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:

• The power and importance of storytelling around birth- creating the space and time to tell your birth story, Emily has created beautiful and supported ways to do this through her books.
• How did Emily write books with 2 littles, and how she did it even with a pukey baby- moms are amazing!
• Working through grief of childbirth loss and even unexpected outcomes of birth- how these stories are held in the bodies and how storytelling and Reiki can release and heal this grief and trauma.
• The importance of amusement while healing and releasing energy and creating new stories.
• The resistance and fear that can arise when doing big healing work and how grounding and boundaries help move through these emotions.
• How Tekla's teaching of Reiki has evolved since Emily learned Reiki 1 with her almost 10 years ago and why it is even more supportive.
• We talk a lot about practice- if you've listened to the podcast, you know that is a theme!
• Living outside the "box" of the education system- both Emily and Tekla's choice to homeschool and why- how it is an act of resistance against white supremacy culture and the grind of our American culture.
• How Emily integrates social work, storytelling, and intuitive Reiki for her clients.
• What are stories and how can we release and change them in ourselves.

Connect with Emily and buy her books!

website (www.emilysouder.com)

IG (@overstimulated.mom.therapist)

email: nestingspacellc@gmail.com

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:

thesocialcontentlab@gmail.com

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:

• How a pilgrimage to Ireland can heal ancestral wounds of oppression- the importance of diving into ancestral history and traditions, and how it can heal the cycles of oppression.
• Irish goddess and saint Brighid- who she was and how she is inspiration and guidance for both Tonja and Tekla- Tonja shares a bit of storytelling and experience with Brighid.
• We begin and end the conversation pulling cards from Tonja's 2 oracle decks, and discuss the offerings Tonja shares with the world.
• How holding space to be in community and to have stillness and quiet is an act of healing and resistance to the capitalistic and white supremacy culture we live in.
• The importance of community and how what we learn in community, and in classes, ripples out beyond us when we share it with others.
• Tonjas' experience working through Resmaa Menakem's programs and how she brings these practices to her students.
• The journey that Tekla and Tonja have been on together, doing anti-racism work and sharing it with other white women through holding healing spaces.

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.