Episode 10 Samalie Rivera founder of Oubaitori Wellness

In this episode of Finding the Balance, Karen O’Donnell sits down with Samalie Rivera, founder of Oubaitori Wellness, to explore the connection between nervous system regulation, somatic healing, women’s wellness, ADHD, and psychedelic integration support.

Samalie shares her journey as a Board Certified Holistic Nurse and Health & Wellness Nurse Coach, discussing how yoga, movement, feminine embodiment, and somatic coaching helped her move through burnout and reconnect with herself. Together, Karen and Samalie dive into topics like limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome, emotional regulation, trauma stored in the body, and why true healing often requires more than just “thinking positively.”

The conversation also explores psychedelic preparation and integration work, including the importance of safety, mindset, boundaries, and nervous system support before and after psychedelic experiences. Samalie explains how she helps clients process insights and translate them into meaningful life changes through embodied healing practices.

This episode is a thoughtful and grounded conversation about healing, self-awareness, compassion, and learning to trust the wisdom of the body. 

Learn more about Samalie Rivera and Oubaitori Wellness:

Website: Oubaitori Wellness
Instagram: @oubaitoriwellness
Instagram: @somatic.nurse.dm

About the Podcast:
Hosted by functional medicine nurse Karen O’Donnell RN, BSN, BC-FMNS "Finding the Balance" explores health, wellness, and personal empowerment, encouraging listeners to listen to their bodies and take steps toward improving their quality of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Before we get started, make sure that you like and subscribe to the podcast. And if you like the episode, be sure to share it with your friends, as that's the number one way we get found by others. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Finding the Balance. This is our podcast that highlights health and wellness. And we have an amazing guest today. This is Sammy, gonna describe what Sammy does and who she is. She's an amazing practitioner. So Sammy, Somali Rivera, is the founder of Obaytory. Is that actually how you say it? I'm gonna start again. Obaitori, correct?

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah.

unknown 0:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Obaites for you. Yeah, Obay.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Oh, Bai Tori. Okay. Alright, we'll start it again. Wait, hang on. Oh, Obaitori. Okay. Alright, I'm gonna start again. Here we go. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Finding the Balance podcast. My name is Karen O'Donnell. I'm a nurse in New Hampshire. I started this podcast so that we could highlight health and wellness for practitioners as well as everybody who is in this space. So I want to introduce my friend Sammy. This is Sammy Rivera. She is the founder of Obitory Wellness, that is a somatic coaching and psychedelic integration practice dedicated to women with ADHD. As a board-certified holistic nurse and health and wellness nurse coach, she combines her training in feminine embodiment and yoga with her extensive clinical experience at a world-renowned psychiatric hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. Somali helps women navigate the journey from dysregulation and survival mode to a state of pleasure, purpose, peace, and power. With specialized expertise in interventional psychiatry, including the clinical administration of ketamine and ECT, Somali bridges the gap between clinical science and somatic healing. Through Obitory Wellness, she offers monthly women's circles and a structured three-month coaching container designed for deep nervous system regulation. While Somali is on a five-year path to become a psychedelic assisted therapist, and she's becoming a DNP starting this fall. She's going to be studying DNP. She currently serves as a vital guide for women seeking to ground their healing through embodying wisdom. So thank you, Sammy, for being here. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Happy to be there.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

I'm so excited to talk to you. All of the modalities that you are going to be discussing are so valuable, and I have experienced them myself. So before we dive into that, can you tell me one thing or a number of things that you do for yourself in your self-care routine?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yes. So I have a number of things that I love doing for self-care. My most favorite thing to do for self-care is yoga. I've actually been a practice nurse since 2020. Um and I have to say, like, yoga has really, really changed my life, especially when I was going through a burnout as a nurse during that time around 2020. So yoga has been a lifesaver. I definitely do it several times a week. I'm ranked super doing it daily. And I definitely see a difference in myself. For example, if I go into work with doing yoga, I'm like more grounded, more regulated, more present compared to when I film, I just kind of film all over the place. So that and also dance is also a huge um self-care for me.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, yeah. So movement of any any means, dance or yoga, that's beautiful. Do you tend to go to yoga classes or do you do it at home, just kind of in your own space?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, so I do it at home. I just feel like it's very convenient to do it at home, to be honest, especially when I get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it can be a little bit challenging, so I save myself by not having to drive to a physical place and just doing it from the comfort of my own home and my own little sanctuary. I create it like a little sanctuary in my room. It just feels really good, very grounding, and the energy in that space is just very normal.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Hmm, that's awesome. So let's dive into some of the things that you do from your wellness coaching. Um let's start with the somatic sessions. Tell the listeners who are not familiar with what somatic sessions are, um, just give us a little bit of a description and then kind of walk us through the process that you would go through.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yes, thank you. So, somatic coaching. What is somatic coaching? So, somatic coaching is a very powerful form of coaching. When we think about coaching, it's typically like top-down and more focused on the mind, which the mind is very beautiful, it's very much needed. However, if you try to use the mind to solve your problems, it tends to be very logical and rational, which is great. However, our body communicates with us before our mind moves, and the body has a lot of wisdom within, and we haven't learned to trust our body's wisdom or even know the language of the body, so that can feel a little scary, a bit unfamiliar, a bit unknowing. So with somatic coaching, I tap into the body, like parents who hold your hand, as you start learning the language of the body and trusting that intuition that is within. And your intuition at times it doesn't make sense. And it's like, how is this going to work? However, when you learn to trust that intuition, trust itself, let the body lead, you start getting to places in your life that are beyond your wildness. Because the mind tends to have limitations, and we have these limiting beliefs that keep us stuck and swung. So when we go into the body, it's more expensive.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Yep, I completely understand that. So for somebody who hasn't really grasped what limiting beliefs are, can you kind of go through that and and identify a few limiting beliefs that people could potentially have that their body was holding on to that they didn't understand or know?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

