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How does Ayurveda view the perimenopausal transition? 

And what are some of the tools and strategies that might be helpful to incorporate in this time to both reduce and prevent the common symptoms that show up in this time?

According to today's guest, Ayurvedic Health Counselor Kristen Timchak, the perimenopausal transition is often characterized by qualities of Vata dosha.

Irregular cycles, drying skin, tissue fragility, brain fog, anxiety, mood swings, are all potentially signs of Vata imbalance.

In this conversation, we explore a variety of approaches to tend our bodies and minds in this time from the lens of Ayurveda and somatic embodiment practices, too!

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Get links to Kristen's offerings
• Free guide: Get started tracking your cycle with FAM 
• Get on the priority list for the Natural Contraception program!
• Episode 37: Easing into menopause with Dana Lavoie 
• Episode 70: Is it perimenopause or....
• Episode 97: Nourish yr nervous system w Ayurveda w Kristen Timchak

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

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What if it's not your hormones? What if your hormones are actually alerting you to something deeper going on?

Because, they essentially always are. 

Today's guest, Rapid Transformational Therapy practitioner Natalie Ryan Hebert, speaks to the drop in estrogen in the luteal phase as a time when deeper truths (including core stories, trauma wounds, childhood imprints) may show up more prominently.

Without that soothing watery blanket of estrogen the "rocks" are revealed.

It's in those "rocks" that the potential for deep and lasting healing may be waiting.

Listen in to hear all about it.

Resources:

• Get started tracking your cycle: Track Your Cycle (FAM) guide
• Sign up for the Fall 2025 waitlist here: Natural Contraception Fall 2025 waitlist
• Today's shownotes: Get Natalie's links here
•  Episode 47: Functional medicine for PMDD w Jes

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

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Wait? So contraception can fail?

I'm sure we've all heard the stories of folks using some form of contraception and still ending up pregnant, or maybe this has been you!

It was a little uncanny to hear that my last two guests on the podcast BOTH had the experience of becoming pregnant while using contraception in their early years of sexual activity.

So I thought it would be a great topic to cover at the foundational level.

What does it mean for contraception methods to fail? How does that happen? And what should you be aware of to enhance your pregnancy prevention practice?

In today's episode, I explore:

• the proper use of condoms 
• how to effectively practice withdrawal
• some basics on working with cervical caps, diaphragms, spermicide, Phexxi
• how your pelvic floor muscles may play a role here
• why PIV sex during menstruation is NOT reliable birth control

and more!

Resources:

• Get started tracking your cycle: Track Your Cycle (FAM) guide
• Sign up for the Fall 2025 waitlist here: Natural Contraception Fall 2025 waitlist
• Today's shownotes: When contraception fails!
• Episode 90: Effective Non-hormonal birth control options
• Episode 146: 5 benefits of practicing natural contraception
• Episode 185: Enhanced orgasms + the path to lifelong pleasure

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

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So many of us are taught to feel shame around our sexuality, orgasms, pleasure.

What happens when we shake a little of that shame and modesty off and start to explore what's really possible?

The truth is, there is SO MUCH MORE than most of us have any idea about.

Today's guest, intimacy expert Susan Bratton, is a 64 year old woman who says she's juicier than she's ever been, and her pleasure potential just continues to expand! 

We're taught we're going to dry up, shrivel up and our libido is going to wither away as we get older. As if we've gotta get it all out and live up our 30's and 40's while we can. 

But that's not truuuuuue! It's all wrong. 

Pleasure is a continuum and getting to know YOUR unique body, your erectile tissue, what YOU like, and how to enhance your full-body, full-being pleasure sensations as you continue to grow and change is a lifelong path.

Susan shares all about her marriage where all she had was dutiful sex (where she had never had an orgasm w intercourse) until she was 42, and her marriage was a mess.

Over the past 20+ years she's devoted her life to to passionate lovemaking for own self, and teaches how you can do that too.

We talk basics on orgasmic meditation, tools, lubes, and even how certain probiotic strains can support your oxytocin levels.

This is a pretty packed interview, a good foundation if you're interested in enhancing pleasure anytime from TTC through menopausal years.

Susan brings it! In a big way.

Resources:

• Free Womb Connection + Clearing guided visualization
• Interested in Natural Contraception? Sign up for the Fall 2025 VIP list here
• Today's shownotes: Grab all the links to Susan's offerings, free course etc!

