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Emefa Boamah, a grounded healer, embodiment coach, and mental health and radical self-care advocate, shares her mission to create a national and international movement centered on embodiment. Having immigrated to the U.S. from Ghana at 21 years old, Emefa has created a life for herself in a new country, anchored in values of abundance, integrity, and radical self-care. In this episode, Tara and Emefa discuss how trauma manifests in the body and specific ways to find healing through grounding and inner examination.

Emefa’s journey from trauma to healing and support for others
[Trigger warning: sexual abuse]

As a survivor of sexual abuse, Emefa talks about how one out of six women is sexually abused before they turn 18, and that's only the people who report it. Emefa explains that, whether it’s a “big T” or “little t” trauma, the body registers those traumatic experiences as pain, and everyone deals with healing in different ways. Emefa has made it her mission to help women heal from those traumas. She stresses that survivors of abuse are never at fault — and never alone — saying that therapy was the best decision she made for herself. Emefa identifies resources such as RAINN, DARCC in Dallas, and The Haven Retreat through Younique Foundation.

Being present and identifying stress in the body

The first thing Emefa does to help women reconnect with themselves is to bring them to the present moment and explore who they are and what they want in life. Emefa and Tara discuss how stress manifests in the body in physical ways, through clenched jaws, rapid heart rates, or anxiety and depression, as well as emotionally, such as feeling disconnected or apathetic. In a culture where hustle and burnout are prevalent, Emefa suggests learning to listen to your body’s signals, identify your stress, and fill up your metaphorical gas tank using tools from your imaginary toolkit.

Grounding exercises and other useful tools

Emefa walks us through her grounding exercise, where she firmly plants her feet on the ground, uses activating breath work, and connects with both the earth and her body. She shares about the concept of slowing down to speed up, as well as tools she encourages women to use to help identify and heal trauma in the body: breathwork, meditation/quiet time, journaling, movement, and personal rituals.

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