What if being photographed wasn’t about performing—but about finally feeling safe to be seen?
We took a tiny summer pause (thank you for loving our replays 🫶) and it just made coming back to the studio that much sweeter. Today’s guest is close to my heart—someone I met when she was a teenager working in my wedding business and who I’ve watched grow into a grounded, principled entrepreneur and artist: Michaela Rai.
Michaela is an embodiment-focused photographer (somatic-informed) who builds safety around perception long before she ever picks up the camera. She’s also a writer, speaker, and the creator of a collaborative business space in Duluth’s Spirit Valley. Her story winds through fundamentalist roots, health crises, survival, somatic therapy, and a tender homecoming to body and intuition—often with Lake Superior as teacher and mirror. This episode is about what happens when we stop hustling for approval and start honoring our nervous systems.
Key Themes & Takeaways
Safety before visibility. Empowerment doesn’t magically appear on shoot day; it’s cultivated with pre-work: calls, questionnaires, journaling, and honest boundaries.
Somatics over performance. Photography can retraumatize when it centers consumption. Michaela’s process centers experience—what it feels like to be you in your body.
Listening to intuition. After years of “pushing through,” somatic therapy helped her hear what her body had been saying all along: this isn’t safe—choose differently.
Collective > silo. Her Spirit Valley building houses multiple small businesses who meet weekly to problem-solve; everyone has moved farther, faster—together.
The lake as medicine. Regular plunges in Lake Superior cooled a burning nervous system and gently knit presence back into a dissociated body.
Principles make profit sustainable. Saying no to misaligned tenants and work protects the energetic ecosystem—and ultimately the business.
Our Favorite Quotes
“To be photographed is so vulnerable—it’s a miracle to be in the process and then hold the evidence afterward.”
“Empowerment isn’t someone else’s gaze of you; it’s the safety you create for yourself.”
“Closed doors weren’t failure—they were direction.”
“I used to think exposure was the goal. Now I know safety is the soil.”
“Lake Superior cooled the frayed edges of my nervous system and nudged me back into my body.”
Chapter Markers
00:00 Back from hiatus & why this episode matters
00:50 Meet Michaela: embodiment-focused photography & redefining “empowerment”
05:52 Boudoir, safety, and shifting the process away from performance
11:11 Growing up in high-control religion & learning to trust the body
17:10 Health crisis, abuse, and the turning point into somatic therapy
24:28 Falling in love with Spirit Valley & the vision for a collective space
27:01 Buying the building off-market: clarity, criteria, and tenants who fit
31:36 Intuition in entrepreneurship: limits, tolerances, and saying no
37:26 Lake Superior as teacher: plunges, presence, and embodiment circles
40:43 Near-surface fine art & meditative water films—why the water saves us
Your Turn
This week’s reflection: “Where does your body whisper ‘not yet’ or ‘not this’—and what tiny boundary or practice would help you create enough safety to be seen?”
Connect with Michaela
Photography & writing: What We Saw Stories
Embodiment journaling circles & speaking inquiries: via her site and Instagram
If this conversation met you where you are, share it with a friend who’s learning to trust their own timing.
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All Heart & Soul's Details:
Website: https://www.heartandsoulmastermind.com/
Join the mastermind program: https://www.heartandsoulmastermind.com/heartsoul
Say hi to Mariah on Instagram: @mariahmckechnie
Say hi to Monique on Instagram: @moniqueforcier
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