Honor Your Spark

Spoiler alert: Diet Culture (along with its co-conspirators The Patriarchy and White Supremacy) is THE WOOOORST.And even though it may be called “diet" culture, this term has come to represent a tangled, shitty web of harmful systems that impact not just our relationship with food, but also our relationship with our bodies, movement, and how much privilege (or lack thereof) we carry in our day-to-day lives.For the majority of people who were raised in that overculture, “exercise” was something to be dreaded— an entirely unpleasant (even punishing) experience intended to whittle away fat (which was determined to be disgusting and unacceptable), and carve sharp, angular edges.But there is a new generation of fitness leaders heading the charge to both dismantle diet culture and revolutionize our relationship with movement. One of them is badass Nashville-based personal trainer Barb Puzanovova, who is on a mission to bring the JOY back to training and fitness.In this episode with Barb, we dig into the harm caused by diet culture, how to reclaim bodily autonomy in regards to movement, and why the conversation around privilege and body size in our society is complicated.Here’s the truth: Thin doesn’t equal healthy, fat doesn’t equal unhealthy, exercise doesn’t have to be about weight loss, and most importantly, health is context-dependent. There is no one-size-fits-all... both literally and metaphorically.Barb’s body of work is all about redefining and cultivating joyful movement, and she reminds us that we don’t have to force ourselves to do exercises we hate…and yes, you will hear me proclaim on this episode that I may never do another single burpee again 😂. There are no rules to exercise (walking counts! bouncing around and prancing through the park counts! stretching counts!)— and tapping into pleasure with movement creates a much more powerful experience that can help you become more bodyful in your WHOLE life.This episode with Barb will empower you and give you a giant permission slip to move in a way that feels good, and I can’t wait for you to listen!Barb offers training sessions virtually, and her schedule opens up again in late January if you’d like to work with her!About Barb Puzanovova, CPT (she/her)Barb Puzanovova, aka The Non-Diet Trainer, is a Health at Every Size (HAES), weight-neutral, and inclusive ACE-certified Personal Trainer, Behavior Change Specialist, and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. Due to her own story of recovering from an eating disorder, she empowers people to step off the scale and into their life so they can move their body with less rules and more joy.For full show notes including links to resources mentioned in the show, head to https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-11 .

No brief introductory words could adequately communicate how proud I am to know this woman.Dr. Daltry Dott is not only an incredibly skilled and successful anesthesiologist, but she also happens to be one of my lifelong best friends, going on over 20 years now.In the intro for this episode, you’ll hear me share just a couple ridiculous anecdotes from some of our younger years. We have laughed ourselves to tears maaany times, and we have sat in coffee shops quietly while she studied for her medical licensure boards and I “studied” (even post grad school, just my idea of fun) psychology/mental health books.I’ve been hosting various podcasts for several years now, and it wasn’t until I recently got a bee in my bonnet (yes, yes I just did) to learn more about doing therapy with clients struggling with chronic pain that I thought, DUH, I should talk with Daltry, aka Dr. Dott, aka literally an expert on chronic pain!Even if you don’t think you’re interested in this topic, I urge you to listen to this one as I’m sure you’ll learn something that ends up being important or helpful either for yourself or someone you love.As always, remember that this podcast is educational/entertainment, and NOT intended to replace individualized care from your medical and mental health providers.About Dr. Daltry Dott (she/her)Daltry Dott, M.D., CHCQM, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in complex chronic pain management and utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to help individualize treatment plans and provide comprehensive and compassionate care to each patient.Dr. Dott earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha and Gold Humanism Honors Societies for her exemplary leadership, academic achievement, and compassionate care. She completed a residency in anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, serving as Chief Resident during her final year, and then remained at Vanderbilt for advanced training through a pain management fellowship. Dr. Dott is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology in both Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. She is also certified by the National Board of Echocardiography in basic perioperative transesophageal echocardiography and by the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians in health care quality and management, with subspecialty certifications as a physician advisor and patient safety and risk manager. She was included in D Magazine's Best Doctors in Collin County list for 2021.For  an awesome list of resources Dr. Dott provided re: pain, vist the show notes on our website at  https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-10

