Honor Your Spark

I recently had a student in a yoga class ask me “what exactly is trauma-informed yoga?” For the long answer, see the research paper I wrote back in 2016— but for a shorter answer, I created this solo episode that’s relevant for students and teachers alike.Also, the subject of cultural humility (vs cultural appropriation) in yoga has become so intertwined for me with trauma-informed principles, because they’re both about HONORING: honoring the autonomy of each student, and honoring the wider purpose of yoga and its lineage. So we’re talking both subjects in this episode.As per usual in my solo episodes, I’m talking off the cuff while walking outside, so this lil 30-minute episode is far from comprehensive. But if you have questions, feel free to leave a comment here, send me a DM, or email me— I’d love to hear what resonates, what your experience with these subjects is, and as always, anything else you’d like to hear me talk about on the pod. And hopefully some of the resources below will be helpful to dig in further!For full show notes including links to resources mentioned in the episode, visit https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-21.----------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ Sister podcast Creatures of Change✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

Shea Rose (she/her) is one of those rare humans who is both incredibly multifaceted and genuinely DEEP in all of those facets— like a shimmering emerald that catches the light from every direction.She is a musician, an activist, an educator, a healer— and she brings such richness into all of these capacities after having journeyed her own path from trauma to healing in ways deepened all aspects of her voice: inner voice, physical voice, and written voice.In this conversation, Shea and I explore the power of the voice, how we can start to find our voice when it feels suppressed or small, and how we can use movement and sound to access our fullest and truest self expression.If you’re a musician or creative of some kind, you’ll especially resonate with this one (no pun intended 🤓) but even folks who don’t strongly identify as creative will still find so much value and depth in Shea’s wisdom.Shea Rose is a multipassionate musician, activist, healer, and curator. Her music is influenced by soul, hip-hop, rock, and folk, and speaks to identity, self-acceptance, and transformation. You can find more about her work and offerings at shearose.com and on Instagram @shearose. For show notes including Shea's full bio and links to resources mentioned in the episode, visit https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-20.----------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

Each year, there are just a few books that make it onto my all-time favorites roster, and this year, one of those is called Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time.I highlighted damn-near half the book because there was so much that resonated personally and professionally. A few chapters in, I knew I wanted to try to get the author Laura Khoudari on the podcast.Fortunately for me, she quickly responded and was down for it— after all, Bodyful is kind of a perfect fit for all the topics she wrote about in the book! And as a fellow Health at Every Size-aligned practitioner, Laura approaches fitness and training from a weight-neutral perspective (which, I don’t have to tell you, is unfortunately a rare thing in that industry).This was such a rich conversation, and I can’t wait for y’all to hear it. Whether you’re a trauma survivor, work with trauma, love fitness, are repelled by working out— you’ll gain something from listening to this one.About Laura KhoudariA trauma practitioner, and certified personal trainer, Laura Khoudari is passionate about giving people the tools they need to heal from trauma and cultivate mental health and wellness. She is the author of the book Lifing Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time. Her work has been widely recognized by the trauma and fitness community, and she has been featured on Buzzfeed, UpWorthy, Outside Online, Medium, Tonic, Nike, and Girls Gone Strong. She lives in New York City with her family and two cats.For full show notes including links to resources mentioned in the episode, visit https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-19.----------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

Sexual desire is one of the most loaded relationship topics in our culture— and challenges with it are the most common reason couples state for seeking therapy.In this solo episode, I share about some of the concepts I’ve found most useful since learning more about sexual desire, desire differences in relationships, and how to get unstuck when you’re struggling with desire in your relationship.I hope you find this episode helpful, and I'd love to know if there are topics you'd like to see covered on future solo episodes, and/or guest recommendations for the show. (Comment on this post or email me at [email protected] !We’ll be back in 2 weeks with another guest episode that I’m super excited to share with y’all.Links + Additional Resources:✨ Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, PhD✨ One of Emily’s TED Talks where she explores the dual control model✨ Dipsea app✨ Lasting app-----------------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode (usually) every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

The word “somatic” is very on-trend right now (…unless you’re the APA and you’ve surreptitiously withdrawn contuing education credits for all somatic-focused trainings because you’re a bunch of rigid, evidence-based-yet-evidence-denying buttheads)… oh, did I say that?I digress. The science** is clear that somatic (AKA body-focused) approaches are effective for treating trauma, anxiety, depression, and more— and, outside of mental health issues, that working directly with the body (as opposed to just the mind) is beneficial for increasing a sense of confidence/self-efficacy and decreasing the buildup of daily stress that can lead to burnout. Among other benefits too abundant to list in this one paragraph!The guest for this episode is Ben Munday, who went from growing up in a very masculine environment to being surrounded by powerful women in the fashion industry. When he decided he wanted to make a career shift to focus on coaching women in business, he experienced in his coach training how powerful working directly with the body could be, and knew he wanted to make somatic work core to both his own lifestyle and his approach with clients.As you’ll hear quickly in our conversation, Ben is a smart, kind, and grounded person— and it was a pleasure talking with him about topics we’re both passionate about.If you love the episode and decide to schedule a free consultation call with Ben, make sure to tell him Bodyful podcast sent you and he will give you a discount if you decide to book!FIND BEN ONLINE: his website (I highly recommend downloading the free guidebook), LinkedIn, and on Instagram.For full show notes including Ben's full bio and links to resources mentioned in the episode, head to https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-17.----------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