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

Click here to send me a quick message :)

It's a bit of a trendy topic these days, especially in healing-centered communities, to speak about generational or even ancestral lineage healing. 

But what does that even mean? And how can you begin to engage with it?

And how does this relate to what you may be holding in your wombspace - physically, energetically or otherwise.

While some people may have a very healthy relationship with our ancestral lines, many of us have lost connection to the practices that help to keep those lineages tended and well.

This is where the work of ancestral lineage healing comes in. 

Today's guest, Jillian Twisla, is a practitioner of ancestral lineage healing through the work of Daniel Foor, and they share all about:

- the foundations of this ancestral lineage healing work

- what is possible in shifting generational patterns when engaging this work

- how it can support smoothing out and tending your womb lineage specifically

- the potential in reclaiming womb connection for all of us

and really so much more. 

This is such a beautiful, wisdom-rich conversation. Jillian is such an eloquent speaker and if you've ever had any curiosity about ancestral healing in any capacity, this is a wonderful foundation to get started from.

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Get Jillian's links and other resources!
• Free Womb Connection + Clearing guided visualization
• Episode 89: A return to wholeness through the womb w Robin Rose Bennett
• Episode 175: The poison plant path? w Megan Desrosiers

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

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Recently, I've been noticing this concept of "emergent process" coming up. 

Between all of us navigating the collective unknowns, relationship shifts and changes, personal upheavals, and whatever else is happening -

there is also somehow a theme I've been hearing of needing to let go and trust.

And it's in this vein that the "emergent process" shows up. 

It's all about allowing your body's inner wisdom to guide you, whether though physical signs and symptoms, somatic awareness, or deeper intuitive listening.

But what exactly is it and how does this relate to your cycles, hormones or wombspace?

Listen to find out.

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: What is an "emergent process"?
• Free Track Your Cycle (FAM) guide
• Episode 28: Rhythms of your womb
• Episode 171: Healing embodied trauma w Somatic Experiencing
• Episode 174: Slowing down to body time

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

Click here to send me a quick message :)

So many focus on preparing for birth during pregnancy, as if the birth itself is the biggest event. And as someone who studied midwifery and attended births for 5 years, I can say confidently that it IS important to prepare for the birth. 

But it is arguably even MORE important to prepare for the initial weeks and months postpartum. And not just with meal trains and herbal remedies, but also - from the Ayurvedic lens - with deep replenishing postpartum care.

Nourishing, warming, grounding, holding the mama or birthing parent.

The body changes immensely after the babe is born. Just think, that entire baby and the placenta have been released from the womb. The womb involutes, contracting over the course of time to pre-pregnancy size. There is so much SPACE in the body, the organs are shifting, the body is adjusting.

This is where Ayurveda comes in. 

Today's guest, Ayurvedic postpartum care provider Coco Genevieve (AyurMama) has devoted her life to tending and nourishing mothers and birthing parents during the first 6 weeks postpartum, also referred to as the Sacred Window in Ayurveda.

And she shares all about this time, the body changes, the qualities and energetics of both what's happening and what's needed to tend the imbalances, and some of her favorite key practices - namely, food!

She even shares one of her favorite recipes at the end. 

It's a whole paradigm of postpartum care that's ancestral wisdom from the Ayurvedic lens, and it's broken down for you in today's interview.

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Get links to all of Coco's offerings!
• Episode 49: How to create a sacred window for menopause, menarche + beyond with Ashlee Sakaishi Wilkin
• Episode 152: The power of two eyed seeing w Amy Eldredge
• Episode 156: The Universal Mother Principles w Christine Eck

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

Click here to send me a quick message :)

We spend so many of our cycling years trying NOT to get pregnant - whether that's on hormonal contraception, non-hormonal IUD's, using barrier methods or with Fertility Awareness Method.

So, when we finally decide that we want to try to conceive, we just assume it will be easy -- particularly if we're younger, healthy and have no obvious conditions that would get in the way of pregnancy.

But more and more we're seeing fertility challenges. And unfortunately, it's something that many people feel embarrassment or shame around so it's not widely talked about (except in TTC communities).

I've talked to a friend and a client recently who are both currently TTC. One is 27, overall healthy and has an uncomplicated picture (but doesn't have much fertile cervical fluid and her cycles are longer than optimal). The other is 40 and has a current partner whose sperm count and motility is  sub-optimal. 

Everyone has a different story, and while there's no guarantee, there is so much that is possible to support optimizing fertility. 

