Just Like Nana

Erica Wallace Moore

• Amie Penny Sayler • Episode 9

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 27:41

In this episode of Just Like Nana, host Amie (Elizabeth) Penny Sayler is joined by Reiki practitioner Erica Wallace Moore, as they explore how Reiki can help with “stuck” emotions or chronic stress caused by unintentionally carrying the energetic imprints from generations past. 

Together, they explore how empathy and intuition serve as spiritual superpowers to help you navigate trauma, dissolve gunky energy, and finally create a safe space your soul needs to rest and restore. 


About Erica Wallace Moore

Erica Wallace Moore is a Reiki Practitioner, Instructor, healer, and Akashic Records reader currently in practice at Wellness Paradigm, a wellness and healing collective in Minneapolis. Her Reiki journey began in 2014 after receiving the practice for the first time. As a mother of four, Erica found herself feeling frazzled, stressed, and disconnected from her body. Those initial sessions proved life-changing, helping her return to her center and grounding her in a way she hadn't experienced before. While it began as a personal tool for healing, Reiki quickly evolved into one of her essential daily spiritual practices. What started as curiosity has since transformed into higher vibrations of connection, compassion, love, and wisdom. Erica is particularly passionate about how Reiki and the Akashic Records expand energetic pathways for self-discovery, forgiveness, joy, and peace.


In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • Reiki can be an incredible tool to dissolve "stuck" energy, allowing you to expel what no longer serves you and make room for new vitality.
  • Recognizing that trauma is energetic information processed by our cells can help us understand why it often feels physically "trapped" in our central nervous system.
  • We can carry the grief and hardships of our ancestors within our own energetic field, and healing involves raising our own vibration to move forward. 



Resources Mentioned


Connect with Erica Wallace Moore



Connect with the Show

Are you curious about the "Elizabeths" in your own family tree? We want to hear from you!

  • Website: justlikenana.com
  • Share Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.

Connect with Just Like Nana's Website.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Theme music by Carter Penny.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Welcome back to Just Like Nana. This is Amie Penny Sayler, and I am thrilled to be here today with Erica Wallace Moore. Welcome Erica. Thank you, Amie. I'm happy to be here. Erica is a Reiki Master and instructor. She also reads Akashic records. She is currently in practice at Wellness Paradigm in Minneapolis. And perhaps one of my favorite things about Erica is that she has identified two of her spiritual superpowers, and they are spot on, empathy and intuition, love that. Can you say just a little bit more about that how you sort of identified those?

Erica Wallace Moore:

I feel like my Reiki practice has definitely allowed me to step into the space of considering myself an empath, and that my strongest superpower is empathy. I also have been doing a lot of work on my own around my family and my family upbringing and generationally, that where I come from, a family of empaths, and just being able to embody like the feeling person that I am, without having to shy away from it or turn it off, has helped me identify, and then the intuition, Like the empathy, feeds intuition, and so being able to be a listener and a feeler helps me navigate my intuition.

Amie Penny Sayler:

There's a lot of talk about empaths, and a lot of times it's, I don't want to say it focuses on the negative, but it focuses on some of the repercussions of being an empath, which is, you know, perhaps a lack of boundaries, or sort of the fallout from taking on so much of what others have to offer. And I love this view of an empath as--look, here's how it's amazing.

Erica Wallace Moore:

Yeah, it is amazing, and it also is a weight or a burden or cumbersome, because there, I just don't think that we've grown up ancestry or generationally, just in today's times. We haven't grown up with a perception of positive perception of empath and empathy. It's hard to navigate boundaries, I would agree. But I think it is part of like our journey as empaths to find our boundaries and to be respectful of our boundaries and respectful of taking care of ourselves, even while we're feeling everything all at once at the same time.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Yeah, which can be overwhelming. Okay, I would love to start out if you're willing to share with one of your favorite or powerful or just a story you'd like to share about one of your grandmas.

