A Healthy Curiosity

The answers we get about trauma often depend on the questions we ask.

If you're feeling stuck in your healing process, sometimes the best way forward is to trust that the body has its own story to share. Trying to force an understanding of what's going on can miss the clarity of embodying those sensations.

By bringing together mindfulness with somatic therapies, Andrew Hahn works to tap into the body's deep wisdom. Drawing on lots of things being practiced in different spheres, Andrew shares his approach to helping people heal rather than trying to cure their ailments.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• How eclectic education and psy experiences formed the roots of his methodology
• What he views as the relationship between healing and sensation
• Tips for tuning into and embodying our sensations
• An example of how Andrew helps people understand what their symptoms are telling them

Andrew Hahn, Psy.d, received his doctorate in 1985 and became a licensed clinical psychologist in 1987.

Early in his career, he was on The Graduate faculties of Leslie and Northeastern University and training director in a large Counseling Center.

He is founder of the Life Centered Therapy Training Institute. LCT is a mindbody, energetic, psycho-spiritual, archetypal, narrative, postmodern systems, mindfulness framework for healing trauma and supporting evolving.

He has lectured and lead trainings internationally in LCT and the Enneagram.

Links:

Self-Realization Fellowship

LCT Training

Episode 210: Tapping on the Body to Shift Your Mind and Emotions

Connect With Andrew Hahn:

Website

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook

--

Learn more about Brodie's Classes and Meditations

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off courses like 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Basics of Chinese Medicine!

If you've been looking for a different approach to cultivating emotional wellness and wellbeing, you will definitely want to catch this conversation.

With influence on essentially every system in the body, the heart is the conductor of our inner orchestra. The heart is also capable of healing on a deep, programming level.

Carine Camara identifies the heart and its energy as the most powerful force in the body. By using heart centered healing along with a blend of other paradigms, she helps people access their love and joy to fill themselves up so they can then fill up others.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• What drew Carine to work with the energy of the heart
• The mechanisms of using heart energy to create healing
• A short guided meditation to help us connect with our hearts
• Why this practice is particularly powerful for empaths and highly sensitive people
• What she recommends people do to start cultivating a deeper connection to their heart

Carine Camara is an intuitive guide, acupuncturist, energy medicine practitioner, and the Host of the Infinite Love Podcast. Her mission is to help people heal. Carine's offerings/services are a unique blend of intuitive and energetic healing, practical science, and care. She has devoted her life to the study of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness. For the last 20 years, she has immersed myself in the healing sciences. Carine began by studying plant based nutrition, to heal her own physical issues, and later obtained her Masters in Chinese Medicine.

Her practice and knowledge continued to expand, as she trained in Energy Medicine, and works closely with spiritual coaches, teachers and more. For those who are suffering from chronic illness, highly sensitive and/or looking for support in their lives, Carine has a wealth of knowledge to guide you back to wellness. She has an online practice and a holistic clinic located in Lafayette - where she serves the San Francisco Bay Area community.

Links:

HeartMath

Connect With Carine Camara:

Website

Podcast

Blog

Instagram

Facebook

--

Apply to work with Brodie 1-on-1

Find out how to enroll in the Level Up course (on sale through the end of 2020!)

Our responses to stress can often be habituated in ways we may not like. With practice, however, it's possible to hack our limiting beliefs and subconscious patterns in a way that allows us to show up with more presence and kindness to ourselves and those around us.

Stacy Claxton is an expert in helping people use their body as a bridge to the mind, with Emotional Freedom Techniques, to get to the root causes of emotional and physical suffering. By taking our own fingertips to our own bodies, we can use this form of psychological acupuncture to bring about ease, flow, and natural healing.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• Why telling the body that it's safe is so powerful
• What conditions and traumas EFT is often effective in treating
• How timing plays into the effectiveness of EFT
• Stacy walks us through an example of how tapping works

Stacy Claxton is a transformational coach and integrative health practitioner who helps stuck people find freedom and flow. She guides growth seekers, heart-centered healers, and embodied leaders through their biggest blocks to discover their boundless inner power, adding that critical piece: body-centered tools to resolve trauma and rewire the nervous system for lasting change.

