What happens when traditional talk therapy meets the deep, physical layers of bodywork? In this episode, Ashley sits down with Erin Polley, Director of Community Engagement at The Hot Room. Erin shares her unexpected 20-year background as a community organizer and how a sudden studio renovation completely shifted her life path onto the yoga mat.

We dive deep into the world of trauma-informed somatic healing, exploring why words alone aren't always enough to process heavy emotions. We explore overcoming the fear of walking into a yoga studio for the first time and the hidden intentionality behind how a class gets taught and how studio mirrors can become a tool for deep self-connection. Plus, stick around because Erin drops a few exciting hints about some community projects and new spaces coming down the pipeline.

In the Episode:

• Wait, you did what before yoga?! Splitting from a decades-long career path into something new.

• Can you actually heal just by moving? Breaking down why talk therapy works wonders for your brain, but your physical body is still keeping score.

• The "first-class" scaries. Why walking through a studio door for the first time is genuinely terrifying, and why nobody is actually looking at you.

• Stretching more than just muscles. What the heck is "fascia" anyway, and why does quiet stillness feel so incredibly hard?

• The hidden secrets behind the teaching. The real, thoughtful reasons why your yoga teacher isn't posing at the front of the room, and why those mirrors aren't just for vanity.

• A sneak peek into what's next. Subtle hints about new locations and therapeutic community spaces that are currently in the works.

• Somatic Facilitation & Nervous System Regulation: Explore the structures of continuing education and body-based training frameworks led by seasoned trauma-informed educators via The Hot Room Yin Yoga and Meditation Training Profiles.
• Cultural Organizing & Peacebuilding: Read up on Erin's extensive prior work using arts, media, and public exhibits as non-traditional tools for social justice and civic engagement with the American Friends Service Committee.
• Clinical Value of Yoga for Inflammation & Pain: Review recent physiological studies documenting how mindfulness, specialized breathing exercises, and Yoga Nidra target sleep quality and somatic markers in rare conditions on ScienceDirect.

Connect with Our Guest

• Find schedules, locations, and events at The Hot Room Official Website.

• Follow community updates on The Hot Room Facebook Page.

Connect with Adjust: The Conversation

• Listen and subscribe on Adjust: The Conversation on Spotify or via Adjust: The Conversation on Apple Podcasts.

• To learn more about holistic mental wellness or book a clinical session, visit the Adjust Mental Health Website.

• Follow the community on facebook and Instagram at @AdjustMentalHealth and find our unique partnership offer with The Hot Room.

Episode Resources & Collaboration Offer

• Ready to try it for yourself? Our listeners can grab 3 classes for just $30 at any studio location! Access the sign-up page directly by clicking the Adjust the Conversation Collaboration Link. Take this offer to your nearest studio—whether you practice at The Hot Room Downtown Indianapolis, Fishers, Bloomington, or are waiting for the brand-new Zionsville Location.

Episode Description

Welcome to our official introduction to holistic wellness. What does the word "holistic" actually mean when you take it off your social media feed and drop it into real life? In this episode, Ashley and Marcella set the foundation for this series by breaking down the true, interconnected framework of mind, body, and spirit. We look at wellness as a collaborative round table where your environment, your relationships, and your history all deserve an equal seat.

We dive deep into a frustration so many of us experience: doing all the mental insight work, yet still feeling completely paralyzed and stuck. We explore the biology behind a physical shutdown, the power of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and how mapping out our inner "parts" can help us navigate real-world barriers without judgment. From the stress-busting habits of ancient hunter-gatherers to the literal nervous system resets of modern movement, this episode is your baseline guide to shifting your biology back into peace. Plus, we talk about the clinical importance of play, puppy yoga tangents, and a studio collaboration offer you won't want to miss.

Inside This Episode:

• The TikTok-ification of health. What does an all-parts-included definition of wellness actually look like?

• The "I know what to do, so why aren't I doing it?" trap. Navigating sensory overload, executive dysfunction, and why your brain suddenly shuts down.

• Re-evaluating the nervous system. A highly conversational look at biology, modern threats, and what the science says about getting unstuck.

• Relying on the village. Why we are fundamentally social beings who need built-in accountability and reliable support systems to form real habits.

• Focusing on the "after" feeling. Why nobody actually likes the grueling process of a workout, and how to reframe your goals around the joy of play.

• A massive mind-body hack. A special, podcast-exclusive milestone announcement to help you test out these foundational theories in real life.

