In This Body

What if your body has been telling the truth all along?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Dr. Stephanie Minchin, clinical psychologist and yoga therapist, to explore what becomes possible when psychology and yoga are brought together as one integrated approach to healing. Together, they examine why insight alone is not always enough, and how the body often holds the missing piece.

Stephanie shares how yoga therapy supports people in rebuilding a relationship with themselves through curiosity, nervous system awareness, and gentle embodiment. The conversation explores why healing cannot be rushed, how trauma can reveal itself without words, and what it means to create enough safety for lasting change to unfold.

Ailey and Stephanie also discuss the role of Internal Family Systems, offering simple ways to connect with different parts of ourselves through breath, touch, and felt experience rather than relying on the thinking mind alone.

If you have ever felt like you understand your patterns but still struggle to feel different, this conversation offers a compassionate and embodied path forward.

In this episode:

• 4:43 Why Yoga And Psychology Belong Together
• 11:13 What A Yoga Therapy Session Looks Like
• 18:13 When Talk Therapy Hits A Wall
• 31:13 Big T Trauma Versus Attachment Wounds
• 41:43 Bringing Internal Family Systems Onto The Mat
• 49:13 Breathwork And Interoception Practices

You can read the full transcript here.

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Can a global beauty brand create meaningful change for body image?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Phillippa Diedrichs, PhD, a Professor of Psychology and leading body image researcher at the Centre for Appearance Research, to explore the complex relationship between science, social impact, and the beauty industry. Together, they examine what it means to create evidence based body confidence programs while working alongside global brands, and why discernment matters more than simple answers.

Drawing on more than two decades of research, Phillippa shares what truly supports a healthier relationship with the body, challenging common assumptions while offering practical strategies that are grounded in evidence rather than trends. The conversation also turns to the personal cost of purpose driven work, exploring burnout through the lens of the nervous system and why disconnection from the body can be a deeply protective response.

Rather than striving for body confidence, Ailey and Phillippa invite a gentler approach rooted in curiosity, compassion, and learning to relate to the body in new ways.

If you are looking for a more thoughtful perspective on body image and what genuine change can look like, this conversation offers both practical insight and hope.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Welcome And Why Body Image Matters
• 4:25 Working With Big Brands For Change
• 9:22 Holding Corporate Tension With Discernment
• 14:55 Strategic Science And Social Impact
• 18:15 Burnout As A Body-Level No
• 22:32 Coming Back To The Senses
• 25:54 Protective Strategies For Body Image
• 30:17 Tools, Training And Closing Reflections

You can read the full transcript here.

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What is your face communicating beyond what you see in the mirror?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Shelly Marshall, founder of Beauty Shamans and Skin Within Studio, to explore the relationship between beauty, embodiment, and the nervous system. After years working as an aesthetician, registered nurse, and nurse injector, Shelly shares why she ultimately chose to step away from injectables.

Together, they unpack how Botox and fillers may influence more than appearance, discussing facial movement, lymphatic flow, inflammation, and the role our expressions play in connection and co regulation. The conversation also explores the growing pressure on women to maintain a youthful appearance and what can be lost when beauty becomes disconnected from the body's natural intelligence.

Rather than focusing on quick fixes, Ailey and Shelly offer gentle alternatives that support the face and nervous system, including facial massage, gua sha, fascia care, and lymphatic drainage.

If you have ever questioned your relationship with beauty or wondered how cosmetic treatments may influence your connection to yourself and others, this conversation offers a thoughtful and empowering perspective.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Welcome And Why Faces Matter
• 8:14 From Aesthetician To Registered Nurse
• 18:45 Botox And Autoimmune Concerns
• 27:28 Facial Mimicry And Co-Regulation
• 32:31 Fillers Explained And Hidden Risks
• 42:45 Beauty As A Class Signifier
• 48:20 Lymph As The Body’s Caretaker
• 52:32 Nightly Rituals Using Touch And Sound

You can read the full transcript here.

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What happens when being "good" comes at the cost of being yourself?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Sara Hirsh Bordo, author of Autoimmunity and the Good Girls, to explore the connection between people pleasing, self abandonment, and chronic illness. Together, they examine how perfectionism, self silencing, and the pressure to keep others comfortable can become long term strategies for survival.

