How Kinesiology Heals Forgotten Trauma | Angela Graham

The Body Keeps the Receipts: Angela Graham on Kinesiology, Forgotten Trauma and the Wound That Becomes Medicine

She couldn't drive a car for almost twenty years.

Not for lack of wanting to. Something in her body simply wouldn't allow it, and no amount of talking it through had ever shifted it. Then she sat with a kinesiologist who took her back to a car crash she had completely forgotten — a memory her mind had quietly filed away years before — and within six months she was holding her licence.

WATCH THE LIVE INTERVIEW ON YOU TUBE:       

How the Body Holds Forgotten Trauma

That's Angela Graham of Akaora Therapies. And the evening she joined us on #creativetalk — a fellow Kiwi we've shared a few classes with over the years — I knew within minutes we were sitting with someone who understands the thing Kebrasca and I watch happen at our own table every week: the body keeps the receipts. It holds what the mind decides is too much to look at. You can talk for years and never reach it, because it was never stored in words in the first place.

Kinesiology works at exactly that level. As Angela puts it, it bypasses the brain — the brain has so much to say, but the body knows what's underneath all of it. Through gentle muscle testing she has a kind of conversation with the body, navigating past the story the conscious mind is comfortable with and toward the emotion sitting under the thing you actually came in for. It's the same truth we keep meeting from every direction on this show, the same one Monique Elouise calls "the body keeps score." Different door, same room.

Twenty Years, One Forgotten Car Crash

What I loved about Angela is that she doesn't romanticise any of it. She'd tried talk therapy and a few other things to get past a fear of cars that made no sense to her — until a kinesiologist held the space for a meditation and a memory surfaced that she'd completely buried: a childhood crash, no seatbelts, her siblings screaming, her dad climbing out to confront the other driver rather than check on his kids. She'd been told, over and over, "you'll never drive." And for almost twenty years, she didn't. The moment she understood why, the whole thing loosened. Licence within six months.

She grew up, too, in a home ruled by alcohol — cups of tea till midday, beer from noon till night, one meal, and a child stuck in permanent fight-or-flight, keeping the younger ones quiet so nobody copped a hiding. She didn't know that wasn't normal until she was an adult. And somewhere in that conversation Kebrasca said something out loud he'd never quite put this way publicly before: that he genuinely thought everyone's mum got beaten up every week, that everyone had knives stuck in their doors — that it was just life. The room changed. You could feel it. Two people recognising the same childhood across a table.

When the Wound Becomes the Medicine

This is the part nobody talks about enough. The healers you sit with so often arrived here through their own fire. Angela said it plainly — her biggest pain, her relationship with her mother, with women, is now her biggest medicine, and women are exactly who she's drawn to work with. What used to hurt the most became the offering. It doesn't make sense on paper. It makes complete sense on the journey. You attract the clients whose wounds you understand from the inside, because you've lived in that exact dark and found the door out. Your history doesn't disqualify you from this work. Most of the time it's the qualification.

We asked her the question every healer eventually faces — do you feel you have to appear permanently healed, to wear that serene guru face and hide the messy parts? Her answer was refreshing. She doesn't hide anything. What she wrestles with isn't the mask — it's discernment. How do you share the whole truth, the dark and the light both, without it landing wrong or tipping someone over the edge? Kebrasca and I know that one intimately; he tends to start at the darkness and climb toward the light, I want to warm people up first, and we've both been pulled up on our delivery by the same teacher. None of us are finished. We're just a few steps further down a road we're still walking, turning back to say — here, this way, I know it's dark.

Ancestral Healing and Coming Home

We talked about ancestry too — her Māori and Cook Island heritage, and the particular grief of feeling like the black sheep, cut off from where you come from. For years it was just a knowing she couldn't prove. Then, through this work and through ancestral healing, her mother found her family, the line started to mend, and Angela — who hadn't spoken to her mum in a decade — found her way back. Kebrasca knows that disconnection in his own bones; he's the one who looks the most Māori and grew up feeling the most "plastic," learning the language and the protocols later in life precisely because they'd been lost. There's a kind of homecoming that happens when you stop looking for a middleman to your own spirit and realise the line to your people was never actually severed.

