Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to Lead with heart. I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, and today we explore the essence of leadership beyond strategy and status. You're watching now Media Television.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Hi, and welcome to Lead with Heart, the show where strategy meets soul.
We're here today to dive deeper into personal, vulnerable, authentic, shares how people learn how to become great leaders. And we're also here to explore what is leadership beyond the normal colloquial projections of only corporate CEOs. I'm here to invite us to think about leaders as parents, as healers, as innovators, as even community figures. So today I am very blessed to be joined by. By davita Moore. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Davita is an indigenous licensed psychotherapist, trauma specialist, and founder of Remedy Wellness. DaVita's work centers on trauma resolutions, somatic healing, and nervous system awareness, helping people reconnect with themselves at the deepest level.
So in this first segment, davita, thank you so much for joining us. We're going to actually start by looking backwards.
I want to know more about your past. I want to know more about who you were and how you've become the amazing healer that you are today.
So whatever you're open to sharing, anything from. As a psychologist, I can't help but gravitate towards childhood elements, things that, you know, watching, the timeline of development. So, yeah, tell us what you know about yourself from the younger years and how this all started to come about to bring you to where you are.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Thank you for having me, Jesse. It's quite the honor.
I am originally from North Carolina. I'm the youngest of five, and I just grew up in a very intimate, loving household. And I'm very grateful for that because that really grounded me into the woman that I am today.
Both of my parents are still married. I think they just had their 47th anniversary.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: 47th. Wow.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yes. And so there was a lot of love in the household.
Something that stands out to me is I got my black belt when I was 14, so my dad put me in karate when I was, I believe, six, six or seven. And I practice, you know, year by year with him and my sisters and my brother. And it was this beautiful experience of being connected, but also learning how to protect myself and learn discipline. So ever since the age of six, it spawned the seed of I need to be aware of myself, my surroundings and how I show up in the world.
And ever since then kind of just snowballed into protection, love, leadership, and true embodiment.
And. Yeah, that's beautiful. The beginning.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I love I love you sharing too. Just of, you know, again, heard so many stories over my career, and sometimes the things that motivate leaders or the leading parts of us are from more intense or serious traumas that really help us to say, hey, I'm going to get over that. Equally, I think there's a power that you're bringing forward already. It's just to say, yeah, it is. I think we both know and we're in the psychology field that sadly. But in the true statistics of things, there's more people that don't have perfect childhoods than there are that do.
And it sounds like you're one of the very blessed ones on this planet that actually had a pretty overall loving home and parents that are together now 47 years and how much that starts to create the foundation to give us the skill set to keep moving forwards in life.
And then the black belt part of the martial art part. Yeah, Just not only that level of, you know, you said starting to learn how to protect myself, and I think too, that also equals a feeling of strength. Right.
So as you continue to look back at who you were, then, you know, if you're open to going a little deeper into just. Yeah. What. What were some of the roles that you took on in. In the family, you know, was. Are you one of many siblings? How did you start to define yourself from a young age?
[00:04:13] Speaker C: Yes. So I'm the baby, you know, and my mom had me at 40.
So it was this interesting dynamic of I have my siblings.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: How many siblings?
[00:04:23] Speaker C: Three sisters and one brother.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Okay, so you're one of five.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Yes. Or one of five. But I'm also the baby, and myself and the next youngest were seven years apart.
So at one point I was kind of the only child, as I was in later middle school and high school. So it was an interesting dynamic of I was born and raised with my siblings. And then I also had this moment of kind of isolation.
Yes. So it was very interesting for the mind to kind of switch in that way.
But then my dad also put me in karate because I'm very small and petite and I'm a woman. And he was like, I need you to be able to protect yourself in this world.
So I played more of the role of the baby, but also the wise one, if you will, like bringing wisdom to the family, sharing what I learned in school with my friends, what I read online, because the Internet was just starting to come online at that point.
So it was a fun role, and it still is a fun role of sharing.
And then there Are moments where I do take responsibility with helping my family eat cleaner and better.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: So the healer, the healer is like,
[00:05:28] Speaker C: oh, is that clean?
Is it organic? You know, is that a whole food?
Do we have to keep going to fast food places to celebrate and kind of helping them deprogram the normality of mediocrity within our society and also bringing forth the culture.
I think my parents, although they have a beautiful marriage, no marriage is perfect. No household is perfect. And so there was a lack of culture, I think, even though I come from Nigerian roots and Native American roots, from the tribe of Kaiwitha Ata, which is people of the water.
So when I, you know, came around 13, 14, my mom didn't really know much about the culture, neither did my father. So I had to go back into the ancestral lineage and kind of pull up some of those traditions and roots and foods and clothing and language even.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: And you did grow up in America.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Okay. So, yeah. So they were Nigerian and Native American influence or bloodline who grew up though, in a, in America in a culture that wasn't their culture.
[00:06:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: That lacked culture.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And that lacked culture. Yeah. Wow. And that was. Yeah. When we introduced. You talked about an indigenously licensed psychotherapist. So is that also part of where you got like, sort of the curiosity around more indigenous cultures as your own bloodline?
