#39 - Adriana Basile: Returning to Yourself with Lived Wisdom

In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Adriana Basile about healing, relationships, self-trust and coming back into the body.

Adriana’s gift is lived wisdom. She has done the work she now helps others do: returning to herself, building stronger relationships, and creating a life with more love, ease, awareness and embodied truth. She brings empathy, awareness and practical tools because she has walked through her own healing and continues to practise what she shares.

This is a conversation about holding space, healing after divorce, creating safer relationships, easing burnout, and learning to live and lead from a more grounded place.

This episode explores:
• Beauty therapy, business and the early art of holding space
• Divorce, healing and learning to have a relationship with yourself
• How couples can reconnect through everyday micro moments
• Love, gratitude and the daily practices that create ease
• Women’s circles, storytelling and the power of being witnessed
• Masculine and feminine energy, relationships and safer spaces for men and women
• Burnout, nervous system regulation and coming back into the body

Guest bio:
Adriana Basile is the founder of Evolve. She is a holistic healing coach, relationship and intimacy coach, somatic practitioner, women’s circle facilitator and circle facilitation educator / mentor.

Through coaching, somatic bodywork, energy healing, sound healing, restorative yoga / massage, nervous system support, intimacy practices and parts work, Adriana supports people to move out of survival patterns and back into connection, clarity and choice.

Guest links:
• Adriana Basile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianadbasile/
• Evolve: https://www.evolveadrianabasile.com.au
• Evolve Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evolve.adrianabasile
• LUX Retreats: https://www.instagram.com/lux.retreats.aus

Conversation reference:
• Louise Hay: https://www.louisehay.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Adriana
00:52 Beauty therapy, business and learning to hold space
06:50 Divorce, healing and finding a relationship with herself
10:57 Helping couples reconnect through micro moments
14:14 Love, ease and gratitude as daily practice
22:07 Family, strength and women’s circles
27:02 Men, relationships and masculine / feminine energy
31:04 Burnout, softening and coming back into the body

Explore further:
Book a Lab: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Subscribe to hear future episodes.

Credits:
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Kiama and Benalla, 25 April, 2026
Produced at the Kiama office, 25 April - 4 May, 2026

Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. Meeting Adriana is a treat. She exudes warmth and gives the best hugs. She uh has this natural, uplifting style about her, massive smile, and is obviously in personal growth for men and women because she lives it.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

She's a really admirable, impressive, inspiring human being. I hope you enjoy hearing from her.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Adriana, welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. Oh, thank you, Samuel.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

