Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Terepka.
Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
These two great loves of mine, the body and the earth, have always woven themselves through my life. I was always fascinated with the body as a child, asking my mom questions like “how far back does your tongue go?” and “do statues also have hearts?” I also grew up deeply connected to nature, playing in the forests and fields of my family’s old farmhouse, catching frogs in the pond, and generally being so happy as a child of the outdoors. I am a highly sensitive person so the world felt very alive for me as a child.
Both of my parents are medical doctors and when I was young, I figured I’d go into the western medical field because it was all I really knew. In college I majored in Environmental Studies, thinking I’d merge my two loves in environmental public health or something of the sort. But I didn’t know there was a deeper layer to healing and earth wisdom available yet.
After college I traveled for 7 months around the world, volunteering in an AIDs temple in Thailand where massage for the bed-ridden patients was the highlight of their days. It was so poignant and impactful for them, and for me. I did work-trade for various farms in SE Asia and India, and through that experience really began to feel a relationship with Earth and plants stirring in me that I didn’t know was possible. I witnessed the deep connection my host families had to their medicine, growing herbs for their families, understanding folk healing and wisdom passed down through generations. Plants, and their relationship with plants, gave them a level of empowerment with their bodies and health that I didn’t know was possible.
After returning back to the States (with significant culture shock from how disconnected we live here comparatively), I apprenticed on a small herbal farm in the Catskill mountains in NY State. I went to massage school. I started deepening into this world of healing that felt so much more true and resonant than the western medical model. This world of healing that naturally wove the innate wisdom of the body and the medicine of the Earth into it.
As I learned and explored the realms of body and plant medicine, I started to again feel like another layer was missing. A spiritual attunement to these realms that often gets overlooked. I studied energy work, reiki, and biodynamic cranialsacral therapy – all forms of bodywork that acknowledge an inherent intelligence that lives within the body and energy field, and weave in and understanding we’re so much more complex and multi-dimensional than we’ve been taught. I simultaneously began my studies in plant spirit medicine: listening to the subtle, energetic and spiritual way the plants are communicating with us, our bodies, and our spirits.
After 2 decades of study, my work today blends the fields of Body, Earth, and Spirit to help folks remember the magic of being a body on the earth. There is so much depth, healing relationship, and profound wisdom available when we listen to the subtle layers of the spiritual planes that move through our bodies and our world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been far from smooth. Figuring out how to live with my own highly sensitive nature in a world that’s anything but sensitive was a huge challenge for me growing up. I think it’s common for folks who are naturally attuned to the subtle nature of life to completely shut off this power because it’s overwhelming and there’s most often no guidance for children in how to work with their sensitivities. So I did what many empathic and highly sensitive children do, and I oriented myself towards how others’ were feeling, and helping them feel ok. I lived outside of myself because internally it was so overwhelming. And because I disconnected from my emotional body and how I felt, it was hard for me to relate to my own opinions, beliefs, and experience of Self.
There was also always a part of me that felt like an outsider looking in. I was sensitive to things others weren’t. I also wasn’t content with the story of going to school, getting a job, a partner, a house, and then retiring. I knew there was more to life, but didn’t have many examples of how to explore a different way. I was lucky to have parents who encouraged me to explore and always follow my heart in my life path.
So once I found my way in through the body and the plants, the real work of returning “home” to myself, and figuring out who I was, was one of the hardest parts. It’s not easy, but it’s so deeply rewarding. You get to really meet yourself and what’s been held inside, however painful, however beautiful. We all have aspects of us that we’ve pushed down, tried to silence or ignore. This shadow work is crucial – shining light on all the parts we’ve tried to forget, while facing and feeling long-stored emotions. Being held by the plants and the earth through this process has been so important for me too. They are the most unconditionally loving beings I’ve ever met. 2 decades into this process of returning home to my body and the earth and there’s still so much more to discover and uncover. The more I do, the more I feel I continue to listen to and liberate my authentic self. Polishing up the windows of my being, so I can express my heart and soul’s truth more and more purely.
As you know, we’re big fans of Groundwater Healing. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My bodywork practice, Groundwater Healing, and my school, the Golden Stone Wisdom School, both help highly sensitive, earth-loving and magically-inclined folks deepen a sense of loving communion with their bodies and the earth. I help people anchor a sense of belonging within, so they can co-create the magic they’re here to create. I guide and encourage folks to step more fully into their intuitive magic, come into more trust with themselves, and feel held by the wider forces of the Spiritual Earth.
Through Earth Medicine, somatic guidance, energy healing, and more, I encourage healing alongside the seasons of the body and the Earth, and kinship with nature, the elements, and the plants.
What sets me apart is that I don’t just work with embodiment, but bring it into the sphere of eco-communion, as our bodies and souls can never be fully thriving without deep and rooted relationship with the earth. All of my work is seasonally based, in rhythm with the earth’s cycles.
I also root spirituality down into the body and the earth. So many folks are seeking ascension, to gain the next spiritual high, but then live so disconnected still, so ungrounded. I bring spirit into form, the mystical into the body. And I also love working with local plant spirits, not psychedelics, which are gaining so much popularity. Psychedelics can be powerful and important experiences for folks. But when we learn to open ourselves to the subtle communication and medicine of the plants that live all around us, that’s when we really learn how to integrate this living magic and spiritual communion that weaves itself through the material and mundane reality.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I love dancing! I love taking dance classes, but also going out dancing with friends. I also love laughing and comedy. I love hanging out with the earth and going for hikes, but I also love good food, going out with friends, and really engaging with the wide range of humanity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.groundwaterhealing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groundwaterhealing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GroundwaterHealing/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-terepka/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@groundwaterhealing1925
