Julianne Hough defends viral ‘energy work session’ after receiving backlash in 2020

‘When you’re a pioneer in something and you have the courage and the guts to put it out there, you will absolutely get backlash,’ actor says

Julianne Hough defends viral ‘energy work session’ after receiving backlash in 2020 (Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro)

Julianne Hough has defended her viral “energy work session,” which she first received backlash for in 2020.

The 36-year-old actor addressed the energy work she once did at the World Economic Forum during a recent appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Off the Vine podcast. The viral video from 2020 first showed Hough lying on her stomach on a table, as Dr John Amaral moved his hands over her body. She responded by lifting her arms, legs, and upper half of her body before letting out a scream.

Hough, during her conversation with Bristowe, recalled the energy work session she had, and the criticism she faced afterwards.

“I’ve had a few of those supernatural experiences and had a lot of people be like, ‘Oh, she’s lost the plot,’” she explained. “I did this energy work session, and it went viral. People were like, ‘She’s got demons and an exorcist coming out of her butthole!”

The Dancing with the Stars co-host acknowledged that as this energy session was almost five years ago, she doesn’t necessarily think people would have the same reaction to her doing this now.

“Now it’s so much more accessible. People understand what’s happening. Energy is everything,” she said. “This table is literally energy, like come on you guys.”

After the former Bachelorette star recalled her reaction to the energy work video, thinking, “Oh, that’s real,” Hough praised fellow celebrities who’ve spoken openly about being spiritual, like Gwyneth Paltrow.

“Whatever you say about her, she’s ‘woo woo’ or whatever, I am so grateful for her,” she said about the Goop founder. “Because she probably took more flack from anybody out there because she was a pioneer. And when you’re a pioneer in something and you have the courage and the guts to put it out there, you will absolutely get backlash, completely. I give her props.”

Hough went on to applaud Paltrow’s reality show, Sex, Love & Goop, during which couples spoke to experts about the importance of intimacy and sex in relationships.

“All those things were just so informative,” she added. “And not taboo, and permission to experience and learn so much wisdom that exists.”

During the World Economic Forum in 2020, Hough first described how meaningful the energy work session was and how it ultimately helped her.

“I feel so much more liberated on the inside that I can speak my truth clearly, and stand in my power and not feel overtaken by emotion, my mind, and I feel free inside myself to just be,” she explained during the demonstration.

She went on to claim that the energy work session could help people who feel like “they don’t have the courage”, surroundings or the environment “to speak up” in their lives.

“If you have something like this in your organization, where there is a safe place for people to express, this is life-changing, for people” Hough added. “This can connect them to what now their purpose is that they can drive forward in what they know is their power, versus feeling afraid and held back.”