Send us Fan Mail

Michelle K. Gagnon is the founder and chief bio alchemist of Bio Alchemy Olfactive, an aromatic design lab exploring the sensory intelligence of plants to cultivate deeper human-earth connection. Her work blends ancient tradition and modern design with a focus on sustainability, botanical storytelling, and ethical sourcing. She partners with farms and artisan distillers globally, creating formulations and scent experiences that engage memory, emotion, and embodied presence.

Core Focus Areas:

• Botanical sensory intelligence and scent design
• Wildcrafted/organic ethical sourcing
• Aromatherapy as ritual practice
• Fragrance as memory and embodiment
• Collaboration with global artisan communities
• Sensory education and olfactory awareness

Compelling Interview Questions:

1. When you talk about plants as “master communicators,” what does that mean in a real, felt sense for someone listening?
2. Most people understand scent through preference. How do you shift someone into relating to smell as a tool for self-awareness?
3. You work closely with ecosystems and indigenous traditions. What has that taught you about your own relationship to place?
4. Walk us through the alchemical arc from raw plant material to something that can shift the nervous system.
5. Where does scent intersect with the nervous system in ways other healing tools don’t?

What surprising insight about consciousness has emerged from your work across cultures?

If all industry frameworks fell away, what is the purest essence of the work you want people to remember?

What’s the difference between “smelling” and “sensing,” and how does it transform presence?

Signature Closing Question:

If you could leave people with one shift — one thing they can do today to become more present, more resourced, or more themselves — what would it be?

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

Róisín Branch had a career that looked like a dream on paper: twenty years in senior marketing roles at AB InBev, Diageo, Equinox, SoulCycle, Blade, and most recently Fountain Life, the longevity company co-founded by Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis. Then, in 2021, a car knocked her off her Citibike on Fifth Avenue. She lay on the ground with bones visible through her leg and knew she was not getting back up. What followed was two years of daily physical therapy, complete reconstruction of her professional identity, and the beginning of her real work in the world.

This episode traces that arc in full. Wilma and Róisín met during the pandemic, brought together by a shared sense of purpose when Wilma's nonprofit DRK Beauty Healing was working with the SoulCycle team in the weeks before the 2020 election. Years later, Róisín became one of Wilma's earliest investors and supporters in Sordoe. Their friendship is the frame for an unusually honest conversation: about what corporate success actually costs, why our bodies send signals we are trained to ignore, and what it takes to step off a path that looks correct to everyone around you but feels wrong in your bones.

Róisín now works as a purpose coach for corporate executives and high-performers, using a framework she calls the Freedom Flywheel. She is also launching a membership tier and immersive multi-day experiences in 2026. This is a conversation about listening before you have to, sitting with discomfort before it becomes catastrophe, and building a life that gives you energy instead of draining it.

About the Guest

Róisín Branch is a purpose coach and founder who spent two decades as a C-suite marketing executive at some of the world's most recognisable brands. After a life-changing accident in 2021, she rebuilt from the ground up and now works with corporate executives who can feel there is more for them but do not yet know how to find it. Her proprietary framework, the Freedom Flywheel, helps clients move from performance and proving into purpose, flow, and impact. She is based in New York and expanding her practice in 2026 with group coaching, a membership programme, and immersive retreats.

Connect with Róisín:

• Instagram: @roisinbranch
• TikTok: @roisinbranch
• Website: RóisínBranch.com

Key Topics Discussed

How Wilma and Róisín met

• Wilma's nonprofit DRK Beauty Healing provided free therapy to women of color during the pandemic.
• Róisín, then head of marketing at SoulCycle, brought Wilma's clinician network in to help staff stay grounded ahead of the 2020 election.
• The friendship deepened after the pandemic. Róisín became one of the first people Wilma told about Sordoe, and one of her first investors.

