The waning moon is here, and with it comes the medicine of the metal element — the energy of refining, releasing, and returning to what truly matters. In this final episode of the elements miniseries, we explore the premenstrual or luteal phase of the cycle as a time of sacred clarity, honest reassessment, and yes — grief.

If you've ever felt like your premenstrual self wants to "burn it all down," this episode is for you. We reframe PMS symptoms as messages from your body, explore the science behind why your nervous system feels so much more sensitive during this phase, and discover how the metal element teaches us to distill our lives down to the essence — like a pearl.

We also sit with grief, the emotion of metal, and explore how to make active space for the losses, disappointments, and unfulfilled visions that this phase often surfaces.

In this episode:

🍂 Why the late luteal phase makes us more emotionally sensitive (and the hormonal science behind it)

🍂 The "superpower" of the premenstrual filter — and how to use it wisely

🍂The pearl metaphor: refining your life down to what's most essential

🍂 Grief as the emotion of the metal element

🍂 Honoring the disappointment of an unfulfilled cycle

Donation-Based Trauma-Informed Somatic Meditation to Support You This Week

🤲🏼🌹

Somatic Breathing to Hear Your Body's Wisdom

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week's Healing Her Story episode welcomes a guest whose work lives at the intersection of the body, pleasure, and reclamation.

Wren Morrow is a boudoir and erotic adventure photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. And her path to this work is anything but linear.

But this carries profound wisdom about what happens when we are taught from a young age that our bodies are the problem.

Wren grew up steeped in purity culture and religious dogma in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that world, desire was dangerous. The body was something to be managed. And self-trust was replaced with a constant question: is this God's will or mine?

In this episode, Riva and Wren explore the long journey from that environment to one of radical reclamation. Wren shares how leaving the church, moving across the country, and finding healing in the natural landscape of the Olympic Peninsula slowly began to return her to herself.

They explore:

The difference between sensuality and sexuality and why Wren's photography invites clients into authentic felt experience rather than performance

What purity culture actually does to the nervous system and how those patterns of self-distrust can be unlearned

How patriarchal systems create scarcity around gender and sexuality and what it looks like to reclaim your own autonomy from within that

This episode is for every woman who has ever been told her desire was too much.

Connect with Wren Morrow:

Wren is a boudoir and erotic adventure photographer based in the Pacific Northwest.

Instagram: @wrenmorrow

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week we're attuning to the Earth element — the brief, easy-to-miss phase that arrives just after the full moon and just after ovulation. Its medicine is grounding. In this episode, I explore the science of earthing, how grounding may help shift your nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into rest and repair, and how to create real stability in your body and your life through grounding practices and daily anchors. In a world that feels increasingly unstable, the Earth element offers us a simple but powerful question: how do we create steadiness within ourselves?

In this episode:

🌏 What the "secret phase" is and where it falls in your cycle

🌏 The Earth element's core invitation: how to find steadiness in instability

🌏 The science of grounding: what earthing is, how it works, and what the research shows

🌏 How grounding may shift your nervous system from fight-or-flight into rest and repair

🌏 Why routine creates real stability — and how to build daily anchors

Research referenced:

• Chevalier et al., research on earthing, inflammation, sleep, and cortisol regulation
• Menigoz et al. (2020), Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include Earthing (grounding)
• Studies on grounding and improvements in heart rate variability, parasympathetic activation, and sleep quality

Resources to Support You This Week

🤲🏼🌹

• Yin Yoga practice inspired by the elements
• Qigong practice inspired by the elements

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week's Healing Her Story episode is a bonus episode, arriving at just the right moment.

The full moon lands on a Friday. Aries energy is still moving through the collective. And before we step into the quieter, more hidden phase ahead, this is our moment to honor the fire.

This is the third episode in Riva's mini-series on the elements.

But this carries profound wisdom about what fire really means for women and what happens when we lose access to it.

In this episode, Riva reflects on her own complicated relationship with fire and the moment she realized passion was the very first word that came through when she sat with this element. She explores how fire shows up across the cycle, in the full moon, in summer, in ovulation, and why that aliveness, that radiance, that desire to be felt and seen, is so often misread in women.

Labeled as too much. As bossy. As controlling.

While that same energy in others gets called ambition.

Riva also speaks to the dual nature of fire. How it can be warm, comforting, and life-giving. And how, when left untended, it can become reactive and overwhelming. She shares what she has learned this past year about tending her own fire around ovulation, and why sometimes what the heart needs most is not more output.

It is more space.

This episode is an invitation to notice where your fire feels alive, where it feels like too much, and what your heart might actually be asking for underneath it all.

Donation-Based Trauma-Informed Somatic Meditation to Support You This Weekend 🤲🏼🌹

Somatic Body Scan for Self-Love and Body Appreciation

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week, we are tuning into the waxing moon.
A phase of expansion, momentum, and rising energy.

