Still becoming: Emma-Kate’s story isn’t finished — and that’s the beauty of it.

Emma-Kate Knezevic (Stampton) has always been able to feel the extraordinary in the ordinary.

There is joy in the smallest of moments.

Drinking her morning coffee in the sunlight.

Feeling the grass under her feet as she waters her garden.

Listening to the after-school stories her son tells her each day.

“My heart expands at the beautiful basic stuff.

“But I must emphasis I do forget and must remember to open my eyes and hear to the pure joy I’m surrounded by, and the cycle continues.”

Emma – Kate is a singer and songwriter and founder of Muse Body Mind. You may have heard her music, under her recording name Kate Heart here in Mackay and across Brisbane.

She is a classically trained songstress who studied at the Central Queensland  Conservatorium.

And It was her love of music, which has healed parts of Emma-Kate in some of her darkest hours.

“Singing has always held space for me and kept my heart safe.  Being able to sit and play my keyboard and sing is very cathartic.  

“Singing also activates the vagus nerve which is the direct link to the calm or rest and digest part of the nervous system, so unintentionally I’ve been regulating my nervous system since I was a child – winning.”

And while Emma-Kate has always found refuge in singing, she is now turning up the volume on her voice, admitting she hasn’t even begun to use her voice yet.

But that is about to change.

“Maybe, I use my voice in my actions, the way I live my life.  Our actions speak loudest.  But I do have so much to share, and this felt like such a grand opportunity to start using my voice bravely and share some more of my actual story.

“I had my boundaries seriously compromised from a very early age, and I had my voice silenced in the aftermath.  I am a survivor of child sexual abuse.    It was an incredibly rough way to experience childhood and adolescents and changed the way I have experienced life.  

“Due to those experiences though I formed strong boundaries in other areas of my life like work and friendship and my energy. 

“ I do try to protect my peace and then when that doesn’t quite work out, I think I’m pretty good at navigating life when it feels unstable, until I’m not then I just have a meltdown.  So be it.”

And while Emma-Kate is in the season of sharing her story, she is no stranger to speaking up, to stand up for others . She believes having been violated at such an early age, paved the way for her to be someone with strong convictions.

“ I would always stand up for the underdog at high school. I’ve never had much fear about speaking up.  I’m generally comfortable rocking the boat.”

But when Emma- Kate isn’t rocking boats, she is on a continuous path of being grounded, her two feet on the earth moving forward. Something that isn’t as easy as one foot in front of the other as life often moved between, grief, healing and growth.

“I don’t really believe that healing has a destination, its cyclical and layered not linear.   Maybe it does, and I just haven’t arrived yet. 

“ My whole life had been about healing; I’ve been going to therapy since I was 11 years old.  I wish I could confidently say I’d healed from my childhood trauma, but it’s all just a work in progress. “

“Grief in relation to the death of a loved one was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced.  It was such a raw pain.  It hurts physically, like an intense hunger that will never be filled, an emptiness deep in your gut. 

“I’m not sure what grief has taught me, but It did give me the deepest sense of empathy and understanding that I just couldn’t fathom before experiencing this myself. 

“Death is like birth, it’s a sacred portal, the connection between ancestral lines, its divine and precious in a spiritual sense.   The space it  leaves behind is so big and challenging,” she said.

And on the days where Emma- Kate needs to find balance and restoration, it is often found in the bathtub, a place that has held space for her, more than another human ever will.

“It’s one of my most favourite and nurturing rituals.  Walking with a close friend, meditation, gardening, dancing, singing.  I like life to be one big ritual.”

So what is Emma- Kate’s words of encouragement for other women in the middle of healing?

Zoom out.

“Realise that a Patriarchal system like the one we live in was not designed for a women to thrive, when we can see that truth we can see how difficult it is to heal and thrive.  

“Then Zoom back in, from my experience healing is messy, ugly, uncomfortable, sacred and it’s your birth right.

 “Build a great team around you of friends and professionals.  Find a good therapist, they are like hairdressers, you will have to look for the right one, it’s a pain in the ass but it will pay dividends. 

“If you think spending time on your own emotional and mental needs is selfish, reframe that mindset.  If you don’t heal your wounds, you will bleed on the ones who didn’t hurt you – your family, your children. 

“I do my inner work and healing for my family, my legacy.  The other thing that changed my mentality – Whatever your wound or trauma is – it’s not your fault, it was never your fault, but it is completely your responsibility to heal, no one else will do that.”