Cracking Open with Molly Carroll

I have had the great blessing of witnessing people's stories over the last 30 years as a therapist and teacher. During this time, I have learned to identify various archetypes – universal models of people's personalities that play a role in influencing their human behavior. Carl Jung, who founded the field of analytical psychology, developed 12 Archetypes including The Sage, The Innocent, The Explorer, and more.

Through my own work in the field of psychology and human studies, I have identified another archetype that I named The Lighthouse. This archetype illuminates the parts of ourselves that are hidden or unseen. They shine a light on new ideas, perspectives, inspirations, and insights into human soulful experiences. The Lighthouse also teaches us how to become whole and accept all parts of ourselves by offering us new ways to process and integrate the darker experiences we have had in life, such as death, divorce, or disease.

Today’s guest on Cracking Open, Suzanne Anderson, MA, is one of the most beautiful examples of The Lighthouse I have ever come across in my life.

Suzanne is the founder of The Mysterial Woman, a psychologist, coach, leadership consultant, transformational teacher, and author of the newly released memoir & guidebook You Make Your Path By Walking. Her pioneering work in guiding women to awaken their full Feminine and Masculine strengths combines insights and practices from ancient wisdom, depth psychology, and modern neuroscience.

Combining her graduate studies in women’s developmental psychology together with her decades as a leadership consultant, Suzanne wisely guides women to awaken to the next level of consciousness and leadership capacity, making the changes in themselves they want to shape in the world.

She is an incredibly bright light, who has also learned how to navigate through immense darkness. Suzanne lost her beloved husband to suicide in 2013, and in the coming months also lost their island retreat center, her cat, her community, her company, and the future they had created together.

Suzanne shares with us how she made it through this dark night of the soul with a certainty that this was a transformation and an awakening to reclaim her power and bring her to a place of greater compassion and love.

As a Lighthouse, Suzanne shows us that when life has sent us on a deep dive into the darkness, that through practices in ancient wisdom, depth psychology, and sh*t loads of love, compassion, and support, we can rise and reawaken back into the light, more vibrant than ever before.

Love,
Molly


Learn more about Suzanne Anderson and The Mysterial Woman here
Purchase You Make Your Path By Walking here
Connect with Suzanne on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram 

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

The topic of boundaries was one of the first things I studied in my graduate school program – how to create boundaries as a therapist and how to teach and encourage clients to create their own boundaries in order to have healthier relationships and make better choices.

Regardless of where you may be in your journey with boundaries, we can all acknowledge the importance of having healthy boundaries in our lives.

Today's podcast guest, Melissa Urban, is a total boundary badass and an authority on helping people create lifelong healthy habits. She is the co-founder and CEO of Whole30, a 30-day program created to help you curb your cravings and bad habits, boost your metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and calm your immune system.

Melissa is also a seven-time New York Times bestselling author (including the instant bestseller The Book of Boundaries), has been featured by People, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNBC, and is a prominent keynote speaker on boundaries, building community, health trends, and entrepreneurship.

“Boundaries aren't selfish. They're acts of kindness, designed with love for them and you.” ~ Melissa Urban, The Book of Boundaries

In this enlightening conversation, Melissa provides us with step-by-step instructions on how to identify healthy boundaries and set and hold those boundaries so we can feel empowered, reclaim our voices, and live a more balanced lifestyle. 

She also opens up about her own Cracking Open moment of overcoming a five-year drug addiction in 2000, and how facing a childhood trauma was a huge catalyst in helping her realize the power of boundaries in staying sober and feeling more alive.

These podcast episodes always seem to show up at the perfect time in my life (can you relate??). Before I interviewed Melissa, I was struggling with some boundaries in my own life, and she helped me remember that having and holding my boundaries is actually a healthy (and necessary!) act of self-love.

I hope that today's podcast episode helps you find the courage to create and hold the boundaries you need to live your own healthy, vibrant, and joyous life.

Love,
Molly



Learn more about Melissa Urban here
Learn more about Whole30 here
Connect with Melissa on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook
Follow Whole30 on Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Facebook

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

How is your mental health these days?