It's such a treat. And could you share your background because it's such a great story?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I thought it was important just to share where my beginnings in business started. I was constricted in my worldview, being that I had come from a strict Italian family. I wanted to be a theatrical makeup artist. I wanted to make, you know, people look like lions and people look like you know fairies and what have you. So there was always that artistic thing inside me, and I wanted to express it in that way. Um, being that I was from a strict Italian family, the possibility of me moving away was not on the cards. And so I opted for beauty therapy instead, and I went and lived with some family friends of ours that were just as strict in Melbourne and spent a year there studying beauty therapy with a very um, very strict, I guess, clientele in terms of we had a lot of beautiful Jewish women that would come in there and it set me up really well. At the time I didn't understand it at 19, but it set me up very well in terms of their expectations and integrity and what I how I could be of service to them in that field. And then I came back, and yes, it was the early 1990s, I think it's about 1992, and um the recession was happening. So people were being laid off. There weren't people starting businesses, and yet I was so naive to the whole fact that I just thought if I don't start a business, I'm gonna lose what I've learned and I'm just going to end up, I don't know, doing something that I really didn't want to do. So mum and dad supported me, started that business, and continued to have that business for about eight years in the small town that I lived. And yeah, it was incredible. I loved being there, I loved learning about women and beauty and understanding humans from a whole different point of view. And what I was sharing with you before was that was kind of the start of my healing journey, even though I didn't realize it at the time. People would come in for a massage, women would come in for a facial or a massage or whatever it might have been. And they were emotional, they were telling me things on that table that they weren't sharing with other people. So I was holding space before I knew what holding space meant. And my heart just wanted to help them at that stage in my early 20s. I just wanted to fix their problems, I wanted to help them, and I didn't know how I could do more for them. So that was kind of the start of me going and training in energy healing. I did um access consciousness, uh, pranic healing was my first real modality. Um, and then Reiki. Um, so yeah, that's kind of where that took me. And then I got married, had children, and ended up ended up selling that business and went into network marketing. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Oh wow, keep going, Adriana.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Okay. Um so yeah, then that followed on with me wanting to just have a little bit more balance in my life with with children. And so it was back in the party plan days and I loved parties. So I thought, hmm, if I can run a business and go and have parties at the same time and take my children to work, like how cool is that? And so I did that. Um I was in one company uh promoting um beautiful like essential oils as their medicine kit. I really believed in holistic health. And so that was kind of like I wanted to learn, and I then wanted to impart that knowledge onto families that you know didn't have to rely just on a medical cabinet at home. I used to go into those, you know, gatherings or parties and and sat have my you know oil box and say, this is my medicine kit. Every possible thing that your children or that you medically, you know, um, obviously, not if you've got to go to the hospital and have something serious looked at, but that was my medicine kit. And so I showed them and taught them and guided them on how they could do that. Um, and yeah, my children, my babies used to come to work with me, and I had such beautiful balance, and it also tipped the box for me in terms of travel. Um, I loved traveling, and so the two companies that I actually ended up being part of for possibly over 15 years combined, I got to travel the world. I got to travel the world, and a lot of that um was from helping other people grow their businesses because I always always had teams. And um yeah, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Yeah, wow, and that what a lovely story of being able to grow businesses and use your natural business acumen, and it's so fun to be able to reflect on the stages and the experiences that make up the I'm thinking about it like a mosaic, the mosaic that is you and those stepping stones into what was to come forward next. And when you were describing that journey, you were telling me a little bit more of the midpoint of your personal growth and and going through divorce and then that led to more growth and into the work that you're doing now. Do you want to talk into that?