Body Wisdom Rising

Reclaiming Birth as Sacred Ceremony With Demi Betschart

• Alyssa Stefanson

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Demi, founder of Somatic Rebirthing, shares her journey as a midwife and guide who helps people reconnect with the stories their bodies hold, while discussing her own conscious pregnancy journey in Costa Rica. She illuminates how birth is not merely a medical event but a sacred, psychedelic portal that connects us to our primal wisdom, explaining how our own birth imprints affect our development and relationships throughout life.

• Birth as psychedelic, primal, and holy – a ceremony rather than a medical procedure to be managed
• How our original birth imprints influence our development and stay with us into adulthood
• The importance of connecting with nature to access primal birthing wisdom
• Somatic approaches to healing birth trauma through the body's stored memories
• Creating safety in relationships as the foundation for healing trauma
• Conscious pregnancy as a portal for shadow work and relationship growth
• The relationship between sexual energy and birth energy
• Learning to recognize structural dissociation patterns in the body
• The integration process after transformative experiences or birth


Demi Betschart is a Somatic Practitioner, Traditional Midwife, and Pre- and Perinatal Expert with studies in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology. Her work is devoted to reclaiming birth as ceremony and supporting women in returning to their innate wisdom. With a background in both clinical and traditional midwifery, as well as extensive study in somatic and trauma healing, Demi guides individuals and families through the thresholds of preconception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and beyond. She weaves together nervous system regulation, trauma integration, ancestral remembrance, and body-based practices to offer pathways of healing that restore sovereignty and wholeness. Through retreats, 1:1 work, and community offerings, Demi supports mothers and families in transforming birth imprints, regulating their nervous systems, and reconnecting to the sacred intelligence of the body.





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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Body Wisdom Rising Podcast. I'm your host, alyssa, and my intention here is to deliver grounded, embodied insights, alongside practical tools and resources to help you heal, awaken and remember your sacred nature. This is rooted spirituality, bringing people back to their bodies, back to their roots and back into connection with the ancestral ways that have always carried us. Not spiritual fluff, not disconnected theory, weaving together the best of ancient wisdom and modern science living, breathing practices and conversations that integrate healing, wellness, earth-based wisdom and conscious growth. Each week, I share space with experts in trauma recovery, holistic health and ancestral ways of knowing, as well as voices with lived experience and powerful transformational stories. Together we explore what it truly means to rise rooted, embodied and whole. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to leave a five-star review, as it helps these conversations reach the people who need them most. Let's get into the episode. Welcome back to another episode of Body Wisdom Rising. Thank you so much to all of you who continue to tune in each week. I appreciate you all so much and I really hope that you're finding value in these conversations and if you're new here, welcome. I'm so glad you've joined us.

Speaker 1:

Before we dive into today's episode, I'm excited to share some news. So I'll be hosting a retreat in Sedona April 18th to the 22nd 2026. This will be a small, intimate gathering held at a beautiful dome home, nestled right between Cathedral Rock and Bell Rock, two of Sedona's most powerful energy vortexes and if you've ever been to Sedona you know how special it is. There's something about the land there. It just feels like you're stepping straight into ceremony, into another portal. It's one of my favorite places in the world and I knew I wanted to return to hold a retreat in that secret landscape. So early bird pricing is available until October 2025. So if you'd like more information or to join the interest list, check out the link in the show notes, and you can also follow along on Instagram at wildfemininerise, where I'll be sharing updates in my stories.

Speaker 1:

Now let's get into today's conversation. I'm joined by my dear friend, demi, tuning in from the jungles of Costa Rica. Demi is an incredible midwife and somatic practitioner and I had the honor of meeting her at a retreat where she was serving as a ceremonial guide and she walked me through a very powerful healing process. So I experienced firsthand the depth of her skill and presence. And just a quick note that, since she was joining us from the jungle. There were a couple of brief moments where the connection cut out, so you might notice a word or two missing here and there, but it doesn't affect the flow. You'll still be able to stay with the conversation fully.

Speaker 1:

Today, I have the joy of welcoming not only a powerful guide in the birth and rebirthing world, but also my dear friend and sister, demi. She is the founder of Somatic Rebirthing, where she weaves scientific principles with sacred wisdom to help people reconnect with the stories their bodies hold. From conscious conception to somatic preparation, from integrating birth imprints to guiding rebirthing journeys, her work is all about helping us return to the trust in the body and remember birth as sacred. Demi and I first connected in Costa Rica, sitting together deep in ceremonial space, and so I witnessed firsthand the integrity and devotion that she brings to her work, and it's such an honor just to hold this conversation with you today, exploring birth not as a medical event but as a portal, a rite of passage and a return to our original wisdom. Welcome, demi. And Demi, you are also expecting and you are absolutely glowing. You look beautiful pregnant. Yeah, pregnancy looks really good on you. I want to ask you, because you do have a daughter, so how is this pregnancy different than your first?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you, alyssa. Thank you for the warm welcome. First and foremost, thank you. It's such an honor to be here with you and, yeah, you're such a soul sister in so many ways. I've gotten to see you through some deep, deep ceremony and be in ceremony with you and it's just been such an honor to walk this path.