And while this can feel exciting and motivating…
it’s also where many of us unconsciously override our bodies.

We feel the energy building.
We want to do more, create more, move faster.
And without grounding, we can easily slip out of alignment.

This is also the second episode in our Taurus season mini-series, where we’re exploring the elements connected to each phase of the cycle.

This week, we are working with the wood element—a phase that corresponds with:
🌿 Spring in nature
🌿 The follicular (pre-ovulatory) phase in the body
🌿 The energy of new growth and expansion

But this phase is not just about growth.
It’s about supported, sustainable growth.

Because growth without roots…
without flexibility…
without support…
becomes destabilizing.

In this episode, Riva explores:

🌘 Why waxing moon energy can lead to overextension

🌘 The connection between the wood element, spring, and the follicular phase

🌘 What trees can teach us about grounded expansion

🌘 Why flexibility is a form of nervous system safety

🌘 The science behind adaptability and regulation in the body

🌘 How to recognize when growth is becoming too forceful

🌘 Simple ways to stay rooted while your energy rises

There’s also a reflection on how trees develop strength over time—through both rooting and adaptive structure—and how this mirrors our own nervous system capacity.

Because true regulation isn’t rigidity.
It’s flexible stability—the ability to respond, adjust, and return to center.

🌿 Your invitation this week:
Slow down enough to notice where you are pushing.
And ask yourself what it would feel like to soften, root, and grow with support.

🤲🏼🌹Traum

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

If you’ve been trying to think your way into feeling safe in your body…
this episode invites you somewhere else.

Because safety doesn’t live in thought.
It lives in the body.
Through the senses.
Through what you are actually experiencing right now.

And for many of us, the healing journey begins here:
realizing we cannot outthink biology.

In this episode, Riva explores how the nervous system is constantly scanning for cues of safety or danger through the senses—what you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste—and why the body will always trust that information over mindset or affirmations.

She guides you through a simple somatic practice to reconnect with the present moment, soften the system, and notice what safety actually feels like in real time.

Along the way, she also names something important:
that we don’t always live in safe environments—and still, there are small moments of regulation that matter deeply for the body.

This is not about forcing safety.
It’s about learning how to notice it.

One sense at a time.

🤲🏼🌹Donation Based Trauma Informed Meditation

Creating Your Felt Sense of Safety

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

If you’ve been trying to think your way into feeling safe in your body…
this episode will gently shift something for you.

Because safety is not created in the mind.
It is created through the senses.
Through what your body is actually experiencing in real time.

And in Taurus season—
a season of slowness, embodiment, and the senses—
this becomes even more important.

We are not here to override the body.
We are here to listen to it.

Through the quiet intelligence of the nervous system.

Because your body is always scanning.
Always gathering information.
Always asking: am I safe here?

And it already knows the answer—
before you ever think it.

In this episode, Riva shares:

• Why safety is a nervous system state, not a mindset practice
• How your senses shape your experience of safety more than thoughts do
• The science of neuroception and how your body reads your environment
• Why affirmations like “I am safe” can fall short without embodiment
• A guided sensory practice to regulate and ground your system in real time
• How the nervous system responds to sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste
• Why your body will always believe sensory input over positive thinking
• The role of glimmer moments and micro-safety in unstable environments
• How nature acts as a co-regulator for the nervous system
• A gentle reminder that healing is not bypassing reality—it’s meeting it

Healing is not about forcing calm.
It is about noticing what is already here.

One breath.
One sense.
One moment at a time.

🌕 Resources mentioned:

Magic of the Eye Digital Calendar (Taurus season + moon tracking)

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

If you’ve been doing the work—therapy, coaching, courses, podcasts…
and still find yourself repeating the same patterns—

this episode is for you.

Because the issue isn’t that you’re not trying hard enough…
it’s that you may be missing the most essential step in the healing process:

integration.

We live in a world that constantly invites us to consume—
information, content, experiences, even healing itself.

But without slowing down to actually embody what we’ve learned,
it’s easy to stay stuck in cycles that feel all too familiar.

In this episode, Riva shares:

• Why insight alone doesn’t create lasting change
• The difference between consuming healing and integrating it
• How overconsumption can lead to burnout and repeating patterns
• What integration actually means (in simple, embodied terms)
• A personal story from my recent time unplugged in nature
• How presence and the nervous system play a role in real transformation
• A gentle, grounded way to begin integrating your own experiences

Maybe healing isn’t about doing more but about letting what you’ve already received actually change you.

Donation-Based Trauma-Informed Meditation to Support You This Week:

🤲🏼🌹

Trauma-Informed Body Scan - 15-minute daily somatic practice

Self Directed Integration Tips

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...