What if the biggest obstacle to visionary leadership isn’t strategy, resources, or opportunity but unresolved trauma stored in the body? In this episode of the Leading Visionaries, host Anjel B. Hartwell sits down with Allana Pratt, intimacy expert, author, and global media personality. Allana shares her own journey from high-achieving overfunctioning to profound transformation through psychedelic somatic integration and body-based healing. She explains how trauma can push people toward extreme success or destructive coping patterns, and why many leaders unknowingly operate from survival mode rather than embodiment.

If you are someone who wants to create conscious change in the world without burning out or losing yourself, this conversation will challenge how you think about success and leadership.

What You Will Learn

The connection between unresolved trauma and high-performing leadership behavior.

How hypervigilance and trauma responses can drive achievement, overwork, or addiction.

What psychedelic somatic integration is and how it helps release trauma stored in the body.

The four levels of trauma and how the nervous system processes survival experiences.

Why many successful leaders are unknowingly operating from dissociation rather than embodiment.

How intimacy with oneself creates stronger relationships, clearer decision-making, and authentic leadership.

Why healing emotional wounds can unlock vision, creativity, and intuitive wisdom.

A simple daily practice to begin reconnecting with the body and building self-trust.

FAQ:

What is psychedelic somatic integration?

Psychedelic somatic integration is a therapeutic approach that combines plant medicine with body-based trauma work to help individuals access and process emotions stored in the nervous system. Instead of suppressing painful experiences, the process allows individuals to safely feel and integrate them so they can transform trauma into wisdom and emotional resilience.

How does trauma affect leadership and success?

Unresolved trauma often creates hypervigilance and survival behaviors that can push people toward extreme achievement or burnout. Many successful leaders operate in overdrive because their nervous systems are trying to maintain safety and control rather than allowing rest, creativity, and authentic expression.

Can trauma healing actually improve vision and creativity?

Yes. When trauma stored in the body is integrated, the nervous system returns to a balanced state that supports clarity, intuition, and creative thinking. Many people discover that once survival patterns release, their ability to envision possibilities and lead with purpose dramatically expands.

Connect with Allana Pratt

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LVP 125 Allana

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Now here's your host, angel b Hartwell.

Anjel: Welcome to another episode of the Leading Visionaries Podcast, where we celebrate the ingenious, insightful, innovative, and inspired leading visionaries of our time. And provide our listeners with world class examples of the kind of courage, clarity, and confidence it takes to bring visions into reality.

Hosts the edgy podcast, intimate Conversations where listeners learn how to become the one to find the one which awakens the one. Her wisdom, exuberance, and raw transparency inspired the deep soul work required to create a solid, intimate relationship with oneself first, which naturally attracts and enhances a healthy partnership that lasts.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Alana in person several years ago and we go way back and I'm just so excited to have you here today. Welcome to the show, Alana.

Anjel: Yeah, my pleasure. So, Elana, I wanna start our conversation talking about vision because clearly you are somebody who is very visionary. And you have come to our realm here, our planet, and this show to bring your vision into reality. So I'd love to have you speak a little bit about your own kind of lifetime experience with vision.

Were you very visionary as a child or did you have some kind of spiritual awakening or divine intervention that awakened your vision?

But it wasn't until I slowed down and realized I'd done so much studying, so many certifications over the years as an intimacy expert. But what I hadn't done is really gone into the body. I'd honored my mind. I'd honored my spirituality, but I didn't. They, we always say body, my spirit, but we sort of just go body.

We just get birth. Shove it aside. The body holds so much. Well, the body keeps the score. The body holds so much wisdom. And my traumas were very much lodged in the subconscious of my body. And because of that level four trauma hypervigilance, I, I wouldn't slow down to have a vision. I literally couldn't see a vision.

Mm-hmm. And as soon as I healed that, my pineal turned on, my third eye turned on, and all of the sensing, the sensorial visioning became like visual visioning as well, so I could feel that I was on the right track. Then I could actually see things and have, remember my dreams, for example. So all of this came on the second half of the century of me on the planet.

You know what I mean? That was shut down for me. Got it. Um, even more so than the, than the seeing. Got it. So you mentioned psychosomatic integration, I think you said level one. I'm not sure what that means. So I'd love to have you explain a little bit more what that means, because that was part of your initiation into vision.

Mm-hmm. So I'd love to hear a little more about that.