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: What. And, but yet that wasn't in your childhood. So how did that, how did that happen? Like, how did you know if you weren't shown it?
How did that happen?
[00:06:55] Speaker C: I had to find mentors. And it was a year's long quest of seeking out mentors, men, women that I resonated with regarding different cultures. So Native American, Guam, African, Asiatic and Buddhism and just really fine tuning what worked for me and my system and what resonated. I'm a firm believer in cherry picking, so learning about different cultures, sitting with the elders and then know, resonating and picking out what feels good and, and what is in alignment. But it took like a good decade to really do that work and really commit to that because I didn't want to grow up without culture and without knowing where I come from and the ancestral roots that I walk forward with and just also just wanting to have an awareness about what other energies are present and bringing that into my practice.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Because it sounds like, yeah, you overhauled an amazing childhood upbringing, roughly, like, what age, what were the elements that made you realize something was missing? Missing? It sounds like, you know, almost like nearly perfect. But the awakening for you was roughly what age and less interested in the age number, but more of, like, just starting to, you know, I don't know. As you enter the teenage years, your. Your body's growing and changing. You're starting. Is that what started you thinking about the roots where you came from?
[00:08:15] Speaker C: Yes. Around 15.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: You know, that metamorphosis of puberty. But also my first boyfri, Ethiopian. And such a rich culture. You know, the language, the food, the injera, the what? Like, everything, it just kind of created this spark within me. Like, oh, there's so much more. And I'm from the diaspora. You know, Ethiopia is west, is East Africa. My roots are West African. But I know that I also have a rich culture. So he kind of sparked that curiosity of, like, I need to learn more about where I come from too, and I think I'll be proud. And so ever since 15, I started the journey of cultural ancestral roots, but also metaphysics and oracular work, ceremonial work, and truly just sitting with elders and traveling the world, going to Asia, going to Europe, living in Hawaii, you know, sitting with the kanaka, like, really getting rooted in that practice.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Wow. Wow, that's amazing. That's so beautiful to have that insight at that young age.
I'm also curious. You know, you said you had one of five. You held the role of the baby, the healer. You know, overall, really positive elements you're sharing. Was there a black sheep? Was there any of the other four who didn't turn out or, you know, had some challenges? Yeah. What can you say about that?
[00:09:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say there was a. I showed up in the family as a healer, but there was a layer of black sheep, if you will, because I was just different. It's like, oh, you're wanting to travel the world. You're wanting to, you know, explore these different cultures. You're breaking away from certain religions. Like, this is. This is interesting.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: So the other four siblings followed the sort of culturalist path that the family was on.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Yes, except for my sister Melissa. She was also curious as well.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: And she's the. The next youngest, the one closest to me in age.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: But that came on a little bit later in her life and her journey. Okay. But I kind of started that. A pilgrimage, if you will.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Wow. That's incredible.
And, you know, I guess the last quick thing I'll ask you before we take a break is around, you know, just what, if any, challenges do you remember during that period? I guess, you know, in a way, not knowing your culture is one challenge. But was there anything else that sticks out to you in terms of when you look back at childhood, adolescence,
[00:10:35] Speaker C: I think not having a mentor or a leader or someone that I could watch and kind of visualize, like, oh, okay, they're similar to me. They're doing, doing this too. I can follow in their footsteps. I can follow the breadcrumbs. I didn't have that. So I pioneered the way, I forged the path. But it was hard because I think in the midst of it, I got lost and turned around and disappointed and kind of lost in the void, if you will.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: That's a great, great point.
And one of the things I'm repeating in this show is helping our viewers understand that trauma is not just physical sexual assaults, car wrecks, and war vets.
Trauma happens to all of us, and a lot of it's developmental. So even though everything looks very picture perfect there, what I just extracted from that last share is that, yeah, even though it was a very good and safe home and path forward, the. The breadcrumb trail was that of culturelessness or in, you know, cultural sort of almost a loss of culture. And so, you know, that's a little micro trauma, but it's still something that motivated you and inspired you to be like, hey, this is great and all, but I know there's more to life than this. And even if my family's gonna maybe not understand me or think I'm weird or whatever, I'm gonna follow what feels true inside of me, even. Even as young as an adolescent. So let's, let's come back to that theme of staying true to what feels right inside of me as we get back from this break. Okay?
[00:11:59] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: So thank you, guys. Stay tuned. We'll be back soon. More with Lead with Heart now Media tv.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insight stories and practices to help you be from your whole self. This is Lead with Hart on NOW Media Television.
Leadership isn't just about decisions. It's about presence, compassion, and courage.
I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, somatic psychologist and healer. And on Lead with Heart, we explore what happens when we lead with awareness, compassion, and the body in mind.
From brain health to relational intelligence, from trauma informed leadership to embodied teams, each episode reveals a deeper way to lead.
