Triggered
Ep. 16 - The Alchemy of Triggers: Death, Healing & Coming Home to Yourself with Dr. Gabrielle Pelicci
In this episode, host Whitney Kell sits down with Dr. Gabrielle Pelicci — professor of integrative and holistic medicine, transformational storytelling expert, and bestselling author — for a wide-ranging conversation about turning emotional triggers into personal growth. Gabrielle opens up about the spiritual awakening that followed her mother's death in 1996, the years she spent researching women healers across 50 countries for her doctoral dissertation, and how that work shaped her belief that community and connection are essential to staying emotionally grounded. She and Whitney talk candidly about self-abandonment versus self-prioritization, the resistance and "tribal shaming" that often comes with choosing an unconventional healing path, and the two directions people tend to go when pain becomes unbearable — toward transformation or toward illness and numbing. The conversation moves through grief, mortality, and the loss of both parents at relatively young ages, plant medicine journeys, and why creative practice — writing, music, art — can be one of the most powerful tools for processing difficult emotions. They close with reflections on death as transition rather than ending, and how everyday moments of gratitude can anchor us against fear and distraction. A raw, spiritually-minded conversation about self-connection, healing community, and living with intention — even amid uncertainty.