The accident and what it broke open

• In November 2021, Róisín was cycling home from a SoulCycle ride on a Citibike when a car, swerving to avoid a bus, knocked her to the ground on Fifth Avenue.
• She lay on the pavement with compound fractures to her leg and a dislocated shoulder. Her surgeon told her she would never return to full fitness.
• A full year of daily physical therapy and another year of intensive training followed. She is now back to 100 percent.
• The question that changed everything: moving from 'Why did this happen to me?' to 'What am I not listening to?'

The body as compass

• Róisín describes years of overriding physical signals in service of performance: pushing through illness, wearing resilience as a badge, never stopping.
• Two examples of the body speaking: severe sciatica before her weddi

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

Host Wilma Mae sits down with Franck Raharinosy - sound meditation practitioner, breathwork facilitator, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Spin (the ping pong social club with nine locations) - for a rich, wide-ranging conversation about healing, self-discovery, and the tools that help us navigate life with more presence, grace, and joy.

Franck shares his journey from a cerebral, anxious young man to a grounded sound healer who works with clients one-on-one, leads group sessions, and brings mindfulness to underserved youth through his nonprofit. This episode is a beautiful reminder that the healing journey is deeply personal - and that the right tools can change everything.

About Franck Raharinosy

Franck Raharinosy is a New York-based sound meditation practitioner, breathwork facilitator, and inner child healing guide. Born in Lyon, France, with roots in Madagascar and Armenia, Franck has lived in New York City since 1999.

He is the co-founder of Spin, a ping pong social club with nine locations across the US, and the founder of the nonprofit Do It With Your Heart, which brings sound meditation and mindfulness tools to underserved youth. His healing work integrates sound (gong, singing bowls, shrutibox), breathwork, somatic practices, inner child work, and psychological acting techniques. Franck offers private sessions, group events, and retreats globally.

| Website: | soulthroughsound.com
| Instagram: | @soulthroughsound | @r.raharinosy
| Spin: | letsspin.com

Key Topics

• Turning 50 and the liberation of releasing the fear of aging
• Building a spiritual toolkit through lived experience
• Franck's multicultural background: France, Madagascar, Armenia, and New York City
• How an MDMA-assisted sound bath with a gong changed the course of his life
• The role of sound - particularly the gong - in trauma healing and presence
• A decade of talk therapy vs. the breakthroughs of psychedelic-assisted therapy
• Healing his relationship with his father through a guided psychedelic session
• Tennis as a mental and spiritual practice
• The birth of Spin - from apartment ping pong parties to nine locations
• How Franck works with clients: somatic healing, inner child work, breathwork, sound, role play, and vocalization
• The Hoffman Process and how it deepened his toolkit
• Psychological acting as a healing modality
• The importance of humor and play in healing
• How to find a trustworthy practitioner: the power of word of mouth
• Redesigning modern culture's approach to mental health - holistic methods vs. medication
• The risks of unguided psychedelic use and the importance of supervised settings
• Do It With Your Heart - bringing sound healing to underserved kids in the Bronx
• Volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House - supporting parents of seriously ill children
• Sordoe intention water - integrating scent and ritual into daily healing practice
• One piece of advice for anyone beginning their healing journey

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

Wilma and Allie met on a New York rooftop at the start of the pandemic — connected by a mutual friend, brought together by something harder to name. Years later, sitting in a house in the South of France, they pick up a thread that was always going to lead here: what does it actually take to let yourself be known by another person?

Allie Hoffman is the founder of The Feels, a facilitated dating experience now running in six US cities. Her path to it winds through Shabbat dinners in Soho warehouses and bedrooms, a Master's thesis at Columbia, a summer when all her friendships blew up at once, and a reckoning with the gap between the career she was performing and the life she actually wanted. This conversation goes deep into how she built something from that wreckage — and why the discomfort she puts at the centre of her events is, in her view, the whole point.

Wilma brings her own story too: depression, hospitalisation, and the moment she stopped hiding it. Together they cover projection, the three-layers framework, the generational arc of healing in America, the danger of certainty in spiritual leadership, and what it means to stop needing to be fixed and start being of service.

