What does it mean to reclaim your power after trauma? On this episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, I continued my inspiring conversation with Coloma Muro psychotherapist, researcher, women’s empowerment coach, and author of Raw and Unmasked. In part two of our dialogue, we dove deeply into trauma healing, energy, patriarchy, and the profound interconnectedness between our bodies, minds, and environment.
Coloma’s holistic approach weaves together psychology, neuroscience, primatology, mindfulness, and Eastern traditions such as tantra, offering clients a pathway to personal freedom through what she calls Intimacy Within. A conscious reconnection to the body as a source of truth, power, and healing.
Trauma as Trapped Energy
Coloma describes trauma as stuck energy in the body. Overwhelming experiences can dysregulate the nervous system, leaving us caught in survival states such as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, the people-pleasing response I see so often in my own practice.
Her work focuses on unlocking this trapped energy by helping clients reconnect with the body through:
- Breathwork: A bridge between the conscious and subconscious, retraining shallow trauma-breathing patterns into deeper, healing rhythms.
- Mindful movement: Gentle practices to restore a safe connection with the body and release blocked emotions.
- Energy alignment: Healing imbalances in the body’s energy centers (chakras) through visualization and meditation to dissolve fear, shame, and anger.
As she explains, “When we trust our bodies, we have the courage to feel and release blocked energy, allowing emotions to surface and be integrated.”
Patriarchy, Feminine Energy, and Women’s Health
Our conversation also turned toward the challenges women face during life transitions. Coloma sees firsthand how patriarchal systems harm both women and men by repressing the feminine—our ability to feel, nurture, and listen inwardly.
She shared striking examples:
- Many of her clients ignored or suppressed their menstrual cycles in order to meet work demands, creating long-term physical and emotional consequences.
- Women are expected to follow health protocols, diets, and sleep patterns designed for men, which can lead to burnout, autoimmune conditions, and chronic fatigue.
- Men, too, suffer under patriarchy, forced to suppress their emotions to fit rigid social roles.
At the core of Coloma’s coaching is the reminder that healing begins with listening to our bodies instead of outsourcing all authority to doctors or diets. Medical exams can detect disease once it is present, but prevention begins by honoring the body’s signals long before imbalance becomes illness.
Reconnecting with the Body’s Wisdom
This philosophy deeply resonates with my own work dismantling diet culture. Diets, like patriarchal models of health, disconnect us from our bodies by insisting we can’t be trusted to know what we need.
But as I often tell my clients:
“Your body is your best friend. It will always tell you what it needs—whether that’s sleep, pasta, or a giant salad. Healing begins when we learn to listen.”
Coloma’s message amplifies this truth: when we reconnect with our inner guidance, we not only reclaim health but also rediscover vitality, intuition, and freedom.
The Wisdom of Primatology and Neuroscience
Coloma also brings a unique perspective from her research in neuroscience and primatology. Studying ecosystems and animal behavior taught her that everything in nature is interconnected—and that small changes can create profound ripple effects.
She likens human social dynamics to the collective movement of a flock of birds: no single bird dictates direction, yet together they create emergent intelligence. Similarly, healing is not just individual but collective; as we regulate our inner worlds, we influence cultural and relational patterns on a larger scale.
This insight reinforces the urgent need for environmental awareness. As I noted, even one small shift—such as going meatless one day a week—can have a dramatic effect on climate change. Our choices are never separate from the ecosystems around us.
A New Chapter: Healing in Bali
As our conversation came to a close, Coloma shared exciting news: she is relocating from Los Angeles to Bali, where she will continue her mission of guiding retreats and fostering collective healing.
Her upcoming retreat (December 4–10) will include yoga, somatic practices, mindfulness, and energy work—all designed to help participants embody Intimacy Within and leave with renewed strength and clarity.
You can connect with Coloma through her website colomamuro.com, on Instagram @mindfulnesslovetherapist, and on LinkedIn.
This conversation reminded me of why I created the ANEW Insight Podcast: to share voices like Coloma’s that challenge old paradigms and remind us of our innate wisdom. Trauma healing isn’t just about survival—it’s about reclaiming joy, intuition, and connection.