Speaker 2:

And, yeah, I'm in this really beautiful phase of my life right now. I've been calling in this soul for many, many years and he or she we're letting the prize, although I do feel it is strongly a boy. I'll circle back when, when he comes or she comes. Um, I feel he or she was just waiting for for the right partnership and the right place in my life to come through. And so, yeah, fast forward. I met my partner, jesse, a few years ago and we felt the soul right away and we her in and conceived and just that has been so much different than my first birth, my first daughter, my, my only child, earth child right now. Um, I had her when I was 21 years old and I came from a family that was really beautiful in a lot of ways, but I also came from a family that how do I say it? I have a lot of trauma from my childhood and so I always knew I wanted to be a mother, but I didn't plan to be a mother so soon and yet she came to me really early on. And so this pregnancy is different in the sense of I've consciously chosen it, we've called this soul into my womb in a really conscious, beautiful way, and it is the exact work that I have been weaving together the last almost decade between birth work and healing, somatic practitioner trauma, all of that, and I've really gotten to practice every over the last decade in this pregnancy.

Speaker 2:

Pregnancy, this pregnancy has been full of a lot of shadow excavation. It was a little bit humbling because we called this soul in so consciously and we were so excited, and about a month into the pregnancy we were just hit with like personally me, but definitely in our relationship just so much shadow, like this soul really came to shake up a lot, and I knew that before we even conceived I felt the soul was really strong and it felt like it was coming to shake up the roots of the unhealed masculine within myself, within my family and just within everything else, and so I knew that. But when the lessons and the mirrors and the teaching started to come, I was definitely a little bit blindsided and I was like, okay, this is not the rainbow and butterfly pregnancy that I had fantasized about. But okay, of course this is coming. We're both healers and we're both being called to up level and of course, we stand in the fire, we do our work, we walk the talk that we speak, and so it was shocking in a way, but also not.

Speaker 2:

And so, yeah, the first and second trimester were full of just old stuff coming back to resurface, new layers to be looked at and healed.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, and I'm really settling in now to the third trimester and probably just a couple months away from birthing this baby and we are choosing to birth our baby here in our nest on this beautiful land in Costa Rica I'm planning to birth and my version of sovereign, safe birth, which is outside of medical system, in a really ceremonial way, with my partner.

Speaker 2:

I'm calling it a sovereign birth because I plan to have some really beautiful sisters around me to help hold the container, but I definitely am really leaning into mine and Jesse's relationship and into spirit and God to help guide the soul through in a really safe, sovereign way here in our jungle nest. So, yeah, there's so many differences in the pregnancies and I am so grateful to have this opportunity. This little one is teaching me so much Many things to be healed and looked at, and for that I'm really grateful. And it just makes sense with where I'm at in my life and who me and Jesse are, of course we're going to call in like a really powerful soul to shake some stuff up. So yeah, that's been the journey so far.

Speaker 1:

That's so beautiful and, yeah, I just love that you share how much it brought up for you, like during this pregnancy and your relationship, and I think that's just so important to name and it's so healthy and good to express and good for other people to hear, because you both are just so immersed in your work.

Speaker 1:

You are just such like conscious, beautiful people, but you're also human right, and we, as you know, as much as we immerse ourselves in this work, if anything, our stuff comes up more to be able to be like transmuted and alchemized and yeah, really truly, that's just what's happening for you and I think it's just, it's so beautiful and, yeah, I can't wait to meet this soul. I can only imagine, like the beautiful, strong, you know personality this baby is going to have. Yeah, what a blessing. And yeah, you're just, you're both. Both you and Jesse are just such incredible humans. I'm so, so grateful that our paths have crossed and that we have connected. And you know you've spoken about the natural state of birth as being psychedelic, primal and holy. But we also know how systems like the patriarchy and medicalization have stripped birth from midwives and communities. So what does it mean to reclaim birth as sacred in a world that so often treats it as something to be managed and controlled.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, beautiful question. You know I am really leaning into this belief that we all are going to think of birth as safe and sovereign in maybe a little bit different ways. So for me personally, what like a safe and sovereign birth looks like is really just honoring it as ceremony and as primal. If we look at animals birthing and we are animals they are doing it in a way that is not full of fluorescent lights and strangers and being told how to birth and where to birth. They are going off into birth and oftentimes doing it alone, and I think what makes us unique as humans is we do have that connection. And so, you know, birthing with people that we really do feel are safe to birth with and really reclaim the embodiment of birth really recreates embodiments of birth. We have gotten sucked into this paradigm and place within birth where we give our power away, and what I'm really helping women and families do is bring their power back to them, and that looks different for everyone, and I'm really holding space for women and families to find what is really reclaiming birth in a sovereign, safe way. How does it look for you to reclaim it, embody it, allow the primal essence of birth to come back, and so that's really the space that I've been holding for others is for them to really sit with. What does that look like for them?

