What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

What if trying to keep the peace in your marriage is actually creating more resentment?

And what if “fighting for your marriage” has slowly turned into losing yourself just to keep everyone else happy?

In Part 1 of this raw and honest conversation, Anita Sandoval, LPC-S sits down with marriage coach Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi, host of The Married and Connected Podcast and founder of Recognizing Potential Coaching.

Kam brings both professional training and lived experience to this conversation. We talk about marriage, divorce, reconciliation, childhood patterns, people-pleasing, resentment, boundaries, and what happens when one person begins carrying too much of the emotional and practical responsibility in a relationship.

💬 In This Episode

We talk about:

•  Why rebuilding a relationship may require looking at your own patterns first
•  How childhood and generational patterns follow us into our relationships 
•  What happens when you continually say yes when you really want to say no
•  People-pleasing, overfunctioning, and resentment in marriage 
•  Supporting your partner vs. mothering your partner
•  Why you don't have to take responsibility for your partner's emotions 
•  Learning to let another adult handle their own responsibilities 
•  Self-respect, boundaries, and learning to tolerate someone else's discomfort 
•  How to love someone without completely losing yourself 

And Kam gives us one line you probably won't forget:

“If you want me to be your lover, I cannot be your mother.”

⚾ This Conversation Isn't Over...

We're stopping Part 1 right before Kam introduces something she teaches couples called her Marriage Baseball System.

In Part 2, we're talking about:

Emotional Safety → Connection → Emotional Intimacy → Physical Intimacy

And we're asking an important question:

What if what you think is a communication problem is actually an emotional safety problem?

Watch for Part 2 of my conversation with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi.

Kameran Al-Areqi has a BS in Elementary Education and is a marriage coach, host of The Married and Connected Podcast, and founder of Recognizing Potential Coaching.

Her training includes Gottman Level 1, Younique Life Design, and SYMBIS. Through her coaching work, Kam helps monogamous couples strengthen their marriages, deepen connection, improve communication, and develop tools for creating the healthy relationships they envision.

Connect With Kam

🌐 Recognizing Potential Coaching

📸 Instagram — Married & Connected

▶️ YouTube — Married & Connected

💙 Facebook Community

💼 Connect with Kameran on LinkedIn

If you're the one who is always doing, fixing, helping, accommodating, keeping the peace, or worrying about everyone else's feelings, you may be carrying more than you realize.

Get my FREE Why Am I So Tired? Checklist to start identifying what's leaving you exhausted, overwhelmed, and carrying too much. 

💜 Get the FREE Why Am I So Tired? Checklist

Want more conversations like this between podcast episodes?

Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy is my weekly therapist insight straight to your inbox—relationship patterns, healing conversations, people-pleasing, boundaries, and real talk for women learning to stop people-pleasing and start living authentically. 

☕ Subscribe to Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy

Want to continue exploring people-pleasing, relationships, boundaries, self-worth, and healing?

You can find Empowering Women in Conversations on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and Buzzsprout. 

🎙️ Listen to Empowering Women in Conversations

Episodes to Listen to Next:

🎙️ The 12 Steps to Reclaim Your Power and Stop People Pleasing

🎙️ Running on Empty: How to Reclaim Your Energy and Stop People Pleasing

🎙️ The Stress of Finding Mr. Right and Getting Rid of Mr. Wrong

Hosted by Anita Sandoval, LPC-S
Empowering Women in Conversations

EmpowerHer Pathways | From People-Pleasing to Personal Power

💜 Empowered • Resilient • Authentic

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

What if confidence wasn't something you found...

...but something you built?

In Part 2 of this empowering conversation, I sit down with Julie DeLucca-Collins to explore what it really means to stop waiting for validation and start choosing yourself.

Together, we talk about identity, self-worth, community, tiny habits, and why confidence isn't about being fearless—it's about taking one small step forward, even when it's uncomfortable.

If you've ever questioned your worth, felt behind in life, or wondered if it's too late to start over, this episode is for you.

💛 In This Episode, We Discuss:

✨ Why nobody else gets to define who you are

✨ How to stop abandoning yourself to earn acceptance

✨ The power of community and "believing mirrors"

✨ Why tiny habits create lasting confidence

✨ How celebrating small wins rewires your brain

✨ Learning to give yourself grace instead of criticism

✨ Why your past doesn't determine your future

✨ One simple practice that helps you stay connected to your values and purpose

🎧 Connect with Our Guest

Julie DeLucca-Collins is a TEDx Speaker, bestselling author, business strategist, and Certified Tiny Habits Coach who helps women build confidence, create meaningful businesses, and lead with purpose. Through coaching, speaking, and podcasting, she empowers women to stop playing small and confidently step into the lives they're meant to live. 