Coloma embodies that truth, radiating the glow of someone who trusts her body and honors her feminine wisdom. I left our conversation not only inspired but also deeply reassured: healing is possible when we slow down, listen, and weave together mind, body, heart, and spirit.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation on the ANEW Insight Podcast
📺 Watch on YouTube: @my.anew.insight
📘 Explore Coloma’s work: Raw and Unmasked
💻 Learn more at anew-insight.com
View here full podcast Transcript here:
20250305 Columa Muro Part 2
Dr. Supatra Tovar: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the ANEW Insight podcast. We are back for the second half of our interview with author, psychotherapist, researcher, and women’s empowerment Coach Coloma Muro Coloma. Welcome back.
Coloma Muro: Hi. I love your energy, Supatra. Thank you.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Ditto. You’re amazing. And for those of you who haven’t watched the first half of this episode, please go back and listen because this woman is all power and knowledge and strength and wisdom and clarity, and I love her. So Coloma gave us some really invaluable insight and inspiration for what fueled her journey and to how she’s helping others.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And I cannot wait to pick her brain some more. So let’s, let’s talk about trauma. How does your approach help clients heal from trauma and move towards personal freedom?
Coloma Muro: It is a very interesting [00:01:00] question. My mission I’m gonna start here. My mission is to deliver individuals precisely from past conditioning and programming. And I found that when I was working as a therapist, clients handed the power to me. I was the authority that validated their experiences, right? And at the root of personal freedom, there is a reclamation of one’s power. So I use the, the principles that we talked about on the first part of our episode together about mindfulness, neuroplasticity, and body fullness to help the client find or create Intimacy Within. Intimacy Within is an embodied concept. Meaning it is an approach to building relationships that honors and respects the power of the body. And I’m saying that because that has to do with how I view trauma and how we can heal it. Intimacy [00:02:00] Within at the end of the day comes or draws on the ancient principles of tantra, which emphasize working with energy to deepen a more profound connection connection with everything that is including the connection with self. To briefly what tantra means. Tantra in Sanskrit means weaving or expansion. And this practice helps us develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and our relationships by weaving together all aspects, body, mind heart and spirit into a unified experience. And now it’s where I’m gonna go into explaining how this helps me help clients heal from trauma. The foundation of my or my approach revolves, as I said, around helping clients connect deeply with themselves and others through our bodies in a conscious way. It’s about [00:03:00] learning how to be present with arises without judgment or expectations. Trauma is stuck energy in our body. When we experience overwhelming events, our nervous system can become dysregulated, Trapping, survival energy, what we know as fight, flight, or freeze. And these unresolved energies manifest as anxiety, dissociation, emotional numbness, or physical tension. And so my perspective invites individuals to explore life fully by embracing all of their experiences, physical, emotional, and spiritual without repression or shame. And by integrating mindfulness, as we mentioned, energy work and somatic awareness, I help unlock deep seated trauma and open the door to inner freedom. [00:04:00] I can tell you how I do that more or less, or we
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes. Please tell us how I, and I totally agree that trauma is trapped energy. And certainly when we experience trauma, we, we experience the reactions, which should be fight, flight, freeze. And I also wanna add fawn which I see a lot in terms of people pleasing. I know that people pleasing is absolutely a trauma response.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So how do you help release the trapped energy and, and propel people to move forward in their lives?
Coloma Muro: Yes. So again, I teach people the power of their body consciousness and. And I help them cultivate intimacy within as a way to own their worth. So instead of just talking, I include breath work, which I use as a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious. Trauma survivors often hold shallow or restricted [00:05:00] breath patterns signaling a constant state of vigilance. So breath work practices help regulate the nervous system and shift emotional states and really stored trauma. I also teach. practices meaning gentle, mindful movement to help individuals reclaim their bodies safely. This is key as trauma often creates disconnection between the body and the mind leading to numbness or dissociation.
Coloma Muro: So when we trust our bodies, we have the courage to feel or to release blocked energy, allowing emotions stored in the body to surface and be integrated with through my guidance. And I also look at energy misalignments. Trauma often affects specific energy centers in the body, like the root chakra, the sacral chakra, or the solar plexus chakra.
Coloma Muro: So through meditation, visualization, and other techniques, we can [00:06:00] return these centers back to balance, helping dissolve shame, fear or anger and fostering a renewed sense of vitality and empowerment, and
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes.