Speaker 2:

And when we talk about trauma, you know we all have trauma, we're all human beings. Obviously there's different layers, levels of trauma, and so I really am helping women start to transmute, am helping women start to transmute, integrate, sequence their trauma, because trauma comes up in birth. You know, like you said, alyssa, I relate birth psychedelic ceremony. It's so psychedelic we're being called to open our bodies and we have to really honor that process as sacred ceremony. And in the medical system it's not. It's not held that way, it's held like very robotic and again, all of these things that if you were to put an animal on a table and make them birth in a hospital, they would never be able to birth. Their bodies would shut down, they would completely go into survival and freeze and they wouldn't be able to birth. So why are human beings any different? Why is birth being stripped from us in that way and why are we being put into a system that is not that conducive to birth? And here's the thing I am not one to full-on bash the medical system because I think it has the. But most birth it can happen naturally, innately, intuitively, primally.

Speaker 2:

And so this space for birth is at home unless there is a true medical reason in a way that is really close to the way our ancestors birthed in tribe and community and our safe space, you know low lights, low sounds, people chanting, and really bringing in that ceremonial aspect. I mean we are birth as a portal. We are welcoming in new souls. They deserve to be birthed in the most gentle, safe, sovereign way. So for me it's been beautiful. There's so many layers. There's the layers of work that I do with others and then there's the layers of work that I do with myself.

Speaker 2:

And it's been so beautiful to really look at what is safe, sovereign birth look like for me, my partner and my baby and that's where I say everyone's going to have their own variation of that slightly. It's continuing to guide people back to their intuition, to their inner know. That's primal. And how can we create a container that is the most conducive for that and treat it like ceremony, treat it like a psychedelic state. You know you would never give someone five grams of mushrooms and then go and put like fluorescent lights on them and tell them what position to be in and strap them down and numb them Like how traumatizing, how traumatizing. So it's just looking at it like ceremony, how? How can we honor it better? How can we start to talk about these things more to where we can start to think about oh yeah, like maybe that isn't the most conducive place or space or people to have in my, in my birth ceremony place or space or people to have in my, in my birth ceremony Beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I want to share something vulnerable and I feel like many maybe some people who are listening can relate to this. But, you know, just starting to learn about all of this or I would, I should say, unlearn you know everything that I really had just been conditioned and just didn't know any better, growing up in the culture I grew up in. You know, I didn't have my daughter that way, like you. I was pregnant at 20. I had my daughter at 21.

Speaker 1:

I was a single mother and my pregnancy was traumatic. My birth was traumatic. I went in, you know, in labor. I remember just experiencing so much shame, you know, being a single mom, and just some comments that were made at the hospital and it was really hard. And so, starting to actually learn about this, what came up for me was even shame around that, like shame around like my birth process or like how didn't I not know any better or learn any better? And yeah, I'd love to speak to that a little bit, because I know some of the work that you do is helping people even just move through those trauma imprints from previous birth experiences, if you can touch on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is a big one. I love to look at our own conception and birth because that is ultimately the original imprint how were we conceived, how was our time in the womb and how was our birth and I focus on pre and perinatal psychology. So it's really looking at conception through seven years and it's considered like developmental. And so if we look at that like that's our original imprinting and that is what is in our, in our tissues and ourselves and our, it's hardwired throughout our entire body and system. And so often a lot of the work that I do is going back and um and creating safe space to explore what was your own conception like, what was your time in the womb like and your birth and then those developmental years. So that's like the original imprinting.

Speaker 2:

And oftentimes, alyssa, what I see is a lot of people aren't aware. They're like, oh, you know, wow, I didn't realize that that was my conception or my time in the womb or birth. When they go back and talk to their mother and a lot of that follows us into our adult life. I mean, it sets the tone for life and so not only that, but when we go to conceive and be in pregnancy and birth ourselves a lot of those original impacts and so was your mom in fear? Was there fear in your conception time in the womb, pregnancy, birth? Your system felt all of that and so a lot of times that will come up in women consciously conceiving and or pregnancy and or birth, and then obviously it follows us into motherhood as well. So a lot of the work I do is liking to. I love to take women back into that time and just start to explore that in a safe way and then we start to look at like oh wow, those are the same themes that showed up for you and your conception, pregnancy and birth, and so we get to kind of look at it and hold it in like a really loving way and sometimes hold space to really sequence some of that energy that maybe is still trapped in the system that is not serving. So yeah, so that's kind of a big piece of the work I do is going back into that.

Speaker 2:

And then another facet of my work is helping women heal from traumatic births. So if you had a traumatic birth yourself or there are parts of your birth that didn't feel right to you, that maybe you felt violated in you name shame Alyssa like that's a really common one. So often mothers have a. They hold a lot of shame from their births for so many different reasons. There can be so many different stories tied to that shame, but that's a really common one.

Speaker 2:

So, really allowing that safe space for women to go back in and start to look at, release and integrate their own birth stories and it's preparing them for their next pregnancy or it's just helping kind of close that loop on that, on that pregnancy and birth story, so yeah, on that pregnancy and birth story, so yeah, that's a lot of the work that I do is going in and creating space for people, for women, to really go into those stories, whether it's their own conception or it's the conception of a child that they grew in their womb, the birth and all of that yeah, it's really powerful work.