Her practice blends ancient and modern modalities, including Ayurveda, yoga, breathwork, meditation, somatic work, prenatal and postpartum care, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, and more.

An educator and entrepreneur, Stacy combines private client work with writing, speaking, facilitating small groups, and leading live transformational events.

Links:

Get Stacy's Free EFT Reference Sheet!

Connect With Stacy Claxton:

Website

Email Stacy for a complimentary personal power strategy session!

--

Apply to work with Brodie 1-on-1

Find out how to enroll in the Level Up course (on sale through the end of 2020!)

In a time when a lot of us are dealing with strong, difficult emotions, it can be easy to slip into bad patterns to try and cope and these patterns can spiral to harmful levels and addiction. On top of that, some of the most popular addiction treatments often end up reinforcing the idea that someone's identity is "addict" which only serves to feed the pattern.

Michelle Dunbar has a different way of looking at addiction. Through the framework she helped to develop, Michelle and her team empower people struggling with addiction to change the trajectory of their lives rather than giving the power to substances and bad habits.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• What addiction means in the context of Michelle's work
• How her own experiences and those of other family members led her toward the framework she developed
• The three distinct components of The Freedom Model
• Why she says the opposite of addiction is diversification
• What has surprised her along her career of helping people with addiction

Michelle Dunbar is the co-author of The Freedom Model for Addictions: Escape the Treatment and Recovery Trap and The Freedom Model for the Family. She is also Executive Director of Baldwin Research Institute, Inc., and The Saint Jude Retreats, not-for-profit research organizations with the mission to change the way people with substance use problems are helped worldwide. Michelle has been helping people move beyond addiction for over 30 years.

Links:

Get A Free Sample of The Non-12 Step Addiction Ebook

Get The Freedom Model Books for free by using code "freedom100" through the end of 2020

Connect With Michelle Dunbar:

Saint Jude Retreats

The Freedom Model

Ebooks

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

--

Find out how to enroll in the Level Up course (on sale through the end of 2020!)

Work with Brodie 1-on-1

In challenging times, taking the time to make sure we take care of ourselves can be especially difficult. As the changes brought on by COVID continue to affect us, we're all coping with more stress which can lead to increased anger and irritability. Given these constraints, how can we work to ensure we're meeting our own needs in order to keep our relationships peaceful and harmonious?

Melissa Wolak provides some excellent, practical advice for naming, claiming, and processing our anger so we can move on more productively. Anger is often a habitual reaction and Melissa shares ways to approach finding and changing our reaction habits when facing stress and uncertainty.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• What the difference is between reacting and responding
• How we can stay resilient and flexible in our window of tolerance
• Why affect labeling is important to reducing reactivity
• What the different types of anger are and how they often show up
• How we can get more in touch with the existence or presence of anger

Melissa Wolak mentors and leads women to reclaim their energy, time and wellbeing with powerful mindset shifts, deepening their mind-body connection and establishing sustainable lifestyle practices. As a mindset and empowerment coach, she is a fierce advocate for creating more fulfillment, freedom and self-compassion. The foundation of her movement and unique system connects science and soul. She incorporates her 23 years of experience in the healthcare and neurotrauma fields as a holistic Speech-Language Cognitive therapist, education with a Bachelors and Masters in Communication Science Disorders and her development of tools to conquer stress and burnout by incorporating neuroscience, mindfulness and assertive communication strategies.

Links:

Dr. Marilee Adams

Free Guided Breathwork offer!

Connect With Melissa Wolak:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

YouTube

--

Work with Brodie 1-on-1

Find out how to enroll in the Level Up course

The hormonal shifts women experience later in life, namely perimenopause and menopause, aren't talked about very often. This lack of education and awareness can lead to women feeling out of control and confused when their bodies start changing, sliding away from things they used to be able to count on.