But where do you get good information to determine what actually works and what doesn't? How does stress actually impact fertility? What are the MOST important nutritional considerations to encourage egg and sperm health?

Liane Moccia, author of The Herbal Fertility Handbook, shares about all this and more on today's episode.

She experienced her own fertility journey while TTC which ended up in failed IVF cycles and eventually, after some nutritional and lifestyle tweaking, a successful cycle and her now 17 year old twin daughters!

And now she's written a book blending her embodied experience, years of fertility-focused clinical practice and current research to offer insights into what works and what doesn't to support fertility holistically. 

Whether you're interested in getting pregnant someday, just curious about how to support your hormones overall or exploring assisted fertility, this conversation is perfect for you!

Resources:

• Today's shownotes: Get links to Liane's book and website
• Free - Start tracking your cycle with FAM guide
• Episode 35: A fertility story: from endo to pregnancy with Sarah Shapiro
• Episode 80: Cultivating receptivity 
• Interested in Natural Contraception? Sign up for the Fall 2025 VIP list here

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

Click here to send me a quick message :)

It's so easy to overlook the power of pleasure, especially in challenging times. 

But it is SUCH an essential part of how we can bring our best selves to the world.

When we feel better, we are better able to weather the ever-changing terrain of our lives, and we have more capacity to share our gifts, too.

In today's medley episode, I combine three episode snippets to support your pathways to pleasure:

1) the importance and practice of cultivating receptivity, and some ideas on how to encourage this in your life

2) Laura Rowan (an occupational therapist) shares about how linked the brain, nervous system, pelvic pain and pleasure are 

3) how milky oats can support libido, pleasure and overall hormonal health

It's the final in this medley series from the past few weeks, honoring the solstice, and I hope it brings you some insights and tools to help you embody your pleasure in this season of buoyancy and radiance (amidst all the uncertainties in the world).

Resources:

• Grab the free guide: Track your cycle with FAM (and symptom tracking)
• Today's shownotes: Pathways to pleasure
• Episode 17: How stress messes with your hormones
• Episode 64: Vagus nerve and arousal
• Episode 68: Herbal spotlight on milky oats
• Episode 80: Cultivating receptivity
• Episode 87: From pelvic pain to sexual pleasure w Laura Rowan

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show

Click here to send me a quick message :)

We're all navigating so much right now. Collectively, relationally, personally.

This week's episode explores three different frames for understanding and tending your nervous system when it's stretched, strained, burnt out or plain dysregulated.

In addition to the collective unrest so many of us are feeling, this week I learned about the loss of John Gallagher (founder of Learning Herbs).

What has struck me most about the loss (aside from honoring his immense legacy in modern herbalism) was that he was struggling. With insomnia, anxiety, and depression.

And that the current political climate, including the potential for immense ecological loss, was part of what may have tipped his mental health struggles over the edge.

It's just so big, all of it. And so many of us are feeling it.

And whatever we're struggling with - collectively, relationally, personally - we're all navigating something right now.

I want to acknowledge that, rather than gloss over it, and offer some resources and tools that may perhaps be useful for you in these tumultuous times.

We all have to find our way, and we don't have to do it alone.

Which reminds me of Alexandra Blakely's song:

"you do not carry this all alone
no you do not carry this all alone
this is way too big for you
to carry this on your own
so, you do not carry this all alone"

It's not a song, or an herb, or a practice that will heal us. It's a collective practice that is ongoing.

But if you're interested in some powerful ways to tend your nervous system in these times, listen to the wisdom from Efan Hsieh, Kristen Timchak and myself in this week's medley episode for some inspiration.

** dedicating this episode to the memory of John Gallagher **

Resources:

• Grab the free guide: Track your cycle with FAM (and symptom tracking)
• Today's shownotes: 3 paths to nervous system tending in tumultuous times
• Episode 41: How nature connection can calm burnout w Efan Hsieh
• Episode 50: Adaptogens + hormonal health
  Episode 97: Nourish your nervous system with Ayurveda w Kristen Timchak

If you loved this episode, share it with a friend, or take a screenshot and share on social media and tag me @herbalwombwisdom

And if you love this podcast, leave a rating & write a review! It's really helpful to get the show to more amazing humans like you.  ❤️

DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only, I am not providing any medical advice, I am not a medical practitioner, I’m an herbalist and in the US, there is no path to licensure for herbalists, so my role is as an herbal educator. Please do your own research and consult your healthcare provider for any personal concerns.

Support the show