Empowering Women In Conversations

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

What happens when loving and caring for someone slowly causes you to disappear from your own life?

In this deeply personal episode of Empowering Women in Conversations, Anita Sandoval, LPC, sits down with Janna Holterman, RN, BNSc—Cardiac ICU nurse, coach, mentor, trained intuitive, and founder of Janna Holterman Coaching LLC.

Janna vulnerably shares the mental-health decline and suicide loss of her husband, the exhaustion of becoming both his wife and caregiver, and the guilt that can remain when love, support, treatment, and doing everything you know to do still cannot control the outcome.

This conversation is also for the woman who keeps believing:

• If I love them enough, I can save them.
• If I stop taking care of everything, it will all fall apart.
• If someone I love is struggling, it must be my responsibility to fix it.
• Caring for myself means I am abandoning them.
• I should still be able to function even when my emotional battery is empty.

Janna reminds us that loving someone does not give us complete control over their mental illness, healing, decisions, or capacity—and that caregivers need care too.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The changes Janna noticed in her husband’s mental health
• The many ways they sought professional and family support
• Why warning signs are not always visible or recognizable
• Survivor guilt after losing a loved one to suicide
• How to support someone grieving a suicide loss
• Why women feel responsible for saving everyone
• The relationship between people-pleasing and caregiver burnout
• Janna’s “dead phone battery” analogy for emotional capacity
• Caring for yourself without feeling like you are abandoning someone
• Why you cannot rescue or heal another adult by losing yourself

CONTENT NOTICE AND SUPPORT

This episode includes a non-graphic discussion of mental illness, suicide, grief, and suicide loss. Please care for yourself while listening.

If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide or a mental-health crisis in the United States, call or text 988 to connect with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If someone is in immediate danger, contact emergency services.

BUT WAIT—THERE’S MORE

Janna’s story does not end with losing herself.

Join us next week for Part 2:

“Who Are You When You’re No Longer Saving Everyone? Rebuilding Identity and Self-Trust.”

In Part 2, we’ll discuss rebuilding your identity beyond the roles of wife, caregiver, nurse, and the person everyone depends on. We’ll also explore emotional processing, nervous-system regulation, reconnecting with your body, intuition, self-kindness, and learning to trust yourself again.

ABOUT JANNA HOLTERMAN

Janna Holterman, RN, BNSc, is a Cardiac ICU nurse, coach, mentor, trained intuitive, and founder of Janna Holterman Coaching LLC.

Janna combines neuroscience, nervous-system regulation, emotional processing, and intuition to help women create sustainable success without sacrificing themselves in the process. Drawing from her professional background and personal experiences with trauma, grief, and healing, she teaches women how to reconnect with themselves and create lives that feel authentic, fulfilling, and genuinely their own.

CONNECT WITH JANNA

Website and Resources:
https://www.jannaholterman.com/link-page

Website:
https://www.jannaholterman.com

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

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

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

KEEP LISTENING

If this episode made you recognize how much you have been carrying in your relationships, continue with these conversations:

Why Am I So Tired? The Hidden Burnout of People-Pleasing with Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez | Part 1

Why Do I Feel Guilty Saying No? Breaking the People-Pleasing Cycle with Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez | Part 2

Are You Fighting for Your Marriage—or Abandoning Yourself? with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi | Part 1

Why You’ve Lost the Spark: Emotional Safety Comes Before Intimacy with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi | Part 2

Explore all episodes and choose your preferred listening platform:
https://www.anitasandoval.com/podcast-directories

ARE YOU TIRED OF CARRYING EVERYTHING?

Download the free “Why Am I So Tired?” checklist and begin identifying what may be leaving you exhausted, overwhelmed, and carrying too much:

https://www.anitasandoval.com/why-am-i-so-tired-subscribe

JOIN THERAPIST TEA

Subscribe to Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy for weekly therapist insights, relationship patterns, boundary support, healing conversations, and honest guidance for women learning to stop people-pleasing and start living authentically:

https://www.anitasandoval.com/newsletters/therapist-tea-things-i-notice-in-therapy/subscribe

QUESTION FOR YOU

Have you ever confused loving someone with being responsible for saving them?