Speaker 1:

Very powerful work. You know there's a really good book I'm not sure if you've read it didn't start with you how inherited family trauma shapes who we are and how to break the cycle by mark wallen and he speaks a lot of womb trauma and, yeah, the importance of healing that. And I guess a question that that I have is that if someone so like would ideally, would it ideally be to go to your mom and ask her about if she's open about talking about it, about her birth experience, conception, and if she's not because I'm sure there's a lot of mothers out there who aren't open to having these conversations Can we still uncover that? Like, what is the process of of healing that if we're not even too sure what that experience was?

Speaker 2:

yeah, well, obviously, if we can just go right back to the source and have that conversation, that's amazing because we get to hear it straight from our own mother. And you're absolutely right, alyssa, some women, some moms, are not open to that conversation or they have their own shame around it and so maybe it's blocked for them and maybe our mothers aren't around anymore, so we don't even have the ability to ask them. So if our moms are available, like, I encourage everyone to understand your birth story more, hear it, hear it straight from your mom. So being able to in that space with your own mother is really beautiful. It could be really healing and really intimate. Just to ask our moms about what was our conception like, what was it and what was my time in the womb like, was there anything you know? Were you in peace, were you supported or were you stressed out? Were there any big traumas that happened while I was in the womb, and tell me about my birth. So I always encourage, if that is available to you, absolutely Like, go and speak to your family.

Speaker 2:

And for those of us that don't have that ability, for whatever reason, yes, the thing is, alyssa is and you know this you are a somatic expert as well is the body doesn't lie, the body holds all of it. So there's so many ways that we can start to track all of this and ultimately the biggest key ingredient is so that's the biggest with my clients If we're going to get into pre-verbal trauma or pre-verbal imprints, we have to create safety in the system to be able to access that, and sometimes that can take a lot of time and space, sometimes not. It just depends on how open the system is and how ready the system is to go into that. You know, if we did have a really traumatic conception, womb time, birth, it's probably going to be a little bit harder to access, but it's not impossible at all. And again, like it's all being stored in our tissues and our body, so we really have to go into the body. No one remembers their conception or remembers their time in the womb or remembers their birth, but their body does, and so I have various different practices and ways to tell those stories that are being held in the body, those imprints that are being held in the body.

Speaker 2:

And, yeah, the relational safety is the biggest piece, part of the work that I do and that we do in our retreat space and the work that I do with women and mothers is, you know, a core tenant of that work is our trauma, our imprints. They all happen in relationship, so they're going to heal in relationship. And so just by creating the safe container with the intention of understanding what are the trapped stories and imprints there, oftentimes it gives the body the permission to start to release those stories and come through. And, yeah, it can be really really powerful just to give the body the space to start to process that and start to sequence those stories. And when I say you know it's all held in the tissues and cells, there's different ways that we can look at how people are holding their bodies and the way that we process. Those are all like deep somatic indicators of various things that maybe the system is holding.

Speaker 2:

So I really start to study their body and how they process and, um, like the development of them and where they are as adults, and we can kind of start to piece things together and start to understand through the body cues maybe, what they're holding and what the stories could be there. And then oftentimes, with that and mixture of the safety and the container, things will just start to come. You know, they start to naturally unravel and again, that timeline is different for everyone, just based on if their system's ready, how safe those parts feel. And a lot of the work I do is with parts work and so we start to really look at those parts of us and we start to create the safety for those parts to come out and start to talk and start to communicate. And because they're pre-verbal, they often first communicate through the body. So a lot of the work I do is body focused.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful. This work is so fascinating and you know, I really learned a lot about like just structural dissociation, you know, in just the body posture, and starting to notice that from you and Jesse at the retreat, like that was such an eye opening experience, learning experience for me, and it's like, once you see it, you can't unsee it. So I really noticed that within my family now, specifically the women, how like we all tend to hold our body a certain way, like really closing our hearts off right Like the shoulders, and yeah, that's been something I've I've really um started to notice and I love how, like both you and jesse just invite in you know, curiosity, like it's not about like fixing or like judging yourself or, you know, being rigid or perfect, but it's just noticing, because that really is truly how healing starts is just the curiosity. It's like, oh, I'm noticing, I'm not judging or trying to fix, but I'm I'm just going to start to notice what my body is just naturally wanting to do, how it's just how it's naturally wanting to hold itself. Is that first step?

Speaker 2:

so very beautiful yeah, no, it's beautiful and you're so right it's. It really just starts with awareness and noticing, and some people are already at that stage, some people aren't. So it's, you know the basics. The foundation is teaching humans just to notice and start to recognize and bring awareness to like.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, my jaw is really tight right now. I am rounding my shoulders. It's not safe for my heart to be open. I don't feel that dropped into my hips and hips. Pelvis is where safety lives. So we start to look at that in terms of structural dissociation and development and all of that. We start to really study the body of like. Okay, you don't feel safe in your hips, so there's a huge lack of safety there and oftentimes that does start pre-verbal. That deep, deep lack of safety starts in the hips, and it's no coincidence that when we give birth, we have to drop into our pelvis, we have to drop into our hips. So that is a big, big place I go to with women when they come to me in either preconception or in their pregnancy, wanting to really give birth in a beautiful way or even to process birth. Is we really start to work with the hips and the pelvis? What is your relationship to your hips and your pelvis. What is this?

