In today’s episode, I’m talking with Dr. Adrienne Stein, a board-certified naturopathic doctor on a mission to change the narrative around menopause. With over 20 years of experience treating thousands of women in perimenopause and menopause, Dr. Adrienne sheds light on the lack of resources and understanding many women face during this transition. She sees menopause not just as a health condition but as a pivotal opportunity for women to transform their health, step into their power, and embrace a new chapter of embodiment. It’s a perspective you don’t want to miss—let’s get into it!

You can find Adrienne at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradrienne.nd/

Website: https://thrivemenopause.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.annaholtzman.com⁠

In today’s episode, I’m talking with Christine Northrup, an LCSW, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, and the owner of Take Root Counseling and Coaching, a group practice specializing in highly individualized eating disorder treatment. Christine also runs ED Recovery Coaching, where she helps individuals deepen their recovery journey. Drawing from her own recovery experience, she works through a somatically oriented, attachment-based lens and is an advanced practitioner of Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders. We dive into her approach to healing and how she helps clients connect to their capacity for deep, embodied transformation. Stay tuned—it’s a conversation you’ll want to hear!

You can find Christine at:

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

Therapy: https://www.takerootcounselingandcoaching.com/

Coaching: https://www.edrecoverycoaching.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

In today’s episode, I’m talking with Jess Seitz, a trauma-informed pelvic floor occupational therapist and vaginismus recovery coach who helps women around the world break free from the pain and frustration of vaginismus so they can enjoy intimacy without fear. After overcoming vaginismus herself, Jess developed a unique program that’s helped dozens of women turn pain into pleasure. We talk about her personal journey, her trauma-informed approach, and how nervous system regulation plays a key role in recovery. Stick around—you won’t want to miss it!

You can find Jess at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/painfree.intimacy/

Website: https://painfreeintimacy.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

In today’s episode, I got to chat with a colleague who I got to meet in person for the first time recently, which was pretty magical.

Lauren Garchow is a psychotherapist, mind-body coach, and chronic pain survivor based in Los Angeles, California. Her chronic pain healing journey revealed the mind’s powerful ability to change and adapt, igniting her passion to support others in their mind-body healing. With over a decade of experience in the social work field, she currently owns a private practice where she focuses on helping women feel at home in their bodies.  She has successfully guided numerous clients through diverse chronic pain challenges and physical symptoms, with a focus on providing relief for those struggling with dizziness. She helps clients understand the connections between individual, family, community, and societal systems, empowering them to explore their minds and bodies with curiosity and compassion.

Lauren deeply values balance in her life. In order for her to show up whole-heartily in this work, she prioritizes having a full life outside of it. She loves listening to live music and currently leads live music shows for up-and-coming artists in Los Angeles. A big part of her healing journey was learning to have more FUN and lighten up on herself, so making time for community, play, and creativity is crucial for her in maintaining her mind-body connection.

When Lauren and I spoke, we covered all of the above, plus she shared her experience with a major relapse in chronic pain — and how that relapse, which is a very common experience by the way, actually taught her more about the healing process, which she’s about to share with you in this conversation.

You can find Lauren at:

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

Website: https://www.laurengtherapy.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

Welcome back, dear listener. In today’s episode, I got to chat with someone I’ve admired from afar for a long time, Whitney Rydman.

I first came across Whitney some years ago, when

But she didn’t start out in the mind-body world. Whitney

Whitney also winds up coaching her design clients on what has become my favorite topic lately: How the entrepreneurship journey totally mirrors the mind-body healing journey, with all of its ups and downs, leaps forward and setbacks, and I can’t wait to share with you our conversation about it!

You can find Whitney at:

Website: https://thedesignremedy.com/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

Journaling Course: www.annaholtzman.com/writingtorelease

Welcome back, dear listener. In today’s episode, I got to chat about the intersection between nervous system regulation and sex with my wonderful guest Vanessa Blackstone.

Vanessa is a therapist, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and she is the Executive Director of the Pain Psychology Center as well as a co-author of The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook, which is available for pre-order now and comes out on November 1st, so I definitely recommend you grab a copy.

Vanessa earned her M.S. in Social Work from the University of Southern California and, following her own personal recovery from chronic pain, Vanessa began her career as a therapist in 2018. In addition to chronic pain treatment, she specializes in sex therapy, substance use and recovery, and mindfulness based relapse prevention, and she also works on film sets as an On-set Wellness Professional.

Outside of her professional roles, Vanessa is a former foster youth who advocates for current and former foster youth by sharing her personal experiences in public speaking events.

I have wanted to meet Vanessa for a while, but I was especially grateful to have a conversation with her about sex. Even in the year 2024, sex is STILL a taboo topic and it’s hard to find useful information that centers our human experience around sex, which includes our emotions, our beliefs, and our nervous systems as well as our physical sensations. Sex is an area where many folks with chronic pain struggle and feel isolated in that struggle. So, I am honored to share this conversation with Vanessa, who brings such compassion and humanity to the subject of sex.