Dr. Amy Zahm has helped many women navigate these shifts in identity and she brings a lot of useful wisdom to this conversation around the benefits that Chinese Medicine can have for women going through menopause and perimenopause. Rather than a medicalized condition that needs treating, she encourages us to view these reorganizations as part. of the natural, beautiful progression of yin and yang in the body.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• Why play is so crucial and some ideas for getting started
• What perimenopause is and what the signs of it are
• The Chinese Medicine perspective on how different times in life are for different purposes
• Why finding ways to slow down is often so critical in responding to signals from our bodies
• How even taking a 60 second breathing break can help you start downregulating the nervous system

Dr. Amy Zahm is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine who has been practicing in rural NE Oregon for sixteen years. Amy specializes in women's health, mental and emotional health, chronic illness and pain management. She has a particular love for using the principles of Chinese Medicine to help women of all ages navigate the transitional periods of their lives with more ease and grace than our society generally allows. In addition to serving Wallowa county, she will soon be expanding her practice to include telehealth. Look for Ground and Sky: Chinese and Functional Medicine for Women's Health at groundandskyhealth.com. Staying connected In addition to attending acupuncture school at SWAC in Albuquerque at the same time, she and I shared a massage therapy space back in the day.

Links:

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine

Lillian Bridges - Lotus Institute

Institute for Traditional Medicine

Heaving Bosoms Podcast

Connect With Dr. Amy Zahm:

Website (Coming Soon!)

Email

Instagram

Facebook

--

Learn more about working with Brodie

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off the 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Breathing Bundle collection!

Reach out to Brodie

If you suffer from chronic pain, migraines, ongoing concussion symptoms, or really anything related to neurology, you'll definitely want to check out this conversation with Dr. Ayla Wolf.

Dr. Wolf blends the paradigms of functional neurology, Chinese Medicine, and acupuncture to bring a unique healing perspective to her patients. By looking at people in real time, rather than just a snapshot of their conditions, she's able to analyze and apply differential diagnoses to treat the whole, connected system of the brain and body.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• What functional neurology is and how it looks in a Chinese Medicine setting
• Why things can get missed when looking at patients in specialized silos
• How the dynamic nature of the nervous system can affect neurological exams
• What the research says on the cumulative effects of acupuncture treatments
• Some insight into how herbs can interact with the immune system of the brain

Dr. Ayla Wolf is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine specializing in neurological disorders, concussions and traumatic brain injuries. She is a faculty member of the Carrick Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, and teaches doctoral program courses in neurology as an adjunct faculty of the AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine, and American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is an international speaker and educator on functional neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurological exam techniques, and neuro-rehabilitation utilizing acupuncture and Chinese medicine. She also teaches advanced courses on the management of patients with concussions and TBI.

Links:

Carrick Institute

Episode 65: Brain Training and Your 6th Sense with Dr. Titus Chiu

Huangdi Neijing

Free Resources for Practitioners

Courses for Acupuncturists

Connect With Dr. Ayla Wolf:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

--

Learn more about working with Brodie

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off the 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Breathing Bundle collection!

Reach out to Brodie

Seeing herbs in action is a powerful reminder of why we can find roots of herbal medicine in basically every culture. Through a couple different ventures, Chloe Weber has done lots of great work to make Chinese Medicine and herbs accessible to more people, particularly in underserved communities.

Chloe has dedicated her life to blending her passions for public health and Chinese Medicine and she joins us to share her knowledge on herbs, the benefits they bring to public health, and so much more.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• Why she compares the anatomy of herbal formulas to a symphony
• The important role digestion plays in overall health
• How the gut-brain axis affects numerous systems throughout the body
• What led her into building herbal formulas with CBD

Chloe developed an interest in public health and medicine after being diagnosed with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in high school. As one of the first cases diagnosed in Costa Rica, Chloe was drawn to study Ecology and Evolutionary biology at CU Boulder where she began to understand how diseases evolve along with us and the deep connection between humans and our environment.

Eventually, Chloe was drawn to Chinese medicine as a way to address public health issues. She graduated with a Masters of Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder and spent time studying at Heilongjiang University Hospital in Harbin, China. After graduating, Chloe co-founded a non-profit sliding-scale walk-in Chinese herb clinic called Urban Herbs. Running her clinic Chloe was able to dive into her study of herbs and found great joy in community outreach. When her son Remy was diagnosed with a rare and debilitating genetic disorder (STXBP1) she decided to combine the power of Chinese Herbs with high quality full spectrum hemp and co-founded Radical Roots.