🌐 Learn more:
 Go Confidently Coaching

Follow Julie:

• Instagram: @julie_deluccacollins

• LinkedIn: Julie DeLucca-Collins

• YouTube: @JulieDeLuccaCollins

🎙 Listen to Julie's podcast:
 Casa De Confidence — inspiring conversations on confidence, leadership, and personal growth. 

🎁 FREE Confidence Reset Guide

Ready to stop waiting to feel confident?

Download my FREE Confidence Reset Guide and take your first small step toward radical self-trust.

💜 https://www.anitasandoval.com/the-confidence-reset

🎙 Love This Conversation?

Be sure to explore previous episodes of Empowering Women in Conversations, where we discuss:

• Healing from people-pleasing

• Building healthy boundaries

• Recovering from toxic relationships

• Trauma recovery

• Identity and self-worth

• Confidence and emotional healing

💌 Don't Miss the Next Episode

Join my free newsletter, Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy, to receive:

✔️ New podcast episodes

✔️ Exclusive worksheets and free resources

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Subscribe here:

💜Newsletter: ☕ Therapist Tea:Things I Notice in Therapy

⭐ If this episode encouraged you...

Please leave a review, share it with a friend, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Remember...

You don't have to be chosen.

You can choose yourself. 💜

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

February is often about love and relationships — but it can also surface pressure around being chosen and feeling “enough.”

In this episode, I sit down with bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and business strategist Julie DeLucca-Collins to break down one of the biggest myths women believe about confidence.

Most women think confidence is a feeling.

It’s not.

We talk about:

• Why waiting to “feel ready” keeps you stuck
 • The cultural programming that tells women they must be chosen
 • How comparison steals momentum
 • Why confidence is built from evidence — not emotion
 • And what it really means to stay in your own lane

If you’ve ever questioned your worth, felt behind, or struggled with people-pleasing and self-doubt — this conversation will shift your perspective.

Part 1 challenges the myth.

Part 2 shows you how to rebuild confidence in real life through radical self-trust and identity work.

🎧 Listen in.

Stop Waiting to Be Chosen.

Get a quick win.

Download the free Confidence Reset guide.

You will:

• Pick one action
 • Do it today
 • End the day with proof you can trust yourself

And that’s how confidence starts.

👉 https://www.anitasandoval.com/the-confidence-reset

Connect with Julie

Julie DeLucca-Collins is a TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and business strategist helping women build confidence and visibility in midlife.

🌐 Learn More & Connect with Julie

Website:
 https://GoConfidentlyCoaching.com

Email:
 [email protected]

LinkedIn:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/goconfidentlyjulie/

Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/julie_deluccacollins/

Facebook:
 https://www.facebook.com/jdelucca

YouTube:
 https://www.youtube.com/@JulieDeLuccaCollins

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

In this 

🌷 Inspirational Resource — Welcome to Holland

A deeply meaningful poem that reframes the unexpected paths of life and parenting with beauty and acceptance:
 👉 https://www.emilyperlkingsley.com/welcome-to-holland

🎧 Healing Support — Nervous System Meditations & Music

EmpowerHer Pathways: Healing Between the Beats
Music & nervous system meditations designed for emotional release, regulation, and recovery — especially helpful if you struggle with emotional overwhelm or people-pleasing patterns:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTzhfGIpKuH1ZqoapUzt1iO76d1zidF8X

💛 If you can’t afford counseling or coaching

Ready to grow with focused and affordable support?
 Join our Online Mini Power Sessions — short, practical, empowering sessions to help you build confidence, resilience, and advocacy skills:
👉 https://www.anitasandoval.com/empowermentsessions

✨ Remember

Parenting isn’t about being perfect —
 it’s about learning, growing, and equipping your child to thrive when you’re not there.

Thank you for listening, for showing up, and for choosing empowerment —
 one breath, one decision, one moment at a time.

💛 With love and commitment,
 Anita Sandoval

Stay empowered.
 Speak without apology.

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

What if helping your child is actually teaching them to stay quiet, comply, and people-please authority figures?

In Part Two of this powerful series, Anita Sandoval, LPC, and Gladys Cortez, LPC-S, unpack the uncomfortable truth many parents never realize: over-protection and misdirected advocacy can silence a child’s voice instead of empowering it.