There was a thread in this that genuinely moved us both: the people who hurt us most can become the ones working hardest for us from the other side. Angela's grandmother — who she'd grown up believing disliked her — turns out to be the first one there now, trying to make right the secrets she once kept. Kebrasca and his late father, a relationship that was all walls and one-word exchanges in life, has done more healing since his dad passed than it ever managed while he was alive. The healing doesn't stop at the grave. Sometimes it only really begins there.

She's generous about the people who got her here, too. She lit up when Charles Lowres of Amanti Moon dropped into our live chat mid-episode, naming him as one of the teachers who set her on this path. And her rescue dog Minnie wandered into frame halfway through, which felt exactly right. This work isn't precious. It happens in real rooms, with dogs and tea and people telling the truth.

We pulled cards for her business at the end. The Fool for the leap she'd already taken, her intuition for where she stands now, and the Star for what's coming — balance, spiritual guidance, collaboration and expansion, with the Three of Pentacles confirming there are others she's meant to build alongside. Hope after a long hard road. It couldn't have been more her.

Some guests you interview. Angela, we just recognised.

— Amber

In This Episode

• 02:19 — Welcome to #creativetalk
• 03:06 — Last week recap: Phil & Kerry and Evidence of the Afterlife
• 06:24 — Everyone is psychic: Phil & Kerry's key teaching
• 09:22 — Mind Body Spirit Festival, Melbourne this weekend
• 12:59 — Meet Angela Graham of Akaora Therapies
• 14:11 — What kinesiology actually is
• 16:12 — How muscle testing works in a session
• 17:25 — Asking the body for consent before you begin
• 19:19 — Angela's story: couldn't drive for 20 years
• 20:09 — The forgotten car crash that held everything back
• 21:24 — Her licence within six months of one session
• 25:31 — Growing up around alcohol addiction
• 26:14 — Living in fight-or-flight as a child
• 28:13 — Kebrasca: "I thought everyone's mum got beaten up"
• 30:06 — Does your trauma make you a better healer?
• 33:25 — What used to hurt you becomes your medicine
• 34:29 — Māori & Cook Island heritage and disconnection
• 35:05 — Finding her tribe through ancestral healing
• 41:45 — Kebrasca & his father: healing a relationship after death
• 43:14 — Moon and medicine circles explained
• 48:40 — Spiritual entrepreneurship & the patience lesson
• 52:09 — Why great healers aren't all going viral
• 55:10 — The pressure to appear "healed"
• 58:15 — What's next: stepping into mediumship
• 1:01:49 — LIVE tarot reading for Angela's business
• 1:07:17 — The Star card: collaboration & expansion ahead
• 1:11:14 — Where to find Angela

Find Angela Graham at akaoratherapies.com.au and across her socials, where she shares her offerings and moon circle dates. Book a reading with Amber at glowbyamber.com or explore Kebrasca's healing work at kebrascaking.com #creativetalk is live every Thursday at 5PM AEST — where consciousness meets commerce.

Lightly edited for readability. #creativetalk with Amber & Kebrasca King, featuring Angela Graham of Akaora Therapies.

[01:34] Welcome

Hope everyone is doing well — it's been very rainy here in Melbourne, so we hope you've been staying warm and cosy. Winter has well and truly arrived; it's freezing. Melbourne only really has two seasons: winter, and the occasional 40-degree day that's too hot to do anything in.

[02:19] Welcome to Creative Talk

Welcome to Creative Talk podcast, the place where we blend the worlds of consciousness and commerce. I'm Kebrasca King — and I'm Amber King. Today we have a very special guest coming on soon: a fellow New Zealander, very talented across a number of modalities, who we've gotten to know over the last few years through shared classes. I'm fascinated by everything she does, especially on the kinesiology side — it's next level. But first, let's recap last week.

[03:06] Last week: Phil & Kerry, and Evidence of the Afterlife

Last week we interviewed Phil and Kerry — the married mediums who are some of the busiest people on the planet, doing so much in their spiritual work and their business. They teach mediumship and psychic development all over the world and give live demonstrations on stage. We were lucky enough to do two workshops with them over three or four days when they came to Australia, and it was full on. You think you're getting somewhere with your own mediumship, then day one of a workshop like that humbles you — and by the end you've learned an enormous amount.