Speaker 2:

what are the stories that are being held there and we start to tune into a lot of people kind of numb and dissociate from their hips and their pelvis, which to me is like a huge somatic indicator that you and that story started really young into that and that's what I mean by like going into the body is the body will start to talk if we give it the time and the space and the safety to go into that.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I'm so happy that you, that that clicked with you and the retreat and the experience that we had together, because the body is, is the unconscious, is the subconscious mind, and the more that we can go into the body and start to notice and bring awareness, the more we can start to heal it truly was like that experience, um, my first time at ottman in costa r, like what I learned from that and what I brought home with me and what I integrated, like the shifts that occurred in my life that were undeniable and so many people noticed, and so many people continue to bring it up to me, the changes that they've seen within me this past year and it's hard to believe that it's only been a year.

Speaker 1:

And I just want to name that because you know, we hear about these experiences and we're like, well, how much you know change can actually occur from you know, like a seven-day retreat. But it's not even just about like that experience, like you'll learn so many powerful tools that you'll be able to incorporate into your life, but it's about the integration and applying what you've learned afterwards. And yeah, it was, it really truly was life-changing. It has been, it continues to be for me. I'm continuing to integrate all that I've learned from the two of you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you're such a testament, alyssa. You know you've come to two of our experiences and you've really done the integration work, which is such a big part of it, and truly you have shapeshift, shapeshifted so much. It's wild to me. I mean, I just feel that you are in like such a beautiful place within your own. It's just a testament to, yes, coming here and doing these experiences with us, but also all the work that you're doing in between, because there's so many people that come to these experiences and they don't do the integration work and they lose a lot of it. And so you are like a living testament to you are you're doing the work and you're continuing to to do the ongoing inner work, continuing to to do the ongoing inner work.

Speaker 1:

You like you have shape shifted so much. It's so beautiful and incredible. Thank you, thank you, yeah, and even I just want to speak a little bit to integration and what that means, because you know it's a word, it's I would say it's a hype word and we hear it all the time in this space. But how would you describe to someone, when someone's like, well, what actually is integration Like, what do you mean?

Speaker 2:

by that, certain parts of us to the side or out our center of wholeness and we are truly, truly like allowing them to land and integrate in ourselves. And to me, integration is giving the deep work, the respect that it needs. Like we go into these ceremonies whether it's birth or a deep retreat, like experience that you came to here doing the inner trauma work and you open up such a big portal within yourself and within your psyche and within all of the places and spaces. And integration is really. It's like honoring that deep ceremony and portal that you opened and allowing all of the pieces to start to come back together into your center of wholeness is really how I look at it. It's like we're taking all of these fragmented parts of us that have been fragmented for so long and we're bringing them back into wholeness through integrating them in our bodies, in ourselves, in our souls.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, integration is such a big part of birth, it's such a big part of trauma healing, it's such a big part of psychedelics and ceremony. It's it's really, it's arguably more important than than the work. I mean the, the experience, the ceremony. It open everything. But if we don't give that time and that space to integrate all of that, it doesn't really stay in the. Yeah, that's sort of my definition of integration, what it means to me.

Speaker 1:

Great explanation and I'd love to start to dive a little bit into just wild birth and nature connection and I really want to speak to dive a little bit into just wild birth and nature connection. And I really want to speak to this because this piece even just the nature connection, not even connected to birth. But this was such a missing piece for me for so long in my healing process. And the community piece and like the ceremonial piece.

Speaker 1:

I had been doing a lot of somatic work prior and I'd been working with practitioners and it was so helpful in so many ways but until I actually started to learn you know how much and I already knew this right, like it's deeply embedded within our body. But just remember how connected we are to nature. That, like Earth mother was our, it's our original mother, right, it's attachment figure and for me it's been so, so healing, because there was a lot of parts of my journey that I was very isolated, I didn't really have community, but I found a lot of like, solace and connection in nature as an attachment figure, as a caregiver, and so a lot of your work that you do like when you describe, um, wild birth, you connect it to land, spirit, community. So in what ways does wild birth act as both a return to nature and an act of resistance against the systems of fear um and control, like how we've been so conditioned to be disconnected from it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, it goes back to our opener of birth, is primal, like we have to be able to get into our primal bodies to birth. Birth is inherently, innately wild. It's innately primal. And connecting to the earth is so important because the earth is the ultimate teacher, she's the ultimate grounder of all of this, and so in pregnancy, like wild pregnancy, wild birth to me is coming back into that primal essence and really rooting into the earth, and so a lot of the work that I'm doing myself and that I guide women into is making it a daily practice to be with the earth in whatever way, whether that's sitting by a waterfall, walking on the grass, barefoot, walking on the beach, foot walking on the beach, swimming in the ocean, floating in water, connecting to there's so many different ways that we can connect to nature and connect to the elements that the more we can connect to nature, the more we connect back to what is wild, primal pregnancy and birth.