This episode dives deep into IEPs, 504 plans, ADA rights, neurodivergence, and developmental readiness, revealing how well-intentioned parents may accidentally place adult-level responsibility on children whose brains are still developing.

If you’ve ever wondered:

• Why your child won’t ask for help
• Why accommodations exist but aren’t used
• Why “good parenting” sometimes creates anxious, compliant adults

👉 This episode is for you.

🎧 Watch or listen now — because advocacy should build confidence, not compliance.

🔥 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

✔️ Why including children in advocacy matters more than speaking for them
✔️ How schools can unintentionally manipulate accommodations by placing decisions on kids
✔️ Why children cannot always identify or verbalize overwhelm — and why that’s normal
✔️ The hidden danger of telling kids to “just ask for help”
✔️ How people-pleasing behaviors start in childhood
✔️ The real difference between IEPs vs. 504 plans (and why it matters long-term)
✔️ How ADA rights extend into college, work, and adulthood
✔️ Why protection without empowerment creates fear, anxiety, and compliance
✔️ What parents should advocate for themselves vs. what kids can learn over time
✔️ How to raise a child who knows their rights without shame or pressure

🎧 Listen on your favorite platform: 

https://www.anitasandoval.com/podcast-directories

🌿 Join the EmpowerHer Community + access meditation relief resources:

https://www.anitasandoval.com/empowerher/links

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

In this powerful Part 1 conversation, Empowering Women in Conversations host Anita Sandoval, LPC, is joined by Gladys A. Cortez, MS, LPC-S, RPT, CRC, TF-CBT, EMDR-Trained, to explore the hidden cost of people-pleasing in parenting — especially when advocating for neurodivergent children within school systems.

Many parents stay quiet in IEP, ARD, and 504 meetings because they don’t want to be labeled “difficult,” “emotional,” or “that parent.” But what happens when silence costs a child the support they are legally entitled to?

In this episode, Anita and Gladys unpack how people-pleasing shows up in advocacy, why guilt and fear keep parents silent, and how education — not confrontation — is the foundation of effective advocacy. This conversation centers on shifting from emotional reactivity to informed, values-based advocacy that protects children and empowers families.

This episode is especially for:

• Parents navigating IEP, ARD, or 504 meetings
• People-pleasers who struggle to speak up in systems of authority
• Families raising neurodivergent children
• Parents wanting to model healthy self-advocacy for their children

✨ In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why people-pleasing can unintentionally harm children
• The difference between emotional reactivity and effective advocacy
• How guilt, fear, and social conditioning silence parents
• Why advocacy is rooted in education, not confrontation
• How knowing your rights changes the power dynamic in school systems
• Why advocacy is about long-term impact — not short-term comfort

🔹 Key Takeaways:

• Advocacy is not being difficult — it’s being responsible
• Silence protects systems, not children
• Parents are the experts on their children
• Education builds bridges; avoidance builds barriers

👩‍⚕️ Meet Our Guest: Gladys A. Cortez, MS, LPC-S, RPT, CRC, TF-CBT, EMDR-Trained

Gladys Cortez is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Council-Approved Supervisor in Texas, and is also licensed in Missouri. She is a Registered Play Therapist, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy provider, Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist, and EMDR-trained therapist.

Gladys currently serves as Chair of the South Texas Chapter of the Texas Association for Play Therapy and is an active member of:

• UMOS Mental Health Advisory Board
• DECODE IT Community Advisory Board
• Community Inclusion Task Force
• American Counseling Association

With nearly 13 years of service on the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, including 10 years as Chair of the Project Development Committee, Gladys brings extensive experience in advocacy, training, and family support. She has led workshops on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parenting skills, and has supported families through ARD and school advocacy processes.

Beyond her professional work, Gladys is a devoted wife of nearly 20 years and a mother of two teenagers. She is deeply passionate about empowering individuals and families with diverse needs.