One thing that stayed with me: this is a practice of building your spiritualism the same way you'd build fitness at the gym. It's not a religion; it's conscious connection, healing, developing the abilities we all have. It's like a muscle — the more you work it, the stronger it gets.

(Our cat has joined us, currently doing biscuits on Kebrasca's very expensive sheepskin-lined jacket, which she's claimed as her own.)

[06:24] Everyone is psychic

Going back to what Kerry said: everyone is psychic. Everyone has the ability within them; some have just developed it more. Phil and Kerry teach you to develop it, and they're clear you won't be excellent straight away — like lifting weights, you start light and build up. They also explained that having the psychic gift first actually complements mediumship, which I'd never thought about, because I assumed the two were separate. But when you do a psychic reading you tune into the energy of someone living; with mediumship you tune into the energy of someone who's passed — and there's no real difference in the energy. They're here, and so are we. Their award-winning documentary, Evidence of the Afterlife, is on Apple TV, and they teach online all over the world. We hope they come back to Australia next year.

[09:22] Mind Body Spirit Festival, Melbourne

What's coming up this weekend? From Friday through Monday we'll be at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in the psychic reading room at the convention centre, doing psychic, tarot, mediumship, clairvoyant and clairsentient readings. (Not that it's a competition — but this one sold out all her pre-bookings and got booked out before Kebrasca. It's not a competition, but she won.) Both our 10am and 10:30 slots are booked, but there are times after that — head down, find MV and his team, and they'll match you with one of the many excellent readers if we're not free.

This rounds out the first half of our Australian tour for the year, with two more festivals before Christmas. It's the biggest one in Melbourne, over the long weekend, and it's a wonderful place to explore modalities, crystals, tools, stages and meditation rooms — and us. Come and say hi.

[12:59] Introducing Angela Graham

Today's guest is from New Zealand, and she's also Māori and Cook Island — Angela Graham from Aka Order Therapies. She's a healer, a tarot reader, and a moon and medicine practitioner. Kia ora Angela, welcome to Creative Talk. Hi, thank you for having me. Whereabouts are you based? I'm in Seaford and Cheltenham. How's the weather out there? Pouring — gale-force, hailstones, nasty. Definitely a day to stay inside.

[14:11] What kinesiology actually is

One of your modalities is kinesiology, where the body speaks and tells you what's really going on. Can you explain it? That's exactly why I love it — it bypasses the brain. We work with the subconscious through biofeedback and ask the body directly, because the brain has so much to say but the body knows what's underneath. Say someone wants to give up smoking after 20 years. The body might take us to an age — say 23 — and an emotion they don't want to talk about, and that event has a direct influence on why they smoke. I used to be that person too: "I don't want to talk about that, just fix me." But there's usually an emotion underneath the reason you came. We sit with it; I'm just passing on the messages from the body. It's not talk therapy — it's "this is what your body's bringing up; how is that relevant to you?"

[16:12] Muscle testing

How do you test the body? Muscle testing — simple yes/no questions where the body either stays strong or weakens, and if it weakens we go further down that road. I use it in everyday life all the time, because I have a strong mind and like to bypass it and go straight to the muscles. I'll muscle test which brand, which card — any decision. It takes a lot of stress out of my day.

[17:25] Asking the body for consent

How does that connection work? They've consented to come, and then I ask their body, "Can I work with you?" — and we work together. It's evolved for me; I'll often sense something clairsentiently, like anger, then test it to confirm it's anger, and go from there. Sometimes the person says "no, I'm not angry," and I'm gently feeling a lot of anger — so we take the scenic route until they get there: "yes, actually, I was angry." It's not easy to help someone understand an emotion from 40 years ago, but that's the work.

[19:19] Couldn't drive for 20 years

Was there a moment kinesiology blew your own mind? Yes — it's exactly why I studied it. I've only been driving since just before Covid. I'd get really scared in cars, kept trying, kept stopping. Talk therapy didn't help. Someone suggested their kinesiologist, and she took me into a meditation.