That's a great question. So common lenetic beliefs that even I've identified with and I've seen clients identify with are beliefs such as I'm not enough, I'm not deserving, especially when it comes to money, or even just simply receiving. And the list goes on and on. I will say definitely the biggest limiting belief that I've heard of is I'm not enough. And that's why doing something small like this, such as sitting on a sticky note, I am enough, somewhere where you can see it any every single day, it will slowly change that thought because it's tapping into the subconscious mind. Okay. So yes, that's just a a little tip for you if you want to start working on overcoming a limited belief that is very, very common and in great within so many people.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Okay. Now you work primarily with women with ADHD, correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

That's correct, yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Yeah. And you know, I know I myself have worked with a lot of women, especially business women. Um, one of the things that I think women in particular, especially women in business, have is the imposter syndrome. Are you able to help people who have that sort of limiting belief as well, that they're not good enough in terms of their kind of business model and be able to get rid of that belief so that they can move on to the next level in their business?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

That's a great question, and I would say definitely yes. So, with imposter syndrome, you know, you just feel like you're not good enough, you're a fake, you know, uh, you're not set to be the person in this position doing this job, this task, whatever it may be. And with somatic coaching, you know, you could think all the things like you could say the affirmation of I am enough, I could do it. Very useful affirmation. However, we have to tap into the emotions of the affirmation and actually feeling with feeling it because it's one thing to think it, however, when you're feeling it within the body, that is the energy needed to propel yourself forward. And when anything, it takes time, it takes patience, it takes also compassion. I am a huge cheerleader for compassion. We we need to give ourselves more compassion as we're on this journey of growth, development, of evolution, and just realize that we have so many layers within us. And even having a guard, you know, there like with somatic coaching, we talk about having a guard, and then you're going the numbness, you know, not even feeling or recognizing your emotions because you're still disconnected, you're still discreeting people. So then you go into the fire layer of you know, anger or even grief, and then more temperature, and then eventually making it to your that's how you're supposed to, that's how you move forward. However, it takes time, and a lot of the time another person there to help help us. We heal into the unity, I think we feel into the unity and we have someone else there to hold space for us. So be messy, so be in perfect, and just know that everything's space is okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I can understand the different layers in that you know we can only access certain parts of what our brain is telling us, and then it to makes total sense that if you're able to release it from the body, you can then release it from the mind if they're communicating together. So then that will open up another layer that you may not have even known was there, so that you can work on that layer and then open up to the next layer. So I I understand that it would take a fairly you know good amount of time to be able to get through all of those layers and to be able to release them each and then work on the next layer. That sounds like an amazing, amazing system to be able to get to the root cause of what everything is is tied together, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

So tell me a little bit about the other aspect of the training that you are doing for the psychedelic therapy. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yes, so I do preparation and consideration for psychedelics. So this month to put it out there, I do not facilitate or administer psychedelics. Right. However, there are a lot of people out there doing psychedelics such as philocybin. Uh, if you're in a clinical setting, petamine. Uh so that being said, with psychedelics, we talk about set and setting. And what set and setting is is that you want your mindset to be in a good place. You know, you don't want to be like around like something negative that may even scare you, you know, unfortunately what happens at times. But also like the content you're doing your personal diet. You know, are you watching that you have all this terror and fear within? So we we talk about your mindset, you know, making sure you're in a good headspace and then you're studying, just making sure you're in an environment that is therapeutic for you that could hold you during this time of utilizing psychedelics because with psychedelics, a lot of insights come to the surface, and there's a lot of things come to the surface, and you just want to be in a place where it's the most optimized. So, like I was saying, uh, the preparation, it's really preparing your nervous system to be in a safe place as you're doing like a trip, that's some people, some people would say, and then after the process with the insights arising, I help to integrate these insights into the body rather than the person moving forward with their life and they're repeating the same patterns because they haven't actually inspired it.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

