Healing After Harm with Heena Patel

Content note: this episode discusses psychological manipulation, coercive control, and sexual exploitation within a high-control group. Ruwan Meepagala spent two years inside OneTaste, the group at the center of the Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc, and left with a story that refuses to be simple. He rose into leadership before he was pushed out, and in this conversation he does the thing almost no...

Note: This conversation touches on sexual assault, sexual abuse and exploitation in teacher-student relationships, and harm inside yoga and spiritual communities. Sandi Higgins is an international Ashtanga yoga teacher, actress, filmmaker, and author based in Mysuru, India, where she works to connect the inner and outer ecology through yoga, natural farming, Indian heritage, and sustainable cultur...

Note: This episode discusses sexual assault and gender-based violence at length, including direct references to rape, courtroom testimony, and generational and religious abuse. People often hold an idea of what a survivor looks like or how they should be. Samira Ghosh has spent sixteen years learning how untrue that is as Director of Advocacy and Client Services at Asian Family Support Services of...

Mikaela de la Myco was nineteen when she was harmed inside a western tantra teaching space. She was young in years and in her journey, and generous with her trust. She's gone on to become a voice for survivors of harm in wellness and psychedelic spaces. An educator and the caretaker of MA’AT, the Matriarchal Alliance for Accountability and Transparency, she was a lighthouse for me before I spoke p...

Note: This episode includes a first-person disclosure of rape, and discussion of sexual coercion, sex work, racialized harm in wellness spaces, and the limits of "consent" as it's usually defined. Amina Peterson has spent more than two decades in one of the most vulnerable rooms there is - the one where people bring the parts of themselves they've been most shamed for. She's a somatic sexologist a...

In this episode, I talk with Asha Mahari, whose writings on non-consensual touch and power dynamics in spiritual and healing communities struck a chord when I came across them online. Asha shares her own story of getting into a relationship with a workshop facilitator in new community she joined, being told it would be monogamous, and then discovering she'd been part of an undisclosed polyamorous...

In this episode, I sit down with Mischa Byruck, an accountability coach who works primarily with men, including many who've been publicly "canceled", to talk about what it actually looks like to do the work of repair from the other side. We untangle two things people often conflate: accountability and repair. Mischa makes the case that accountability doesn't require the harmed person's participati...

In this episode, we turn our attention to a space many of us turn to after experiencing harm: (psycho)therapy. I'm joined by Lisa Kays, a licensed therapist to talk about how the very behaviors we're working to heal from in learning and spiritual communities can also show up in licensed mental health spaces. Lisa is a practicing therapist herself, so this isn't an argument against therapy, and she...

In this episode, Heena talks with psychotherapist and author Lena Derhally about narcissistic abuse, how to support those experiencing harm, and the communal narcissist. Lena shares the abusive relationship that became the foundation of her life's mission to help others recognize narcissistic patterns and push for real accountability. We talk about why emotional and psychological abuse can be as d...

In this episode, I sit down with Elisha Tichelle — threshold guide, nervous system alchemist, and one of my own mentors — for a deep and wide-ranging conversation about power, fawning, sovereignty, voice, and what it really means to heal. We talk about the idea of "sacred rage" and why timing matters when it comes to speaking your truth publicly. We explore fawning patterns — both the active kind...

Welcome to Healing After Harm, a place for nuanced conversations about pathways to healing after abuse within learning and community environments. In this inaugural episode, host Heena Patel shares her personal story with abuse and her why for this podcast. Main topics: Heena's personal experience of grooming and abuse by a former teacher The process of coming out publicly and navigating cultural...