[20:09] The forgotten car crash

What I'd completely forgotten was a little car crash — me and my two siblings, back when there were no seatbelts, front or back. Someone hit us from behind; all I can hear is my brother and sister screaming and crying. Nothing terrible happened, but my dad didn't even check on us — he got out to abuse the driver behind. It was traumatic at the time, and every time I got in the car with my dad afterward I'd get anxious, and he wasn't patient: "you'll never drive." You hear that enough and it becomes true. I didn't drive until that forgotten memory surfaced — and once you have a reason why, you can move through it.

[21:24] Licence within six months

I got my licence within four to six months of that session, because I finally knew what the problem was. Do you think the memory wasn't held in your mind but in your body, and that's what surfaced? I'd never thought of it like that, but yes — she held space, the intention was "why," we went back to when I was about eight, and that's where the magic was. Afterward I thought, I have to study this, I have to share this — it's life-changing. (It took about a year and a half to qualify, around Covid time.)

[22:35] No seatbelts, and shared stories

It's wild thinking back to those times — no seatbelts, no child seats, everyone a bit of a cowboy, and trauma wasn't called trauma; you just didn't complain, stayed quiet, got on with it. (Amber: I remember a big red station wagon we called "the beast," packed with little kids on a school trip, no seatbelts, a staff member driving — she smacked into something and all us kids went flying. No one got in trouble. We made it through.) (Kebrasca: My only car memories are my dad speeding down the Napier highway, racking up tickets and arguing with every officer who pulled him over.)

[25:31] Growing up around alcohol addiction

Angela, you've spoken openly about growing up around alcohol addiction. How did that shape you? I was always thinking ahead — which is no way for anyone to be. It reminds me of my rescue dog; she's always braced for what's next. My father drank cups of tea till midday, then beer from noon till 11 at night, one meal, then bed. The kids were loud, so I had to keep them quiet so we didn't get a hiding or worse.

[26:14] Fight or flight as a child

So I was always in fight-or-flight, and I didn't know that was unusual until I was an adult. When you finally meet people who don't put you in that state, it's a godsend — but by then I was already drinking myself, numbing all of it, which was something else I had to move through before healing again.

[27:20] Choosing a different path

I made better choices because I didn't want to go down the road some of my family did. I wanted a purposeful life — no drama, no stress, no one walking on eggshells, everyone free to speak openly and honestly. Those were the important things I didn't have as a child.

(Kebrasca: I grew up in a similar house — alcohol ruled it, and the trauma. I thought our upbringing was normal until I met Amber and others. "What do you mean your mum doesn't get beaten up every week? What do you mean you don't have knives stuck in your door?" You're just trying to survive; no one's there telling you this is bad and this is good. That fight-or-flight was how we got through.)

[29:00] Understanding it as an adult

(Amber: My dad was similar — he had a problem with drinking. As a child I'd growl at him, furious, not understanding why he'd keep doing it. Then as an adult, through our healing work, you understand it's deeper than "just stop drinking." It's not that easy.)

[30:06] Does your trauma make you a better healer?

Angela, did going through that — recognising it, then becoming a healer — align? I didn't have a safe space when I was young; my mum wasn't around much, and when she was, she was on a similar buzz. I wouldn't change it, because I love who I've become. I've been on a path of becoming the person I needed back then — "who did Angela need?" I'm very understanding of why my parents were how they were; no one chooses that, they came from their own parents, and they're beautiful people doing the best with what they had. I love them and forgive them. That trauma is part of why I know my work is needed — I'd have loved someone like me around when I was young.

[33:25] What used to hurt you becomes your medicine

Do the people carrying the traumas you've been through show up as your clients? Totally — I attract people I have an understanding of, because we've been through the same thing; there's something that ties us. My biggest trauma was with my mother, with women — and that's now my biggest medicine. What used to hurt me most is now how I heal, and those are the people I work with: a lot of women. It doesn't make sense on paper, but it makes sense on the journey.

[34:29] Māori & Cook Island heritage

Does your heritage influence how you approach healing? With my Islander side I always felt disconnected — the black sheep, not close to that side of the family. And I always knew I had Māori in me — a feeling, a knowing you can't confirm — so I never talked about it.