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Yeah, yeah. So we're going back probably 10 years ago now, 10, 11 years ago, and so yeah, basically what happened was I went on this deep dive to after my divorce to understand myself. Everything that I guess I felt I'd known about myself didn't feel true anymore. And I really lost who I was, Sam. Like I I didn't know what brought me joy, I didn't know really who I was, what I wanted. I didn't, I didn't even actually know that I could have a voice or have boundaries in place or ask for my needs to be met. Like it all seems really simple to me now that I've been, you know, living that way and embodying that for a long time, that I have to almost remember and take myself back to how I used to feel and think back then. But I really did lose myself and I pretty much got to a point where I had to wipe the slate clean. I got to like rock bottom, I had to wipe that slate clean. And I thought if I am going to stay here, earth side, then I need to make something of myself. I need to, I want to be of service to humanity, I want to leave this earth better than than you know, how I came here, how it was when I came here. And so I went on a healing journey. I did many courses and workshops and I traveled to beautiful Bali. Mama Bali held me in those times. I did retreats. Um, and then that kind of just evolved, I guess, and progressed into me then thinking to myself, gosh, I wish that I had had this understanding back possibly when I was married or when I was younger. And I found it difficult, even in my relationship, to find um guides or support to help me in that time, um, just to understand what was going on in my marriage and in my relationship. And so that was kind of a big thing for me to, you know, go and study. I studied relationship and intimacy coaching initially, um, because I didn't want to just go see a counselor. I wanted someone to help me understand what was happening. Um, and so yeah, that really was my passion at that time. And it evolved into then working with men and women in relationship. But then what I discovered, and and it was not a sudden discovery, but it really made sense that you have to have a relationship with yourself first and foremost before you can ever look outside yourself. And so many of us, you know, were looking for relationships to fix us or to heal us. And when those triggers would come up, a lot of us would turn, you know, turn against each other rather than now. What I understand is those triggers can come up and be a beautiful gift for us to look at and say, well, what is it that's unhealed in me that that person, you know, that I love so much has brought up for me to have a look at. So it's a lot of shadow work, I guess, which yeah, is something that I love to work with.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Amazing. And yeah, oh, so many things came to mind as you were talking then. One of them was it seems to be a thread that I observe where people often can't find the guide that they're seeking. Do you find that as well? I find that because like you just described that you were looking for someone. Uh tell yeah, tell me more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah. Well, at the time we we did go and seek counseling. Um but it was just I don't know, it wasn't hitting the buttons. It was just not, you know. I think these days we have so much more openness to leaning into different ways of looking at things, different healers, different modalities, different guides, like you say, different teachers. Back then it wasn't like that. And I think there was a big missing link. Um, yeah, so I just I love working with couples. It's not uh probably what my main thing is now moving forward, but I still do work with couples and I still do offer that. Um, but I love to see generally what will happen is the woman will come and she will seek coaching for herself. And then throughout that, we get to a point where, you know, a husband comes in and then I work with them together. And then quite often I'll work with them individually and then together, which is really beautiful because they start to uncover things about themselves that they they never knew. And actually, I'd love to share this story with you. I had a couple recently that reached out to me, not because there was anything wrong, and this is what I love too. It's not necessarily that you go and seek guidance or support when there's something wrong. This couple just wanted to deepen their relationship. They had three small children, they're in the thick of, you know, life and working hard, trying to pay the bills, the mortgage, all the things that come with that, and were just missing each other and didn't know how to like connect or their biggest thing was communication. So they were kind of like missing different things. Like she wanted him to support her a little bit more in the home, but also understood that he was working really hard. So then he was like, Well, why aren't you appreciating me? Because I'm out, you know, working hard, making money, you're at home with the kids. There was this whole like dance going on. So I worked with them really just on communication and little intimacy practices that they could, you know, just kind of slot into their everyday living. They didn't have to make extra time and go and have lavish weekends away and get the kids babysat. It's those everyday micro moments that I think make a difference not just in, you know, a relationship between lovers, but also friends, you know, just relationships in general. It's the micro moments, it doesn't have to be the big massive moment.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Adriana, talk about leaving a world better than you found it. Thank you for saying that, and thank you for the story. I love, I love a good story. So you strike me as somebody that has learned a lot about love in your life. What do you what have you learned? Like, what are the things that you have learned for yourself or for others?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