Speaker 2:

And you know when we about nature, I love to study animals in pregnancy and birth because they are also the ultimate teacher. They're so close to nature and if we watch them in their natural habitat, they are communing with the earth all the time. They're on all fours. They're in their body in a way that us as humans have forgotten to be, and we forgot how to be on all fours. We forgot how to get dirty. We forgot how to be with the earth and study nature and water and fire and all of the elements. And so part of wild birth is returning home to the earth. You know, that's where we've come from. It's where we'll go at the end of this lifetime, and so really being able to use mother nature as an ally during pregnancy and birth has been like a big core tenant. And this is the ancient practices. You know, if we look at our ancestors, how they were birthing, it's so much different than the way that we're birthing now.

Speaker 2:

And so, yeah, just really, you know, holding myself to that and the women that I'm working with to connect with nature, find a way to connect daily and just let her be your teacher, just sit in the presence of nature in whatever way feels best to you, for even you know 10 to could do an hour Amazing, even better.

Speaker 2:

But even if you just got like 10, 15 minutes in and just set in nature, I'm looking out my window now to this beautiful jungle and I'm just watching the tree move and it's so psychedelic and part of pregnancy and birth is starting to alter our brainwaves. It's like this sort of like floatiness that comes on where we kind of get lost in the beauty around us. But we have to create those opportunities for ourselves, because we live in a world that is so fast-paced and so go, go, go and it's filled with distractions that if we don't make that time for ourselves, we won't and we won't connect, we will stay outside of ourselves. And I think by connecting with nature it brings us back into our bodies, it brings us back into our intuition and it allows our brainwaves to go into more of like a theta state where we are just like, wow, we're fascinated, we're captivated, we're in awe of mother nature and her beauty and her imperfection. So, yeah, it's such a important practice and kind of a non-negotiable for me.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I lately have been. There's a river that I go to, there's a forest that I visit pretty frequently and I've been bringing my drum there because I just made a drum a few weeks ago and just practicing songs and singing by the river and I feel high, like after. I feel incredible, that I just look forward to having that experience and it really does feel, um, you're just like cultivating such a deep relationship with nature, especially if you're going to a specific spot, and like returning to that same spot over and over again and it's just really powerful, like the experiences and the encounters that you actually start to have with nature and animals. It's yeah, it's beautiful and the cool thing about visiting uh ottman in costa rica was like the synchronicities, the animal synchronicities that happen there. It's like a constant, it's like miracles are just a part of life there. It just seemed, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's incredible. I'll share a story. There's something called a I'm probably going to botch the name, but I believe it's a jaguar undie is how you say it and it's essentially like a mini Jaguar, and about two months ago I started to see them and they're quite rare Like it's very rare to see them, and, alyssa, I think I've seen 10 since, like in the last two months, and I'm like, wow, this is crazy. I mean, I was on a hike and one like jumped right in front of me and stared at me and I was like, okay, wow, like what is this, like, what is this messenger? And then I've seen several on like climbing up trees and eating fruits, and then they're just like everywhere right now and I'm like, okay, there's something to this little jaguar, he or she is coming to me, and so I feel my own interpretation, without going to Google or anything like that. This, I feel, is part of this baby's spirit animal. It's this really sleek, beautiful cat and it's black, right, it's like totally black, and I'm like, wow, it's representing shadow, but shadow is not bad.

Speaker 2:

Being with the shadow is not a bad thing. It's actually where we learn a lot. It's where we discover so much about ourselves. And so there's this, like grace, that this little Jaguarundi carries, and I really feel that putting them in my path literally the last couple of months over and over and over again, just to be that reminder of, of, in which we meet parts of ourselves that still need love, that still maybe need to come into the light, and it's one of the deepest teachers is going into the shadow and to weave all this back into healing and birth.

Speaker 2:

Is that the only way out is through both with birth, with healing, with being a human. Go into the shadow and face it head on is really the way, and that's so much of the work that I'm trying to bring to women, families too, and to humans is that the shadow work isn't bad. I know it can be scary sometimes, but there's so much medicine in it, there's so much learning, and you were. You use the word um alchemize in the beginning of of our conversation and that's how I see it. It's like alchemizing all of these parts and places inside of us that just continue to need more love and need more light and need more attunement and softness, and that bleeds into healing, that bleeds into birth, it bleeds into everything just being a human.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah, depth psychology and shadow work. I'm very fortunate that I was introduced to that at the beginning of my recovery and that was really my main focus before I even did any somatic work and I felt that supported me so deeply. It actually really helped me with that ego deflation and ego deflation is not a good thing, because you get to a place of like just feeling peace and humility and like you don't have anything to defend, right, like less defensive and it, yeah, it. It was so supportive in all of my relationships so I can only imagine like what it's like being pregnant and starting to. You know, look at those parts before giving birth, like what that brought up for you in your relationship. You know, relationships just in general, romantic relationships are just the absolute pressure cookers for both, for growth, they say, being a parent, romantic relationships and running a business. And then you and Jesse are doing all of it, the business doing it all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely a lot of challenges and a lot of growth. I actually want to ask you what is it like, you know, doing this work with your partner? Obviously it's beautiful and I'm sure it's brought up a lot of challenges. If you can just speak to that a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you for asking. We actually feel this is like one of our strong places. We say often what is the hardest aspect of our relationship is co-parenting, is our children. That's kind of our Achilles heel.