Allana: Yeah. So psychoanalytic cannabis psycho or psychedelic, um, psilocybin, for example, these are the first word is, is what we're gonna be using to get us out of the secondary consciousness of the mind. Where we might only have five to 8% awareness of what we're consciously aware of, our beliefs and, and what we can remember, very, very small.

Only change. So we're here to be alchemists from the shame and the anger and the hopelessness, or the self hatred, or the terror or panic, um, or just devastating loss, these emotions, we're not trying to get rid of them, although I did try that for many years. I'm like, can't we just get rid of. Which of course what you resist persists and it grew.

So when I, I'm like, oh, okay. Right. I'm an alchemist through feeling. So that's why we get outta the secondary consciousness of the mind and we use a low dose of medicine to get us into the primary consciousness of the body, to feel what, for a moment feels unfeel. And so it takes a very skilled facilitator to feel, to have these two capacities that I have the masculine.

Decades are lifetimes. And then when you get all the way back to zero point still point, the, the, the feeling has, it's like alchemy. It's turned into wisdom. It's turned into embodied, an embodied capacity to speak up and have bravery and confidence not to dissociate and leave your body or go for a glass of wine or social media or whatever you do.

Anjel: Mm-hmm.

Allana: Aspects of yourself and then with the divine. Wow. Mm-hmm. Who, who is running the show here? Who is moving my body? How does this work? It's body medicine and spirit, and it's an exquisite honor to facilitate this for people. And I couldn't have got here without my facilitators. That supported me getting back in my body.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. Let's talk briefly about what, what you mean when you say level four trauma. Um, because. You also just said level four dissociation. So I am guessing, and I could be incorrect, but those two are basically. Marrying each other.

Allana: Yeah. Aligned. Well said. So people can go to psychedelic somatic institute.org and learn more.

Everything's fine. You're just hanging out, eating your leaves, doing what you're doing. Level one, the leaves start to rustle. Now that could just be the wind or it could be the cheetah. So you're alert. This is basically walking down the streets of New York City. You gotta be alert or the streets of anywhere really.

Okay. So there's a, there's a level of awareness going on. You're not completely at rest. Um, level two trauma is OMG. It is a cheetah and I better run for the hills. So it's that short burst of terror or really intense emotion. And then let's say the cheetah catches you. It catches the gazelle. That's level three.

It knows that if, for example, the hyena comes along and wants to battle the cheetah, it could get away. So it's still alert, but it's playing dead and it's hopeless. Level four is the cheetahs starting to eat the gazelle, and the gazelle leaves the body

Ad: Mm.

Allana: While it's dying. So you leave the body. So level four trauma is you leave the body.

Ad: Mm.

Allana: Now in the human realm, let's say there was, um, in my case, abuse at my house, but also scary at grandma's house. So there was no time for my autonomic nervous system to get all the way back to zero. And after a period of time when there's no safety, it could be no safety, that you're a latchkey kid and there was no one there and you always had to be on guard of his big brother or sister gonna beat me up or, or what have you.

And so you'll see these, um, very successful people and they have that fake face. They're not in their body like, everything's fine. No, they're fine. They really are fine. They have no idea because they're not even in their body and they're spinning so fast to just stay safe and just keep it together.

Because inside, if they actually slowed down, they'd come back. And so level four dissociation, you leave. That's the fake face. Mm-hmm. You're just overworking, overgiving. It could be overserving, you could be over healing. It doesn't have to be necessarily like a workaholic. You could be a service aholic.

You could be giving, giving, and giving and giving anything not to feel. Anything

Anjel: not

The person whose body I normally live in and doesn't let me come in very much, but okay, here I do, I'm gonna come back in and level three. Now you start to feel physically nauseous because it's something you couldn't stomach that happened. Mm-hmm. Something you couldn't digest. Maybe your child died or your parent died and, and everyone said, no, we're not gonna talk about it.

Let's just get on with it. Like it's just been stuff for so long. So first it's like, really. It's very hopeless. What's the point? This has been so hard, and I stay with my clients through that stage, which without someone there to let you know, you're not broken, you're not wrong, you're not depressed. This is your autonomic nervous system coming back into the body.

Well, that's that short period when you're running from the cheetah, so that could be 30, 60 seconds of terror, self-hatred, rage, devastating sorrow, something really, really intense that in the general time of life. Nobody had the capacity to be with you when you were five or 10 or 15, or even in your thirties.