Drawing from Sara's personal story and the experiences of thousands of women living with autoimmune disease, the conversation explores how early conditioning shapes our relationship with our bodies, our needs, and our sense of worth. They also discuss the importance of moving beyond trauma comparisons and creating space for every person's experience to be honored.

Ailey and Sara examine the relationship between chronic stress, inflammation, and autoimmune disease while emphasizing that illness is never a personal failure. Instead, they explore how self advocacy, nervous system awareness, and learning to disappoint others can become powerful steps toward healing.

If you have ever struggled to put yourself first or felt disconnected from your own needs, this conversation offers a compassionate invitation to begin coming home to yourself.

In this episode:

• 2:26 Pausing Solo Episodes For Health
• 5:08 What Being In Your Body Means
• 10:54 Performing For Approval And Safety
• 18:58 Trauma Comparisons And Patriarchal Scripts
• 30:02 Receiving Care As A Nervous System Skill
• 37:15 What Changes When You Assert Yourself
• 43:38 Storytelling, Expression, And Identity Crisis
• 52:06 Science, No Blame, And Next Steps

You can read the full transcript here.

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What is your voice communicating before you say a single word?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Jordan Dann, a psychoanalysis informed somatic practitioner and relationship therapist, to explore the connection between voice, embodiment, and nervous system regulation. Together, they examine how breath, tone, tension, and resonance shape the way we connect, communicate, and respond to one another.

Drawing from her background in theatre and voice work, Jordan explains how the body influences self expression and why the voice can reveal patterns of protection long before we are aware of them. The conversation also explores relationship dynamics, including why conflict can escalate so quickly and how nervous systems interact beneath the surface of everyday conversations.

Ailey and Jordan discuss rupture and repair, the physiology of feeling threatened, and the moments that help the body return to safety and connection. They also reflect on therapy culture, validation, and how different healing approaches can support us at different stages of growth.

If you want a deeper understanding of communication, relationships, and what your body may already be expressing, this conversation offers a thoughtful place to begin.

In this episode:

• 3:59 Defining What Being Embodied Means
• 6:54 From Theatre Training To Trauma Work
• 12:45 Linklater Voice And Releasing Tension
• 20:43 How Tone Shapes Safety In Couples
• 29:01 Rupture And Repair As Body Events
• 45:43 Choosing The Right Therapy Season
• 47:42 Polyvagal Voice Cues And Responsibility
• 51:40 Where To Go Next And How To Support

You can read the full transcript here.

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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What if your nervous system is asking to be understood, not managed?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with Alexis Florentina, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, to explore how nervous system regulation has become another form of self improvement, and why that can leave us feeling even more disconnected from ourselves.

Drawing from her own experience with chronic illness and medical trauma, Alexis shares a gentler approach to embodiment, one that honors leaving the body as a valid survival strategy and recognizes that healing cannot be forced. Together, she and Ailey explore safety, titration, and the subtle signals that tell us when our nervous system is ready and when it is not.

The conversation also unpacks common misunderstandings about regulation, anxiety, and activation, offering a more compassionate perspective on emotions that are often treated as problems to solve. They discuss the difference between stress and trauma, the role of creativity in healing, and why aliveness, not perfect regulation, may be the real measure of healing.

If you have ever felt pressure to do embodiment the "right" way, this conversation offers a more spacious and supportive path forward.

In this episode:

• 3:35 An Invitation Back To The Body
• 4:16 Lexy's Training And Origin Story
• 11:21 Holism Over Mind Body Polarity
• 16:46 Regulation Isn’t A Task
• 21:47 What Trauma Feels Like Clinically
• 28:15 Writing Creativity And Aliveness
• 37:13 Meeting Fear Without Fixing
• 44:59 Fawning People Pleasing And Needs
• 49:17 Your Body Is Fighting For You

You can read the full transcript here.

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What happens when you leave a belief system, but your body is still living by its rules?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with poet and spoken word artist Arielle Estoria, author of The Unfolding, to explore faith deconstruction, embodiment, and the journey of coming home to yourself after years of being taught to be smaller.