For full show notes at our website, visit www.gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-09Pleasure is not just a sex-positive buzzword or a euphoric state to chase sometimes— it is essential to our humanity. When we prioritize pleasure, we connect back to the truest version of ourselves.In this conversation with Dr. Rachel Allyn, holistic clinical psychologist and author of the recently released book, The Pleasure Is All Yours, we chat the power and importance of pleasure, WTF “bodyfulness” really means, and why it matters.Pleasure is most often associated with sex— and while sex is important, pleasure is SO much more than just that. It’s one of the fundamental aspects of being fully alive in the time we are given in these beautiful, messy, awkward, miraculous flesh suits.The full spectrum of life includes the capacity for both tremendous pain AND tremendous pleasure— and learning how to make space for both to coexist is a necessary piece of feeling the truth of our own aliveness, instead of always feeling removed from our experience or seeking to fill the good ole Bottomless Pit of Despair. While the experience of pleasure may seem fleeting, cultivating moments of pleasure can compound into deeper, lasting states of joy and contentment.For many of us, we’ve spent so much time being conditioned into how we’re “supposed” to think, feel, and act that we’ve forgotten what it feels like to trust the knowing of our own body. This leaves us feeling a disconnect, both with ourselves and with others.Through Dr. Allyn’s bodyfulness framework that she shares in her book (this conversation is just a teaser!), readers can learn to reconnect to their bodies, their hearts, and release internalized shame and conditioning.About Dr. Rachel Allyn (she/her)Rachel Allyn, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified yoga instructor, public speaker, and relationship columnist. She is the founder of YogaPsych, PLLC, a psychotherapy practice for adults that blends Western medicine with Eastern philosophy, and connects the mind with the body. She has been in private practice for almost fifteen years working with individuals and couples dealing with sexuality, intimacy, and relationship problems as well as trauma, depression, anxiety, and loss. She’s been quoted in books and magazines including Yoga Journal, Women’s Health, Outside, Good Housekeeping, and Cosmopolitan.Links + Additional Resources:The Pleasure Is All Yours: Reclaim Your Body's Bliss and Reignite Your Passion for LifeBodyfulness by Dr. Christine CaldwellDr. Allyn’s YouTube Channel@drrachelallyn on InstagramVisit her website at www.drrachelallyn.com for more info on working with Dr. Allyn via therapy, retreats, online courses, and other offerings

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The more I learn in my clinical sexology doctoral program, the more I’m blown away by the field of sexology in general and the highly skilled sex therapists, coaches, and educators like this episode’s guest, Tara Galeano.Tara got into sex therapy initially because her therapy clients were walking to talk about their sexual challenges and longings, so she committed to deepening her knowledge and expertise to be able to better support them. Later in her career, she had an awakening of her own, in which she recognized just how much she had been falling into the cultural trap of minimizing her needs and desires.In Tara’s case, that reckoning coincided with the end of her 25 year marriage (due to layered issues that you’ll hear about in the interview)— and the beginning of a deeper commitment to herself and the fulfillment of her needs, desires, and pleasure in ALL capacities.Tara also developed a specialty in working with women in treatment for cancer, which led to the creation of her book, Rediscovering My Body— first written for women with cancer, and then revised and re-released for ALL women longing to reconnect with their sexuality. It’s in a beautiful interactive journaling/coloring format with guided exercises— I got a copy since we initially recorded our conversation, and have started working through it. It will definitely be one I recommend to many of my clients!As I mention in the intro of this episode, we had a technical glitch where we lost the last 15 minutes of Tara’s side of the conversation— so the episode ends more abruptly than we intended, but there’s still a lot of goodness in this one. I hope you enjoy it!About Tara Galeano (she/her)Tara is the founder of Rediscovering My Body and Boulder Sex Therapy, and is an author, speaker, retreat host, and  sexual empowerment coach. She has worked with women for over two decades to get their sexy back. Tara knows that there is pleasure in the body, beyond our wildest dreams, and every woman can access it. In “Rediscovering My Body”, she teaches women how to show up for pleasure in their lives. Tara rediscovered her own body after leaving her twenty-five-year marriage. Realizing that she had given so much of herself away, she knew that she needed to come back to the inherent wisdom of the body. Now Tara has embodied this path and is moving forward to share this with women everywhere with her book, her online courses, and community, and her retreats. She lives in San Francisco with her soul sister and is learning how to live more fully in her nomadic heart. For full show notes including links to resources mentioned in the episode, head to https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-07