🏢 Practice Information

Cortez & Associates Counseling Services LLC
📞 Phone: 956-507-0035
📧 Email: [email protected]

▶️ Up Next — Part 2

In Part 2, the conversation continues into:

• Advocacy for teens and young adults
• College accommodations and workplace protections
• Why silence later can cost even more

You’re not alone in this. If you’re a parent navigating advocacy and people-pleasing, come join our EmpowerHer community where these conversations continue.

https://www.anitasandoval.com/empowerher/links

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

🎙️ Stop Calling It Love: The 7 Toxic Traps That Keep Women Stuck

How to Know When to Mend a Relationship — or Walk Away

Guest: Kate King, MA, LPC, ATR-BC
Licensed Professional Counselor | Board-Certified Art Therapist
Founder of The Radiant Life Project

🌿 Episode Overview

In this powerful episode of Empowering Women in Conversations, Anita Sandoval sits down with therapist and author Kate King to explore why so many women stay in unhealthy relationships — and how to know when it’s time to mend or move on.

Kate breaks down the 7 Toxic Traps that keep women stuck, including people-pleasing, trauma bonding, codependency, and emotional avoidance. Together, they explore how to recognize misalignment vs. toxicity, why “being nice” isn’t the same as being healthy, and how to reclaim your voice and autonomy.

This episode is especially meaningful for women who feel exhausted, emotionally overextended, or unsure why they keep repeating the same relationship patterns.

📘 Featured Book

Mend or Move On: A Guide to Healing or Leaving Toxic Relationships
By Kate King, MA, LPC, ATR-BC

👉 Order here:
🔗 Mend or Move On: A Guide to Healing or Leaving Toxic Relationships

(Affiliate link — thank you for supporting the show.)

🌐 Connect with Kate King

🔹 Website: https://www.TheRadiantLifeProject.com

🔹 Email: [email protected]

🔹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theradiantlifeproject/

🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theradiantlifeproject/

🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRadiantLifeProject/

🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxGCo2H8iWIReg8X6ADubg

🔹 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theradiantlifeproject

💬 Final Thought

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Why do I stay?” — this episode will help you find clarity, courage, and compassion for your next step.

🎧 Listen now and start choosing yourself.

🌸 Join the EmpowerHer Community

If this episode resonated with you and you’re ready to stop people-pleasing, set healthier boundaries, and build empowered relationships, come join us inside the EmpowerHer Community.

✨ A supportive space for women healing from toxic patterns
 ✨ Weekly guidance, tools, and conversations
 ✨ A place to grow, reflect, and reconnect with yourself

👉 Join the EmpowerHer Community

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

What if the very love you’re giving is the thing keeping you stuck?

In this powerful episode of Empowering Women in Conversations, host Anita Sandoval, LPC, sits down with Dr. Eluterio Blanco, Jr., Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and Nationally Certified Master Addiction Counselor, to unpack one of the most dangerous myths women believe:

“If I love them enough, they’ll change.”

Together, we explore how addiction isn’t just about substances—it’s about compulsive behavior, loss of choice, and continuing patterns despite negative consequences. We also examine how people pleasing and codependency can function like an addiction, keeping women emotionally bonded to unhealthy relationships and chronic burnout.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why love, pressure, and ultimatums don’t create real change
• What addiction really means (and why language matters)
• The difference between supporting recovery and enabling harm
• How intrinsic motivation—not sacrifice—is the foundation of change
• Why boundaries don’t fix them, but they do free you
• How women can begin reclaiming their voice, identity, and self-trust

This conversation is compassionate, honest, and empowering—especially for women navigating relationships affected by substance use, compulsive behaviors, or emotional over-functioning.

If you’ve ever felt exhausted, resentful, or confused by giving everything and still feeling like it’s not enough… this episode is for you.

🔗 Connect & Learn More

📚 Recommended Reading
Codependent No More by Melody Beattie

Some links may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only share resources I personally trust and recommend.

🌸 EmpowerHer Pathways & Resources
👉 https://www.anitasandoval.com/empowerher/links

🎧 Listen to More Episodes
👉 Empowering Women in Conversations (available on all major podcast platforms)
https://www.anitasandoval.com/podcast-directories

💌 Join the EmpowerHer Community
Support, resources, and conversations for women moving from people-pleasing to empowered living.

🎓 About Our Guest
Dr. Eluterio Blanco, Jr. is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor, Nationally Certified Master Addiction Counselor, and Clinical Associate Professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he coordinates the Bachelor of Science in Addiction Studies.

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

What if your “little food problem” — the restriction, bingeing, or rigid food rules — is actually your nervous system trying to survive?

In this powerful conversation, I’m joined by Marnie Davis, LMHC, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist and Consultant, Certified EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA-Approved Consultant, and HAES®-aligned clinician.

Together, we explore the hidden link between people pleasing, trauma, neurodivergence, and eating disorders — and why so many women, clinicians, and families completely miss what’s really happening beneath the surface.