In recent years, our society has grown more accustomed to discussing this very important subject. We have normalized checking in with ourselves and each other, increased our compassion for those who are struggling, and have more resources than ever available to us to educate and guide us toward improving our mental health. 

Dr. Christina Bjorndal, ND is on the Cracking Open podcast today, and she is considered an authority in treating mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders using a naturopathic physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual approach. 

Dr. Chris is not only a professional expert and doctor who has studied and researched mental illness for many years, but she also has deep personal experience with her own mental health challenges. She openly and courageously shares with us about her own struggles with bipolar disorder, depression, and multiple suicide attempts, and how she now lives a life free from suicidal ideation, using the tools from her own medical practice to successfully manage her depression and bipolar disorder with loads of compassion and love.

This episode with Dr. Chris is thoroughly relatable. Every single one of us seems to be struggling ourselves and/or knows at least one person who is. Many experts believe that we are actually in the throes of a mental health crisis. Whether from the pandemic isolation, social media, genetics, the chaotic hustle of life demands, the pressures we put on ourselves, and on and on... the struggle is real and it is all around us.

That is why I am especially grateful for Dr. Chris' presence in our community today as a modern-day lighthouse guiding us with her medical wisdom, personal storytelling, and true compassion. We could all use a Dr. Chris in our lives, leading us to a place of profound healing and radical acceptance.

May we all find healthy ways to lay our burdens down. May we all have the courage to ask for help when we need it. May we all find freedom from suffering.

Love,
Molly

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988. In emergencies, call 911, or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider.


Learn more about Dr. Christina Bjorndal here
Sign up to receive The 4Rs: Tools for Working With Difficult Thoughts here
Connect with Dr. Chris on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

Everywhere I turn, people are talking about menopause. Finally!

This phase of life that used to be ignored, or even considered shameful, is now getting its long overdue spotlight as a worthy wellness topic and normal rite of passage for women.

Oprah recently produced a special with a panel of experts on the subject of perimenopause and menopause. Naomi Watts has helped create a line of holistic beauty & wellness products for menopausal women. And Dr. Mary Claire Haver is inspiring, educating, and empowering thousands of women to navigate this stage of life with confidence by helping them create sustainable, healthy habits.

Dr. Haver is on the Cracking Open podcast today, and I am so excited to share her wisdom with you all!

She is a wife, mom, physician, and entrepreneur who has devoted her adult life to women's health. As a Board Certified OBGYN, Dr. Haver has delivered thousands of babies, completed thousands of well-woman exams, counseled patients, taught residents, and done everything an academic professor and OBGYN could do.

As her patient population aged, Dr. Haver was overwhelmed with the number of complaints and concerns her patients had with weight gain while going through menopause. For years, she told her patients to eat less and exercise more. It wasn't until she, too, experienced the changes of menopause and mid-life weight gain that she realized this advice didn't work and ultimately led to her creating and developing her online program, The Galveston Diet, which currently has over 100,000 students and helps women reach their health and wellness goals through an anti-inflammatory approach to nutrition. 

She additionally became certified in Culinary Medicine in 2019, specializing in medical nutrition, opened the Mary Claire Wellness clinic in 2021, and released the book version of The Galveston Diet in January 2023. She is a leading voice in social media in the realm of menopause education and has over 2 million TikTok followers.

In our conversation today, Dr. Haver is not only generous with her expert advice around perimenopause and menopause, but she also shares her own life experiences that have helped shape her and enabled her to compassionately relate to her clients and Galveston Diet participants.

There are many incredible women who are leading the movement around normalizing the conversations and healthcare of menopause, and I am deeply grateful to Dr. Mary Claire Haver for being a dedicated, innovative, and extraordinary champion of perimenopausal and menopausal women everywhere. 

Love, Molly

Learn more about the Galveston Diet, and purchase the book here
Connect with Dr. Mary Claire Haver on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

Life can often be so predictable. Each day I wake up, have coffee, get my kids to school, and go to work. But sometimes there are days when things happen that are completely unexpected. That sums up my experience interviewing today's podcast guest Brian Burns, and I could not be more grateful for it.