I'm gonna tell you this, Sammy. I love love. I am like the hopeless romantic darling.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

I love love.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

I love love. I love uh a romantic movie, I love intimacy in all forms. I tell, you know, the people that are in my life, every time I see them, I tell them I love them. And it struck me as strange one time that I was telling a male friend that I loved him and he was telling me I loved him back, and someone overheard us, and they were like, Why are you telling him that you love him? And I'm like, because I love him, like I love him, he's my friend. Why would I not tell him? But what struck me as strange was the fact that that was considered strange.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

So I guess what I've learned about love is that I don't know, like love is everywhere, it's in the things we eat, it's in the moments of joy, it's in like I could go for a walk and be having a really crappy day, and I'll stop and see a butterfly go past, and it's just being in the present moment that you just see that beauty, and I'm like, that it's beautiful, like I love that. So love comes in many forms, and I think that yeah, if you can put aside your own your own life stuff sometimes and not take life too seriously, and I did for a very long time. I took life very seriously, I took a lot of things very personally, I had to work through a lot of stuff, and I still am, it's a continuous process. But I think what really lights me up these days with love is just that we get to love as humans. That's that's part of the human experience. We get to love.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

And so we're gonna let's see how many love words we can get into this podcast episode. I also love that you get to work in that space because what a privilege to be able to support people in coming together and communicating better and feeling more easeful. I wonder for you in your own growth journey, Adriana, whether you can relate to just feeling a little bit more like the the baseline of ease is just lifted a little bit in terms of being able to see that butterfly. Or perhaps now there is that that sort of high level of ease. Does that resonate?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, it does resonate. I think as you possibly get older, less things bother you. I don't know if it's the same for you, Sammy, but I'm in my 50s and I just think I you know there's less life at this end than there was at that end. So how do I what how do I choose to live it? Like, how do I choose to live that? So there is an ease in my life. Of course, I still get you know stressed about different things or you know, things still bother me. That's just that's just being human again. But I have tools and I have resources and I use those tools and resources, and I also balance, you know, balance my days with things that fill me up first. And I think for a long time I didn't do that. I was always putting everyone else first. I was the, you know, classic people pleaser, everyone else's needs came first. And now I love how I start my days. There is an ease to my day. I remember seeing Louise Hay live years ago, and she was talking about gratitude. And one of the things that she spoke, she spoke into when she was going through her cancer journey and when she was healing from that, she spoke about thanking her bed when she woke up in the morning. She spoke about putting her hand on her heart and thanking her body. She spoke about like just being so, so grateful that you know she'd been held throughout the night, that she'd been nourished throughout that time of restful sleep. And it's it just struck me. And I have lived my life since that day when I saw her. I have done that almost every single day. And I just think it's beautiful. It's something I I pass on to my clients as well. I think there's real merit in um in gratitude. And so, yeah, that's that's been something really beautiful. Just being grateful for each and everything that we do, that we experience. And also I have, you know, an unwavering um belief that there's something bigger than me at play in the world. I grew up Catholic, grew up going to church, very strict Catholic family, very involved in all the all the things, um, to the point where I even became a special minister and I was administering to the elderly um their communion. I I would go once a month and sit with the elderly in their homes and give them communion and do all the things. I loved it. They just wanted a cup of tea and a chat, and their communion, of course.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