Share your biggest takeaway from this episode and send it to a woman who needs the reminder that caring for herself does not mean she has stopped caring about the people she loves.

We are brave. We are kind. We are compassionate. We are Women Empowered. 💗

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

Why can saying no feel so uncomfortable—even when you know you’re overwhelmed?

Why does setting a boundary sometimes leave you feeling guilty, selfish, or responsible for someone else’s disappointment?

In Part 2 of my conversation with emotional intelligence expert Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez, we continue exploring the HEART in Mind model and take the conversation deeper into people-pleasing, boundary guilt, emotional awareness, relationships, and reconnecting with yourself.

For so many women, people-pleasing doesn’t look like weakness. It can look like being dependable, caring, productive, and always being the person everyone can count on. But underneath all that giving, you may be exhausted, resentful, disconnected from your own needs—or afraid of what will happen if you finally say no.

In this episode, we explore why your emotions are not the enemy, how emotional intelligence can help create space between what you feel and how you respond, and why learning to listen to yourself matters when you’re breaking the people-pleasing cycle.

💗 Because choosing yourself doesn’t mean you stop caring about other people. It means you finally include yourself in the care you so freely give everyone else.

🎧 Haven’t listened to Part 1 yet?

Start with Episode 42: Why Am I So Tired? The Hidden Burnout of People-Pleasing with Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez | Part 1.

In Part 1, Dr. Lorea shares her personal experience with burnout, the warning signs she initially missed, why pushing through isn’t always the answer, and how emotions can become valuable information rather than something we need to suppress.

Then come right back here for Part 2.

💕 Make It an EmpowerHer Binge Weekend

If this conversation has you thinking about the ways you’ve been overgiving, losing yourself, or trying to keep a relationship together at your own expense, keep listening.

Go back to my two-part conversation with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi:

🎙️ Are You Fighting for Your Marriage—or Abandoning Yourself? | Part 1

🎙️ Why You’ve Lost the Spark: Emotional Safety Comes Before Intimacy | Part 2

Together, these recent conversations explore a bigger question at the heart of Empowering Women in Conversations:

How do I love other people without continuing to lose myself?

Find Empowering Women in Conversations on your favorite podcast platform here:

Choose where you want to listen

☕ Want the Inside Scoop + Free Resources?

Join Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy for conversations and insights that go beyond the podcast, plus access to free resources including the Confidence Reset and Why Am I So Tired? worksheets.

Join Therapist Tea + Get the Free Resources

💗 Connect With Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez

Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez is an emotional intelligence expert, educator, author, and creator of the HEART in Mind model. Her work combines emotional intelligence, neuroscience, mindfulness, and her own experience with burnout to help people move beyond survival mode and cultivate greater well-being and purpose.

Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez's Website
Instagram — Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez
Facebook — Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez
LinkedIn — Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez
Take the Living with the HEART in Mind Self-Assessment

📚 Featured Book:
Living with the HEART in Mind: A Practical Guide to Healing from Burnout and Cultivating Purpose

💬 Question for you: When you imagine saying no without explaining, apologizing, or fixing the other person’s feelings afterward—what comes up for you?

We are brave. We are kind. We are compassionate. We are Women Empowered. 💗

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

You’re getting enough sleep. You’re still showing up for work, your family, and everyone who depends on you. From the outside, you may even look like you have everything together.

So why are you so tired?

In Part 1 of this powerful conversation, Anita Sandoval, LPC-S, sits down with emotional intelligence expert, author, and educator Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez to explore the hidden signs of burnout—and why women who are used to pushing through, taking care of others, and ignoring their own emotional needs may not recognize burnout until their bodies and emotions demand their attention.

Lorea shares her own deeply personal wake-up call: while taking a simple walk with a colleague, the thought of adding one more thing to her already-full life became so overwhelming that she began crying and couldn’t stop. That moment forced her to ask what was happening underneath the exhaustion. 

