Can grief affect your body? Why do we numb difficult emotions instead of feeling them? What does it actually mean to process grief? And can practices like somatic or energy healing help someone reconnect with themselves after loss?

Guest Emma Guenther’s answer begins with a loss that divided her life into before and after.

In 2023, Emma’s daughter Magnolia was stillborn. Emma went home postpartum without her baby and had to navigate profound grief while protecting the recovery she had worked years to build.

Today, Emma is an evidential psychic and somatic medium who describes her work as helping people “get their color back.”

Before the word psychic makes you skip this one, stay with us.

This conversation isn’t asking you to adopt Emma’s spiritual beliefs. It’s about a much more universal problem: what happens when grief, anger, disappointment or old wounds go unaddressed because life keeps moving and we learn to keep moving with it.

Emma and host Dani Raschel Chou explore questions including:

• Can grief affect the body? Grief isn't only emotional. Emma shares how she understands the physical experience of grief through her somatic practice and personal experience.

• Why do people numb grief? Emma talks openly about her history with alcohol, food and other ways she once avoided difficult feelings—and what helped her choose differently after Magnolia died.

• What does it mean to process grief instead of suppressing it? For Emma, it begins with acknowledging what is there instead of immediately trying to make it disappear.

• Is grief only about death? Emma distinguishes between traditional grief and what she calls non-traditional grief: unmet needs, childhood wounds, lost relationships, missed experiences and the life you thought you would have.

• What can grief look like in men? They discuss the exhaustion, disconnection, anger, drinking, scrolling and other behaviors that may accompany loss even when someone would never describe themselves as grieving.

• What are somatic healing and energy healing? Emma explains how these practices fit into her spiritual work and how she uses her intuition and mediumship with clients.

• What is an evidential psychic medium? Emma explains what the term means in her practice and addresses some of the assumptions people make about psychic work.

And underneath all of it is one question worth taking with you:

What are you still carrying because you learned how to function while carrying it?

You don’t have to believe in mediumship to take something from this conversation. As Dani says at the end: maybe your guide is a psychic. Maybe it’s a therapist, counselor or trusted friend.

The point is to stop standing in the backed-up water and call somebody.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of stillbirth, grief, addiction and recovery. Emma discusses her personal experience with energy healing and spiritual practices; those experiences are not presented as medical treatment or medical advice.

Find Emma on Instagram at @magnolias.way.mediumship and on Facebook here.

That's the With Hat and Cattle promise: Bringing you stories from people who walk the walk and leave you better off for listening.

Connect with Dani Raschel Chou on Instagram @withhatandcattle or via email at [email protected]. 

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