There’s a really great book, and I’ve mentioned this before by Dr. Joe Dispenza and oh gosh, I’m totally blanking the name of the book. I’m blanking it right now, but he has this breath work exercise in there that helps to release the trapped energy of your lower chakras by, you know, consciously contracting and constricting your muscles on your inhale and moving that contraction up through the chakra centers and allowing the breath to escape out of the head.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And I’m telling you that, that that breath work exercise is like mind blowing. Literally it’s mind blowing and it’s taking all the trapped energy that, [00:07:00] you know, tends to sit in the lower three chakras. And I know that sounds woo woo to some people out there, but I tell you, it is one of the most powerful exercises that you can do to release this trapped energy.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And it sounds like you’re doing a lot of similar breath work and exercises like I do in my practice. So again. We’re twin flames and this is amazing. So I wanna know about how you empower women in life transitions, right? So you are a women’s empowerment coach. What are the common challenges that you see women facing during life transitions, and how do you help them through that?
Coloma Muro: Mm-hmm. Well, even though the majority of my clients have historically been women, I also coach men. But in both cases, what I’ve seen, especially in this country, that’s heart breaking, is the pain that comes along with patriarchy.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Amen. Keep talking.
Coloma Muro: [00:08:00] Regardless of the gender, we all have. Feminine and masculine energies within us and neglecting the part of us that feels, which is the feminine, is extremely damaging to our overall health and to how we live our lives. Simple example of how we become disenfranchised from our bodies is by relying on external sources to tell us how our bodies are doing. And this is what I most get. I get clients that have gone to multiple doctors trying to figure out where the source of their pain is or how to fix their pain, and ultimately they are, they go to the doctor to, to check if they’re healthy.
Coloma Muro: But you know, once, like this doesn’t prevent illnesses. Check exams don’t prevent illnesses. What prevents illnesses is actually to turn inwards and listen to our bodies instead of going to someone else to tell us how we are doing. So, [00:09:00] you know when, by the time that our medical exams tell us that we are not healthy, you know, we are past the line, we need to take a step back and reconnect.
Coloma Muro: To how we feel, how our bodies are doing. These, at the end of the day is, is what I get. Like people come to me when they have cancer when they have autoimmune diseases, you know, when they are very advanced in their physical illnesses. And you know what I do, the work that I do with them is to take them back and let’s, let’s reconnect with, with our bodies to understand, to work with mindfulness, body fullness neuroplasticity, all these concepts that we’ve. Talked about. I can give you another example of, particularly you asked me about women. So, men, for example, men need six to seven hours of sleep. Women need eight to nine or 10 hours. Our bodies are different than men’s. [00:10:00] And in this society, which is overly masculine you know, we try to be men, women try to be men. All the studies made on fasting are made with men. So, you know, if we already are neglecting our emotions and we stress our bodies even more by dieting or over exercising or overworking or not sleeping, the hours that our bodies need to sleep, that is where our bodies complain and we start having diseases. Most of my clients, for example, have neglected their menstrual cycles at some point in their lives to keep up with their work. From using IUDs to taking Ibuprofen, and again, pretending that we don’t have, cycles not only damages our psyche as we keep telling [00:11:00] ourselves that is wrong, to have them or to be a woman, basically, it causes so much pain in our bodies.
Coloma Muro: Repression causes tension somatically. And that leads to chronic fatigue, to chronic pain, to depression, to anxiety, to autoimmune diseases, as I said. if you throw into the mix diets, which is starving the body instead of honoring it, or, yes.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: This is what I talk about. This is all I talk about, this is my book!