Lead with Heart is airing now on NowMedia TV. Because the greatest leaders just guide people.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: They awaken them.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: And we're back. I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, and you're watching Lead with Heart on Now Media Television. Let's continue embracing leadership with presence and purpose.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Welcome back to Lead with Heart.
Want more of what you're watching. Stay connected to Lead With Heart and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. You can also catch the podcast version right from our website at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
Welcome back. We're here on Lead With Heart. I'm your host, Dr. Jesse Hanson. I'm here with Davita Moore, amazing healer and psychotherapist. Thank you so much.
You opened up by talking about your childhood and more or less painting that picture of a young girl that was growing up and just knew deeper inside that there was more to life than this somewhat vanilla, cultureless family that it felt like was there. Even though there was a lot of love, there was a lack of something. Right.
So this segment is all about, you know, who you are becoming, who you've been becoming, who you are now.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: And.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: And I'd like to guide you to share more about personally in my life too, the indigenous path, the ancient wisdom has been so valuable, so much meaning to it, and humbly admit that even though I've spent a ton of time and too much money on creating a PhD, it has been the indigenous and more ancient ceremonial elements of my experiences that have meant so much to me and I think overall given me a deeper quality of healing.
And so I'd love for you to share with those that are willing to listen, you know, tell us what happened as you started diving into what your intuition told you was your path.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: Yes. So I did the traditional schooling, you know, middle school, high school undergrad, got my bachelor's degree. But then after I finished my bachelor's degree, I really started getting deeper into meditation and yoga and just sitting in silence, sitting with myself, sitting out in nature. And something just sparked like, you need to travel. You need to leave from these lands and experience other cultures and just feel it in your system, specifically your nervous system. And that in itself will activate dormant DNA. So I got that download in a dream and I was like, all right, I'm guessing I'm going to get my passport and travel.
And so, you know, going through Asia and Europe, but Asia spread specifically.
I traveled to Thailand and then Laos and I did this like 22 mile hike into this village and I met with the chief and just really took in the culture, had a meal with them. They made duck and it was just really beautiful. Just to see how they navigate it within a village. And so ever since that moment, I said, okay, I need more of this. So I started reading books on hermeticism, Egyptian cosmology, because I feel like that's where a lot of my roots stem from, a lot of our roots as a collective, the Egyptians. So I started studying with Isis Indrea, and she has the Academy of Oracle Arts, and she talks about how to study ancient Egyptian texts and studies and Hermeticism and learning a little bit of Hebrew, but learning how to decode that language and work with the Netaru. And so the Netaru, if you've heard of, like Cleopatra, okay, or I'm trying to think of another one.
Ahmed, Nebhet, Osiris, Mhotep, those deities, those energies that are often seen in a godlike presence. But if you can think about them and kind of channel them, you can connect with them through meditation, through prayer, through different rituals, through different offerings. So I did a year long apprenticeship with her, and it really just completely opened my mind and my heart and my lineage of, like, who I was and how to learn the ancient techniques of prayer, how to leave an offering, you know, how to work in the dream time and the dream landscape, how to work with the different elements and just how to really, like, connect in that way and find the language.
So that was just amazing. And through the program, I met Gift Gita Kantanka. And so she specializes in ancestral harmonization.
So I worked with her for four months to harmonize all four of my lineages.
So my mother's, my paternal, my. My matriarchal paternal, my matriarchal maternal, and then same for the other side.
So all four lineages, and each one took about a month.
But connecting with the ancestors by name, understanding, you know, the bruises and the wounds of our ancestral lineage, but also the gifts, and also what are we working with, what do we bring forward? And that really was just a beautiful start to my journey.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Wow. Beautiful. Yeah. And for our viewers, may, May or may not be familiar with a lot of these names and terms that David is bringing forward today. I admit I've not heard of all of them, but what a theme that keeps emerging on the show as I keep getting to ask people about how do you lead with heart? You know, what. What does that really mean? And this theme of faith keeps showing up. And I've already said that while, you know, this primarily, probably a North American constituency, primarily with Christianity or Christ frequencies, that I really believe in my heart of hearts. And I have a lot of overlap with how much I was also called to go and study different cultures is that regardless of what name of God, we use some level of faith. And surrender is a key element to not only healing, but I think leading with heart. And another key theme is to know thyself, you know, to know thyself. And we will lead with heart naturally, whereas if we don't know ourselves, we will lead with our ego, we will lead with power over, we will lead with manipulation, these, these different elements. And so I'm appreciating in your story here so far, Davida, that, you know, you had not only the courage to break away from what was probably a pretty, like I said, like cut and paste, perfect proper life and say, wait a second though, even if my family doesn't get it, I know there's more. And that that act took faith to just go and do that. And then on top of that, it sounds like your faith started to deepen as you studied certain schools of thought.