We each have maybe a handful of teachers in our lives that fundamentally shift the way we see or experience— Michelle Cassandra Johnson has been one of those teachers for me.Michelle is a true embodiment of grace, fire, compassion, and grit, and is a radiant example of how to to show up with skillfulness and heart in a dysfunctional world.Her new book Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief was released just this week, and I am so excited to dive into and savor it starting next weekend when I’ve carved out some special time and space to do so.I hope you enjoy this conversation with Michelle, and that if you arent’ already familiar with her books and other offerings, that this will be the first of many times you get to experience her gifts.“Our culture conditions us to notice what is going on from the head up and not from the throat and heart down. The only way out is through, by way of the feelings. If we are going to make social change, we need to cultivate a practice of feeling... When one connects with their feelings as yoga teaches us to do, one can connect with their heart. If one is connected with their heart, they have the opportunity to be changed and to shift their perspective. They have the opportunity to feel the pain of living in a world that is designed to break the spirit through violence, oppression, and injustice.”— Michelle Johnson (from Skill in Action)About Michelle Cassandra Johnson (she/her)Michelle is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner. She has led dismantling racism work in many settings for over two decades and has a background and two decades of practice as a clinical social worker. Michelle’s work centers on healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart. She published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017 and her newest book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief was published by Shambhala Publications in 2021.Michelle teaches workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide and is on the faculty of Off the Mat, Into the World. In 2020 she created her own podcast, Finding Refuge, which explores collective grief and liberation and serves as a reminder about all the ways we can find refuge during unsettling and uncertain times and of the resilience and joy that comes from allowing ourselves to find refuge.Links + Additional Resources:View these show notes on our website at https://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-06Follow Michelle on Instagram @skillinactionFinding Refuge book and 40-day sadhana (sliding scale pricing)Finding Refuge podcastSkill in Action bookMichelle’s upcoming eventsMichelle’s race equity training

Occasionally you meet someone who makes you feel good just by being in their presence, no matter what you’re doing or talking about. Sarah Jane Chapman is one of those people.She is (in my words) a modern-day witch who lives in alignment with the earth as an extension of herself, and has worked hard to heal her relationship with her body after years of slogging through diet culture and eating disorder recovery.Sarah Jane is a mama, a massage therapist, and a yoga teacher who teaches the kind of classes I actually want to take (which, TBH is rare 😄). And does a lot of other cool shit, which you can hear about in our conversation or read in her bio below or at her website. I hope you enjoy this conversation!“Yoga therapy is an individualized practice created to work with someone’s specific system. I typically see clients once or twice a month to check on their practice and tweak it if necessary. If practiced regularly, I can see changes in my clients’ systems. It’s truly magic.”— Sarah Jane Chapmanwww.sarahjanechapman.comInstagram: @sarahjanechapFor full bios and links to resources mentioned in the episode, visit the full show notes at http://gaiacenter.co/blog/bodyful-05.

Creators of the Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders model, Paula Scatoloni (LCSW, CEDS, SEP) and Rachel Lewis (MS, EDS, LPC, LMBT) bring a wealth of experience in the field of eating disorder treatment, along with expertise in neurobiological and body-oriented approaches to healing.

This image I have of this conversation with Tiya Caniel is that listening to it is like sensing a flower starting to bloom and open its petals within your own body. I hope you share that experience, and I can't wait for you to get to know Tiya.

In this conversation with Deirdre Fay, we discuss the essence of her Becoming Safely Embodied skills and book, which is now in my top 5 books to recommend to clients on the topic of healing from trauma.