I love these stories.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

But then I got to a point where there was more questions than answers, and so I started to feel like there, yes, there was a God, but what was God? You know, and so for me, I do believe that there's something bigger than us. I do believe we're co-creators in our life, and what do we want to create? We get the choice, you know, we get to have that experience of what we want it to look like. And I also think that you know, we come into this life with the the soul contracts. I don't know if you've heard of soul contracts before, I'm sure you have. That's been something that has given that that has given me ease. If you really want to know what's given me ease in life, it's it's understanding for me personally that if we have a soul contract and we come into this life signing up for experiences for our soul to grow and evolve and leave this earth to wherever we're gonna go to next, um, you know, bigger, better, wiser, whatever, then I I tend to now look at all the experiences that I have or all the people that come into my life as teachers, or me learning a lesson, or me teaching them something as well. So even if it's something that could be perceived as negative, and I don't believe in right or wrong, I just believe people have different perspectives and different lenses that we look at life through. But I do believe that those experiences, whether you deem them to be terrible, and there are terrible things that happen in this world, I I understand that. But there's always something that you're growing from, you know, there's always something that you're um evolving into from those experiences. Should you choose, again, it's a choice to become a victim. To those circumstances or um heal from it and learn from it.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Like I was saying before, Adriana, I feel like it's so wonderful that you do the work you do because you are such a beautiful role model. Since first we met, you carried yourself with such strength and comfort and warmth. You help to lead people, you help to show them through what you've learned. And I loved hearing about the communion for the elderly because it reminded me that these lovely stepping stones, even the network marketing, you have uh we can get all of the degrees and the study certificates on the wall and the and uh and yet to the amount of time you have spent in holding space for people from when you were really quite young is impressive, and no wonder you can do the coaching work that you can do now. Tell me, uh, where do you think that the beautiful strength that you carry and you exude? Where do you think that might have come from?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Well, we've got a beautiful close family, and you know, obviously we have trials and tribulations like every other family does. My grandparents were very, very much a part of my life, and actually today it would have been my grandmother's hundredth birthday. What was her nickname? To me, she was Nonna to my grand to my children, she was Nonna Pina, and she was a real influence in my life. There was look, strength came from everywhere. I I had a family who migrated here. My dad came here when he was 19, uh, from a small island, you know, at the bottom of Italy, didn't speak the language, like, you know, didn't know anyone. Like I when I think to his, you know, back to his journey, that would have been so scary. Um, the unknown, you know, they didn't have internet where they could just Google what where's Australia and where am I going? Why am I on this boat for two months? Where am I going to land in a place called Melbourne? Like, what is that? Um, but he built a life for himself. And then my mum has this beautiful inner strength in terms of she hasn't had an easy life. There's been a lot of things go on for her and a lot of mental health issues that have come from that. And she still continued to raise us the best way that she could. And I'm so grateful now, Sammy, that I have time with them, that I can spend with them. And um, I see them differently now. I think when you're older, you see them differently than what you do when you're growing up. Uh, there's always that love-hate kind of relationship. Um, but now there's this softening that's happened with my parents. But my grandmother looked after me a lot because of my my mum's health issues. And so when I lost her, it affected me deeply. And um, but she was so kind, like she was just I feel really emotional talking about, but she was just such a kind woman. And what I love hearing, Sammy, is when I speak to people that knew her, all they have is kind words, and they always talk about the fact that she used to cook a lot and she wouldn't cook just for her family. She would give away, she'd make quince paste and she would give it to everybody. She'd be like, I have a plate of quince for you, Sammy. Come and pick it up. And people remember that years later. They're like, I remember that your grandmother made.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

And the quickest up, please just press pause because I want to hear the rest of that. A very dear friend of mine, her grandmother irons for the local community. So, like the next one I just set this stuff on, I just think people are just wonderful, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Yeah. Uh look, I just think it's it's beautiful. She probably gave me my sense of community and being with women. Like I used to love sitting with her and talking and listening to stories. Like, I think stories are so powerful. And when I work with women, my women's circles, and that type of thing, that's what really lights me up because so many women feel like they are doing life alone, and I know that to be true. And when they come into these spaces where they feel like they're held and they can share their story without judgment, oh, there's so much power and healing that happens just in that.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

I loved that we just talked about your strength. Tell me a little bit more about what you do.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

So many men just have not had the opportunity to be able to share what's true for them, what's on their hearts. You know, there's not a lot of spaces. There probably is a little bit more now, and it's emerging. But what I did find um, you know, in the last few years is that there just seems to be a lack of spaces for men to safely go to and have someone sit with them, like I said before, in non-judgment and listen to what's really on their heart. Um I actually just had someone yesterday reach out, a woman who who just desperately said, Do you know any men's coaches or any groups that men can go to? Because I think there's a real dilemma with uh men losing their way. Um the whole feminist movement happened. I've got a few, you know, I guess, opinions around that. But um I do believe in women, you know, speaking their truth and you know, standing in their power and doing all the things, definitely. But I think sometimes it can swing too far. And I agree. Yeah, in our natural roles as men and women, and it might sound to some people that don't understand the nuance, might sound a little bit old-fashioned, but men are the protectors, like deep down inside, their core is to protect and provide. And when they are, you know, surrounded by women who are like, I don't need you, I can do this myself, you know, whatever the story is that they have playing out, um, they don't know where they fit in. And so what I've noticed is a lot of men have kind of just lost their way. Like, how do I fit in to society? What's my role as a man? How do I show up for a woman without you know getting snapped down?