Together, Anita and Lorea explore what burnout can actually look like—including losing joy in things you once loved, waking up exhausted even after sleeping, continuing to perform despite depletion, and giving everyone else compassion while struggling to offer that same kindness to yourself.  

They also unpack an important question for recovering people-pleasers:

What happens when you become so good at noticing everyone else’s emotions that you stop listening to your own?

Lorea introduces her research-based HEART in Mind® framework and explains why emotions aren’t problems we need to eliminate—they’re information. For women who have learned to suppress anger, resentment, frustration, or exhaustion to avoid disappointing others, learning to honor those emotions can become an important step toward breaking old patterns.  

And suppressing those feelings doesn’t necessarily make them disappear. Lorea explains how unprocessed emotions can eventually show up through irritability, snapping, emotional overwhelm, and behaviors that affect both ourselves and the people around us. 

💗 In Part 1, you'll hear about:

•  The warning signs of burnout that are easy to dismiss 
•  Why you can sleep and still wake up feeling exhausted 
•  Why losing your joy can be an early warning sign 
•  The difference between self-care and self-compassion
•  Why high-achieving women may recognize burnout in others before themselves 
•  How people-pleasing can disconnect you from your emotions 
•  What happens when anger, resentment, and exhaustion are continually suppressed 
•  How emotions first communicate through the body 
•  Lorea's HEART in Mind® framework
•  Why you need to include yourself in your circle of care
•  Practical ways to recognize emotions before they continue increasing in intensity 

🎧 About Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez

Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez is an emotional intelligence expert, educator, and award-winning creator of HEART in Mind®, a research-based approach designed to help people understand their emotions, manage stress, strengthen relationships, and reconnect with purpose.

Her new book, Living with the HEART in Mind: A Practical Guide to Healing from Burnout and Cultivating Purpose, combines emotional intelligence, neuroscience, mindfulness, practical tools, and her own experience with burnout to help overwhelmed professionals move beyond survival mode and build healthier, more fulfilling lives.

Dr. Martínez has more than two decades of experience in human development and capacity building and has trained adults internationally.

💗 Connect with Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez

🌐 Visit Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez's website

📖 Learn about Living with the HEART in Mind

💗 Take the FREE Living with the HEART in Mind Self-Assessment

📸 Follow Dr. Lorea on Instagram

💼 Connect with Dr. Lorea on LinkedIn

💙 Follow Dr. Lorea on Facebook

✨ Continue Your EmpowerHer Journey

If this episode has you wondering whether your exhaustion is about more than simply needing more sleep, these free resources are a great place to begin.

😴 Get “Why Am I So Tired?” + Join Anita's Mailing List

💜 Take the FREE People-Pleaser Quiz: Where Are You on the Pathway?

☕ Join Therapist Tea: Things I Notice in Therapy

Therapist Tea brings you real-life insights about people-pleasing, boundaries, relationships, emotional exhaustion, and the patterns Anita notices in the therapy room.

🎙️ Coming in Part 2

Why Do I Feel Guilty Saying No? Breaking the People-Pleasing Cycle

In Part 2, Anita and Lorea take the conversation further into boundary guilt, saying no, over-caretaking, feeling responsible for other people's emotions, the need to be needed, and reconnecting with your own purpose.

As Lorea reminds us:

You can care deeply about someone without carrying responsibility for their happiness. She explains that we can be a positive presence in other people's lives while recognizing that we cannot be responsible for everyone's emotions. 

Follow Empowering Women in Conversations with Anita Sandoval, LPC-S so you don't miss Part 2.

Real Conversations | Expert Insights | A Stronger You

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

What if losing the spark in your marriage isn’t actually an intimacy problem?

You may still love your partner. You may want the relationship to work. You may even be trying harder than ever—communicating more, doing more, giving more, and keeping everything together.

But what if you’re trying to rebuild intimacy before rebuilding emotional safety?