Coloma Muro: Yes. So that’s what I’m saying. It’s like, oh, we’re like overstressing our bodies and. If like, that’s not a way to live. Women, when women come to me, it’s because they are sick or they don’t wanna live the life that they’re living anymore. They’re so burned out, they can’t keep up. And by the way, patriarchy also, negatively impacts men. They are completely disconnected from [00:12:00] themselves because of the repression of their own feminine. they have had to suppress their emotions to fit into a social model that doesn’t work for the people. It’s a model that benefits corporations, that fits capitalism and that sustains itself actually through telling people that we are not enough as we are, that we don’t have enough, that we have to look a specific way that we have to do this or do that. Right? And at the end of the day, this is the root of all addictions.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Amen.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: You are so right, like, oh my gosh, and this is, I talk about this all the time. We live in a world that tells us we can’t trust our bodies. We can’t trust what’s going on. We have to listen to all the experts out there and follow this diet in order to fit into this paradigm. And you guys, if you don’t know me by now, [00:13:00] diets don’t work.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I’m fundamentally against dieting because they take you away from listeningto the natural messages that come from the body. And the body is your best friend. It is always trying to protect you. It is always trying to tell you what it means, and if you just tune into it, if you just listen. Your body will tell you exactly what it needs.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Okay? Right now I need sleep, or right now I need nutrition. And you’ll get an image in your head of what you need to eat in order for your body to thrive. It could be something like a big bowl of pasta and people are like, no, no, no, I can’t eat pasta. No, your body is telling you it needs carbohydrates. It could be a giant salad with lots of colors, and your body’s like, please gimme vitamins and minerals.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And it’s just this wonderful, natural, intuitive process that if you really tune into it, you don’t have to listen to anybody. I tell people when they come in my door that [00:14:00] I want by the end of their treatment, for them to never need to listen to me or anyone else again, that they are their own best expert.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And you are right alongside that, and that is so refreshing to hear that you know, I, I, I’ll say like, you people may take one look at you, and you’re absolutely a stunning, gorgeous, beautiful woman and they may think, oh, she probably fits into that dieting category. No, you are like the complete opposite. You are listening to your body.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: You are intuitive to what your body needs. And honestly, I think that’s why you glow so much from the inside out. Woo lady. Oh my gosh.
Coloma Muro: Thank
Dr. Supatra Tovar: you.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Now I really, I wanna get into primatology. Okay. Like, this is fascinating. Tell me about your research in neuroscience and primatology, and how that informs your understanding of [00:15:00] human behavior and relationships.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Please illuminate me.
Coloma Muro: You’ll have to cut me off here because there’s, this is a very deep question. Everything I’ve studied and experienced configures would how I perceive life today. Neuroscience and primatology were the introduction of understanding the non-linearity of nature. It, it’s a complex, a complex topic, so I, I will try to simplify. Psychology is a study from a, you know, from a very westernized perspective like pathologizing everything and trying to find steps to heal X, Y, and Z. my master’s in primatology was conservation research based, meaning that we studied models to analyze patterns in nature to predict future outcomes that has to do with conservation, but at the, all, all, all [00:16:00] these models that we studied, which are mathematical and computer based study patterns, which is what neuroscience does as well. And so both fields observe systems and make predictions considering the interconnectedness of everything. So these two disciplines, both neuroscience and primatology, gave me a holistic framework for understanding human behavior and relationships as both interconnected systems where small changes lead to significant outcomes.
Coloma Muro: In, in other words, like by integrating, insights from ecosystem dynamics and neural networks. So the, our ecosystem around us is a little how our brain functions and our body functions as well. Everything is interconnected and we are adaptive animals, we adapt [00:17:00] climate shifts, the brain rewires itself in response to experiences, and so trauma, stress, or environmental changes reshape neural pathways just as going back to the conservation or the primatology aspect of what I was studying is like how deforestation or pollution, for example, alter ecosystems. This gives me a broader understanding of how we can reshape, our own behavioral patterns combining or using an intuitive approach to healing. Like for example, and that’s what I can dive very deep, but I’m gonna, I’m trying to make it very simple. The, the patterns like flocks of birds,
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Mm-hmm.
Coloma Muro: they, the birds don’t cognitively think, I’m gonna move to the right, I’m [00:18:00] gonna move to the left. They there’s an emergent intelligence. Where no single bird controls the system.
Coloma Muro: It’s, it’s a complex behavior that arises from the group, right? And we see that in cultural shifts, in relationships and in collective actions. So there’s an outcome that it’s greater the individual action. It’s called what we would call emergence. Yeah. Emerging intelligence. And I’ve used this understanding to improve social dynamics, leadership and cooperative behaviors in corporate, for example. But to come back to your question it my understanding and studies in primatology and also I worked at the zoo, I was I, I can see behaviors, emerging behaviors from the interaction of the parts that are [00:19:00] playing a role in the emergent behavior, if that makes sense. It’s a complex so,
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I, I think that the takeaway that I’m getting is that primatology and the the study of conservation
Coloma Muro: mm-hmm.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: proves it doesn’t just show, but proves the interconnectedness of everything. And I think we are living in an age right now, and especially in this climate where we think we are separate from our environment.
