What does it mean to decolonize wellness?

In this thoughtful conversation, I sit down with Arianna Fotinakis and Vanessa Lesperance, the founders of Decolonize and Rize, to explore the decolonization, healing, and community care. They discuss how colonial mindsets shape the wellness industry, and why reconnecting with Indigenous wisdom is essential for collective healing.

They also dive into the role of nervous system work in reconciliation, the importance of community resilience, and practical ways people can engage respectfully with Indigenous knowledge. This episode invites listeners to reflect, unlearn, and reimagine what true well-being can look like, both individually and collectively.

Somatic Sisterhood Circle with Marie

The Somatic Sisterhood Circle is a weekly touch point to attune to the wisdom of your body while being held in sisterhood. Each circle includes embodiment practices and meaningful conversations. The next circle begins on April 7th. Learn more.

Reconciliation and Well-Being Cohort with Decolonize and Rize

A cohort for leaders, practitioners and change-makers who want to engage in Reconciliation with care, integrity and trust—without causing harm to others or themselves. Learn more.

Stay in Touch!

Marie on Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Ariana on Instagram: @arianafotinakis

Decolonize and Rize Website

Decolonize and Rize Linkedin

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

What does it mean when people quote Bessel van der Kolk and say "the body keeps the score"?

In this episode I sit down with guest Tess Rouse to delve into the transformative power of breathwork and the mind-body connection. Tess shares her personal journey from battling autoimmune diseases for nearly two decades to discovering breathwork. Through the breath she realized that the diseases that she'd been told were incurable were rooted in unprocessed chidhood trauma, and her willingness to breath through her emotions became her pathway to healing.

We explore how the breath can support people to awaken within their own lives by processing unfelt emotional baggage from the past, and widening people's capacity for presence, leadership, and authenticity. If you have been seeking out practical somatic tools for nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and mind-body healing - this conversation is for you.

Somatic Sisterhood Circle

The Somatic Sisterhood Circle is a weekly touch point to attune to the wisdom of your body while being held in sisterhood. Each circle includes embodiment practices and meaningful conversations. Learn more.

Stay in Touch!

Marie on Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Tess on Instagram: @trwellness_

Tess's Website

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

What once appeared stable is being uprooted, people are not okay, and we're in for a bumpy ride.

While I don't have all the answers about how we can collectively deal with a crumbling empire, I do have insights from a somatic therapy and herbalism lens about how we can tend to our bodies and nervous systems while supporting our communities during tumultuous times. In this solo episode I explore the concept of self-parenting and stepping up as the adults in our lives to set boundaries around media consumption, and nourishing ourselves through food, movement, sleep, connection, pleasure, and community.

I also discuss four herbs that I'm loving right now and how you can work with them to reduce stress, ground your nervous system, soothe anxiety, release pent up emotions, recover from burnout, and stay anchored to your heart in times of darkness.

Somatic Sisterhood Circle

The Somatic Sisterhood Circle is a weekly touch point to attune to the wisdom of your body while being held in sisterhood. Each circle includes embodiment practices and meaningful conversations. Learn more.

Stay in Touch!

Althaea Herbals on Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

For far too long women's sexuality and pleasure has been controlled and repressed. This has led to a cultural norm where women often feel numb and disconnected from their bodies, sexuality, and emotional depth.

Today I'm joined by hypnotherapist, Carlie Jade, to explore how women can expand their capacity to feel more of life, reclaim their pleasure and learn to revere their bodies. Carlie shares her personal story of overcoming sexual trauma and a perpetual state of numbness through hypnotherapy, somatic work, and tantric practices. The conversation explores the relationship between pain and pleasure, the significance of sisterhood, and how sexual healing has the power to transform every area of life.

Trigger Warning: In this episode Carlie shares about childhood sexual trauma and refers to sexual trauma throughout the episode.

Somatic Sisterhood Circle

The Somatic Sisterhood Circle is a weekly touch point to attune to the wisdom of your body while being held in sisterhood. Each circle includes embodiment practices and meaningful conversations. The next eight week series will be focused on Reclaiming Womanhood: Healing from Good-Girl Conditioning.

Society asks girls and women to shrink themselves. Be good, pretty, capable (but not too capable), take care of others, sacrifice yourself, and do it all with a smile. Our depth, magic, eros, fierceness, intellect, and aliveness has been controlled and manipulated. Our wildness has been repressed. This circle is about freeing ourselves from the good girl conditioning and embodying something more raw and real. Learn more.

Stay in Touch!

Carlie's Instagram: @cariejade

Carlie's Website

Marie's Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

In this episode I sit down with my partner, Travis Cartwright, to explore how we can orient ourselves towards love and connection in a world that can feel dark and bleak. We explore the danger avoiding the shadow aspects of reality, and the gifts that come from a willingness to come into contact with the messy, feral, dark parts of life.

