season is ending. A new cycle is beginning. And whatever the past several weeks stirred up in you is now ready to be honored and released.

As Riva closes out Virgo season's ritual series, this episode offers three new moon practices to help you reset, restore, and prepare for the cycle ahead.

Setting intentions — not just from the mind, but from the body and the heart. Riva shares the research on the default mode network and why the new moon is scientifically the perfect condition for deeper knowing to emerge.

Smoke cleansing — and an honest conversation about cultural appropriation, why sourcing consciously matters, and how to honor the indigenous roots of this practice rather than bypassing them.

Working with your menstrual blood — the one nobody talks about. Riva shares what emerging research is revealing about menstrual blood, why our conditioning to hide it runs so deep, and simple ways to begin coming into relationship with it if you feel called.

This episode is an invitation to begin again. Slowly. With intention.

Resources to Support You This Week:

New Moon Somatic Breathwork Meditation — a meditation to support you in slowing down and dropping into deeper layers of yourself.

Ethically Sourced Smudge Bundles — consciously sourced smoke cleansing herbs to support your ritual practice

Cycle Support Map — a $4.95 PDF guide breaking down the four phases of the cycle, their connection to the seasons, and weekly somatic meditations for one full cycle

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode welcomes a guest whose work carries a quality Riva noticed the moment she found her online.

Spaciousness. Gentleness. Softness.

Ana Uribe is a trauma therapist, compassionate inquiry practitioner, trauma-informed embodiment facilitator, and passionate advocate for plant medicine integration. Her work centers on helping people find inner safety in their bodies and nervous systems so they can heal and live with more connection, joy, and freedom.

As Riva moves through Virgo season, the season of systems, this conversation arrives at exactly the right time.

In this episode they explore why listening is the system, how to build structures that create flow rather than rigidity, and what it looks like to shift from systems built for survival to systems built for nourishment. They also explore why focusing on your closer concentric rings, yourself, your people, your community, may create more ripple than trying to change everything at once.

This episode is a slow, spacious breath for anyone ready to build something new from the inside out.

Connect with Ana Uribe:

Website: ana-uribe.com
Instagram: @ana_uribe_embodiment

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode attunes to one of Riva's favorite phases of the entire cycle.

The waning moon.

And one of the biggest missed opportunities we have as women.

We live in a culture that rewards producing, pushing, and performing. But the female body was never designed to operate that way all the time. During the premenstrual and waning moon phase, progesterone and estrogen decline, serotonin shifts, and the nervous system's capacity for stress significantly decreases.

That is not a flaw. That is female physiology.

In this episode Riva shares three rituals to honor this quieter, slower, more inward time, and the research that shows why honoring it actually matters.

Honoring dying flowers — why placing wilting blooms on display during the waning moon reflects something profound back to us about our own worth in the slow seasons

Yoni steaming — an ancient practice Riva has been exploring for three years, how she uses it in the days before her bleed, and the unexpected emotional releases it has supported

Nesting — why the desire to declutter and tend to your space during this phase is not just in your head, backed by research showing cluttered environments elevate cortisol throughout the day

This episode is a reminder that the waning moon deserves to be honored. Not just the bloom.

Resources to Support You This Week:

Yoni Steaming — Bajo Ritual — learn more about the practice Riva shares in this episode

Best Herbs for Yoni Steaming — a guide to choosing the right herbal blend for your needs

Trauma-Informed Somatic Meditation for Rest and Restoration — this week's donation-based meditation on Insight Timer to support you in slowing down.

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode arrives with a phrase worth sitting with.

Your body isn't a problem to optimize.

Notice where that lands. Notice if something softens.

As Riva moves through Virgo season she is exploring its shadow side, and one of the deepest shadow expressions of Virgo is perfectionism. 

The constant fixing. 

The constant managing. 

The constant reaching toward some idea of optimal that keeps moving further away.

In this solo episode Riva explores what becomes possible when we stop treating our bodies like projects to be perfected and begin seeing symptoms and discomfort as messages from an intelligent system rather than problems to solve.

She covers why constantly optimizing creates unsafety inside, how somatic psychology sees the body as a whole, why symptoms are actually signs your body is working, and how shifting into curiosity and experimentation can take the pressure off entirely.

She closes with four reflection questions to sit with across the rest of Virgo season.

This episode is for every woman who has ever felt like she was one more supplement away from finally being okay.

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This is not just any full moon. As a full moon partial eclipse, this week carries an amplified quality of culmination, illumination, and completion.  And whatever story is beginning to unfold for you through this eclipse season may not yet be fully clear. With time, it will be. In the meantime, Riva shares four of her most meaningful full moon and ovulation rituals, grounded in menstrual cycle awareness, Traditional Chinese Medicine, manifestation practice, and the ancient art of feng shui, to help you work with this peak energy in a way that is simple, intentional, and deeply supportive.

In this episode, you'll explore:

🌕 Why the full moon and ovulation phase are associated with the heart and how to work with that connection somatically

🌕 The tracking practice Riva uses in the three days before and after the full moon to find gratitude, trust, and clarity

🌕 What scripting is, how to do it, and the surprising science behind why writing in cursive makes it a more embodied practice

🌕 How feng shui connects to the full moon  and one simple ritual for inviting clarity into your home this week

🌕 Why discernment is always the most important tool, especially during eclipse season

And more.

Resources to Support You This Week 🌹🤲🏼

📓 The Magic of I Planner — the cycle-aware planner Riva uses religiously for tracking, intention setting, and manifestation practices

🌕 Magic of I Full Moon Blog Post — check back at the full moon for their dedicated full moon post

📩 Book Your Somatic Assessment & Care Planning Session — ready to go deeper with your cycle awareness? This is your next step, and Synchronize pricing goes up at the end of the month

🌹 Learn More About Synchronize, Riva's 4-month Somatic Menstrual Cycle Coaching Program  

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

In this episode, Riva sits down with Madison Murphy Barney, an Indigenous woman, sister, author, doula, and story-driven strategist, for a conversation that moves between public health systems, feminine leadership, doula care, and the wisdom mycelium has to offer us about staying in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and the earth. Madison shares a little bit about her new book, Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms, and what it means to lead and to heal from a place rooted in ancestral and Indigenous knowledge.

In This Episode:

🌹 Madison's personal story and healing journey

🌹 Doula care as witnessing and accompaniment through life's thresholds —

🌹 The balance of generosity and confrontation that effective doula care requires

🌹 How mycelium and mushrooms show up as symbols of symbiotic relationship, mystery, and magic and an invitation to embrace wildness and creativity

🌹 Bringing feminine values and earth-based wisdom into public health systems, and how public health drifted from communal, ancestral practices toward individualized medical care

and so much more!

Connect with Madison Murphy Barney

• Instagram
• Website
• Substack: TERRACOTTA

Resources Mentioned

• Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms by Madison Murphy Barney

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email [email protected] or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.