We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emy Tafelski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Emy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Have you ever woken up and lamented, this is going to be my life for the next 50 years?! How did I get here? Who even am I?

I have. And it sucked. It stole the breath from my body and frankly, made it hard to even get out of bed.

It was those thoughts that launched my journey into figuring out who I really am in this world. My journey into unapologetic authenticity.

When I had those thoughts I was married to my first husband. He was a good guy but he wasn’t the guy for me. I married him because he was nice and I hadn’t had any nice guys in my life.

But…that wasn’t enough. The person I was in that marriage wasn’t the real me. She had no wants and desires. She was a cardboard cutout of Emy. She did what she thought she needed to do to survive, to get love. She had no idea who she really was. She lived by the script created for her by the society that she lived in. She didn’t really have substance.

I was stuck. I was lost.

And finally, I had had enough. After waking up with that thought for countless days I realized that something had to change. Maybe everything had to change.

I got divorced.

And finally, it was time to find my way home to my true self.

I vividly remember contacting my old therapist and telling her that I wanted to embark on a journey of self discovery, that I wanted to find myself.

I was done being who the world told me I should be. It was time to fully meet my Self.

Therapy was a great start but didn’t offer me the soul healing and deep understanding of my own worthiness that I truly needed. Something was still missing but I didn’t quite know what it was yet.

Fast forward to 2017, I was now 42, and my mom lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death shattered me and left me feeling, once again, like I had no idea who I was in the world anymore. The degree to which it left me lost really startled me.

I felt untethered, like dust floating in the breeze. It felt like with Mom’s death I had nothing to anchor me to the ground. I knew I needed to take time to fully focus on my healing. It wasn’t so much about the grief, though that was there.

It was about repairing my shattered soul. And figuring out once again who I was in the world. Who I was after this profound change.

This time though I knew that what I needed was much deeper than therapy. It was deep, transformational soul healing.

I dedicated 10 months completely to this journey of healing, and found my way home, once again to unapologetic authenticity. In doing so, deepened my connection to spirit, my Self, and healed so many wounds that had plagued me for so much of my life.

I truly believe that the more we meet ourselves, and step into the power of unapologetic authenticity, the more we become who we really are rather than who the world has told us we should be the more we can change and heal the world.

It is my mission to guide humans who are done being who they’ve been told they should be home to their true essence.

Emy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My venture, which began following more than 10 years as a licensed therapist, has evolved into a blend of spirituality and integrative health, informed by my PhD with a concentration in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health. This evolution marks a departure from conventional therapy, delving deeper into the soul for transformational healing.

My offerings are two-fold: the “Soul Weaving Session,” a two-hour intensive, guided soul journey, designed to address specific, stubborn life threads, and the more comprehensive “Soul Weaving Experience,” a custom, multi-day journey tailored to individual needs, challenges, and aspirations.

Both of these offerings are designed to take clients from feeling fear and general stuckness to alive, free, and energized again. I guide people on a journey back home to their true essence.

My goal transcends individual healing; I aim to dismantle the cultural chains that restrict authentic self-expression across genders. By fostering unapologetic authenticity, I envision a world where everyone can embrace their true selves, leading to a more healed and harmonious society.

As for the future, I’m fully dedicated to my current path. This recent evolution into soul healing represents not just a career but a calling — one I pursue with unwavering passion and commitment. My work is more than a service; it’s a movement towards a world where authenticity is not just accepted but celebrated.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Before the age of 13 I was so shiny, outgoing, vibrant, alive. I had lots of friends. I was always busy doing fun things with them, or my mom, or both. I was free, unfettered, unafraid.

I had access to all of who I was.

One day I went to school and everyone hated me. Every friend I ever had pretended like I didn’t exist. I was shunned. I went to a small school in a small town so there were no options to find different friends.

I was reeling, broken, confused…alone. And then the bullying started. In a nutshell, they said horrible stuff to me wherever I went and ruined things in my locker. They threw things at me if I wasn’t paying attention.

Nowhere was safe.

I was no longer safe.

What I learned in those moments was that it wasn’t safe to be me. It wasn’t safe to be seen.

I had to shrink. Get small. Completely dull my shine. Become unnoticed so that I could survive, find safety again.

The bullying continued through high school. I slunk in the shadows, like a stray cat afraid to get kicked but still desperate for food and affection, desperate for the things I needed to survive.

I became someone else. I cut off parts of myself. I shrunk. And, I survived.

As an adult, fully dedicated to my healing journey, to my own soul weaving, authenticity and wholeness, I had to do the work to reclaim those cut off parts. Weaving each of them back into my soul’s tapestry, attending to them, welcoming them, loving them anew.

It is no longer necessary to be small, to dull my shine. In fact it is time to shine.

To be big. To take up space. To be all of me.

This is the energy I am taking into my current push for more visibility, and my mission to guide others home to their authenticity. The energy of safety, wholeness, shiny-ness.

Unapologetic authenticity.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was my own feelings of being not enough. Throughout my life I was constantly given messages, by culture, by my family, that I was not good enough. This led to me moving away from my inner truth to work to do “the right” things, be “the right” way to get the love that I needed. It led to over-efforting and a constant need to be perfect, to people please, at the expense of my own health and well-being.

These internalized messages of not-good-enough created a deep sense of unworthiness, of seeking external validation, of doing things that were not true to who I really was.

In my own Soul Weaving journey back to wholeness and authenticity, I unlearned these internalized messages of not-good-enough/unworthiness and replaced them with a feeling of Always Worthy. The truth I learned is that I am worthy because I am me. All of me is worthy. I am enough, always.

This new way of understanding myself allows me to show up fully as myself, to feel whole and be authentic. It allows me stand powerfully and confidently in my true essence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emytafelski.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emytafelski/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dremytafelski
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emy-tafelski-38b98144/
• Other: An invitation to begin the journey toward your true essence: The Soulful Spark Challenge, a 5-day email challenge! https://emytafelski.ck.page/spark

Image Credits
Photos by Dirk Shadd