Brian Burns is the award-winning writer and Executive Producer of the hit television series Blue Bloods on CBS, HBO’s Entourage, and Will Ferrell’s hit comedy film, Daddy’s Home.

Brian has served as Executive Producer of Blue Bloods for nearly 300 episodes over a record 13 seasons, & has personally written over 50 episodes of the long-running hit police procedural.

Prior to Blue Bloods, Burns wrote and produced many seasons of Entourage on HBO, where he was nominated multiple times for an Emmy and Writer’s Guild Award.

Based on his experience as a new stepfather, Burns wrote Daddy’s Home for Will
Ferrell and Adam McKay, which went on to be one of Ferrell’s most successful box office hits.

So I predicted we would mostly talk about writing and producing TV and movies, which we did. I also figured we would spend a little bit of time discussing his incredibly tight-knit family, which consists of other career heavy-hitters like his father, Edward J Burns, an NYPD police sergeant and former Spokesman for the NYPD, and his brother Ed Burns, the well-known actor and director with whom he created the ABC sitcom That’s Life and the NBC sitcom The Fighting Fitzgerald’s starring Brian Dennehy and Connie Britton.

But our conversation held SO much more than just Hollywood and his incredible and successful creative endeavors.

In a beautifully unplanned and organic way, our conversation traveled far and wide, as all the best ones do. We discussed the death of his mentor and dear friend Rocco, his mother's passing during the pandemic, and his journey to sobriety that helped him become a better father, writer, and human being.

Brian shares intimate stories about facing the fears that were holding him back
from living an honest and (sometimes) HARD life. But it was those “hards” in life that forced him to have intimate yet difficult conversations with his loved ones, led him to start training and running marathons, and finally allowed him to get to the truth about his relationship with alcohol.

This episode is the longest interview I have released yet, and it's worth every single moment. Join us for this captivating and deeply authentic conversation filled with unexpected turns and immense hope. Our talk left me with an enormous amount of faith in the goodness of people.

We are all striving to be healthier in our bodies, minds, and spirits. And regardless of how well-known our work is, or how successful we may be in the world, we all struggle sometimes in life as we try to find ways to connect more deeply to ourselves in order to strengthen our connections to our loved ones.

May this conversation strengthen your own connections and give you hope for what's possible.

Love,
Molly


Connect with Brian on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook


Resources mentioned in this interview:

• Book: This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Lifeby Annie Grace
• Book: The Honey Badgerby Robert Ruark 

I always appreciate it when people tell the truth as they see it and don’t sugarcoat or beat around the bush. I trust that raw honesty and find myself reaching out to the truth-tellers when I need advice and support.

Liz Pryor, today’s guest on the Cracking Open podcast is one of these incredible truth-tellers.

She is the published author of two books: What Did I Do Wrong?, a book of advice on female friendship, as well as her provocative and moving memoir, Look at You Now, which promptly became a Chicago Tribune bestseller.

Liz has blessed the TEDx stage and appeared on Good Morning America as their advice guru on family and friendships. Her work has been featured in Redbook, Elle, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, and People, and she contributed to the anthology, 65 Things to Do at 65, alongside Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda.

Join Liz and me as we talk about letting go of unhealthy friendships, and how to help our kids find a better balance with their device usage. We also take a deep dive into Liz’s own “cracking open” story that held deep lessons for her around loss, motherhood, family, and friendship.

Liz lives in Los Angeles and is totally convinced that her job as a single mother to three kids has given her most of the scrappy wisdom that comes from living everyday life. I’m so glad she is here today to share that wisdom with all of us.

Love, Molly

Learn more about Liz Pryor here
Listen to Liz’s TEDx talk here
Connect with Liz on Instagram

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

For months now my team has been encouraging me to do a solo podcast episode where I talk, teach, and just riff about life, parenting, psychology, and anything else that I am inspired by that may also resonate with our listeners.
 