Speaker 2:

I think there's probably a lot there, but as healers together doing this work both professionally, and it's such a beautiful powerhouse place for our relationship to thrive, because, whether we are serving others together and holding ceremonial space or guiding someone through a rebirth and deep trauma reprocess, or whether we're holding space for each other and our own lives and our own inner worlds, it has been such a moment of just deep embodiment and reverence for each other. Because the way that we show up in ceremony together is like it's yeah, it just feels meant to be. It feels like we were meant to be doing this work together and when we get to bring it back home to each other and get to hold space for each other because we do that, we have a really special relationship in that way. He's often holding space for me and I'm holding space for him and it's just like it feels well and magical and special and I do feel it's one of our strong suits is being in this work together.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I witnessed the two of you together and, yeah, I can't even like imagine like a better fit, like I don't even know how to describe it Like the two of you together are just yeah, it's. You just have that perfect balance, like you balance each other out and the way that you work together is just so like in sync. It's really beautiful to witness and to watch. Yeah, it's it. It seems, from the outside, looking in, that many events kind of conspired for you to be together, like to do this work together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely yeah, and I'm so excited the ultimate ceremony that we'll get to move through is our birth together, and I'm just so excited to give birth with Jesse and and be in that space together, because I feel, like you know, birth is the ultimate ceremony and we're bringing through this. I feel like you know, birth is the ultimate ceremony and we're bringing through this life together and both you know, and so to to be in this level of ceremony together. I'm I'm really really so excited to get to be in this with him and it's it's taken a lot of hard work and, like you said, there's been so many things that have lined up for us to be able to be in this work together, and so I just continue to hold so much gratitude and and he's such a teacher for me in so many ways and I know I'm a teacher for him, and so just being able to see each other in these ways is like such a special aspect of our union and relationship.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks for noticing it, thanks for seeing us. Point of your pregnancy, like what were tools, what were exercises, what were rituals that both you and Jesse implemented from conception up till now, that you found to be the most transformational and supportive?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, the first thing I'll say is, pregnancy brings everything to the surface. It's if we're able and willing to look at it, I think, is the biggest question. For us. That was an absolute yes. We're willing to look at everything. You know, we're here. We're here for it all in this lifetime, for the shadow and the light, and so for us it was leaning in, it was leaning into that and really saying yes and looking at to that and really saying yes and looking at deeper into ourselves, to go deeper into each other.

Speaker 2:

And you know another practice, which is um, maybe a little tmi, but it's, it is what it is is birth energy, is sexual energy, and so in our intimacy together, whether it's sexual or not, we have really used that portal space as a space to explore, still maybe, blocks that are in both of us or places of us that still maybe don't feel safe, and to me that is like the ultimate you know we were creating babies from that energy or G and the more that we can use that to explore ourselves and each other.

Speaker 2:

I think there is a huge um, that's a huge tool, that's a huge resource that we have, and so we've really leaned into that as just our intimacy, our ability to be with each other, to connect with each other in so many different ways and really learn from you know, from what comes up or from whatever it is in those opportunities.

Speaker 2:

Me personally, what I've really leaned into on top of just leaning into all of the opportunities to grow and look at what is still there for me, what still needs love, what still needs healing, is that piece around just connecting to nature.

Speaker 2:

I feel like, as women, pregnancy is the time where we are coming back to our essence, our innocence, our source codes, and so a practice that has really helped me continue to connect to that and come back is just that time in nature. That's been a huge resource for me to be in more of that soft, creative, feminine place, and I get to bring all of that back into my relationship and union with Jesse is I am being asked right now, as a woman walking this path of pregnancy and birth, to be in my softness, to be open to receive and so looking at what parts of me maybe still are blocking me from being in that fully, and that's my inner work. That's been my inner work in this pregnancy and so that's been a huge ally for me and more my family can receive and and the more me and Jesse can thrive.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful and I love that you mentioned that. I think it's so important to mention that when we do our work, it benefits everyone around us and so often, as mothers, there can be like this guilt attached to like us taking time for, whether it's our own self care or to engage in our own. You know practices whether it's going to a retreat or working with a practitioner, whatever that is but knowing how that creates this ripple effect in your family and I've witnessed it, like on my own healing journey with my daughter, like she's healed alongside with me. And you know I'm so grateful that I fully dove in um to this work because it's it's helped us become so, so close. You know my daughter will be um, she turns 18 next year, she's going to be an adult and um, you know, just to have this relationship with her where I have just this, such this, such a close bond with her and you know just her witnessing my own healing journey, even though that brought up a lot of shame for me.

Speaker 1:

I mean you witnessed me in that because you really held space for me when I was moving through that, because that really came up for me which I had thought that I had already worked through and you know, often it's like we think that we work through things, but you, we'll go through another layer of it and we'll just be able to approach it with a different level of consciousness. And you helped me so much in that space because you were just so skilled at knowing when to allow someone to be in it and when to pull them out. And it was like I was in it and you allowed me, you sat with me, you held me in it and then you witnessed when I was in it too long and then you helped me shift it. It's like now it's time to make meaning out of it or, you know, shift your perspective around the story. So you I just want to name that because you're just so skilled at what you do and it was really cool.