And the last quick reflection which you can flow with is you brought up a great point which is big in the psychobabble world, but multi generational healing, multi generational trauma, multi generational phenomenon. And so when you talked about syncing up with the four different aspects of your lineage, that really touched me to recognize. Yeah, there's all of us have stuff in our background and that, you know, it's. It's partly about, yes. Clearing up that old multi generational trauma and it's also about tapping into those multi generational superpowers. Right. So, yeah, just curious. Anything else? How does that resonate? What else does that bring up in your mind and your heart?
[00:20:18] Speaker C: It resonates so much and I love that you brought that up because I think there's a focus on the negativity or I guess the density of the work of healing and evolving and optimizing. But there's a real beauty and lightness and a. And a fun aspect to it as well. And a very powerful aspect of just we come with gifts and strengths and our own coding and our own victories and blessings even. And so tapping into that and not always taking the role of the victimhood or, you know, someone who is always down and out because that in itself recreates a frequency and keeps you in this current of where am I? What was me? And attracting more of it keeps attracting. Yes.
So that was part of the journey too, of just opening myself. And it ties back to my childhood with a karate and traveling the world as a solo female travel traveler. And it's like, yeah, I may run into some situations, but I got these hands, I know how to use them.
So that really helped me, like, take that leap of faith.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's beautiful, right? That the embodiment of karate is such an embodied practice that it's with you wherever you walk. And it helped you feel safe to go do those things and have the courage. So bless blessings to your father for having that insight, to teach you that from a young age and help you feel, you know, I wonder if he realize he was giving you the power to, you know, I don't want to say leave the family that you didn't leave them, but you, you did physically go for a while, right? Kind of the irony of like raised you so good that you're so brave that you're going to go do all these things across the world.
Wow.
So as, as we look at who you are becoming, Tell, tell our viewers from here, as you kind of sort of study this, get back in touch, realize that there's such depth to yourself, you are now a licensed marriage and family therapist, correct?
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Right. And so, yeah, you know, how did that all happen? And you kept building on the indigenous and the ancient. But you realize I also want to get clinical training.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: Yes. And you know, what started that is after I finished my undergrad in North Carolina, moved to Philadelphia and I became a yoga instructor. It was beautiful. And it helped me really like tap in and understand that ancient Eastern arts and theory.
But then I moved to Hawaii. I was on Big island and then Maui teaching yoga classes, running a retreat center. It was great. And then what I noticed was my clients were having somatic experiences on the mat and I didn't have the proper training to handle it. I wasn't able to create a safe enough container for them.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: What's the somatic experience? Because not everyone might know what that is really.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: Reliving trauma, fat, flashbacks, shaking, crying, inconsolable.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: It's like the very body elements of what people call anxiety or depression. Right. It's like, well, why am I shaking?
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Sweating, heart palpitations, kind of blacking out, dissociation. They're here, but they're not really here, unable to speak. And so I was just noticing that over the course of six months, and you know what came to me was I need more training, more clinical training.
So then I went after four years back to school, got my master's. So it was this beautiful two prong way of existing that I've adopted ever since I went back to school to get my master's of this clinical lineage and school of thought, Western training, you know, textbooks, theories, but this also open, holistic, somatic, ancestral, ceremonial, ritualistic prong that I enjoy kind of toggling and oscillating between the two because they both have power and they work very well together. When you try to isolate them, I don't think they work as well.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: No. So bi hemispheric brain activity is where it's at. It's like the clinical is the more left brain, the indigenous is the more right brain. And it was so powerful. Just listening to David, I truly felt like I was listening to myself. I was also massage, yoga, holistic health practitioner in California. And I was having so many people have somatic experiences. But I call it, you know, trauma files coming up and dissociation and all that. And that was the same thing that inspired me to go and get clinical training because I was like, partly, yeah, I need to know what to do in these scenarios. But also just that same realization that as much as I was loving all of the exploration in the more spiritual and indigenous world, I was like, wow, I wonder what the clinical world has to offer. So very exciting, very cool mirrors that we are for each other.
And we're going to take a pause here, but for now, I just want to say thank you. Stay tuned for more. When we get back from this break, we're going to dive into the lotus, the art of transformation here on Lead With Heart on NOW Media tv.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insight stories and practices to help you lead from your whole self. This is Lead with Heart on NOW Media Television.
Leadership isn't just about decisions. It's about presence, compassion and courage.
I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, somatic psychologist and healer. And on Lead with Heart, we explore what happens when we lead with awareness, compassion and the body in mind.
From brain health to relational intelligence, from trauma informed leadership to embodied teams, each episode reveals a deeper way to lead.
Lead with Heart is airing now on NOW Media tv. Because the greatest leaders don't just guide
[00:26:02] Speaker B: people, they awaken them.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: And we're back. I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, and you're watching Lead with Heart on Now Media Television. Let's continue embracing leadership with presence and purpose.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Welcome back to Lead with Heart. I'm your host, Dr. Jesse Hansen. And in this segment entitled the Lotus, we're going to take a deeper look at the art of transformation. If you don't know, lotuses actually grow out of crap. They don't have the best things to make the most of, but somehow they find A way. And these beautiful flowers are also attributed in ancient wisdom to be connected with our crown chakra, or the part of us that knows our connection to divinity. So today I'm happy and honored to be joined by Davida Moore, an amazing healer and psychotherapist. And as I'm learning, tons of mirrors of our own path and our life, of how we've gotten to this place.
