On anger as liberation, the difference between survival and freedom, and why personal transformation and social change are the two beats of the same heart. With Staci Haines, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What if healing alone will never be enough? And what if the anger you were told to manage is actually one of the most life-giving forces you carry?

Staci Haines has spent over three decades working at the intersection of trauma healing and social transformation. This conversation brings those threads into direct contact.

She and Amel speak about why we remain vulnerable to domination, how survival patterns shape our politics, and what it takes to build real agency. Staci draws a clear distinction between healing and liberation, and why one without the other is not enough.

They return again and again to the body; to anger as a life-giving force, and to the deeper longing for connection, dignity, and collective freedom that lives underneath it.

“Anger is a natural fuel with which to redignify ourselves.” — Staci Haines

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening and Staci’s guiding questions: systems, bodies, and power

Why we are vulnerable to domination: safety, belonging, and survival

Healing versus liberation: the difference and why both matter

Early conditioning: how systems shape what we practise without knowing

Embodiment as a path; returning to the body as a site of liberation

The “I” and the “we”; personal healing and collective responsibility

What we inherit and what we must transform

Anger as life force; boundaries, dignity, and saying no

Working with anger in practice: moving energy through the body

Closing seed; following the longing for wholeness and liberation

ABOUT STACI HAINES

Staci Haines is a somatics practitioner, organiser, and educator with over 30 years of experience working at the intersection of trauma healing, embodied leadership, and transformative justice. She is the founder of generative somatics and co-leads the Outer Work Project, supporting people to connect personal transformation with organised social change. Her work focuses on building individual and collective capacity for liberation. Staci is based in the United States.

https://generativesomatics.org/

https://www.outerworkproject.org/

https://www.stacihaines.com/ https://generationfive.org/

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message.

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On reverence, the story big enough to make a difference, and why those who struggle to belong may be the ones the world needs. With Gaye Donaldson, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What does it mean to belong to life itself — not just to a person, a place, or a community?

Gaye Donaldson is a systemic constellation practitioner and teacher whose work has been shaped by a lifelong inquiry into belonging. Adopted as a baby, she has spent over thirty years following that question through whole system agriculture, health, and human systems.

She and Amel speak about belonging not as a concept but as something lived; through family systems, ancestry, and the wider field of life itself. They trace a shift from competitive individualism towards interdependence, and what it asks of us now; including the capacity to stand at the edge, between belonging and not belonging.

At the centre of the conversation is a return to reverence; right place, right size, right relationship with the earth, and the quiet trust that life itself is generative.

"Systemic constellation work, in essence, is about finding the story that's big enough to make a difference." — Gaye Donaldson

EPISODE GUIDE

Introduction; belonging, systems, and reverence for life Gaye’s path; agriculture, homeopathy, and systemic constellation Adoption as origin; the question of belonging across a lifetime Holding the unanswered question; depth, cost, and meaning Interconnected systems; from soil to human relationships The collective shift; the end of competitive individualism Edge dwellers; those who can bear not quite belonging A return to reverence; right place, right relationship with the earth What is missing; the unseen and the space around things Life wanting life; transgenerational resilience and continuity Capacity and the horses; belonging beyond the human Closing seed; you can be small and still held

ABOUT GAYE DONALDSON

Gaye Donaldson is a systemic constellation practitioner, teacher, and co-founder of the Centre for Systemic Constellations. Her work spans over thirty years across whole system agriculture, homeopathy, and systemic constellation, exploring how human lives are shaped by interconnected systems and ancestral patterns. Her practice is grounded in the question of belonging; its absence, its cost, and its eventual return. Gaye lives in the UK, where she spends time each day with her herd of Icelandic horses.

https://www.thecsc.net/

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

. www.embodied-beings.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message. Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay.

On collective intelligence, creating your own seasons, and the islands of hope already taking shape.. With Catalina Cock Duque, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What if the biggest crisis of our time isn’t climate or conflict — but the false sense that we are separate?

Catalina Cock Duque is a Colombian systems thinker and social innovator working across peacebuilding, bioeconomy, and youth leadership.

She and Amel speak about what it takes to bring people together across deep divides; from former enemies to institutions and communities. Catalina describes how real change takes root; not through top-down solutions, but through collective care, shared agency and deep reconnection

She shares stories of young people rebuilding their communities, and the discipline of choosing where to place attention when the world feels overwhelming.