You can find Vanessa at:

Book: https://www.newharbinger.com/9781648483769/the-pain-reprocessing-therapy-workbook/

The Pain Psychology Center: https://www.painpsychologycenter.com/our-team/

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠
Journaling Course: www.annaholtzman.com/writingtorelease

Welcome back, dear listener. In today’s episode, I got to have a very interesting conversation with my colleague Katie LaCelle. We talked about using Internal Family Systems Therapy to recover from insomnia, we talked about detoxing from early childhood survival habits of urgency and overwork, we talked about so many nuances of the mind-body process that I’m almost sure you’ll see yourself in at least some part of our chat.

Katie is a somatic IFS practitioner & leadership coach. She is passionate about helping her clients uncover their own internal wise leaders and reconnect with their deepest embodied intuition. IFS, or internal family systems, is a trauma-informed modality that can help you get present, rewire your brain, and regulate your nervous system. Katie regularly assists the IFS Institute in training therapists and practitioners, and she is currently pursuing her somatic experiencing practitioner certification. Fun fact: Katie has worked part time in the circus for 8 years, coaching and performing on the flying trapeze. I hope that’s got you curious. Now, here’s our

You can find Katie at:
Website: https://www.cressanallc.com/

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

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

Welcome back, dear listener. In today's episode, I got to chat with another dear friend and colleague, Petra Schmider. And I'm so excited to have Petra on the podcast to talk about a condition that is getting a lot more attention lately, but that is also surrounded by a lot of confusion and conflicting information.

Petra has a deep body of knowledge and understanding about Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, or EDS, because she herself was diagnosed with EDS. She's also a mind-body practitioner who has used mind-body techniques to recover from debilitating pain associated with EDS. And she's going to take us deeply into the complexities of how a genetic and incurable condition like EDS can be intertwined with neuroplastic pain, which very much can be reduced or even eliminated through the use of mind-body techniques. It's a fascinating conversation that can be applied to many other conditions as well, not just EDS, and I can't wait for you to hear this.

You can find Petra at:
Website: https://www.painawaycoach.com/our-story

Email: [email protected]

Petra’s recovery story on The Curiosity Cure podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e29-petras-pain-recovery-dream-life/id1595415545?i=1000661834736

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠
Journaling Course: www.annaholtzman.com/writingtorelease

Welcome back dear listeners. Today, I have no guest because I’m going to share another talk that I gave recently. Using my voice is something that I’ve discovered I love to do. And something I’m particularly passionate about is breaking down the concepts of chronic pain recovery into very simple language. There are lots of different ways to communicate these concepts, and there are many very eloquent practitioners and researchers out there who use neuroscience terminology, facts and figures from research studies, and other lofty sounding language to communicate these ideas. And that is fantastic! That kind of language really speaks to people in a particular way and it serves a specific purpose in our society. And, my contribution to this conversation about mind-body healing comes in a very different type of language from that. Because my personal mission is really about encouraging people, like you, the listener, to develop trust in your own inner wisdom and your own innate understanding of your own lived experience.

And to encourage that, I make it a point whenever I can to use everyday language. And instead of using a lot of scientific jargon — not that it doesn’t have its place — I prefer to use everyday metaphors to help you understand that, just by being alive, you already have all the tools you need to understand what’s going on in your mind and body. It’s really just about tuning in and paying attention, and leaning into what you already know about life based on other experiences that we can use as metaphors.

And now, I hope you’ll enjoy this talk in which I’ll break down the process of chronic pain recovery into three simple concepts. Fair warning, this talk does include some mild bathroom humor.

You can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠

Welcome back, dear listener. In today’s episode, I got to chat with a dear friend and colleague, Phil de la Haye.

Phil is an Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner and mind-body coach based near Bristol in the UK. He has his own history of chronic pain, so he has a personal interest in this work and a great passion for supporting other people who are in recovery from chronic symptoms. 

I personally find the IFS framework to be incredibly helpful with chronic symptom recovery and Phil did an amazing job of explaining that framework in our conversation, so I know you’ll get a lot out of this episode.

Phil and I met about three years ago through some Facebook group I think — probably a group for mind-body practitioners, but I was already familiar with Phil’s story after hearing him interviewed on a podcast called The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs. Anyway, somehow, we connected, and we’ve been meeting on Zoom together about once a month off and on.

In theory we meet to talk about client work and offer each other support with that. But quite often we wind up sharing our own personal experiences, how stress shows up in our bodies as we continue to be human beings, and just to generally connect. And I’m sharing this because developing friendships and connections with other people who “get it” has been such an important and enjoyable part of my own recovery from chronic pain — and my development as a person.

It's a big part of the reason that I created my monthly membership group, the Mind-Body Support Circle. We meet up twice a month on Zoom to talk about chronic symptom recovery, to journal together, and most importantly to share honestly and vulnerably with each other and give and receive support! It’s such a simple, beautiful thing. I remember one group member recently saying, “we are changing the world by doing this together.” And I totally agree with that.

If you would like to join us, you can do so by signing up for my signature journaling course, Writing to Release Chronic Pain. When you sign up, you’ll be invited to two months of complementary membership in the Support Circle so that you can experience it and see if it’s for you. I’d love to get to know you there. To learn more, visit my website, annaholtzman.com/writingtorelease

And now, without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Phil de la Haye.

You can find Phil at:

Website: www.phildelahaye.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/phildelahayeifs/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/phildelahayeifs

FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/901827657282916

And you can find me at:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@anna_holtzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: [email protected]

Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.annaholtzman.com⁠