This week I sat down to have one of the most powerful conversations we’ve had on the Get Your Life Together, Girl Podcast with therapist Somiari Fubara. Together we talk about breaking family cycles, abuse, trauma, the pain, the hardships, the victories, and how we can own our path without it costing us who we are, and want we want to create for ourselves. This is raw, unfiltered conversation with the end goal of motivating you to start healing and ultimately build the life of your dreams regardless of the opinions of others, especially those that differ within your bloodline.

Women who experience domestic abuse often find themselves silenced, not only by their partners, but also internally. Naa Amerley Asante-Armer knows this reality all too well. Yet, using her own words, “once she hit the eye of the storm,” she found her voice again—a voice that once sang for the masses and who is now running to lead a nation as its President in the West African country of Ghana.

Grief and loss are universal experiences. No one lives the entirety of their life without meeting one or the other at some point. But, how you connect and move through grief, pain, and overall upheaval creates the difference between being a shattered person and a self-actualized soul. Priscilla Giddings knows this truth all too well—as her grief story began at age nine with the loss of her father, then transitioned into losing her soulmate after he was murdered, to her mother’s passing quickly from cancer. Yet, while the tragedies stacked up, Priscilla did not back down, especially when a life-altering secret was revealed at her mother’s funeral. A secret that turned her profound loss into a place to call home.