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Do you think that that's a society evolving into understanding that in each of us it's the union of the feminine and masculine in whatever form.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Masculine means absolutely that sacred union within. Like that was something that I did a lot of uh work on after my divorce was you know, understanding the masculine and the feminine energies within us, regardless of our gender. We all have those two energies that play out within us, and it's not necessarily that you go towards one or the other, but it's knowing when to, you know, have the drive and the go and the doing, which is the masculine and the thinking mind, and when to switch into that receivership and that softness and um heart space, and even for a man, it's important for him to tap into both the feminine and the masculine and those energies, and so you know, getting that right within yourself first and then coming together in union with another, then this beautiful dance plays out. But if you don't understand those fundamentals, then you you can get lost. Yeah, it was a beautiful framework for me to play with and understand myself inside myself before I, you know, looked outside of myself to be in union with another.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Oh, that makes me so excited that the times that we live in, that we can learn those tools. I really do appreciate you talking into the healing of both masculine and feminine. I love that I learned about you, that your background and even to network marketing, but more so the community therapy and the communion. Is there anything that you'd like to share, even some of the work that you're doing at the moment, the writing or the retreats that you'd like to talk to?

SPEAKER_00 31:04

We're coming into a time where we're looking at, and I think a lot of women especially are looking at not hustling so much. Like I actually attended a retreat as a guest yesterday, and I'm holding one next week. And what I noticed with the sharing even yesterday with the women was they're all business women that are tired, they're exhausted, they don't want to hustle so much, they want to soften. Um, of course, to have those businesses, but do it in a much more aligned, heart-centered way. Uh so yeah, I think you know, the the workshops, the retreats that I run um with two beautiful friends of mine, it's uh called Lux Retreats, that's that's what we centered around, giving women space and time to really work out what's true for them. What's true for them, you know, um making sure that it's not someone else's dream or someone else's goal. Like, is this really what you want to be doing? And I think you know, you and I both know that if you're doing something that you absolutely love, you'll never feel like you're working a day in your life. So otherwise they're just they burn out and it it ripples into the family system. And I think we're coming back to feeling more aligned.

unknown 32:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Yeah, and tell me when you see so many women going through that not wanting to hustle and that burnout kind of stage or that exhaustion, what what are the kind of things that really work to help them heal and to uh at the same time in current society to keep going, keep on paying the bills, keep businesses running or keep their roles at work.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Yeah, good question. I personally don't think it's about taking yourself out of what you are doing, if that's what you uh you know, you've determined is where you want to be. It's more um I just see so many people in fight or flight. So nervous system work has just been such um top priority with most of my clients lately. Um, just getting them out of that, you know, fight or flight, freeze or fawn, widening their capacity or their window of tolerance to be able to, you know, come out of that amygdala where it's like firing off and telling them that all this stuff's going on and not making decisions from that place where they're reactive and coming back into the body. So a lot of um the work that I do is somatic body work, um, coming out of the mind, which is the masculine, coming back into the body, and um learning to to be in that space where they can regulate and empower. For me, it's about empowering my clients. I don't want them to become reliant on me. I want to be able to give them the tools and the resources, whether it's through coaching or somatic body, you know, what body work or um there's lots of different modalities that I use energy work, uh, sound healing, you know, restorative yoga and massage, releasing the fascia, uh just coming back into their body and feeling um without being disconnected, like coming back from that disconnection.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Years gone by. I used to work in consulting, and one of the partners talked about us providing a chocolate box, offers for the client for something or other we were doing. And goodness, your chocolate box is full. You can offer so many different things, Adriana. How fortunate for your clients to be able to turn up and know that you've got that depth of experience and those tools that have you've worked through what works for you and you've seen what works for other clients as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for this beautiful invitation to be here with you. It's been such a pleasure. It's always so fun. Our chats are just always so amazing. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

They're lush and rich. Uh like I think your drinks might be too. Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius podcast. Please share this with anyone who came to mind and visit us at naturalgenious.com.au. Thanks so much.