In Part 2 of my conversation with marriage coach Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi, Kam introduces her Marriage Baseball System, a simple analogy for understanding why couples can’t skip the foundational stages of connection and expect intimacy to thrive.

According to Kam’s framework, the bases have to be reached in order:

⚾ First Base: Emotional Safety — Can I bring you my feelings, fears, struggles, or needs without being dismissed, invalidated, or immediately met with defensiveness?

⚾ Second Base: Connection — Are we intentionally turning toward one another, or has our relationship become primarily about schedules, responsibilities, children, and logistics?

⚾ Third Base: Emotional Intimacy — Can I trust you enough to be vulnerable? Can we take accountability, practice humility, and allow ourselves to actually be known?

⚾ Home Plate: Physical Intimacy — The physical connection many couples are trying to repair may be difficult to rebuild when the emotional foundation underneath it is missing.    

Kam puts it powerfully:

And this conversation goes even deeper.

We talk about how people-pleasing can interfere with intimacy when you say yes while wanting to say no, say you're fine when you're not, hide your real feelings, or become passive-aggressive instead of expressing what you actually need. As Kam explains, when we hide those parts of ourselves, we're asking our partner to fully love someone we're not allowing them to fully know. 

We also explore:

❤️ Why a “communication problem” may actually be an emotional safety problem

❤️ Turning toward versus turning away from your partner

❤️ The connection between vulnerability, trust, accountability, and intimacy

❤️ How people-pleasing can cause you to disappear inside your relationship

❤️ The difference between supporting your partner and taking over their responsibilities

❤️ What your children may be learning about love and relationships simply by watching you

❤️ How unspoken expectations can contribute to resentment

❤️ How to recognize when you're doing the hard work of repairing a relationship versus continuing to abandon yourself to keep it together

❤️ Why working on your marriage doesn't have to mean disappearing inside of it

Near the end of our conversation, Kam gives an important challenge to women who realize they've lost their voice or identity:

Because being a wife, mother, partner, caregiver, or professional may be part of who you are—but those roles don't have to become your entire identity.

As we discuss in the episode:

Working on a relationship doesn't have to mean disappearing inside of it. 

🎧 Listen to Part 2

Why You’ve Lost the Spark: Emotional Safety Comes Before Intimacy

with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi, Marriage Coach
Hosted by Anita Sandoval, LPC-S
on Empowering Women in Conversations

💗 About Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi

Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi is a marriage coach, founder of Recognizing Potential Coaching, and host of the Married and Connected Podcast. In this conversation, she shares both her professional perspective and personal experiences with marriage, growth, rebuilding, and learning how to create healthier connection.

Kam shares in the episode that listeners can find her through Married and Connected and her Recognizing Potential website. 

💗 Connect with Kameran “Kam” Al-Areqi

🌐 Recognizing Potential Coaching

📸 Instagram — @married.and.connected

🎙️ Married and Connected Podcast — Apple Podcasts

▶️ YouTube — Married & Connected

💙 Facebook Community

💼 LinkedIn — Kameran Thompson Al-Areqi

📧 Email: [email protected]

Kam is the founder of Recognizing Potential Coaching and host of Married and Connected, where she focuses on helping couples strengthen emotional connection, communication, trust, and intimacy. 

🎧 Listen to More Episodes

Find Empowering Women in Conversations with Anita Sandoval, LPC-S on your favorite podcast platform:

Anita Sandoval — Podcast Directories

Honest, healing, and hopeful conversations about relationships, boundaries, people-pleasing, self-worth, and becoming an empowered woman.

🌸 A Final Reminder

You can deeply love someone.

You can work on your relationship.

You can want your marriage to succeed.

And you can still have a voice, an identity, boundaries, self-respect, and a relationship with yourself.

That is part of becoming an Empowered Woman.

Empowered • Resilient • Authentic

Empowering Women in Conversations with Anita Sandoval, LPC-S

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

✔️ Therapy insights

✔️ EmpowerHer updates

Subscribe here:

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⭐ 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