No one had the capacity to say, you have every right to feel this. I'm right here. Take me with you or to scream with you or to hit the pillow with you. Whatever you need to do. Like give the body permission to fully feel. If we do that, the autonomic nervous system will go back to, to one, and that's like, oh my God, I made it.

When that happens, I take copious notes, I create report of findings, but in this moment they, they talk like Buddha. Because they have integrated enough of the wounds inside the body. Tier one, the body for their soul to come into their body. Mm-hmm. Literally, their soul wisdom, their soul light, their soul frequency, and they speak wisdom.

Mm-hmm. This, it's been integrated into wisdom and what they have to say about why that trauma occurred. They, they get it. They forgive themselves, they forgive others. Forgiveness doesn't even make sense. Everything makes sense. Mm-hmm. It's exquisite. And here's the beautiful thing. It sticks.

Ad: Mm-hmm.

Allana: It's not a rah rah weekend at a workshop.

Anjel: Beautiful.

Allana: We're not, we're not stuck. We haven't chance. It's so, as you can tell, I'm so passionate. It's, I

Anjel: can. And we're gonna take a quick break right now on that past and we are gonna take a quick break. So listeners, are you a leading visionary or in the role of leading other vision? Consider joining our community and sharing your feedback and takeaways from each episode.

We invite you to join us and support this podcast by making a donation@leadingvisionariespodcast.com. If you're interested in finding out more about how you can receive support for getting your vision out of the air and onto the ground in a way that's both impact. Income producing the best support is found in collaboration with other leading visionaries, which is why we've created the Creative Age Leader Lab.

I do wanna say a big thank you to all of our listeners who are downloading, rating and reviewing. We're welcoming thousands and thousands of downloads from all over the world. Shout out this week to our listeners in Malaysia, Botswana and Zelle, and we will be right back with Atlanta Pride.

Your word is your wand, and as the leader, your ability to articulate and communicate your vision is essential to its materialization and monetization. Please enjoy with our compliments. A free copy of the book, be Heard By Millions and Live Your Destiny, which was a number one new release in three categories to get you started.

Anjel: And we are back with Elena Pratt. You can find out more about Elena and what she is offering here@elenapratt.com. That's Elena spelled with two Ls and Pratt spelled with two Ts. And we will have that link for you in the show notes. So. Before we went to the break, we were talking about how passionate you are about this work.

I think the next piece I wanna ask you about, Alana, is what inspired you to take a leading role? Because this is leading visionaries. So I wanna talk now about leadership to take a leading role in the intimacy, specifically in the intimacy space because everything you talked about earlier. You know, could be applied in a variety of different ways.

Allana: Thank you. To me, intimacy is the core fundamental building block of our self-realization.

When we have a, a solid, intimate relationship with ourself, as you said physically, emotionally, spiritually, vocationally, financially parentally, uh, socially, romantically, sexually. It's like it's the center of the spoke of the wheel. But if we're not home, if we're not authentic. If we can't keep our heart open, if we can't speak our truth, if we run and avoid and we can't be brave, none of those areas are gonna go very well.

So when I first started out coaching, I was on Lisa Gibbons radio show for a year and a half as her sexy mom expert. Back then, I didn't even have an opt-in on my site. I hadn't written a book. I had just started coaching, but I coached her on Dancing with the Stars. So it was a pretty good first client.

To say, I'm so sorry, but when you do this and I leave my body, I gotta kill you before you kill me. Like I was explaining it all. It was a very powerful non-scripted interview. Normally I had my speaking points, but this one I just spoke from the heart and all of a sudden I was coaching men and I was healing their mummy wound.

Or their wound from, from marriage and being that safe divine, feminine, divine mother or muse person. But then I still miss the ladies. So, uh, I said, well, I can't really this at this point. I think I was divorced. Yeah, divorced twice at this point, angel. So I was like, well I'm certainly can't be like a marriage coach or a relax.

They have every right. I had this gift to be a really safe place for people to reveal things to me that they hadn't either revealed to others or sometimes hadn't even revealed to themselves. Because they've just been spinning so fast, trying to be three steps ahead, just like me, right? We have to teach what we're here to learn.

Mm-hmm. Um, trying to, to look good, be safe, do it right. So I thought, okay, I'm gonna call myself an intimacy expert then, and I love how I can break the word down intimacy into me. I see. And because I've gone and faced all of, not all dunno if I'll ever get there, but most of my shadows and integrated them into the light when I see their shadow, I don't judge them.

