Born without a choice

Leslie Draffin joins Born Without a Choice for a conversation about nervous-system regulation, trauma, self-trust, embodiment, anxiety, and finding your way back to yourself.

A trauma-informed somatic practitioner and former television news anchor, Leslie spent 15 years building a successful career while privately navigating anxiety and chronic stress. Her own experience eventually led her toward somatic practices, ritual, and a deeper understanding of the connection between the body and emotional wellbeing.

Today, Leslie works at the intersection of somatic science and modern ritual, helping people reconnect with their bodies, emotional awareness, and inner sense of direction—especially during periods of overwhelm and major life transition.

The conversation explores what survival mode can look like in everyday life, why the body can communicate what the mind overlooks, how self-trust develops, and what it really means to “come home to yourself.”

📬 Guest Details

• Name: Leslie Draffin
• Roles: Trauma-Informed Somatic Practitioner | Former Television News Anchor
• Website/Resource: SHIFT — lesliedraffin.myflodesk.com/shift
• Background: 15 years as a television news anchor
• Method: SHIFT Method — a nervous-system reset designed to help people pause, reconnect with their bodies, and create space for greater clarity
• Key Themes: Nervous-system regulation, somatic practices, trauma, anxiety, embodiment, self-trust, emotional awareness, life transitions
• Focus: Helping people reconnect with their bodies, develop self-trust, navigate overwhelm, and move toward more intentional living

Marit Welker joins Born Without a Choice for an honest conversation about family estrangement, motherhood, forgiveness, faith, healing, and the complicated path toward reconciliation.

A coach, speaker, and podcaster, Marit works with Christian mothers experiencing estrangement from their adult children. Her perspective is deeply personal: she has experienced estrangement from both sides, first as the child who walked away from a parent and later as the parent whose own adult child walked away.

Marit also shares how major life challenges—including cancer, chronic illness, chronic pain, a mild traumatic brain injury, and financial difficulties—shaped her understanding of resilience, personal responsibility, and faith.

The conversation explores what parents can control when an adult child chooses distance, how forgiveness can exist alongside unresolved hurt, the difference between boundaries and avoidance, and how to remain open to healing without putting your entire life on hold.

📬 Guest Details

• Name: Marit Welker
• Roles: Coach | Speaker | Podcaster
• Focus: Family estrangement, motherhood, forgiveness, faith, healing, and reconciliation
• Audience: Christian mothers experiencing estrangement from their adult children
• Website: MaritWelker.com
• Additional Website: RejectedChristianMomsCoach.com
• Program: Five-Day Challenge for mothers experiencing estrangement
• Key Themes: Adult-child estrangement, forgiveness, boundaries, reconciliation, personal responsibility, resilience, Christian faith, healing, personal growth
• Personal Perspective: Experienced estrangement from both the child and parent perspectives

Carrie Davidson joins Born Without a Choice for a powerful conversation about complex trauma, addiction, survival responses, healing, and the journey toward intentional living.

A registered nurse, CPTSD survivor, trauma-informed coach, and author of Addicted to Trauma: A Memoir of CPTSD, Addiction, and Taking My Life Back, Carrie brings both professional knowledge and lived experience to the conversation.

After years of navigating addiction, trauma, domestic violence, narcissistic abuse, and misdiagnosis, Carrie began understanding how the nervous system and survival responses had shaped her life. That understanding became a turning point in her healing journey.

Carrie now shares the Conscious Creation Method, a five-stage framework designed to help people recognize automatic survival patterns and move toward more intentional choices, identity, and living.

📬 Guest Details

• Name: Carrie Davidson
• Roles: Registered Nurse | CPTSD Survivor | Trauma-Informed Coach | Author
• Book: Addicted to Trauma: A Memoir of CPTSD, Addiction, and Taking My Life Back
• Website: carriepdavidson.com
• Memoir: carriepdavidson.com/memoir
• Framework: Conscious Creation Method
• Key Themes: Complex trauma, CPTSD, addiction, nervous system responses, survival mode, healing, identity, intentional living, trauma-informed coaching
• Focus: Helping people understand survival patterns, reclaim their identity, and move from automatic reactions toward more intentional living

Nancy Jasin Ensley joins Born Without a Choice for a conversation about faith, family, service, memory, and the stories that shape who we become.

An author, legal nurse consultant, hospice specialist, teacher, and lifelong storyteller, Nancy has spent her life working alongside people during some of their most vulnerable moments. Those experiences have shaped the way she sees resilience, compassion, relationships, and the human experience.

Nancy writes across a remarkable range of genres, including memoir, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, thriller, action and adventure, and children’s literature. For her, writing is more than creating stories—it is a way of listening, remembering, and making sense of life.

With a family that includes her husband, John, five children, and fourteen grandchildren, Nancy reflects on how faith, family, service, and a lifetime of experiences continue to influence the stories she tells and the legacy she hopes to leave behind.

📬 Guest Details

• Name: Nancy Jasin Ensley
• Roles: Author | Legal Nurse Consultant | Hospice Specialist | Teacher
• Website: nancyjasinensley.com
• Genres: Memoir, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, thriller, action & adventure, children’s literature
• Professional Background: Nursing, hospice care, legal nursing, coding, teaching, and supervision
• Key Themes: Faith, family, service, resilience, compassion, memory, storytelling, human nature
• Family: Husband John, five children, and fourteen grandchildren
• Writing Philosophy: Writing as a way to listen, remember, understand, and preserve meaningful experiences

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, Vicz sits down with Savio P. Clemente, keynote and TEDx speaker, journalist, board-certified health and wellness coach, and bestselling author, to explore what happens when life changes in ways we never planned for.