Erica Wallace Moore:

I've been thinking about my grandmas in anticipation of this interview and this this gathering together. So I have two grandmas, Grandma Hanson on my mother's side and Grandma Wallace on my father's side. And my Grandma Wallace was the one that I was closest to. She was Pauline Elvira Wallace, and her maiden name is McDowell. I spent most of like my early years closest to her when we lived in my family lived in California. We even lived with her for a while when I was sick as a child and my parents had to go to work, they would drop me off at my grandma's house. So I remember sleeping in the bed with her at times. I also remember she was a great cook, and so she would make me eggs any way I wanted them. She was saying, baby, how do you want your eggs? She always had a cat, and every cat was named Boots. She loved baseball, she loved sunflower seeds, and she was the best cook around everywhere. Everyone knew her as the best cook. So we could, as her grandchildren, could always go to her and request recipes, and she would whip it out. She was also a great sewer. And so she was able to you could give her an idea of a dress you wanted, and she would make it from scratch without a pattern. She was an amazing tiny person. And I always say that she was like one of the people in my life who most validated me as a as a young person.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Oh, I love her. Her name is a fantastic name. I don't want to be too polarizing here. But did she have a favorite baseball team? Oh, the Oakland A's, okay. No, no questions asked. Can you tell us a little bit about Reiki?

Erica Wallace Moore:

I would say my version of Reiki. There's a lot of language out there about Reiki. But my version of what Reiki is is that it's a spiritual journey, a spiritual practice. As a personal person who is a Reiki practitioner and me being on the Reiki path, for me, it's a spiritual journey that's rooted in Buddhist concepts with like the Eightfold Path of right mindfulness, right speech, right intention, right work, right wisdom, right thoughtfulness. And so as a practitioner, it's my journey to practice the eightfold path by sitting in stillness, being aware, noticing. And then there's also the energetic aspect of Reiki, and that means, like me touching myself with my hands, various parts of my body, and listening to my own energetic field. And then there's the hands on approach to Reiki that is hands on touching other folks being able to be a channel and a vessel for energy to flow through the universe and down into the person that that is on the massage table, and they're able to feel what energy feels like in their body. Reiki is also a way of dissolving old past, stuck, gunky energy that's no longer working for you. Just kind of dissolve it, let it go, and so that you can invite new energy into your well, into your being, so that you can cultivate well beingness and health and vitality and vibrancy.

Amie Penny Sayler:

When you're talking about, you know, letting go of the sort of gunky, stuck energy. Is it fair to say that? You know, although spiritually, we're infinite as sort of human beings here in a body, we have a finite capacity inside our body, and so we have to sort of get rid of the old that's not serving us any longer to make room for maybe a new pattern or a new energetic Is that accurate?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Yes, I consider that like energetic digestion, we have a process of taking in energy in the same way that we take in food is nutrients, and our body processes the nutrients. So our body processes the energy, and then once we're done with the energy, or it's, you know, we've taken all the nutrients that we need, that our body expels nutrients as waste. And so it's the same thing with energy. I feel like we're, you know, part of the natural cycle of energetic digestion. It's taking in processing and release. But some things, just because we're humans, you know, some things and we have a consciousness. So we're on a journey here of discovery. We have stories and experiences that sometimes energy stays too long, or it could be like leftovers in the fridge been in a fridge too long, and it might be a science experiment. Yeah, I don't even want to touch it, but at some point we're gonna have to get rid of the leftovers. Like consider it waste, and return it back to the earth, return it back as organic energy or whatever, so that it can be recycled, again, replenished and renewed.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Let me ask you about energy. And I recognize this is a ginormous question that has all sorts of different angles and perspectives and all of that. So I do not expect you to be the authority in all things energy. But from your perspective, we're used to we think of things in terms of our five senses, I can see it, I can hear it. But we're also energetic beings, living in an energetic field. Can you just sort of talk about, from your perspective, what that means? Oh, yes, would be quite it is.

Erica Wallace Moore:

It's not very fair. I think that when I was blown away about energy was when I started reading about energy on the atomic level. So protons, electrons and neutrons, that the smallest building block of all matter in the universe. The entire universe is made up of electrons, neutrons and protons. And so those, to me, are, those are just like the building blocks of energy, and then also the energetic field, and how energy travels as as waves. That's mind blowing to me. So yeah, even as us as energetic beings, we're made up of the same energy as everything else in the universe, that when we get down to the basic level of who we are, we are essentially energy. And it's, yeah, I'm blown away by how this, all this energy is organized into a body, and then we also have an infinite soul that's also made up of energy. And so there's protons, electrons, there's atoms, but there's thoughts that are also energy that I like to I don't know who came up with it first, but they're thought trons, okay, I love that. Even the motions are energy. And so we have, like, the matter, let's say solid matter. All solid matter is made up of energy. So the wall, pieces of wood, rocks, brass, is all made up of energy. We are made up of energy. And so there's just this whole interconnectedness of like, we just live. One huge, energetic universe. And so, yeah, like I was saying, there's solid energy, but then, you know, the thoughts and emotions are also energy. They're just the unseen parts of energy. And so you can't see an atom, but you and you also can't, you know, physically see a thought, but they're still both

Amie Penny Sayler:

energy, right? That is such a great explanation. And I love, did you call them thoughtrons? I'm going to try to look that up and see if I can find the original source.