So that makes a lot of sense because first of all, you're you're helping people in the the safety of where they're doing the psychedelics. So that's the physical safety, but the psychological safety of getting them to the right space that makes total sense that people would want to be in a different headspace because they may be medicating because they have other things to process. So if you put them in the right mindset and clear a lot of those things before they even go in for their treatment, that insight that they have probably won't be as scary, it won't be as triggering, it won't potentially cause an adverse effect from the you know the good feeling that they're trying for. So that makes total sense that they should have some sort of pre-treatment for the actual psychedelic. And I didn't even know that that was a treatment option. You know, this is the we've talked about this a couple times before, and it was really enlightening for me as a nurse to know that there are people who are doing this, and I think it that it's amazing. Um, is there any sort of potential um programs or or you know, are you going to be learning programs for maybe even after treatments? Any sort of like follow-up? Is that a thing as well, or is it just kind of the pre-treatment?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

So um and before I get into that, I just wanted to say with the psychedelic uh preparation and integration, a lot of it is focused on safety and harm reduction because you know, people are going out there and doing these experiences with people that may not have the best intentions. Yeah, and you know, it we we want to keep these people safe, especially during a uh such an expansive experience such as these and really an experience where you are out of your body.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

So I just had to throw that out there. And what I do, so basically the preparation happens before the actual psychedelic experience, and that's really preparing your nervous system for the experience so you are within a good head space and feeling connected to yourself and regulated. And then you have the trip. After the trip, that's where the integration phase comes in. And that's you know, the trip, you have the insights, all of the things that come up, and then I am there coaching you through the integrations. Maybe you notice that you need boundaries in your life, you know, boundaries with your boss, friends, parents, whatever it may be, or you've noticed several things holding you back in your life, even whether or not be a relationship, and maybe you have to break up with someone. So I'm there to help these people go forward with actually taking action with these insights and integrating these insights with them.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Wow, wow. I I didn't realize that it was such a a holistic type approach. It's not just the before, it's the before kind of during to make sure that they're safe and afterwards. So that's that's beautiful. That really can can change a person's experience that they're having and in a safe way. And like you said, you know, bringing bringing back the the safety aspect from a physical aspect and making sure that you're trying to trying to do the psychedelic in that environment, in that safe environment, so that you know the people who are helping you through the process are better intended. So this is an amazing, an amazing modality of therapy. So I really look forward to learning more about that, and I'm sure that as you're as you're studying with your DNP, that it's gonna even open up more worlds for you. And I think that that is gonna be a really valuable tool for people to have. And I I hope that this is really helpful to at least educate people that this is even an experience that they can have for their safety and to be able to integrate any previous traumas or, like you said, boundaries that come up, anything that they have insight for during their experience is is really going to be helpful to be able to move forward in their life and their journey.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Thank you for saying that. And also, I just wanted to throw out there uh like I could do this what anyone within the states, United States, really around the world. Um, you know, I I just keep repeating, I'm not a part of the administration, the facility, nothing like that, but I'm like a call, a call away, essentially. Yeah. Before and after. And in terms of the actual trip, uh, that's all on the client, whether it be an international retreat in Costa Rica, you know, or you're getting ketamine at the clinic, you know. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, that's really important as well because I was literally thinking that you were like side by side with somebody, but that makes total sense that you could do that online at the time that it's being administered before and after, and you can just be with them on you know a virtual platform so that they can just experience what they need to experience and you could still be there to support them virtually. So that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, before and after kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah, perfect. So, how do people reach you? Tell us what your social media is and how to communicate with you.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah, so I have a website, obvisory wellness.com. Also, I could be reached at Sematic, period, nurse, period CM. Also, I do have an Instagram page, Obisory Wellness, and a Facebook page as well. Okay. And I'm always happy to answer any emails. Uh, my emails on the website, hello sunshine at obitoriwellness.com. If you have any questions, any inquiries, I would love to help you.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Yeah, yeah, that's wonderful. Even if you just want more information, I encourage everybody to reach out to Sammy because she is doing amazing things. And it is so helpful to have a mind-body connection and to be able to release any sort of traumas or you know worries or limited beliefs that we may not even realize that we have. So she's doing amazing work. I've experienced it, and it really is incredibly helpful. So I encourage everybody to reach out to Sammy and get some more information so that she can help you with whatever experience you need. So thank you so much for being a part of this podcast, Sammy. You've been really informative, and I am so happy that I'm on this journey with you to be able to learn more from you, learn more about myself, and really try to continue to help people, and you're doing beautiful work. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Awesome. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

unknown 22:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Alright, everybody, have a beautiful day. We'll see you next time. Take care.