Savio shares insights shaped by more than 2,000 interviews with leaders, experts, and thought leaders, as well as his own experiences navigating major disruption. His work focuses on what prolonged pressure can do to clarity, decision-making, identity, and human performance.

The conversation explores adaptive resilience, rebuilding identity after disruption, making decisions under pressure, and why the period after a crisis can be just as important as the crisis itself. Savio also discusses his A.L.O.H.A. Reboot and the importance of acknowledging where you are before trying to move forward.

Ultimately, resilience may not mean returning to exactly who you were before something changed. Sometimes, it means learning how to move forward as someone new.

📬 Guest Details

Savio P. ClementeKeynote & TEDx Speaker | Journalist | Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach | Bestselling Author

Newsletter: The Human ResolveWebsite: thehumanresolve.substack.com

Sedric Horn joins Born Without a Choice for a deeply personal conversation about childhood, family dysfunction, identity, resilience, and finding a way forward after difficult beginnings.

As one of the authors of The Land of Four Seasons, a semi-autobiographical series inspired by his and his sister’s childhood experiences, Sedric explores what happens when young people grow up in circumstances they never chose—and how those experiences can shape identity, relationships, and adulthood.

We discuss sibling bonds, breaking inherited patterns, turning painful experiences into something meaningful, and the possibility of building a different future.

This episode asks an important question: Can the circumstances we were born into shape us without having to define who we ultimately become?

👤 Guest Contact Details

Sedric HornCo-author of The Land of Four Seasons series

Book: The Land of Four SeasonsCo-author: Amber Horn

Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, and sometimes the everyday responsibilities of raising children can leave parents feeling like they’re simply trying to survive the day.

In this episode of Born Without a Choice, Vicz sits down with Craig Parks, a camp director, children’s musician, family entertainer, parenting educator, and proud father of two. Craig shares what decades of working with children—and his own experience as a parent—have taught him about connection, creativity, play, and meaningful family experiences.

They explore Craig’s A to E Parenting approach, why parents can easily fall into survival mode, and how ordinary moments can become some of the memories children carry with them for years.

This conversation is a reminder that parenting doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful. Sometimes, the most important thing a parent can give a child is simply their presence, attention, laughter, and willingness to make everyday life a little more memorable.

📬 Guest Contact Details

Guest: Craig Parks
Role: Camp Director, Children’s Musician, Family Entertainer & Parenting Educator
Website: Parenting Harmony — www.parentingharmony.com
Work: A to E Parenting, family connection, parenting education, children’s music and entertainment
Experience: Decades of working with children and training adults; father of two
Additional: Creator of Parks Party Central with his daughter
Focus: Parenting, creativity, connection, reducing parenting stress, family memories, play, and creating meaningful experiences with children

Sedric Horn joins Born Without a Choice for a deeply personal conversation about childhood, family dysfunction, identity, resilience, and finding a way forward after difficult beginnings.

As one of the authors of The Land of Four Seasons, a semi-autobiographical series inspired by his and his sister’s childhood experiences, Sedric explores what happens when young people grow up in circumstances they never chose—and how those experiences can shape identity, relationships, and adulthood.

We discuss sibling bonds, breaking inherited patterns, turning painful experiences into something meaningful, and the possibility of building a different future.

This episode asks an important question: Can the circumstances we were born into shape us without having to define who we ultimately become?

👤 Guest Contact Details

Sedric Horn
Co-author of The Land of Four Seasons series

Book: The Land of Four Seasons
Co-author: Amber Horn

Tara Collins joins Born Without a Choice for a conversation about creativity, career choices, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, family, and adapting to a rapidly changing world.

With more than 25 years in the creative industry, Tara has worked in both agency and corporate environments, helped build two agencies, and now mentors creatives and founders. We explore the changing role of creativity in the age of AI, what makes human creativity valuable, building a sustainable creative career, balancing work and family, and how unexpected experiences can shape the way we approach life and creativity.

This episode asks: In a world increasingly shaped by technology, how do we continue to create, adapt, and remain connected to what makes us human?

👤 Guest Contact Details

Tara Collins
Creative Director | Marketer | Agency Owner | Mentor

LinkedIn:
Tara Collins on LinkedIn⁠

Anthony Silard joins Born Without a Choice for a powerful conversation about emotional pain, forgiveness, loneliness, relationships, and learning to lead ourselves from within.

As a professor of leadership and organizational psychology, researcher, coach, and author of Love and Suffering, Anthony explores how resentment, judgment, unresolved emotions, and loneliness can affect the way we connect with others. We talk about forgiveness, turning difficult experiences into opportunities for growth, building meaningful relationships, and becoming the leader of our own emotional lives.

This episode asks an important question: We may not have chosen everything we experienced—but what do we choose to carry forward?

👤 Guest Contact Details

Anthony Silard
Professor of Leadership & Organizational Psychology
Director, Center for Sustainable Leadership, Luiss Business School
Author of Love and Suffering

Website: The Art of Living Free
theartoflivingfree.org⁠

Free Books:
Get Anthony’s Free Books⁠

Book: Love and Suffering: Break the Emotional Chains That Prevent You From Experiencing Love