So we just left off with this notion of, there you are in Hawaii, learning more and more of who you are starting to put into embodiment, embodied practice. This is who I really am. And you start noticing people having all sorts of crazy, weird things happening. And it said, hey. And you said, let me get some help with this. So tell me what sort of happened as you started to taking what you had already seen in your childhood, plus the travels you did, Thailand, et cetera. Now you're a little bit more official. You're running retreats and centers, and you start to see all this. Now you're going to grad school. You're learning all the science behind it. What is that like? And what do you start to notice for yourself personally? Personally, for people you're working with? How does it change the game?
[00:27:34] Speaker C: It was so beautiful because I'm a nerd at heart. I love school and I love science, and I love the why behind whatever I'm doing. So why am I doing this? What's the backing behind it? My undergrad is in biology with a minor in neuroscience. So, like, getting to the microbiology of species and schools of thought is my bread and butter. And just like, what I love to do, to do. So as I was in grad school, learning the theory, I also started working at a group practice. And so I was running, like, pain management groups, but I was running it through meditation.
So how can you manage your chronic pain? Through deep breaths, through the box breathing, slow diaphragmatic breathing, noticing how your body feels, you know, doing a body scan. So it was interesting to start to pair the two school of thoughts in real time.
And then I also just realized how the brain started to work and going deeper into neurology. And I think, you know, when trauma happens, either a large trauma that is, you know, just imprinted at the forefront of one's mind, or more of the smaller traumas, you know, getting cut off in the freeway, a breakup, falling down the stairs. Your mind is always recording, always. So from birth to present, it is like, if you think about it, like a.
A video.
I'm trying to think of the right word, like a Blend between videography and a somatic experience. Blend the two. But your mind is always just recording, recording, recording. So when a trauma happens, when something happens within the body that doesn't feel good, or there's friction and there's pain, whether emotional, psychological, physical, it's recorded, recorded, and it's stored. And so we can't just forget about it. We can't just move forward.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: We can't just say, I let it go and it's actually gone.
[00:29:25] Speaker C: Right?
[00:29:26] Speaker B: We say the words, but the nervous system is remembering.
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Yes. I wish we could. That would be beautiful magic, you know, but it's just not the reality of it. So what I kept seeing is people saying that, like, oh, that happened in my past. I'm just moving forward. I'm letting it go. I'm here in Hawaii having a beautiful, you know, trip and vacation. I'm here to focus on that, that I want to focus on the future. And it's like, yes, but we also live in a holographic realm. So even though we're in the present moment, we can go back to our past self, our future self, and the diagonal, sideways self. And this is where we kind of go deep into, like, metaphysics of understanding the timeline of existence and healing parts and fragments.
So teaching my clients, I understand you want to focus on the present and. And the healing of the future and what you want to manifest, and we gotta go back to the past. We gotta go back to the scene of the crime. We gotta go back to the nightmare and relive it, reassociate it. Then you can move forward. Then it's cleared.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: So kind of just helping them.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: So gave you language to describe this?
[00:30:28] Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: I remember that too. Davita. That was one of the most exciting things I remember in some of my early grad school classes. Like you, I spent almost a little more than a decade on the more holistic, spiritual, indigenous path before entering grad school. And I just remember geeking out of like, oh, my goodness, yes. There's finally science that is able to keep up with this ancient wisdom. And specifically around the notion of trauma, reprocessing and somatics, is to say that there's actually science now that helps us understand why we can't just say, let it go and it's gone, or why we can't just write a letter and burn it. Though those things help, they're a step in the process. The deepest part is actually rewiring the nervous system.
And so it sounds like in your story here, in terms of Lotus, it's you know, obviously the clinical training really helped. You started to see yourself being able to show up even more grounded or more confident, more understanding of. And I'd say for me too, it's that it's just having that language because most people don't orient to a lot of the language that we've been speaking about with the channels and, you know, divinities and all this. They orient to, well, what's. What's my brain, body got to do to get this better? Right. So when we have that language, it becomes the bridge to help more people awaken. Because, again, I feel like this is the main reason I stepped out of the more traditional trainings I was stepped into is because I was just seeing the sick loop, you know, the constant, well, I got over this, but I need a new pill to counter what this pill did. And then I. And there's just this whole thing in our culture where don't look deeper. Just take the quick, easy out.
And you know it as well as I do. That is not how it. How it's happening.
[00:32:08] Speaker C: Correct? Yes. It's kind of that band aid effect where you're. Where the masses and many people are healing. The symptom, but not the roots, you know, and through this, you know, my, my, also my. My learn, my lotus, you know, journey and. And position is having my own healing experience because I'm a believer of leading by example.