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, host Wilma Mae sits down with Christian Strobel, a New York-based wardrobe stylist who has worked with celebrities and musicians for over 15 years. What starts as a conversation about their serendipitous meeting at a wedding in Italy unfolds into a deep exploration of spirituality, energy work, and personal ritual practice.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Christian's journey from small-town New York to the fashion industry in NYC and Paris
• Early experiences with spirituality and "witchy sensibilities" as a teenager
• Being recognized as a healer by a renowned German energy worker
• Encounters with entities and learning to protect energetic boundaries
• The importance of proper training when exploring mystical practices
• Christian's morning ritual: TM meditation, Buddhist mantras, mindful walking, and the five senses practice
• How spiritual practice helps navigate the unpredictable freelance creative lifestyle
• Wilma Mae introduces Sordoe Intention Water, a spiritual bath product inspired by her mother's ritual practice

Guest Bio: Christian Strobel is a wardrobe stylist, costume designer, and fashion professional based in Los Angeles. With a background in fashion design from FIT, Christian has spent over two decades working with celebrities and musicians while cultivating a deep spiritual practice that includes Reiki, meditation, and energy work.

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

Join host Wilma Mae in the premiere episode of The Healing H.A.C.K. Podcast for an intimate conversation with filmmaker, writer, and director Shani Pride about finding purpose, spiritual practice, and the transformative power of manifestation.

In this deeply personal episode, Shani shares her journey from actor to award-winning storyteller, revealing how she discovered her true calling during the COVID-19 pandemic. After years performing in front of the camera, she made the courageous transition to writing and directing, a shift that Sundance Film Institute recognized and nurtured. Now, she's creating impactful stories that blend social consciousness with compelling narrative, including a feature film shooting in Italy and a television series set in Brooklyn.

What You'll Discover:

Spiritual Practices for Modern Life: Shani opens up about her daily rituals, including meditation, crystal work, and mantra practice. Learn how she uses stillness as a tool for creativity and peace, and why meditation doesn't have to be intimidating. It can happen anywhere, anytime.

The Art of Manifestation: Hear powerful manifestation stories, including Wilma's unique sigil-making practice that helped a friend land his dream CEO position. Shani shares how she's been manifesting since high school, using vision boards and intentional practices to create the life she envisioned, from getting into UCLA and USC to manifesting her current film projects.

Purpose-Driven Creativity: Discover why Shani calls herself an "impact-driven storyteller" and how she harnesses media to enlighten, inspire, and provoke thought. She discusses her upcoming projects, including a film described as "Eat Pray Love meets Erin Brockovich" and "Brownsville Redemption," a series about a teenage piano prodigy navigating survival and creativity.

Self-Care Without Guilt: Both Wilma and Shani, self-described "reformed workaholics," share why self-care isn't indulgent. It's essential. From playing with puppies during the pandemic to establishing boundaries around work hours, they discuss practical ways to prevent burnout while staying productive.

Spiritual Toolkit Building: Explore diverse practices including Buddhist philosophy, crystal healing, healing card decks (like Matt Khan's healing mantras), and the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Shani shares how traveling to spiritual centers in India, Bali, and Mexico has shaped her practice.

The Power of Specificity: Learn why being specific in manifestation work is crucial, and why many women struggle to articulate what they truly want for themselves (versus what they want for others).

Conscious Media Consumption: Understand how the stories we consume, from news to social media to film, profoundly affect our spiritual and emotional wellbeing, and why choosing "puppy dogs and rainbows" content isn't frivolous. It's self-preservation.

This conversation is perfect for anyone seeking to build their own spiritual toolkit, creatives looking to align their work with purpose, or anyone curious about manifestation, meditation, and living authentically. Whether you're just beginning your spiritual journey or deepening existing practices, Shani's wisdom and Wilma's insights offer practical guidance for navigating a demanding world with grace.