Erica Wallace Moore:

Elizabeth Gilbert was the first person I heard put that in her book.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Is it Big Magic? Yeah, I love that book. Then I want to talk about sort of the do you consider trauma energy as well?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Yes, experience. Trauma is trauma. Trauma is energy, and trauma is an experience, okay?

Amie Penny Sayler:

And let's just take a minute to sort of talk about trauma energetically, because trauma is a word that can mean a lot of things, obviously. So when you hear the word trauma. You can think of a car accident, you know, sort of an unexpected, big event that kind of changes the course of how your day was otherwise going. It can be sort of chronic trauma. Of, I don't have enough access to food or whatever that is, and so sometimes I think there can be this notion of, well, if it's not important enough, or if it's not a super big deal, it's not really trauma. But I think trauma encompasses more than that, and I'd like for you to address that in kind of an energetic level. What that means.

Erica Wallace Moore:

Like trauma is processed on an energetic level in the body, as far as our cells go, like, our cells are taking in that information and, like, considering, like, cell damage when it comes to trauma, and shaking things up and confusing ourselves and their cells don't know how to react. I think it's just energetic information that it's just we're not meant to, like, go through certain things that are just so horribly tragic and devastating, just even some of the trauma stories I've heard and have, like, been fortunate and humble enough to hold space for you know, trauma is energetic, I think because it's our cells are communicating, or there's like, a misfiring of information, And also with our central nervous system. And aware central nervous system processes energy and so trauma can, like, have a, like, a snap trigger effect into our stress system, our central nervous system, and can trigger cortisol dumping and adrenaline. And I think that's just all a lot of energy moving around. It's like, in a jar or in our body just doesn't have a place to go, and so, like, yeah, it kind of stays with us, and our cells are, you know, trying to interpret or shake it off or whatever, I think is trauma is really hard for like, cell growth and cellular health. That's fascinating. You talked about.

Amie Penny Sayler:

We're also infinite souls with with all of this energy inside of, or maybe not inside of, but as part of a finite body in this earth. You know, can there be, even if it's not a recognized, Oh, you were hungry, or you were hit, or something like that. Can there be sort of, you know, you mentioned that your grandma was one who really validated and saw you as a girl? Can that be traumatic, if, if your soul feels like I'm not recognized or seen for who I am, or those around me or trying to make me something different, or don't understand what is that like?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Well, that it could be layered trauma, chronic trauma, that when we are developing as human beings, we come into this body with a soul that's like complete, but then we're experiencing life in this body, and we have cycles of growth. And so when we're small and we're we're developing in this lifetime, you know, it's so important for us to have nurturing and stability and safety and love and being held, and people who are supposed to take responsibility for us and supposed to encourage us and help us be seen In the world and help us become, hopefully, good citizens. And when those things don't happen, it does become trauma. It becomes like hard to even self actualize. And you know, I think it becomes like a, I don't want to say an automatic thing, but it can lead to hardship going through your life as a young adult or a young person, and having that kind of trauma like it just carries over into adulthood, especially if we weren't given the resources to heal as children, especially if our caregivers had trauma as well, and they didn't have the resources. So yeah.

Amie Penny Sayler:

And I do want to be clear, we talk about sort of our families and at Just Like Nana, we just we want to assume best intentions. And I understand there are those who've experienced something who can't assume best intentions, and that's fine, but overall, we just want to think of those as people who are doing the best they could with what they had. And we don't want to focus on blaming, but also just understanding and acknowledging and seeing how that played out in us is incredibly powerful.