• Therapeutic Framework (ACT): Dive deeper into the core principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy .
• Nervous System Science: Explore Dr. Stephen Porges’ groundbreaking research on autonomic regulation, physical trauma response, and modern stressors.
• Internal Family Systems (IFS): Learn how to map out internal parts, identify inner protectors, and step into self-leadership via the IFS Institute. 
• The Literature: Pick up a copy of Jonathan Van Ness's book, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, on self-reflection and embracing your unique journey

Connect with Adjust: The Conversation

• Listen and subscribe on Adjust: The Conversation on Spotify or via Adjust: The Conversation on Apple Podcasts.

• To learn more about holistic mental wellness or book a clinical session, visit the Adjust Mental Health Website.

• Follow the community on Instagram at @AdjustMentalHealth.

Episode Resources & Collaboration Offer

• Ready to bridge the gap? Our listeners can grab a special introductory rate of 3 classes for just $30 !! Access the sign-up page directly by clicking our Adjust the Conversation Collaboration Link on our website or socials. Take this offer to your nearest studio and try it out, whether you want to experience a quiet recovery class or try a high-heat sweat session.

  Check out their website at https://thehotroom.com/

  
  

Last episode, we learned stress isn't the villain. It's your body's alarm system, doing exactly what it was built to do. So in Part 2, we get into the actual tools to shut that alarm off. Because here's the catch: your nervous system is still running ancient software, waiting for an "all-clear" signal that modern life never quite sends. The stress just… stays.

We walk through the surprisingly simple, occasionally ridiculous ways to send that signal yourself: cold water and the diving reflex, breathwork, the vagus nerve, your window of tolerance, and using your values as home base. Some of it sounds strange. All of it could work.

• Why your body never gets the "all-clear" — the stress that outlasts the stressor

• Completing the stress cycle through movement, not just problem-solving

• Cold water & the diving reflex (a DBT "TIPP" skill)

• Breathwork, including Wim Hof–style breathing

• The vagus nerve & the tongue-out trick

• Yin yoga for down-regulating

• Your "window of tolerance" and why it shifts day to day

• Using your values as home base when stress knocks you off center

RESOURCES & REFERENCES

Books

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle — Emily Nagoski, PhD & Amelia Nagoski, DMA. The source for the stressor-vs-stress-response distinction and "completing the stress cycle." — https://www.burnoutbook.net/

Assessments

• Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory (Social Readjustment Rating Scale): classic "stressful life events" self-assessment, hosted by the American Institute of Stress. — https://www.stress.org/self-assessments/holmes-rahe-life-stress-inventory/ (Note: it's a well-known tool but a dated one. Some items are decades old and the exact rankings are debated. Use it as a rough check, not official. This is the STRESS scale ).

Techniques mentioned

• TIPP skills (DBT) Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Paired muscle relaxation. The "cold water on the face" trick works via the diving reflex.

• Wim Hof Method The breathing technique referenced.

• Vagus nerve / tongue-out trick: Stick out the tongue and sigh like a lion.

• Window of tolerance The zone where you can handle stress and stay regulated (Dr. Dan Siegel). Too low, shut down. Too high, overwhelmed.

• Values as "home base" Anchoring to your values when stress pulls you off center.

  
  

Hosted by Ashley Gallaway, LMHC & Marcella McAree, LMHCA. Produced by Ashley Gallaway.

From our brains to yours — this is Adjust the Conversation.

Everyone says, "Just relax." Has that ever actually worked? In Part 1 of our stress series, we argue that stress isn't the villain—it's an alarm. We discuss good stress versus bad stress, your window of tolerance, the "smoke detector" in your brain that can't distinguish burnt toast from a house fire, and one genuinely wild fact about what your stress sweat does behind your back.
Your challenge: find us on Instagram @adjustmentalhealth and tell us who your stress really is. If your stress were a villain, who would it be? A Voldemort? A slow, polite email? A Loki who swears he's helping? Cast it. We're building a rogues' gallery.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES:
Cleveland Clinic — Apocrine Sweat Glands — https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/apocrine-glands
Seed — The Science of Sweat, Smells, and the Skin Microbiome — https://seed.com/cultured/sweat-and-the-skin-microbiome/
StatPearls (NCBI) — Anatomy, Skin, Sudoriferous Gland — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513244/
Vanderbilt / Lacy Lab — Microbial Origins of Body Odor — https://www.vumc.org/lacy-lab/adventure-travel-guide-microbial-world/microbial-origins-body-odor
PLOS One (2009) — Chemosensory Cues to Conspecific Emotional Stress Activate Amygdala in Humans — https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006415
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Adrian Pimento — "I can be happy?")
Loki / the TVA (stress as a villain with a "glorious purpose")

Existentialism gets a reputation for being bleak French men in turtlenecks declaring that nothing matters. So we sat down to actually think it through, out loud, in real time. You weren't built for a purpose the way a knife is built to cut. You show up first, and then you decide what you're for.