I initially had a lot of resistance to this idea.  Maybe it was the mixture of fear and the choir of voices telling me, “Who would want to listen to just me, and what would I talk about for an hour that would be interesting to the Cracking Open audience?”

But then my dear friend (and episode 9 podcast guest) Tory Junkin offered to interview me and I knew immediately that it was a resounding YES.

I have to tell you - this is by far the most vulnerable and honest I have ever been in public.

With Tory’s loving guidance, we talk about what I have learned from interviewing guests for 35 podcast episodes (and counting!) and how I am drawn to my guests' vulnerability but am honestly scared to show my own.

Tory asks poignant and direct questions about what I have learned as a therapist – about victimhood and being too attached to the stories that don’t serve us anymore, while also touching on the power of surrendering to true forgiveness.

As Marianne Williamson has said, “As long as I hold back forgiveness, I hold back my own healing as well.”

Join us as we discuss the ups and downs of parenting, how I still catch myself numbing out when I am in grief over the loss of my parents, how our judgmental minds can separate us from true connection, and what is inspiring me about life right now. 

Ultimately through our back-and-forth conversation, we explore the art of accepting, understanding, and processing emotions in order to experience a transformative life.

And I must say, not once during our interview did my fearful voices come in. In fact, I feel incredibly confident this is an episode that you will learn a lot about and will love listening to.

A huge thank you to my Cracking Open team for believing in me and encouraging me, and to Tory for knowing how to make me feel safe enough to walk in my truth with you all.

Love,
Molly



Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

More and more these days, I find myself drawn to people who are doing inspiring and brave things in the world but whose journeys along the way came with challenges, hardships, and “cracking open” moments that developed their characters, passions, and souls.

Today’s guest is a beautiful example of this.

Larry Zier is a father of four girls, a loving husband, and a successful owner of two occupational therapy clinics in Chicago and Omaha. His passion is working with children, and he enjoys running, biking, yoga, boxing, and anything that will get him outside. His life is full of joy, love, and success.

It wasn't always this way, however. His peace has been hard-earned.

Larry’s father died when he was in high school. This traumatic event catapulted him into a life of drinking and drugs – not only to numb the pain of losing his father but also to cope with his feelings of shame, anxiety, and loneliness.

The years of his addiction brought many wake-up calls including a party with a heroin-addicted grandson of a famous Hollywood star and getting a DUI. Finally, he forced himself to get sober, and through his journey back to sobriety, found his own voice and was finally able to face the grief of losing his father. From this space of clarity and healing came a deep calling to help children and families. 

Larry earned his clinical doctorate and became an occupational therapist to work with children in an area that is little understood and certainly underserved. He now helps children achieve their highest potential physically, emotionally, and socially. His approach is to treat each child individually, always keeping their unique strengths and differences in mind. He strongly believes in the role of family involvement, as well as collaboration with caregivers, teachers, and other professionals, as integral to a child’s growth and overall success. 

In this episode, Larry teaches us that true connection comes from learning how to regulate your nervous system. He even helps me navigate a challenging incident with my daughter in real time!

Join me as Larry helps us all realize that life (and parenting!) is truly about connection instead of compliance, teaches us how to repair when there is a rupture, and guides us toward the power of presence we all experience when we have the courage to embrace the truth in our hearts.

Love, Molly


Learn more about Larry Zier and the work he does here

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

One day, while driving home after dropping off my daughter at school, I listened to a Mel Robbins podcast interview with Dr. Russell Kennedy. He shared how he had gone to medical school to become a doctor and neuroscientist, done hundreds of hours of therapy, become a yoga and meditation teacher, traveled to India, tried medications and plant medicine, and was even a stand-up comedian! And yet through all of it, he struggled with crippling anxiety for decades. 

While listening I began crying because I felt a part of his story, was a part of my story as well. 

I am a therapist and coach, have traveled to India and met the Dalai Lama, done hundreds of hours of therapy, tried plant medicine, published two books, have spoken on two TED stages, and have been raising two kids. Although all of this has brought me great joy in my life, I have also been running my body from a place I call "anxiety adrenaline" for most of it.