Speaker 1:

It's cool being like a practitioner and experiencing it Like every practitioner should be putting themselves in. You know experiences like this because you learn so much, because I allowed myself to be in that experience, but also witnessing you as a practitioner hold space for me and how skilled you were, and I'm like, oh, I know exactly what she's doing and she's pulling me out of it now. And now it's time to shift the perspective, perspective and shift the story. So I want to thank you for that and acknowledge you for that you're so welcome, alyssa.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is an art form it's, it's learning how to allow people the safe space to be in it and then at some point, if we're in it for too long, it's, it's not actually that productive. So helping them sequence into the next layer of it is so important. And I have to say, birth has taught me that skill. You know, sitting at the feet of hundreds of women, birthing it's, it is the ultimate ceremony, and so I have learned that through that of that, it's that dance of how much are you there and how much are you letting them move through their own stuff and their own waves? And yeah, it's, it's such such a dance, and so birth has taught me that.

Speaker 2:

And and that's where rebirthing has come in is like we are all rebirthing ourselves in some way, shape or form. And you're absolutely right, you know there's always more layers. I think we come to these different parts of us, or different memory files, with different layers and levels of consciousness, or maybe how we hold it can be different. But yeah, there's always more layers, there's always deeper layers that we can go into. And so, yeah, getting to witness you in that space is beautiful and I really allow you know, when working with clients, and especially I remember exactly that moment with you, I allow you to be my mirror too, and you know we're all mirrors for each other. I am a practitioner, I'm a healer, as are you, and we all have we all still have layers to be gone into, so witnessing you move through it in such a beautiful way was also a mirror to me of yeah, just yeah. We all have more layers and it's beautiful.

Speaker 1:

I love for you to take the time just to share the work that you do, because there's so much that you offer. So, from like events to one-on-one, to working with people when it comes to conception, pregnancy, birth, rebirthing, healing past trauma from birth, can you share a little bit about your work and how they can work with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course, both the birth world and the healing world have been weaving for me, and it's really this new iteration that's being birthed right now which is so beautiful. It's coming at the timing of this baby being birthed, and it's really the biggest thing that I feel most passionate about is really guiding people to doing their inner work Ideally preconception, but I'm working with a lot of women right now in pregnancy to really continue to help them excavate different layers and parts of themselves to birth in a sovereign way. I obviously am still sitting at the feet of birthing women, but really where I feel the light is being shined right now is on the, the inner work. It's the inner work that creates the safety to birth our babies in a safe and sovereign way, and so that has been the biggest thing that I am focusing on right now is helping women prepare to do this in a really beautiful way, and I hold monthly workshops, which have been so amazing and fun they're just free for the community and the last one that I just did was called when the Body Remembers, and it was about trauma healing in pregnancy and birth and how it looks when it comes up in pregnancy and birth and how we can hold space for that and really allow that to come through.

Speaker 2:

So I have monthly workshops if anyone is interested, and yeah, I'm holding one-on-one containers right now for this deep inner work and for prepping for pregnancy and birth, for the integration of it, for looking at healing birth trauma. And then another offering that we have is we have our retreats in person here in Costa Rica. We have one coming up in September. That will be the last one that I do with Jesse before this baby comes and then we'll hop back into retreat mode in 2026. But yeah, the retreats that we hold are deep trauma reprocessing retreats, which really are such a beautiful complement to the work that I do in my one-on-one containers, because it really is giving people that space in person to go even deeper into these layers. So those are like the biggest offerings that I have right now that I'm extending out to the world and just, yeah, sharing my work around healing inner healing, inner safety for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, mothering, being a human.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful I'll include all of that in the show notes for everyone Beautiful, and it's just been such an honor to have this conversation. You are wise beyond your years, like I have to say that, um, you know, you're just, yeah, you're just such a beautiful person inside and out. That's always how I describe you. It's incredible. I'm so, so grateful to to know you and to be connected, and you're just truly an embodiment of your work, which is so rare to see and so rare to find. So I just want to name that, because I can really see that you've done a lot of work and you're young still and it's just so inspiring. It's incredible I'm doing the work.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, ing, it's ongoing and I really love living doing the work. Yeah, I N? G it's it's ongoing and and I really love living in in this work. So, yeah, it's so beautiful to get to share it. Alyssa, this time has been so special. You are such a soul sister to me and I'm just so grateful to know you and be here sharing this wisdom. It's so important to talk about all of this and you know we all are conceived to talk about all of this and you know we all are conceived, we're all birthed, so we all. You know it resonates with us all, whether we're planning to birth our own baby soon or in the future, or we just want to continue to look and bring awareness and notice our own birth journey. How did we get here on this earth? Was that journey like um? It's such such beautiful work. So thank you for giving me some space to share it and and for all of the beautiful questions and, yeah, it's been an honor thank you thank you, sister.