[35:05] Finding her tribe

I'm not surprised it's finally come up: my mother has now found her family, which is amazing. A lot of that has to do with this work and with ancestral healing, which I'm so passionate about now, because I can see the gold it's created. My grandparents have been working hard behind the scenes to help my relationship with my mother and to help her find her tribe — I hadn't spoken to my mum in 10 years. Honestly, I have more connection with the dead than the living — and that's opened up space to connect with the living again.

Do you feel we once had these gifts and are rediscovering them? Absolutely. I've always looked to indigenous people — my own, and others — who look to the stars, the earth, the people. I don't feel you need a middleman to get to God; God is in everything and always available. That's the most natural thing for me.

[38:13] The Māori disconnection — Kebrasca too

(Kebrasca: I totally resonate with that cultural disconnection. I didn't grow up around the cultural connection the way my father did. I look the most Māori, can speak te reo and learned tikanga early, yet people ask me things and I'm still learning. Leaving the land, missing the protocols — that disconnection is real for a lot of us. Going back and learning those connections at an older age, they mean more now than they did when I was young.)

[40:18] Ancestors behind the scenes

The ancestral work is about them pushing us forward — sometimes confronting, but deeply healing. They want the best for us, even things they may not have known while alive. My grandmother is with me a lot since passing — which was a shock, because while she was alive I thought she hated me. So often the ones who hurt us most understand what they did and want nothing but to help us now. She feels bad about the secrets she kept from my mother and wants to make it right. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

[41:45] Kebrasca and his father

(Kebrasca: My father and I never got on for most of my life because of what he put my mother, my brother and me through — a massive wall, no want from either side to build a relationship. Then he passed during Covid and showed up straight away in readings and mediumship — front and centre, like he was in life. He started apologising for how he was, acknowledging the work I've done. Now I talk to him more often than when he was alive. The healing doesn't just happen here; it can happen when you go over, too.)

[43:14] Moon and medicine circles

Tell us about your moon and medicine circles. (You're not running around naked under the moon, are you? That costs extra.) It's about energy — working under the full moon for the energy it brings. I used to organise them rigidly, but now it's spirit-led: I feel into how the energy is during the week and let it come together. We meet, there's meditation, ritual, and an exercise spirit brings up — last week it was forgiveness and expansion, working in pairs, even strangers, which felt too deep until I trusted it and it was beautiful. It's a monthly space to go inside, to ask what layer needs to peel off, what you're ready for.

[45:20] For everyone, not just women

Is it women only? No, everyone. My husband goes to every one and swears by it — he runs his own business and it grounds him, brings him back to gratitude and to "actually, life isn't as bad; maybe I should make some changes." I used to think he was just being supportive; now I realise he genuinely needs it to journey through his own life. (You guys inspire me — I'd love to work alongside my husband the way you two do.)

[47:56] Spiritual entrepreneurship

People think being in business with your partner is easy and lovely. What have the struggles been? I like things fast, and I've learned patience the hard way — this is a Knight of Pentacles situation for my business: slow and steady, doing things properly. I've doubted myself many times, which I know is part of the process, but I keep coming back to "is this what I want to be doing? Yes — keep going, one foot in front of the other." A spiritual business is spirit-led; if you go against your spirit team's guidance you end up somewhere and have to backtrack. And we live in a 3D world where we need to make money, so the patience is hard.

(Hosts: We get it. You do all this great work and wonder where the reward is — but it kicks in differently, through opportunities, clients, lessons and messages. Going from a normal business into a spiritual one, you realise the financial reward is the last piece, not the first.)

[51:39] A shout-out from Charles

We've got a lovely comment from Charles of Amanti Moon: "Angela is so amazing." Thank you, Charles — love Charles. He's one of my teachers and mentors, along with Nigel, who helped me onto this path. It's so important to find the right people in this space.

[52:09] Why aren't these healers going viral?

It changed everything for me having the right teachers — Charles, Nigel, Phil and Kerry. These people are incredible, and I don't know why they aren't going viral like certain self-help names who, frankly, aren't really spiritual. How are people doing such genuine, layer-shifting work not getting the recognition they deserve? But I think we only see the human level — we don't see what the spiritual world is doing for them. There's a bigger plan for Charles, for Nigel, for all of us.