Coloma Muro: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: You and I, were in Los Angeles right now. What we saw in January is categorical proof that we are absolutely connected to our environment and need so badly to be more aware and more connected so that we can better serve our environments, where our environment can serve us. And I am a huge
Coloma Muro: Yeah.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: conservationist and little [00:20:00] fun fact, you guys.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Little fun fact. If everyone one day per week just switch to a meatless meal one day per week, we would make such a dramatic shift in climate change. You have no idea how important our choices are when it comes to what we put into our bodies, to what happens out there in the world. And everyone is connected and we are all in this together.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And I love that you bring in the work of like birds, like starlings or like some of the, the, the greatest examples of how collective consciousness works. It’s not just one bird going, Hey guys, follow me. It’s like they’re all just tuned into each other and we have that same ability. That’s probably what drew me to you.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I was like, Ooh, I love her and I need to know everything about her. So Coloma tell us. [00:21:00] What are your, what’s the future you’re leaving us? Which makes me sad. Really makes me sad that you’re leaving and we hopefully, I, I would love it for, for us to meet in person before you go, so I can be like, oh, that’s her.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yay. In the flesh. But what, what are your next plans? You’re moving to Bali, you’re leaving us. What are you going to do?
Coloma Muro: Well, as you probably have noticed by my accent, and we’ve already said that I’m not from la, I’m originally from Barcelona, and yeah, my values don’t align with with America’s values. I’m, I’m leading my sixth retreat in Bali. So that kind of made me reflect and I thought, why not, know, moving to Bali I haven’t shared any details of my moving, so that’s my first public announcement of my group. move
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I outed your move. I’m so sorry.
Coloma Muro: No, you’re good. Now. Everybody knows it’s, it’s [00:22:00] great. Like my mission revolves around, as I said, contributing to collective healing and I wanna nurture it and protect it. And I feel called to moving to Bali. And as we’ve been talking all along in this podcast, I’m following the inner guidance. And inner guidance cannot be grasped by intellectual alone.
Coloma Muro: So I am letting my feminine tell me where to go, and I’m just following, I’m following this pull that I, that I feel inside of me practicing what I preach.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Well, tell us about, tell, tell us about your retreat. I wanna go.
Coloma Muro: It’s gonna be at the end of the year, the December 4th till the 10th. It’s my sixth grade retreat, and it’s gonna include yoga, somatic practices mindfulness practices, different types of healing modalities, and yeah, I, I’m, I probably will be leading more so you can come at [00:23:00] any, but yeah, the next one is gonna be in December and I.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I.
Coloma Muro: Yeah, I’ve led retreats. I’ve led three retreats in Bali already, and two here in the States, one in Florida and one in California, and yeah, that’s, that’s it.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh my gosh. Yeah, you’re gonna have to keep me in the loop for that because A, I need a retreat and B, I’ve never been to Bali, so, yeah, count me in.
Coloma Muro: Yeah.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: tell people please how they can get ahold of you. Where can they follow you? What are the handles please?
Coloma Muro: People can work with me one-on-one in my coaching programs. Anyone can contact me through my website, which is colomamuro.com, and I am active on Instagram @mindfulnesslovetherapist. I’m also on LinkedIn and on YouTube, but the best way to reach me would be over email through my website. Yeah.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Hey, she’s accessible everyone. Oh my [00:24:00] gosh. Please get to know Coloma more. I, I, I really wanna have you back on at some point to pick your brain some more because you are absolutely iridescent and just so intelligent and just wise beyond your years glowing. And Can I go on and on? You’re amazing. So everyone please just, you know, give this person some love.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Let’s all go meet in Bali in December. I’m totally there. For joining us today.
Coloma Muro: I feel so, so, so honored to have been here. And I love your energy. I love your glow. You’re so radiant. And yes, please come to Bali..
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh my gosh seriously, it’s a date. Thank you and thank you for tuning into the ANEW Insight podcast. I’m looking forward to my next exciting interview and hopefully it’s as incredible as this one. I am sure it will be. I [00:25:00] will see you all next time. Thanks Coloma.
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