A while back, I was at a workshop, and Jennifer DeRuff performed a spoken-word piece called Coming Home. It touched me pretty deeply - and I wasn’t alone. So I invited Jennifer to try something new on the podcast - instead of a full interview, I invited her to come and perform the piece into a microphone, so we could share it with the wider HAI community.

So, who is Jennifer? Among many other things, Jennifer is a writer, a baker, and a magical sparkly being. After an extensive career as a professional pastry chef, she turned her attention towards her personal growth to discover the next chapter of her life. When she found HAI, she knew she'd found a home and new community. Her path led her to become an assistant in HAI workshops, and a life oriented towards service, helping others grow and heal. She also found healing with psychedelics, which has evolved into a new career working with sacred plant medicines as a Minister with the Congregation for Sacred Practices.

Today, we are thrilled to have a profound conversation with Marci Graham, on the topic of patriarchy and how it is everywhere around us.

Marci is one of the HAI facilitators, bringing a unique perspective shaped by her personal journey and professional experiences. This episode promises to be an eye-opening exploration of patriarchy's pervasive influence in our lives, as we delve into her recent reflections sparked by an unexpected source – a movie.

Marci's insights extend beyond the screen, touching on deeper issues of gender roles, societal expectations, and personal growth. Join us as we pick apart some of the complexities of the patriarchy with Marci, whose articulate and heartfelt observations challenge us, as always, to see the world - and ourselves - in a new light. This episode is not just a exploration; it's an invitation to introspection and change, as we navigate through the subtleties and overt manifestations of patriarchal influences in our everyday lives.

"Being potent in my communication and in my way of loving is deeply entwined with my primary value of inquiry. Being in inquiry with myself and others is a process that challenges any need to be right," Marci says. "Currently the state of our culture has brought me to my knees as I witness the ongoing scourge of how the patriarchy has belittled and minimized women."

"My path to facilitation has brought me face to face with tender vulnerability, opening hearts, every emotion, boundaries explored, respectful communication and powerful self knowledge. Witnessing and contributing to these human experiences has honed me," she concludes.

They say that there are only two things that are certain in life: Death and taxes. It turns out, you can dodge your taxes, but the other one is harder to avoid. In this episode, we get into a beautiful conversation with our guest Jaclyn Vouthouris, talking about finding solace in the setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons, and all things that die, change, and continue on the cycle once again.

Jaclyn Vouthouris is a modern medicine woman with an MBA from MIT, bridging the sacred and the secular. After working in the worlds of finance and entrepreneurship for over a decade, she turned her attention to building a new business paradigm for this next era that harmonizes with the natural world and supports humanity’s reconnection to the web of life. She is passionate about working with intuitive entrepreneurs who are poised to create systemic change, given their enormous influence on what gets built, the quality of people's work lives, and the use of our physical resources. Jaclyn has trained in and continues to be a reverent student of Earth-based practices, rituals, and sacred ceremony, under the guidance of powerful medicine women, such as Marilu Shinn, Qiddist Ashé, Maura Sternberg, and Adya Cadden.

In this episode, we speak to psychologist and startup whisperer Kari Sulenes to figure out what it takes to bring your full self to work. What does it mean to be vulnerable, curious, and showing allyship?

Kari is a co-founder of Pilea, an Integrative leadership coaching and organizational consulting collective that provides coaching to startups, VC funds, and accelerators. Pilea is an expression of Kari's passion to equip leaders everywhere with the tools necessary to transform our places of work from centers of stress into ones of healing and meaning. She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and organizational behavior and primarily works with founders and their startups.

In this episode, we go deep into jealousy and the story of Sumati, who went on a journey from deep, core-wound level jealousy and came out the other side teaching others how to manage their jealousies.

For over twenty years, Sumati Sparks has been coaching people of all relationship configurations, gender expressions, sexual orientations and cultures to create successful consensual, ethical non-monogamous love and intimate connections. She is a no-nonsense wisewoman, a loving empath, a wounded healer and a powerful stand for love. Since 1984, she has been on a personal path of 12-step work and recovery, has studied directly and taught with many spiritual & relationship teachers including the great Indian saint "Ammachi" who gave her the name Sumati, Since 1997, she has been on her own transformational path of conscious consensual non-monogamy.

You can learn more about Sumati and her open relationship and polyamory coaching at SumatiSparks.com

(An earlier version of this podcast stopped abruptly after 17 minutes due to a technical snafu. That has now been resolved - our apologies for the mistake!)

For our third episode in season five, Julia joins us to talk about travel, building community, and how yoga of the mind helped her connect with the humans around her more deeply.

Julia Tindall has been a community builder, teacher and traveler for the past 30 years. She taught yoga and tantra workshops at Harbin Hot Springs, Esalen and around the world up until Covid time, but now focuses on community building through travel. She takes small groups of like-minded people to exotic destinations such as Bali, Africa, Egypt and Argentina. Through amazing shared experiences, hearts open and deep connections are made.

Originally English, Julia now lives in Sacramento CA and is the author of 5 books, one of which is the hilarious memoir, "Left at the Big White Pig."

You can find Julia and her work at juliatindall.com

In this episode, we speak with Naomi, who works as a therapist, and believes that love isn’t nearly as big of a mystery as many of us seem to think.

Naomi wrote a book, AffairyTales, about an intense period in her life when she lost her daughter and her husband in the span of a couple of weeks - and the work she has done to rebuild from there.

She is a registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor in private practice in the Toronto area, and specifically focuses on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and holds a Masters of Science degree in Couple and Family Therapy

Naomi is the founder of Emotional ICU - providing free resources to empower people to understand what is happening in their brains and bodies so they can make sense of their experience, and recognize what they need to cope and heal.

You can find her online at  Emotional ICU and Naomi Yano Psychotherapy , on Facebook at Emotional ICU  and Naomi Yano Psychotherapy , and on Instagram at Emotional ICU

In this episode, we speak with Leah, who was eager to talk about radical self-acceptance, and the path she took to get there.

Leah is passionate about guiding women to empower themselves to take a leadership role in their lives, speak their truth mindfully and with integrity in all situations, so they can get more of what they want!

You can find Leah and her work on leahdiamond.com, or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahelisediamond Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leah.diamond and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahdiamond1/

Hello all! It's been a hot minute since we've done a Human Awareness episode, but guess what... We're baaaaack. This time, we're joined by one of the most freshly baked HAI facilitators, Tony Holmes, who came to talk to us on a Monday immediately after facilitating a Loving Yourself workshop for HAI. As you might expect, they are still glowing from the Room of Love, and the wonderful warmth of this episode shows that beautifully. 

We cover all sorts of beautiful topics, and Tony even leads us in a brief meditation, and an exploration of how to find the things that are blocking you in finding your path. We also talk about the 'value of the repaired human,' and why we are collectively feeling driven to 'do the work'. 

You can find out more about Tony's own work on TheLoveWarrior.com - or come attend a HAI workshop and spend some beautiful, dropped-in time with them!

We are back with Kate's last episode for a while! Recorded on the very last day of her tenure as HAI's marketing director, we reflect on how much we've grown and changed over these past four seasons of podcasts. 

Worry ye not, though, dear listener: Kate is going on her honeymoon and taking a break after completing her therapy degree, but Haje is continuing to carry the torch for the rest of Season 4... And a little birdie told us that Kate may be back as a guest host in the near future. How utterly delightful!

Enjoy the episode, and be well <3