“Our biggest crisis is that deep level of disconnection from ourselves, from others, and from nature.” — Catalina Cock Duque

EPISODE GUIDE

Introduction and Catalina’s work in Colombia

From social entrepreneur to weaver; connecting people and systems

Responsible mining and Ecoflora; business as regenerative practice

The crisis of separation; starting with the self

Collective intelligence; creating conditions for shared insight

Human connection before solutions; former enemies in dialogue

Burnout and the fractal model; inner and outer change

Creating your own seasons; rhythms of work and rest

Islands of hope; attention and what we choose to see

Young changemakers; action without resources

Closing seed; the future as something we weave

ABOUT CATALINA COCK DUQUE

Catalina Cock Duque is a Colombian systems thinker and social innovator devoted to regenerating the social fabric. Her work spans peacebuilding, responsible economies, youth leadership, and bioeconomy, bringing together communities, institutions, and business to build regenerative systems. She is co-founder of The Weaving Lab and a board member of Ecoflora. Catalina lives in Medellín, Colombia.

Fundación Mi Sangre https://fundacionmisangre.org/ Alliance for Responsible Mining / Oro Verde https://www.responsiblemines.org/ Ecoflora https://ecofloracares.com/ The Weaving Lab https://weavinglab.org/ Documentary (DW TV) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHyqRPWoaiU

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message.

Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay.

On humility as leadership, indigenous wisdom, and why transformation begins in your nearest relationships. With Laura Pastorini, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What if the future isn’t something you control, but something you have to learn how to listen for?

Laura Pastorini joins Amel from Cabo Polonio, a remote coastal village in Uruguay with no electricity, where time and attention move differently.

They speak about what happens when you bring CEOs, activists, and indigenous leaders into the same room, and stop trying to control the outcome. Laura shares how leadership shifts when you listen to the moment rather than impose a plan; including a vision council that was completely redesigned at the last minute because the field demanded it.

Running underneath is a more disorienting idea; that real change might not start at scale, but in how you show up in your closest relationships.

“We say that we humans are fertilisers of the soil, so that our role is to be fertilisers.” — Laura Pastorini

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening and introduction

Laura in Cabo Polonio; place, presence, and disconnection from modern systems

From anthropology to embodiment; a lifetime of working with systems and the body

The dream: activating basic goodness in a time of disappointment

Fragmentation as the core problem; why sectors cannot solve this alone

Ecosystem leadership in practice; CEOs, activists, and indigenous leaders in one room

Indigenous wisdom and design; listening to what the moment requires

The vision council that changed at the last minute

Humility and control; what leadership looks like when you let go

We are fertilisers; a different orientation to being human

Transformation starts close; relationships as the ground of change

Closing seed; agency, trust, and beginning where you are

ABOUT LAURA PASTORINI

Laura Pastorini is Lead of Development and Learning at the Presencing Institute in Latin America. With a background in social anthropology, systemic therapy, and embodiment practice, she works across sectors to support leadership and systemic transformation. Her work integrates Theory U, indigenous knowledge, and social presencing theatre to develop ecosystem leadership across the region. She is based in Uruguay, often working from remote coastal communities.

www.presencing.org https://www.socialpresencingtheater.org

• Instagram: @laura_pastorini
• Facebook: facebook.com/laura.pastorini.9
• LinkedIn: Laura Pastorini

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message.

Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay

On belonging without safety, pleasure as resistance, and what the body remembers when the world forgets. With Sage Hayes, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What does belonging actually feel like in the body, especially when the world doesn't feel safe?

Sage Hayes has spent over two decades working as a somatic practitioner, and this conversation gets to the heart of what that means in practice. Not the theory of it; the lived, embodied reality of trying to stay connected to yourself when survival keeps getting in the way.

Sage and Amel explore why safety and belonging are not the same thing, why pleasure is the first thing the nervous system sacrifices under stress, and what it actually takes to keep returning to yourself, your community, your aliveness, when the world makes that very hard.

"We're worth it without having to do anything for it." — Sage Hayes

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening ritual and introduction

Sage on Peaks Island, the Wabanaki people, and gender as a both/and

Displacement, adoption, and the pull toward belonging

The dream Sage is attending to: disrupting violence, rekindling connection

Belonging and safety: do we need one before we can have the other?

Justice in the Body: what it means to feel justice inside when the world won't give it to you

Pleasure as practice: why survival mode crowds out joy, and how to find your way back

Amel's story from Zimbabwe: the women's circle, the heavy walk, and the shake

Listening between the lines: rhythm, elders, and nature as teachers

Sage's closing seed: who we are is worth it, together

ABOUT SAGE HAYES

Sage Hayes (she/he/they) is a healing arts practitioner with over two decades of experience in Somatic Experiencing, bodywork, and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. They are an ecstatic dance DJ, a facilitator of family and systemic constellations, and the founder of Justice in the Body, a somatic wellness practice grounded in the question: what can justice in our body feel like today, even in conditions of ongoing injustice? Sage lives on Peaks Island, Maine, with their dog Thelma Jean.

https://embodiedliberation.com/

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message.

Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay.