Ep. 67: The sacred space of shame and empowerment with Dr. Cacky Mellor.
What if shame wasn’t something to fix or hide - but a doorway into deeper connection with ourselves? In this generous and raw conversation, Dr. Cacky Mellor invites us to reframe shame as a sacred space - a place where healing begins, stories are reclaimed, and the body becomes a source of power rather than pain. We explore how trauma, illness, and cultural conditioning shape our inner narratives - and how somatic work can help us come home to ourselves.
Dr. Cacky Mellor is a teacher, healer, and community builder whose work blends art therapy, somatics, complementary medicine, and depth psychology to support trauma resilience and healing on both personal and community levels. She specializes in women and femme empowerment, helping people reclaim their bodies and stories through her remote practice, Somatic Reclamation.
With a background in art therapy and holistic psychology, Cacky holds a Master's in art-based activism and social entrepreneurship, is a Master Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, yoga teacher, and Reiki master. She also earned her Ph.D. in Depth Psychology with a focus on Somatic Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her work is deeply rooted in community, social justice, and the transformative power of the arts and embodied healing.
This is such a deep, generous and raw conversation about the essence of life - this gentle meeting of who we are on a deepest soul level. Enjoy!
In this conversation we explored:
Cacky’s story - how her experience of illness as a young adult, and the shaming, blaming, and medical gaslighting that followed, led her to question reality and begin a deep path of holistic healing.
What shame really is - and what often lies at its root.
Why shame is tied to a fear of disconnection - and how it affects all our relationships.
How to create a sacred space for shame to shift and transform - and meet the hidden life-force at its core.
Shame and the female body - how women are conditioned to tie their worth to desirability, and how to begin befriending emotions and body sensations instead.
Her recently published work on “Effemination” - a powerful new term and project naming the experience of stripping someone of their feminine power.
Enjoy!