And it's such an amazing feeling to be unapologetic and be able to be authentic. And I don't like being rejected, but I'm not gonna reject me even if they do. Like, I've got my own back. I'm willing to hold myself in the fetal position, and I'm willing to celebrate and stand on the top of a mountain. Like I'm not ashamed of my wobbly and I'm not ashamed of my genius.

Like, here's me, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly. Take it. And it's so free to watch people finally be at peace in their, and so fun to celebrate them when they, they end addictions. Or they find the one or their marriage awakens or they gently, consciously, kindly complete a relationship. These are the paths I get to walk with people when they've been through devastating things.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. Well, you know, the people who are listening to this show, many of them are either aspiring, leading visionaries themselves, or, you know, they are already leading visionaries.

Yeah. You know, maybe founders and you know, people who are in, in positions of actual high power. And, you know, I, I would not be surprised, but I'm curious when you. This work or maybe in the work that you're doing now, what do you find, how do you find in terms of a correlation between people who are in positions of high power and this level four trauma?

So you're either gonna go into great success and impact, or you are going to go into drugs and you're gonna live under the bridge. You're gonna go one of the two directions. There's rarely anything down the middle. You just can't feel whatever it's gonna do to not feel. So people have a lot actually will have a lot of addictions, manageable, addictions with a lot of success.

Like they might have a porn addiction, a drinking addiction, a drug addiction, clearly a workaholic addiction or a sex addiction, all these things. Anything to try to mitigate this discomfort of getting back into their body. They don't understand. I didn't understand that there was another path home. Isn't it a pill?

Right. So, so she's, she's

Anjel: almost, and it sounds like she's basically addicted to doing ayahuasca. She's not really doing ayahuasca in it, in its intentional, like its traditional medicine, intentional form, which is really to, to create that alchemy, right?

Allana: Yeah. I don't know if I would use the word so strong as as addiction, but I do see where you're coming from.

Anjel: 150 trips on ayahuasca seems to me like a lot.

Allana: Well, a shaman, a shaman would be 800. Right.

Anjel: Well, and a shaman has his, you know, is, is embodying as the shaman.

Anjel: Mm-hmm.

Allana: That's the happy day where there isn't the pain. Right, right. And then back to work and using her brilliant mind, so she's not in balance. With her body. So she, I'm, I would say isn't as at choice. Right. When we need something, whether it's racing cars or gambling or drinking or, or doing the whatever, or even something as good as, I need to serve more people, I have to work harder.

I can't work on the, you know, I can't take a weekend off. I gotta, there's people to serve, there's a world to save. Mm-hmm. Like even that to me is outta balance.

Anjel: Agreed. Agreed.

Allana: If we could be with our aloneness. And be with our feelings. We can be free because there's nothing we need to avoid. And then the beauty and intimacy is then I can be with you.

Anjel: Yeah, right here, right now in the body.

Beautiful.

Allana: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anjel: Beautiful. Well, Elana, in the last minute that we have, is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about your work? Yeah, about your work?

Allana: Hmm. Well, I have lots of books and a podcast and a YouTube channel, Atlanta Patreon channel, so I have lots of resources for people.

I'd love them to check all those out. But I think the main thing I'd like to leave them with is an invitation. If you could, it only takes 30 seconds, maybe a minute you're already in bed. Just start the day with a hand on your heart and a hand on your belly and start a relationship with your body. What if your body could be your best friend?

Then you'll start to trust yourself more. You'll trust that those gut niggling, you'll trust that, Ooh, I don't feel safe. My heart is closing. My forehead is furrowing. Pay attention to that 'cause your body's speaking to you. It really wants to be your best friend.

Anjel: Beautiful. And our body is the only thing that's actually with us from the beginning to the end in this lifetime.

So

Allana: beautiful. We might

Anjel: as well make it your

Allana: best friend.

Anjel: Yeah. Yeah. It's going, it's gonna be with you the whole time.

Allana: Yeah.

Anjel: All right, Elena, it has been my pleasure to have you here today. Thank you so much for coming. And listeners, we do love feedback. Please let us know what you thought of today's show by joining our community, sharing your takeaways, asking questions, or submitting guest suggestions.

Ad: Thanks for tuning in, downloading and listening. Be sure to rate and review leading visionaries on Apple Podcasts and share with other people you know who can benefit from today's episode. Leading Visionaries is the premier podcast series for informing, activating, and inspiring the leading visionaries who are called to create conscious change.