So I am, you know, holding these sessions. I'm creating these containers. I also have to be in my right mind and my right body and also engage in my healing. Even though it wasn't very.
It wasn't a long process, I didn't have a lot to go through. There wasn't complex layers from childhood. I'm grateful for that. But there were still things I needed to process, and I feel like that really allowed me to step into my power, facing myself, facing thoughts and beliefs and skeletons in the closets, insecurities, and all of that, so I could really show up in a clear way for my clients and for my community. And that was not easy. I do want to just say to the viewers, it is not a walk in the park. And I always like to tell people that if it feels easy, if it feels like it is not challenging you, I invite you to go a little bit deeper because it should feel challenging and it should feel like you're being pushed to the edge of your envelope. And then typically that's when you get to the other side of relief and resolution.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Playing with that edge is. Is the you know, to me, the lotus practice of how do we create transformation? It's definitely not by staying comfortable.
And I think oftentimes, I hear so many times, oftentimes people come to my private practice when they've done 10, 20 years of talk therapy, and right away on the first session, I'm like, oh, no, we're not doing that. And they're like, but what? But I already know I can talk about this stuff forever. Like, it's so easy. Like, I mean, it wasn't first, but now I can.
It's that same art form. So to me, I definitely think we're aligned on that, that the lotus, the deepest lotus, or the richest, most beautiful lotuses are going to grow. When we not just do the intellectual talking way work, but we also do the somatic work, we learn to really look at how is our brain body storing this information.
You described memory a moment ago from the clinical language. Implicit memory is the nervous system. Somatic memories that are constantly being recorded and everything's being downloaded and filed.
[00:34:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Explicit memory is what everyone thinks is memory. That's what I can consciously remember or not. But different statistics vary. 10 to 20% of our explicit memories we think are there, and the other 80% are all implicit somatic memories that we may or may not even be aware of.
[00:34:42] Speaker C: Yes. And talk therapy is semantics.
Trauma doesn't reside there. Deep healing doesn't reside there. And I think talk therapy is foundational. It is very important. You got to build a rapport. I think it's great to air out and tell your story. What's your narrative? But after a few sessions of that, like, let's get down to the deep work. Let's challenge, let's grow roots.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. In the. In the art of transformation.
The other piece you were saying in there that I wanted to circle back to davita is around, you know, how watching yourself grow and heal. You mentioned. You know, I do believe we all have trauma. And I also agree with you that not everyone doesn't have the same trauma. And there's different magnitudes. Like, how intense, how much away from my regulated, calm self did I get? And there's also. So magnitude is this way and frequency is this way, meaning did it happen every day? Did it happen once in your life? Did it happen once a month?
And you know that that element of regardless of whatever our magnitude and frequency is, there is trauma there for all of us. The work is never done. And yet there are graduating landmarks.
And so I know, like, now here you are in Costa Rica and you have a family now and all that. So it's almost like, wow. I can definitely admit, as a dad first, just having a kid, having more than one kid, each kid adds another layer of challenge. And it's like, oh, yeah, I thought I. You know, I thought I did that work, but apparently I did not because I'm feeling so rejected right now.
So I'm just curious if you can speak to that both from your own personal and. Or professional, you know, standpoint of kind of noticing if we're really doing the work and we're growing, the edge of discomfort is moving and the goalpost is moving, you know.
[00:36:28] Speaker C: Yes, I agree. I think there's comfortable plateaus. You know, we do the work and we get to this space of this feels good.
You know, the work is never done. I'm on this beautiful journey and earth mission, and right now I'm feeling good, I'm feeling grounded. And so my focus is, you know, starting a family. My focus is starting my practice. My focus is traveling, whatever it is.
And so becoming a mother in this last year was very interesting because so many things came up that I thought I healed and worked on. I'm like, oh, that's. That's there.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: It's still there.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm feeling insecure about this, or I thought I would show up in this way, or I'm feeling activated, and I don't know why I'm feeling activated. And so it was really beautiful to just kind of allow myself to surrender to motherhood and that entire process. And I feel like motherhood in itself is quite.
It's psychedelic, even though, of course, you know, the mother is sober. But those 2am feedings, you know, getting the baby up, feeding the baby, and kind of being in sync with this other being that thinks you're still one unit up until about six to seven months and moving together, speaking a language that's not really set in stone or precedent, and it's babbling, but it is a language. Tuning into sensory is tuning into frequency.
And I feel that that. That really allowed me to heal in a different way, but also understand a different flavor of myself as a mother, a wife, and a psychotherapist, and. And boss, if you will. It's like this trifecta.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah, No, I think that's a beautiful place. We'll. We'll bookmark here. But it's just to say that, you know, being able to be humble enough to recognize, wow, even though I have been feeling great or grounded and now I want to take on this project or child or whatever, and then the next level of growth happens. And I think that's also a key element of Leading with Heart is keep rising to meet those challenges and welcome them as best we can instead of getting mad at them, you know. So thank you, Davida. Guys, when we come back, there's gonna be one more segment where we're gonna dive into embracing and expanding, extracting the wisdom from all that we're sharing. So thanks so much for joining us here on Lead With Heart. We'll be right back.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: We'll be right back with more insights, stories and practices to help you lead from your whole self. This is Lead with Heart on NOW Media Television.