Erica Wallace Moore:

It leads to the healing process of forgiveness, because it's placing blame on the people who came before us when they just didn't, maybe didn't have the resources. There's a lot of technological advances. I also feel like it's been slow growing in our consciousness as human beings. Yeah, and so the level of consciousness and awareness that we have right now, my parents, my mom, would have never been doing a podcast, right? My grandma definitely, you know that technology wasn't there, and then being able to have woman to woman conversations like this, yes, and even talk about trauma or acknowledge trauma that just wasn't part of the collective consciousness the way it is now, being lucky enough to be able to have conversations like this as like, oh, we are evolving in our awareness, and we are evolving in our consciousness, and part of the healing of like, Oh, I Get to speak and have a voice and have a conversation with you, and this conversation is a way of healing generational stuff that our mothers and grandmothers and aunties didn't get to have to do or have.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Yeah, exactly. And, I mean, when I think of it too, I think of, you know, just how fortunate a lot of us are. And I think about. So, for example, I'm writing book about my grandmas, and I'm thinking of my grandma, who came from Bavaria to Illinois. They had a plot of land. I mean, let's just say she wasn't going to Target to pick up the groceries for the week. So, you know, I mean, her time was spent, okay? I'm cultivating a garden. I'm trapping animals or whatever was going on to feed her family of eight girls, so there wasn't time to stop and reflect.

Erica Wallace Moore:

For sure.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Let's talk about ancestral trauma. So I'm curious about your view of ancestral trauma, and then how that intersects with Reiki.

Erica Wallace Moore:

When it comes to ancestral trauma, I'll say my own experience of like, okay, diabetes is a traumatizing experience to live with. It also runs in my family. Let's see. I've got mental health things down the line with family, so and then another, I would say, another experience or something, trauma that has carried down through my family line is the trauma of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery on my my father's side, and how that energy, after what 200 years is still or 150 years, whatever it is, is still carried through in our awareness and our consciousness. Yeah, that though I haven't experienced slavery, the empathy I have for my ancestors and the hardship and trauma that they went through. Like, it's like a personal thing that I carried out. I think a lot of people who are African American experience of this carrying through this trauma and this healing and like, carrying also this grief. Like, where does this grief isn't personal, but somehow I'm connected to this grief, because I'm connected to my ancestors, right? Um, so yeah, I do think there's a difference between, like, the trauma you experience in this lifetime and the trauma that carries through your ancestral lives. And so yeah, the healing aspect of that, like, for me, I would say it's like, raising my vibration energetically, so that I'm not like, stuck down in that historical trauma, low vibe, and so it's about maintaining my high vibration of love and light and blessings and moving forward.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Do you feel when you do that, that you offer some sort of healing to your ancestors?

Erica Wallace Moore:

I do, and I also have had moments where what my ancestors say, but that's not your responsibility to heal us. Yeah, our ancestors are like, we're watching you. We're we're lighting all the light on you. We're, you know, we want you to move it forward in your path. We don't want you to look backward and feel like you have to heal us. So as I said, when I'm moving forward and maintaining a high vibration, I think that is healing to like behind me, but it's not also like, not my responsibility.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Wow, I have goosebumps. That's beautiful. As a Reiki practitioner, and of course, of course, I'm not asking you to speak to any, anyone specific, but can you differentiate? Can you sense with your intuition? It's. Sort of, wow. This is really old, and it's in here. Let's go ahead and release this. Or how does that work?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Yeah. So in the Reiki path, in the hands on healing system, there's a thing called the Josen. Oh, and the Josen is that stuck energy that it's stubborn and not quite ready or reluctant to dissolve and move away, and sometimes that, but Josen is really, really stubborn, and so I have a reaction where I'm like, coughing or like, or I'm sweating, and I have to go, walk away from the body, come back to the body, get a drink of water, ask my helpers and guides for help. I asked for the person, the client's help as well from their guides. And so, yeah, there are patterns or times where it's like, oh, this is really deeply, deep seated. And there are other times we're like, oh, this just went away so fast. Okay.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Wow, fascinating. And you feel like sometimes some of the energy becomes unstuck, but some is holding on for dear life.

Erica Wallace Moore:

I feel like they're okay. We cleared enough so that they can move, move on, or they can feel some lightness, but the work continues. I mean, so I don't think there's a My opinion is that there's not a one time Reiki session where you're healed in all things, right? Because for me, it is a journey that I think, you know, it's part of, like going to therapy, like you go over time and peel away the layers over time. Um, and so even though there might be like something deep seated in one session that's like, Okay, we I feel some movement, there's still probably layers and layers of layers of stuff to uncover. And even my own experience of giving myself Reiki and my journey like, oh, okay, I've gotten to this new area of discovery. Now let's move forward in this and then get into a certain step or a certain awareness, and then, okay, now let's uncover more. And so, you know, I don't think you're meant to know everything all at one time. That would be overwhelming, right? Alesia, I feel like it's, it's step by step, yeah, uncovering the layers well.