Sartre called it "existence precedes essence," and it sounds freeing right up until 3am, when that same thought wakes you up asking what the point of any of this even is. We get into why that's not nihilism, what Camus meant when he told us to imagine Sisyphus chained forever to his boulder happy, and how all of it shows up in the therapy room. 

Resources

1. Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1946) — Beacon Press. Survived the camps, built logotherapy around meaning as the primary human drive. The warm, human entry point.
2. Irvin Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy (1980) — Basic Books. Names the four "ultimate concerns": death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness. Philosophy turned into therapy.
3. Rollo May, The Discovery of Being (1983) — W.W. Norton. Reframes anxiety not as a symptom to kill but as a signal of being alive and facing real choices.

Grief part two is here, and this time it's personal. Ashley and Marcella pull back the curtain and share their own grief experiences — from sudden loss and unresolved anger to suicide loss and the grief nobody talks about. They break down the dual process model, explore what community grieving actually looks like, and discuss the kinds of loss society still doesn't take seriously—including body grief, disenfranchised grief, and the grief that comes with loving someone through a crisis. If you've ever felt stuck, ashamed of how you're grieving, or like you should be over it by now—this one's for you. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988.Listener Story Submissions — ⁠[email protected]⁠Links: Kübler-Ross Wave Graph — ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/change-curve/

HABRI/Zoetis International Pet Owner Survey — https://habri.org/international-hab-survey/

Wortman & Silver (1989) — Myths of Coping with Loss — https://www.aldacenter.org/commcms/psychology/_pdfs/social_health/_camille_wortman/Wortman%20and%20Silver%201989%20article.pdf

DSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder criteria — https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/fact-sheet/draft_criteria_for_dam-5-tr_prolonged_grief_disorder_12-06-2019_submitted_for_public_commentary.pdf

Doka — Disenfranchised Grief — https://thelossfoundation.org/stages-of-grief/disenfranchised-grief-kenneth-doka-overview/?v=0b3b97fa6688

GriefShare — griefshare.org

Bonanno's Resilience Model of Grief : thelossfoundation.orgBook: The Other Side of Sadness — George A. Bonanno  

Grief has never had one face — so why do we keep acting like it should? In part one, we break down the models, the myths, and the types of grief that don't always get a name.

Links: 

Kübler-Ross Wave Graph — ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/change-curve/Listener Story Submissions — [email protected]HABRI/Zoetis International Pet Owner Survey — https://habri.org/international-hab-survey/Wortman & Silver (1989) — Myths of Coping with Loss — https://www.aldacenter.org/commcms/psychology/_pdfs/social_health/_camille_wortman/Wortman%20and%20Silver%201989%20article.pdfDSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder criteria — https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/fact-sheet/draft_criteria_for_dam-5-tr_prolonged_grief_disorder_12-06-2019_submitted_for_public_commentary.pdf

Doka — Disenfranchised Grief — https://thelossfoundation.org/stages-of-grief/disenfranchised-grief-kenneth-doka-overview/?v=0b3b97fa6688

GriefShare — griefshare.org

In this episode, we dive into the emotions behind “Panic” — the racing thoughts, inner pressure, and quiet moments that often go unseen. A raw and atmospheric experience about anxiety, survival, and trying to regain control when everything feels too loud.

Panic Disorders - Harvard Health

The Science of Anxiety (Infographic) | Northwestern Medicine

Salk scientists uncover key brain pathway mediating panic disorder symptoms - Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Panic Disorder

What if the way we’ve been taught to chase happiness is actually what’s keeping us stuck? In this episode, we explore the constant pressure to “keep up,” achieve more, and stay on the never-ending train of expectations. But what happens when you step off? Join us as we unpack what it really means to redefine happiness, slow down, and choose a life that feels aligned instead of just accomplished.

The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness - PubMed
The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness 
Harvard study: How much money millionaires need to be happy.
What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness | Robert Waldinger | TED
https://youtu.be/8KkKuTCFvzI?si=w5giYvcbeIVgbjAd
A Systematic Review of Inter-Brain Synchrony and Psychological Conditions: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Autism and Other Disorders - PMC
Value Sort — The Good Project
https://livingoutoffocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Fill-Your-Cup-Worksheet.pdf

Can you imagine waking up during an operation?! Tune in to listen this experience and learn tips and tricks about sleep!