This is a compassionate, non-shaming, neurodivergent-affirming episode that reframes eating disorders from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What happened to me, and how did my system try to keep me alive?”

✨ In This Episode, We Explore:

• How, from a trauma lens, eating disorders are maladaptive coping strategies that once made sense to your system
• The impact of attachment injuries, perfectionism, and people-pleasing on food, body image, and control
• Why eating disorders are not about vanity or willpower, but about safety, power, and relief from overwhelming sensations and emotions
• The role of culture, family rules, and “finish your plate” messages in shaping food beliefs
• How neurodivergent brains (ADHD, autism, sensory sensitivities) can be especially vulnerable to disordered eating
• Why one person dies every hour from an eating disorder and why a comprehensive medical + therapeutic team is crucial
• What healing can look like: becoming more self-led, value-driven, and authentically you

👤 Connect with Our Guest: Marnie Davis, LMHC, CEDS
Website:
🔗 www.MarnieDavisLMHC.com
Email:
📩 [email protected]

LinkedIn:
🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnie-davis-lmhc-ceds-c-33187b45/Instagram:
🔗 @marniedavislmhcFacebook:
🔗 MarnieDavisLMHC
🔗 Davis Counseling and Consulting

🌿 Connect with Your Host, Anita Sandoval, MA, LPC-S
🔗 All My Links & Resources:
Start here for everything: podcast, free tools, courses, communities & more.
👉 https://www.anitasandoval.com/empowerher/links
🎧 Listen on Your Favorite Podcast Platform:
Find Empowering Women in Conversations on all major podcast directories.
👉 https://www.anitasandoval.com/podcast-directories

💌 If This Episode Spoke To You…

• Share it with a friend, client, or loved one who struggles with food, people pleasing, or feeling “never enough.”
• Subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on people pleasing, boundaries, trauma, neurodivergence, and empowered living.
• Take a quiet moment after listening to ask yourself:

You’re not broken. You’re a system that learned how to survive. 🩷

What was your biggest Takeaway from this Episode! I would Love to hear from you!

Why are so many women struggling with reflux, IBS, bloating, and chronic stomach pain—despite changing diets, taking supplements, and doing “all the right things”?

In this powerful episode, Dr. Scott Rower, PhD—clinical psychologist and founder of Rest and Digest—joins Anita Sandoval LPC-S to reveal the real root cause of women’s gut issues: the gut–brain connection and the hidden impact of chronic stress, overgiving, and people-pleasing.

If you’ve ever wondered why your symptoms flare during stress, why tests come back “normal,” or why your digestion falls apart during burnout… this conversation may completely change the way you see your body.

💡 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why women are more likely to develop gut problems—especially people-pleasers
• How the sympathetic nervous system shuts down digestion (and what to do about it)
• The difference between functional GI disorders and organic diseases
• The “stress bucket” model and why your symptoms flare on overload
• What GI psychology is—and why most people have never heard of it
• The 3 pillars of digestive healing (medical, diet, and gut-brain regulation)
• Why guilt, perfectionism, and emotional suppression fuel gut symptoms
• How to begin down-regulating your nervous system so your gut can finally heal

🌿 Connect With Dr. Scott Rower

Explore his free resources and gut-brain healing tools:

🔗 Website: www.restanddigest.org

🔗 Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/RestAndDigest

🔗 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RestAndDigestGuide

🔥 Key Moments:

• 00:04:00 — The three pillars of gut healing
• 00:07:00 — Why slowing down feels unsafe to people-pleasers
• 00:14:00 — Sympathetic overdrive and digestive shutdown
• 00:17:00 — The stress-bucket overflow and gut responders
• 00:23:00 — What “disorders of gut–brain interaction” really are
• 00:33:00 — Polyvagal theory and why safety matters for digestion
• 00:39:00 — The truth about resentment, guilt, and chronic symptoms

✨ If You’re a Woman Healing From People-Pleasing…

This episode is for you. Awareness is the first step toward reclaiming your health, your boundaries, and your peace.

✨ Work With Anita & Begin Healing People-Pleasing

Ready to stop overgiving, reclaim your boundaries, and finally honor your emotional and physical energy?

Join my transformational 12-Step People-Pleaser Recovery Group:
 👉 www.anitasandoval.com/support

Explore more ways to work with me, including courses, resources, and community support:
 👉 www.anitasandoval.com

Listen to more empowering conversations on the podcast:
 👉 www.anitasandoval.com/podcast