Links:

Chloe's Interview with Dave Asprey on Bulletproof Radio

AHC #175: Stress & Sleep - geeking out on Chinese herbs, cannabis with Stacey Donelson, L.Ac.

Special Offer!

Use code "HealthyCuriosity" to get 20% off your first order from Radical Roots

Connect With Chloe Weber:

Remy's Revenge

Radical Roots

Instagram

Facebook

--

Learn more about working with Brodie

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off the 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Breathing Bundle collection!

Reach out to Brodie

Fibromyalgia is an incredibly complex syndrome that involves multiple, intertwined systems in the body. The collection of symptoms and expressions of fibromyalgia can often confound the conventional, allopathic medicine approach, leaving patients frustrated and disheartened.

In order to unravel that complexity, Chris Volesky has created a protocol to treat fibromyalgia that builds on itself rather than trying to treat individual symptoms and systems of the body separately. Chris shares some of the basis of his approach and how the body can begin to heal itself once we remove some of the obstacles in the way.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• The 8 presentation patterns he identified through treating hundreds of fibromyalgia patients
• What his treatment approach is like and why a lot of it is oddly simple
• One piece of common advice that helps almost all of his fibromyalgia patients
• Walking through a one minute practice that Chris recommends to everyone

Chris Volesky holds a masters in acupuncture and herbal medicine from Northwestern Health Sciences University and co-authored a fibromyalgia treatment protocol for Carolinas Healthcare System where he and his co-workers treated 100's of patients suffering with fibromyalgia. In addition to educating dozens of medical doctors on the proper treatment of chronic pain, he's worked in one of the busiest clinics in the US treating thousands of people suffering from fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, chronic pain, and fatigue. He's taught this fibromyalgia protocol to numerous doctors throughout the world and it's being used in US, Canada, Mexica, UK, China, Germany, Amsterdam, Australia. He is also the co-founder of fibrosolution.com.

Links:

Treatment of Chronic Diseases, Stage 1: The Immune System by Chris Volesky

Connect With Chris Volesky:

Website

Fibro Solution

LinkedIn

Blog

--

Learn more about working with Brodie

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off the 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Breathing Bundle collection!

Reach out to Brodie

If you're curious about trying acupuncture or know someone who may benefit from it, it can be helpful to understand some of the background science for how acupuncture works. At a high level, Mark Whalen describes it as working with patients' own internal mechanisms to heal the body.

Since our bodies are always seeking homeostasis, sometimes they just need a stimulus, like acupuncture, to draw the attention of the central nervous system to the affected areas. Mark guides us through how he views this process through a mesh of both classic and current ways of thinking about healing.

On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity:

• His path of desperation with nerve pain that led him to acupuncture
• Why treatment doesn't always involve dealing directly with pain areas
• How he explains acupuncture when a patient asks how it works
• What is happening, mechanically, when an acupuncture needle enters the body
• How effects of acupuncture can relate to the default mode network of the brain

Mark Whalen is the owner and acupuncturist at Five Points Acupuncture & Wellness. He first became interested in acupuncture while he was a patient. Facing an unwanted surgery for a nerve entrapment, Mark turned to acupuncture and not only did it resolve his issue, it changed his life.

Mark went on to graduate from the New England School of Acupuncture in 2005 with a Masters of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He is certified in Acupuncture by the Massachusetts Board of Medicine and in Herbal Medicine by the NCCAOM.

Mark believes in integrating the traditional Chinese Medical model with modern Allopathic Medicine to get the best results for his patients.

Links:

Episode 189: The Evidence for Acupuncture with Dr. Mel Hopper Koppelman

Connect With Mark Whalen:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

--

Learn more about working with Brodie

Use code "friendofthepod" for 20% off the 12 Treasures Qi Gong course or the Breathing Bundle collection!

Reach out to Brodie