Amie Penny Sayler:

And you had mentioned, you know, our central nervous systems, and I think that's part of it too. We can only take on so much at once. Or, like you said, it's complete overwhelm, and just shut down.

Erica Wallace Moore:

Right. The other part of Reiki, the hands on one outcome, I would say it's an outcome, but not a goal, is the relaxation. And so when you come in and we're stressed and we're in flight, fight, freeze, it is impossible to heal in that high stress cortisol, because our system, our central nervous system, is just like trying to keep us safe. And so when we get into that rest and restoration, relaxed state of beingness is when ourselves are like, Oh, okay, now we can do some work. Now we can, you know, it's like, you know, being in a library, right ourselves and our energy can focus and concentrate and be more aware.

Amie Penny Sayler:

So for the listeners, I have had Reiki sessions with Erica, and I know that she really creates a safe place and sort of a container, for lack of a better word, where you just feel held and safe. So thank you for that.

Erica Wallace Moore:

Definitely my intention is to create safe space because you you want to feel safe. We need to feel safe. And I think part of the empathy, or whatever is like, Let me hold you and let me let you feel safe so that you can do this work.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Okay, this is a really big, broad question. So if nothing pops to mind, it's completely fine. Are there certain patterns that you notice with your clients of energy, or ancestral energy that seems to be there and want to be seen and want to be released?

Erica Wallace Moore:

I would say yes, but not with every client. I would say also, like we come into Reiki sessions with intentions, so I feel like it's intention based. And if a client is ready, if their system is ready to discover or be curious about those things, those things show up. And I want to say yes. More specifically, when people coming in with grief and loss, they're open. And so sometimes ancestors come in, loved ones come in different images. I feel like my my father, who passed away 20 years ago, like he's like, always in sessions with me, and so he'll even, he wants to tell Yes, he'll pick up on ancestral patterns. Um, like, oh, I brought this person to you, and they're wherever we are, their loved one. Talk. To me, and so now, yeah, so sometimes it feels like my father is like, behind the scenes, bringing people in, right, whose loved ones are on the other side, communicating.

Amie Penny Sayler:

And was your father a church man,

Erica Wallace Moore:

yes, yes. He was a pastor, okay? A Lutheran pastor, and he also taught theology. Okay?

Amie Penny Sayler:

So he's still helping. He can't stop himself. One question I want to ask, and this is a little bit personal, so if it's if it's too far, just tell me. But you know, you've talked about having access to your ancestors and your guides and things like that. So for the listener who wants to become closer to their ancestors, do you have any tips, advice, recommendations?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Sure, I don't think it's is not complex. I would say, I mean being open and willing is like step number one. And then I would say, going into a space that's safe, quiet and space where you can sit and be still and just ask and be open to whatever messages or images or whatever you receive, and then being able to acknowledge and without judgment that yes, this was one of my ancestors connecting with me. But I think it's Yeah, safe space, quiet and stillness and asking, that's all I would say. That's beautiful, yeah, and kind of an open heart, yes, yeah, open heartedness, for sure. Where can people find you? On my website, ericawallacemoorereiki.com, and you could also Google Erica Wallace Moore Reiki. It's easy to find.

Amie Penny Sayler:

And you're definitely going to want to check out Erica's website, because she has an adorable picture of her dog on it as well, in addition to all the great information on Reiki. Well, I know you have people waiting for Reiki sessions today.

Erica Wallace Moore:

I do have one later this evening. Yeah.

Amie Penny Sayler:

I will let you get to that. But I'm so appreciative of of you being here. And is it Pastor Wallace?

Erica Wallace Moore:

Yes. Pastor Richard Wallace was my father's name.

Amie Penny Sayler:

Okay for him being here as well, if he's here. Thank you, Pastor Wallace. And thank you so much. Yes. Thank you so much, and thank you to your ancestors as well. Oh, thank you. They appreciate that. The Elizabeths, yes, thank you. Bye.

Head Shot

Erica Wallace Moore

Guest