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I'm Dr. Jesse Hanson, somatic psychologist and healer. And on Lead with Heart, we explore
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[00:39:35] Speaker B: guide people, they awaken them.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: And we're back. I'm Dr. Jesse Hansen, and you're watching Lead with Heart on Now Media Television. Let's continue embracing leadership with presence and purpose.
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All right, we're back here on Lead With Heart, here with Davida. Thanks again for joining.
This final segment of the show is about harvesting the ripe fruits, extracting the wisdom, listening to all that you've been saying. I want to work together to bring out the best of this. And so I wonder just. Yeah. As you sit with all this now hearing yourself, had shared all this, what wisdom do you feel like you're walking with right now?
Any other elements of the story that come back to you now that you want to share, this is your opportunity. Opportunity to just bring your wisdom forwards.
[00:41:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Yes. Well, one thing I do want to mention is I talked about undergrad and studying biology. I originally wanted to be a pharmacist, and so I worked in that world for a few Months after I graduated and just realized that it wasn't holistic and I was just applying a band aid to symptoms and not healing the root. And so that's what really jump started the holistic interests of yoga and meditation. And then I started the travels and all of that. So.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: And you realize that pretty young it sounds right. Yes.
[00:41:29] Speaker C: So I graduated when I was 21. So at 21, roughly.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: 21 is when you had that bigger awakening to shift from band aid model, which is the common modern model.
[00:41:40] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: And realize, wait, the ancient ones maybe knew what was up with deeper healing.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: Started the travels, found Isis, Indria, and then started that beautiful flow of my life and that, that mapping and you know, regarding the wisdom, something that is just coming through is find your mentors.
That is so important because in the west, you know, in North America there is a lack of eldership and elders. Where are they? Yeah. You know, and that's how we learn.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: Where are they and where is the honor for them? Where is the seat in society for them?
[00:42:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: It's not in a nursing home.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: Exactly. And I think there's this, you know, desire to stay young forever, you know, plastic surgery and, and this fountain of youth. But we're missing out on so much by aging. Like personally, I'm looking forward to aging. Bring on the, bring on the gray hair, you know, bring on the eldership, bring on the, the wrinkles and everything that comes with, with that. But I think when we leave out the crone and the grandmother, we're leaving out a lot of wisdom.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: And the grandfather and the grandparents.
[00:42:49] Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think it's an amazing wisdom nugget is find mentors, find community.
Another piece of wisdom that I'm extracting from your share today is, you know, having that courage to follow your heart, to follow your gut. You know, again, you just go back to the origins of your story. If you had have been like most of your siblings and most of people on the planet, you know, getting just so comfortable following whatever their initial programming is as opposed to realizing, wow, no, wait, there's something missing. So I think following heart, following intuition, finding mentors.
Another piece you said Davido was around. You know, it's very similar for me as a neuroscience based psychologist, but is that the wisdom of the body and the, and the importance of to really get to the root causes of anything? It has to, we have to go beyond the mind. One of my favorite blogs I have out there on the Internet is something says something like, you know, if we really want to find Enlightenment we've got to be willing to get out of our minds.
[00:43:46] Speaker C: Ooh, I'm in love with that.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: And what is enlightenment? But it is the light in me.
Right. So we really want to find the light in me. It's not going to come from just reading and doing whatever we're programmed to do know.
So, yeah, go ahead.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: And you know, as a ritualist and ceremonialist, someone who works with the elements, often daily, working with herbs, working with plant medicine and speaking that language, that's important too, because we can have plant allies, whether they're psychedelic or not, and really learning how to establish a relationship because the plants are ancient. You know, peppermint, ashwagandha, blue lotus. These are all herbs and plant allies that can really help us and ground our nervous system and help us recalibrate.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: Humans have been in touch with plants ever since their existence as teachers and allies. And so I love that you're referencing that. I think that's also a little lost wisdom. And ironically, you mentioned pharmacology and getting over so many of the psychopharmacological agents that are out there right now are actually plant based.
Right. And we don't realize that. And of course they're infused with all sorts of other chemicals. And. And for the record, I think I'm so speaking for David and I as well, for our viewers, I am not in any way anti medication. I think that they have their place, just like talk therapy does.
However, DaVita pointed out so well that if all we ever do is psychopharmacology, we are only going to be at best putting on bigger and bigger band aids to really get to the roots of anything.
It has to. You know, the ancient teaching I live by is the way out is through.
And so much of our modern world is programmed as the way out is around or numb or dodge.
So I love that you're helping bring that wisdom to the forefront.
I wonder if you could just share. Yeah. Just anything from your own personal story, David, of what you know. Yeah. Looking back at something where having the courage to do more somatic work has. Has made a difference for you.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: Yes.