Dr. Russell Kennedy, aka “The Anxiety MD”, specializes in the art and neuroscience of helping people recover from anxiety disorders. He knows anxiety from the inside out, as he developed his own anxiety disorder as a result of growing up with a dad with severe schizophrenia.

We are all so lucky to have Dr. Russ join us for today’s episode of Cracking Open. He shares his personal story of how he healed his anxiety and teaches us that anxiety is simply old trauma energy that is stuck in our body and nervous system which sets off alarms over and over again telling us that we are not safe.   

His award-winning book and audiobook, Anxiety RX, has sold more than 30,000 copies to date. Dr. Russ teaches a practical, actionable program for anxiety relief that incorporates a combination of the latest in neuroscience, with the grounding wisdom of the body, with the ultimate goal of relieving the anxious thoughts of the mind. Blending neuroscience with a more artistic approach he learned through living at a temple in India, taking psychedelics, and being a natural and gifted intuitive, Dr. Kennedy gives a unique and never-before-seen understanding of what anxiety truly is and exactly how it can be successfully treated. 

Join us as we discuss the brain, the lasting effects of unresolved childhood trauma, and how he believes deeply in non-traditional treatments for anxiety.

Over 40 million people struggle with anxiety – 1 in 5 adults and 5.6 million kids.

This is a staggering number and a lot of people who have anxiety keep it quiet due to shame and stigma.  But today we are blowing the lid wide open and shining a light where it is so desperately needed.

If you, or anyone you love, struggle with anxiety, I highly recommend you tune in to what Dr. Russ Kennedy has to say. It could be a game-changer for you like it was for me.

Love, Molly


Learn more about Dr. Russ Kennedy here
Get a copy of Anxiety, Rx here 
Connect with Dr. Russ on Instagram

Learn more about Molly Carroll here
Get your free Body Emotion Map
Connect with Molly on Instagram and Facebook

Welcome to Season 4 of the Cracking Open podcast! 

I am so excited to share with you all the wonderful guests we have lined up this season. Get ready for more incredible personal stories about cracking open moments, helpful tips and tools on how to handle the stressors of parenting, a deep look into how we can heal anxiety,  wisdom on how to live an honest and healthy life after addiction, and so much more! 

We are kicking off this new season with Linda Sivertsen, a woman whom I have admired and learned from for many years – not only as an accomplished writer, but as a mom, woman, and fellow soul seeker.

Linda always wanted to be a writer. And even though she was in the bottom third of her class academically, she had a dream one night where she saw herself as a writer of several books. That was all the encouragement that this dreamer needed to persevere through her old stories of not being good enough.

Today Linda Sivertsen is known throughout the world as "Book Mama".  She is a book proposal doctor, author whisperer, agent connector, idea-fairy, and huge-hearted cheerleader of creativity for writers of all genres–and every gold-plated publishing dream. In the past twenty-four years, she has authored & co-authored eleven books. Her titles have won awards and hit all the lists as an author, co-author, and former magazine editor and ghostwriter.

Not only is Linda a midwife of 6- & 7-figure book deals at her bi-monthly writing retreats in Carmel, but she is also the host of the top-ranked Beautiful Writers Podcast, a favorite stop for writers on tour.

Throughout all of this incredible work in the literary field, Linda's driving force has been to publish sustainably. Naïve and optimistic enough to believe in magic, she’s on a mission to save forests via her role as a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Ambassador.

Her work has been featured on CNN, E!, Extra, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the NY Post, the International Business Times, NY Post, Family Circle, Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, and on the TEDWomen stage.

Tune in to this inspiring and soul-searching conversation with Linda, as she shares with us the importance of finding your "why" in life, and how to move past your fears so you can follow your dreams. 

Love,
Molly



Learn more about Linda Siversten and her virtual and Carmel writing retreats here

Get Linda's free top tips for writing and selling your book here

Get a copy of Linda's Beautiful Writers book here  

Connect with Linda on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter

Learn more about Molly Carroll here

Get your free Body Emotion Map

Find me on Social:
Instagram
Facebook