[53:27] Minnie joins the podcast

(Who is this beautiful puppy? This is Minnie, a rescue who's just turned three. I never wanted a daughter and got a mini-me.) Look at her hugging you — she's a sweetheart. My husband calls us his little rescues. (How many animals do you have? Only allowed one at a time — but we're working on it. I'd happily be Dr Doolittle.)

[55:10] The pressure to appear "healed"

There's a perception in this space that you have to appear constantly healed, with a guru face. Have you ever felt you had to hide parts of yourself? I never feel I have to hide anything. My struggle is how to communicate things — I want to say a lot, but I worry something's too heavy or might trigger someone. It's not fear; it's "how do I share this without it coming out wrong?" In the end it's your life and you have every right to share it. (Hosts: That's discernment, and we both wrestle with it — Kebrasca starts at the darkness and works to the light; Amber wants to warm people up first; we've both been pulled up on our delivery by the same teacher. It's just your authentic self — and we'll never be everything to everyone. The right people will find you and get you.)

[58:15] What's next: mediumship

What's next for you? My next moon and medicine circle is Wednesday 1 July, 7–9pm, at a studio in Cheltenham, and I work from Seaford on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Where I really want to focus next is mediumship — it was never something I wanted or was interested in, but I feel guided there, and I'm relaxing into it instead of being weirded out by it. (Hosts: We were both the same — Amber didn't want dead people wandering through the living room, and swore she wasn't a medium; the next minute we were on stage doing live demonstrations at the spiritual church with Nigel, and now it's one of her most sought-after modalities.) My own fear is that I already feel so deeply for myself, I worry about feeling that deeply for others — but I believe this will help me navigate it.

[1:01:49] Tarot reading for Angela's business

A reading for you, Angela — what's your question? Besides patience, what else would help my business grow? (Cards immediately fly out: Strength, and a "happy family" card.) Choose left, middle or right — I'll muscle test. Middle, please.

Past, present, future. In the past you took the leap — the Fool — with enough belief in yourself to just give it a go, divinely guided, your little dog representing spirit pushing you forward. A lot of work on yourself got you to that leap. In the present you're at an experience level, but there's a touch of imposter syndrome — "am I okay to be up here?" The card points you into your intuition and into being comfortable where you are: yes, you're meant to be here. The business does take work — systems, content, the right people — and all of that now has a proper place.

[1:07:17] The Star — collaboration and expansion

And the future is so bright: the Star — balance and spiritual guidance — and here comes the money. You're the king of your domain, powerful in how you communicate. I see more collaboration coming with the Three of Pentacles — working with other practitioners to bring things to the surface. There's huge strength in what you already do, and not just outward strength — inner strength, building confidence, building creativity, letting you work with all kinds of clients: families, couples, different ages. The growth of the business is your spiritual growth at the same time. You're on a great path — when the doubts creep in, just channel this Strength card. You're already doing it; you're already healing people. Keep going in that direction. (Thank you — that was amazing.)

[1:10:34] Closing thanks

Thank you, Angela, and thank you for sharing your beautiful fur baby and your world with us. We'll be following and supporting your journey — and your social content is so good; go check out Angela's Instagram.

[1:11:14] Where to find Angela

You can visit Angela's website, akaordertherapies.com.au, for all her offerings, her moon circles and more about her, with links to her socials at the bottom.

[1:11:50] This weekend & next week

We're looking forward to our long weekend at Mind Body Spirit — if you loved Angela's reading, come and get one with us. And next week we're changing it up: another special guest with a New Zealand connection, Australia's own EnterTrainer. That's all we're saying — tune in. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Creative Talk; huge thanks to Angela, and we'll see you next week, Thursday at 5pm. Take care.

🎧 Watch or listen to the full conversation with Angela Graham on the #creativetalk podcast — "She couldn't drive for 20 years — one kinesiology session revealed why" — available on YouTube, Spotify, and all podcast platforms. (https://youtu.be/oesM_5QoNRY?si=ONWZzh157Py19Ujj.)

🌐 Find Angela at akaoratherapies.au

#creativetalk podcast — where consciousness meets commerce, with hosts Amber & Kebrasca King.

This article touches on childhood adversity and trauma. It's intended as general information about kinesiology, not therapeutic advice. If any of it brings up something heavy for you, please reach out to a qualified professional or someone you trust.