Keywords: manifestation techniques, spiritual practices, meditation for beginners, purpose-driven life, creative spirituality, self-care for entrepreneurs, crystal healing, mantra practice, vision board manifestation, filmmaker journey, conscious living, spiritual toolkit, mindfulness pra

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send a text

MY JOURNEY TO SPIRITUAL HEALTH

Welcome to the first episode of The Healing H.A.C.K. Podcast. I'm Wilma Mae Basta, and this is my story.

Fifteen years ago, I hit rock bottom—severely depressed and hospitalized for six weeks in London. That breakdown became my breakthrough. I share how I rebuilt my life by creating a spiritual toolkit, and how you can build yours too.

IN THIS EPISODE:

0:00 Welcome & What H.A.C.K. Stands For
0:45 Who I Am - Founder of Sordoe
4:00 Growing Up in a Mystery School
6:30 Building a Life in London
8:46 The Breaking Point - Hospitalization & Depression
11:20 Rebuilding Through Alternative Healing
14:52 My Three-Point Daily Check-In (Expectations, Boundaries, Self-Love)
18:52 A Year and a Day - Life Transformation
19:58 Life Today - Healed Relationships
20:46 Using My Toolkit in Crisis (Recent Fire)
23:35 DRK Beauty Healing Nonprofit
24:35 Why This Podcast Exists
25:45 What's Coming Next

RESOURCES:

• Pema Chödrön (Buddhist teacher)
• The Hoffman Process: https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org
• Life Alignment: https://www.lifealignment.com

CONNECT:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehealinghack
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@sordoerituals
Sordoe: https://instagram.com/sordoeofficial

H.A.C.K. = Healing, Abundance, Connection, Knowledge

If this resonated, subscribe and share!

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.

Send us Fan Mail

Unprocessed trauma and maladaptive coping mechanisms can often leave us operating in survival mode, without us even realizing that we are living in a state of constant fear and anxiety. This week marks the final episode in our series, and we have a truly remarkable guest to bookmark the end of this first chapter. Regina Louise is the best-selling author of several books, including her incredible memoir Somebody’s Someone, and Permission Granted: Kick-Ass Strategies to Bootstrap Your Way to Unconditional Self-Love. Her devastating experiences in the foster care system as a child led her to become a children’s advocate and shaped her deep knowledge of healing and self-love. Regina speaks about her healing journey with immense wisdom and generously shares the context of her painful upbringing. We delve into the prevalence of imposter syndrome among women of color and ruminate on the role that radical self-love has to play in freeing one’s self from the judgment of others. Our conversation also covers the weight of intergenerational trauma, its disproportionate effect on women of color, and what it means to be “adultified” at a disturbingly young age. Join us today for a beautiful conversation on the universality of suffering, the healing journey, and what it means to choose to live life in a sublime state of awareness.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s guest Regina Louise.
• How Regina is choosing to live her life with an elevated sense of awareness.
• The Hoffman method and other supportive interventions for healing and embodying our higher selves.
• The prevalence of imposter syndrome among women of color and how learning to love yourself can address it.
• How the Hoffman method facilitated Wilma May’s journey to self-love.
• Regina’s devastating experience of being raised in the same foster home in which her biological mother was trafficked.
• The disproportionate presence and impact of intergenerational trauma on women of color.
• A special quote from Anais Nin on taking the risk to bloom and how it manifested in Regina’s life.
• Regina’s healing journey and a beautiful and vulnerable description of where she currently places herself.
• What it means for Regina to depart from living in a constant state of survival.
• The damaging effects of being “adultified” as a young child.
• How Wilma Mae challenged her preconceived notions around healing to allow herself access to practitioners who understand suffering.
• The concept of the wounded healer and why Regina identifies so strongly with it.
• A reading of the Anais Nin poem that played a pivotal role in Regina’s healing.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Regina Louise

The Hoffman Institute

The Red Book

Somebody’s Someone

Someone Has Led This Child to Believe: A Memoir

DRK BEAUTY

DRK BEAUTY Healing

Subscribe to The Healing H.A.C.K. for more conversations exploring ancient and modern tools for spiritual health, abundance, connection, and knowledge.