I went through a really intense heartbreak and breakup when I was in college and then also when I was living in Hawaii and it just completely like shattered my world. You know, you think you're living on this path with someone in this specific place and it's just not the truth. And so when I had that deep fragmentation, I went and did emdr and it completely changed the game. I specialize in emdr. I love doing it and holding space for clients in that way. And it felt good to experience it in myself and just really go back and reassociate.
So EMDR was great. I also did some somatic work out in Oregon of just really, like, understanding my body mapping and where do I have pain? Where do I have tension?
[00:46:32] Speaker B: Okay, that's probably an indicator pain as a teacher.
[00:46:34] Speaker C: Yes. Lean into it. It. Don't run away from it. Like, lean into the pain, lean into the discomfort, and that in itself will help you heal. Because I think as a culture, there's a lot of fear, and it keeps people from diving into the work, diving into the unknown. But if you're constantly in a space and head and mindset of fear, for one, it's a very dense frequency and vibration, and if you're unable to pop your head out of it, you can never see. See what is in store for you.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: So another nugget of wisdom is just letting go of the fear. And the question I ask is, what's the worst that can happen?
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:47:13] Speaker C: Doing my own healing, doing my traveling, answering my own questions. What's the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is I get told no or it's a bad experience and I learn my lesson and I move forward.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Yeah. I often look at fear of whether I'm working with myself or someone else. Like, it's just. It's just a part of me.
So let's let this part talk. Because so often it is like, you know, the managerial shepherding parts, like, no, no, no, we don't have fear. Just go away. It's like, well, no, what's your story? Let's hear it out. You know, and usually it's not actually as bad as that part wants to believe it is. So that's another great, great piece of wisdom. And, you know, when you talked about somatic work, viewers may not be aware EMDR is one of the most clinically researched form of somatic work. It stands for eye movement, movement desensitization, reprogramming. And it's based in the same science of understanding by when we go to sleep and rapid eye movement. That's how they extracted the technique.
But that's an example. The other one, too, that I admit I've seen a lot of that that's helped me and so many others is called sequencing, which is largely from, like, Hakomi origins and sensory motor psychotherapy. But that's also something I've seen so much in terms of wisdom is people will come in having talked about Something so many times. So they blew in their face and they maybe think they've let it go or they want to let it go. But sequencing refers to where. To me, EMDR really works within the brain and it works within the psyche.
The sequencing work works more through the entire neuromuscular system and. Right, and I'm sure you've seen this too. People are going through something and they start shaking or whatever it is. And that really what needs to happen with sequencing is there's some kind of hidden, hidden emotion that got suppressed how many ever years ago.
And until that expression happens, we will simply keep looping that contraction inside. And that contraction is actually what's resulting in the fear thought.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: Right, Exactly. And pip, that's the somatic modality I got trained in later on in, in my practice. But it stands for Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy. You can use it with medicine or without medicine. And the medicine is typically prescribed ketamine.
But basically you're getting into the autonomic nervous system. There's four states, 0 through 4, and you can just map and sequence the autonomic nervous system based on how the client or how the person is responding. So you ask specific questions. What do you see? Where are you? This is all under a blindfold too. So you can really get into the somatics.
Sessions are two hours and it's intense because basically I'm asking them to go back to where the trauma concurred.
Sometimes I step into the role of mother, father, friend.
The projections, they come. But it's such good healing. And so I did my own work with that and it was just life changing.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
And it is true. I've seen that so many times over that the, you know, what we put in, we get out. Right. If it's like, it's a little more comfortable and easy to just talk about something takes a lot more courage and it's a lot more intense to actually go in there and to clarify. Yeah. And exactly. And to like approach it. I have to say, if you want to, if you want to heal it, you got to feel it. Well, first you got to reveal it, unconceal it, then re deal it. Meaning like, you know, you got to reorganize to it, reassociate. You use the clinical language. So no, I think that's, that could be some of the most powerful wisdom that I think is coming out of this is the power of somatic therapy, the power of living through our body and following our heart. Even back to you as the little girl who knew there was something more to be done. Right?
[00:50:40] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: So you have shared so much beautiful vulnerability, so much wisdom. Thank you, Davita. I want to make sure our viewers know how to keep in touch with you, so please tell them how they can find you out here in the big world that we live in.
[00:50:51] Speaker C: Yes. The best way to connect with me is via my website.
Ever since being a mom, I'm not really on social media too much these days.
I do have an Instagram, but I don't think I've posted it in a year. I have an account, but my website is davidacmore.com so my first name D A V I D a c m O-O-R-E.com and on the website, you can find my email and my phone number and all that good stuff.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: Beautiful. Well, I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for coming on the show today and blessing us with your presence.
And we will wrap up this episode now. Please stay tuned in the future for more awesome episodes of Lead With Heart, where we're going to keep looking deeper into authenticity's and vulnerability's role in creating amazing leaders.
Thanks so much. I'm your host, Dr. Jesse Hanson. We'll see you next time on Lead with Heart.