I've had a bad case of Life Getting in the Way recently— which has involved some amazing trips and experiences, but I'm eager to get back to a biweekly routine with the podcast! My next guest interview was gracious about rescheduling when I got unexpectedly stuck in New York, so that episode will release in two weeks. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share a solo episode with a primer on self-regulation via working directly with the nervous system— why we should know about it and how we can do it, with a few of my go-to tools.I hope you find this episode helpful, and I'd love to know if there are topics you'd like to see covered on future solo episodes, and/or guest recommendations for the show. Thanks for listening!xxValerieFor full show notes including  links to resources mentioned in the episode, head to https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-16.----------------------------------------------------Did you love this episode? Please tell a friend, and subscribe to Bodyful for a new episode every 2 weeks!✨ For Previous Bodyful episodes and show notes✨ In Tennessee and looking for therapy? Check out The Gaia Center.✨ Get the monthly Gaia Center newsletter with exclusive content & tips from our therapists✨ Learn about coaching, speaking, and other stuff Val is up to

converastion with researcher and author Zephyr Scott on what our food system alienation has to do with our ruptured relationship with food and body, and what we can do about it

converastion with therapist Valerie Martin and dietitian Emily Murray on healing our relationships with food— whether related to normalized disordered eating in our culture, or recovery from an eating disorder

Confession:As much as I’ve lived (and practiced psychotherapy) long enough to know there is no such thing as a “magic bullet” cure-all for emotional and physical pain, I remain permanently and eagerly on the lookout for strategies and ideas that might be juuust a bit shy of magic.And believe me when I say that I have purchased an embarrassing amount of books, programs, apps, trainings, and online courses in that ongoing quest. In the summer of 2021 as I was clicking around on Amazon, the good ole’ hate-it-but-kinda-love-it algorithm recommended a newly published book that caught my eye, called The Open Focus Life: Practices to Develop Attention and Awareness for Optimal Well-Being.Focus? Attention? Tangible practices? Optimal Well-Being? The book was immediately in my cart. And because I also cannot ever just have a “casual” interest in anything, while I was waiting on it to arrive, I started listening to the audiobook of Dr. Fehmi’s previous book, The Open Focus Brain, which I quickly devoured, and downloaded/started using the Level 1 audio practices from the Open Focus website.Almost immediately, I noticed that Open Focus practice— while similar in ways to other mindfulness meditation practices I’d done— left my mind feeling different than any of those practices. The best I could describe it is lighter, clearer— and, yes, more open.I was hooked, and I decided to begin mentoring with Susan Shor Fehmi, who has carried on the work of her late husband Les (the creator of Open Focus). It was such a gift to have the experience of learning directly from Susan, who is a kindred spirit in many ways. I was delighted when, at the completion of my Open Focus Coach training process, I asked if she’d come on the podcast, and she said yes.About Susan Shor Fehmi, LCSW (she/her)Susan received her Master’s degree from Columbia University and is currently the Director of the Princeton Biofeedback Centre in Princeton, NJ, where she combines the teaching of Open Focus™ training with multi-channel, phase synchrony neurofeedback.  She is interested in combining traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy with the skills of Open Focus and Synchrony Training.  She, along with Les Fehmi, Ph.D. are co-authors of several peer-reviewed journal articles and their latest book, The Open-Focus Life, published by Shambhala.Links + Additional Resources:Open Focus website: Full of resources including Open Focus audio recordings, directory of OF coaches & biofeedback providers, information on trainings, and moreBook: The Open Focus Life by Les Fehmi, Susan Shor Fehmi, and Mark BeauregardBook: The Open Focus Brain by Les FehmiBook: Dissolving Pain by Les FehmiWant to do Open Focus coaching with me? Reach out here!

I am not a naturally “calm” person, and it’s not often that I meet someone who instantly makes me feel calm in their presence. But when I met Jill Dunkley in 2019, that’s absolutely how I felt.Jill is grounded, real, warm, kind, smart, and wise, and I’m grateful to call her a friend.In this conversation, Jill and I explore:what it means to be in right relationship both inside and outside ourselveshow trauma-informed practices and ecopsychology can support us in developing those capacitiesthe relationship between our individual healing and our commitments to the work of decolonizingLearn more about Jill’s current and upcoming offerings on her website here.About Jill Dunkley (she/her)Jill Dunkley lives on unceded Algonquin Land in rural Eastern Ontario with her husband, ecopsychologist, Andy Fisher.  For most of her adult life she has explored the question “what does it mean to be in right relationship with the world inside of me and the world outside of me?”  Now in late adulthood, she currently lives with that question at the intersection of trauma-aware mindfulness, yoga that adapts to the needs of the individual, and the earth. Jill is also a certified yoga therapist and mindfulness instructor and has found many great insights about her questions in the field of radical ecopsychology.For full show notes including links to resources we mention in this episode, head to https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-12