Travis is a cancer survivor who now works in herbal cancer care; he also works as a paramedic and comes into contact with pain, darkness, death, and discomfort on a regular basis. His deep connection to nature through herbalism, bow hunting and other rewilding practices has been his guide and compass since his teens after growing up in a community riddled with violence and disconnection. Travis offers a message of hope through forming relationship with the living world and living a life of meaning from an embodied, experiential place.

May this episode act as a reminder to turn our attention to nature, and let its wisdom lead us through the darkest nights.

Trigger warning: We discuss acts of violence, homophobia, death, cancer, and general hardship throughout the episode.

Somatic Sisterhood Circle

The Somatic Sisterhood Circle is a weekly touch point to attune to the wisdom of your body while being held in sisterhood. Each circle includes embodiment practices and meaningful conversations. The next eight week series will be focused on Reclaiming Womanhood: Healing from Good-Girl Conditioning.

Society asks girls and women to shrink themselves. Be good, pretty, capable (but not too capable), take care of others, sacrifice yourself, and do it all with a smile. Our depth, magic, eros, fierceness, intellect, and aliveness has been controlled and manipulated. Our wildness has been repressed. This circle is about freeing ourselves from the good girl conditioning and embodying something more raw and real. Learn more.

Stay in Touch!

Althaea Herbals on Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

Why do people join cults and why do they stay? How does spiritual, mental and emotional trauma impact physical pain? Today I sit down with my sister, Danii Zak, to discuss her her complex journey through trauma, chronic pain, and religious abuse.

Danii shares about several key traumatic events that shaped her life, including a devastating natural disaster and a life-altering car accident that occurred while she was studying to become a pastor at a cult-adjacent religious organization, Hillsong Church. The conversation delves into the impact of these experiences on her mental health and the development of chronic pain. Danii discusses her healing journey through somatic therapy, emphasizing the importance of understanding the connection between trauma and physical pain. The episode will invite you to think for yourself, reclaim your truth, and take agency over your life.

Trigger Warning: In this episode we discuss trauma, religious abuse, chronic pain, and suicidal ideation.

Resources

Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed

Curable: A Different Approach to Chronic Pain

Stay in Touch!

Danii on Instagram: @heal.with.danielle

Danii's website: https://www.thewellnessjourney.ca/

Marie on Instagram: @althaeaherbals

Marie's Substack: @marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

Feeling stuck, small, or disempowered in your life? Jump into this conversation where I explore what it means to reclaim your personal power on an embodied level. This episode will encourage you to take accountability for the things you can change, while recognizing and accepting circumstances and dynamics that are out of your control.

You'll learn about early imprints and how they shape our relationship with power in the present, how to spot unhealthy power dynamics, and how to widen your nervous system's capacity to hold more personal power. If you're ready to creating real lasting change in both your inner and outer world - this episode is for you!

Ready to step on your path of embodiment? I invite you to explore my upcoming program, Reclaim Your Power. This is an eight-week somatic program that will provide you with the tools and guidance that will support you tto step into the version of yourself who embodies your power, protects your boundaries, and lives in deep self-trust.

Lasting change doesn’t happen through sheer willpower; it happens when your nervous system feels safe and resourced enough to expand its capacity to hold more power. Learn more here.

Stay in Touch!

Instagram: instagram.com/althaeaherbals/

Substack: https://substack.com/@marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.

Traditional herbal systems were built based on deep relationships with the places people lived, and the plants they engaged with. These traditional practices recognize plants as teachers, guides and kin; it is only relatively recently that Western people lost their connect to the wisdom world of nature.

In this episode I speak about herbalism from an embodied perspective, sharing both my personal journey and the historical significance of herbal medicine. Plants have been one of the primary forms of medicine for thousands of years, and we have so much to learn from our ancestors about the respect and reverence for the natural world. This episode explores the importance of approaching herbalism with humility, reciprocity, and a focus on building meaningful relationships with plants, rather than merely viewing them as medicinal resources for extraction.

Ready to step on your path of embodiment? I invite you to explore my upcoming program, Reclaim Your Power. This is an eight-week somatic program that will provide you with the tools and guidance that will support you to step into the version of yourself who embodies your power, protects your boundaries, and lives in deep self-trust.

Lasting change doesn’t happen through sheer willpower; it happens when your nervous system feels safe and resourced enough to expand its capacity to hold more power. Learn more here.

Stay in Touch!

Instagram: instagram.com/althaeaherbals/

Substack: https://substack.com/@marieembodied

Book a somatic therapy and/or herbalism session.