Arielle shares how embodiment became tangible through everyday choices, from embracing her natural hair to redefining movement, beauty, and self trust on her own terms. Together, she and Ailey explore the grief of losing community when belonging is tied to belief, and the freedom that can emerge when life expands beyond rigid definitions of right and wrong.

The conversation also examines the nervous system impact of religious conditioning and how healing often happens through small, repeated experiences of safety, creativity, and authentic connection.

Throughout the episode, Arielle offers practical tools for reconnecting with the body, including journaling, movement, interoception, self expression, and learning to trust your own inner knowing.

If you are navigating religious trauma, self acceptance, or the challenge of trusting yourself again, this conversation offers language, permission, and a gentler path forward.

In this episode:

• 3:09 What Being In Your Body Means
• 7:41 Growing Up Baptist And Feeling Small
• 13:43 How Conditioning Shapes The Nervous System
• 16:05 Artistry As A Way Home
• 19:23 Faith Deconstruction And Conditional Belonging
• 29:42 Being Loved Without Shrinking
• 35:14 Telling Fear From A True No
• 46:33 The Permission Slips She Wanted Sooner

You can read the full transcript here.

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What happens when the grief carried inside the reproductive body is never fully named?

In this solo episode, Ailey speaks to miscarriage, endometriosis, adenomyosis, infertility, reproductive surgery, and the quiet grief so many people are forced to hold alone. Drawing from both her clinical work and personal experience, she explores what it means to live in a body shaped by pain, loss, diagnosis, and scar tissue.

Ailey examines how easily self trust can erode when symptoms are dismissed and answers are delayed, and how that experience impacts the nervous system and relationship to the body itself. She also explores the growing conversation around endocrine disrupting chemicals, reproductive health, and the complex realities many women are navigating inside modern environments.

From there, the episode moves into pregnancy, miscarriage, ambiguous loss, and the ways grief can remain invisible when there is no ritual, language, or collective witnessing around it.

This conversation offers a compassionate and grounded space for anyone navigating reproductive grief, chronic pain, or a changing relationship with their body.

In this episode:

• 2:53 Naming Reproductive Loss Out Loud
• 11:58 The Bigger Pattern In The Data
• 22:48 When Systems Shift Blame Onto Women
• 32:37 Miscarriage As Postpartum In The Body
• 40:22 Microplastics In Placentas And Loss
• 45:33 Surgery, Scar Tissue And Proprioception
• 49:03 Healing Through Witnessing And Choice
• 53:18 Where To Go Next And Share

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What if anger is not the final destination, but the doorway to something deeper?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with depth psychologist and author Vanessa Bennett to explore the complexity of anger, healing, and what happens when righteous rage becomes the place we live. Together, they examine how anger can protect us while also shielding us from deeper emotions waiting underneath.

Vanessa shares how Jungian psychology, embodiment, and somatic healing can work together to create a more expansive understanding of trauma and identity. The conversation explores inherited pain, collective patterns, and the difference between ego work and deeper soul work, especially in today’s online healing culture.

Ailey and Vanessa also unpack Vanessa’s “Trinity Wounds”: the witch wound, sister wound, and mother wound, and how they quietly shape relationships between women through mistrust, competition, and disconnection.

This episode offers a grounded and nuanced look at healing, one that honours the reality of harm while also asking what becomes possible when anger no longer has to carry everything alone.

In this episode:

• 4:00 Safety And Stability In The Body
• 7:25 Why Depth Somatics Feels Different
• 9:54 Collective Unconscious And Shared Pain
• 21:53 Ego Work Versus Soul Work
• 33:12 The Witch Sister Mother Wounds
• 44:16 Why The Enemy Within Is Hard
• 47:02 Righteous Rage Versus Real Power
• 58:04 Owning Your Part Without Blame

You can read the full transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What if pleasure is not about learning new techniques, but learning how to feel safe in your body?

In this episode, Ailey sits down with sex therapist and sexologist Aleksandra Trkulja to explore the connection between body image, nervous system regulation, and intimacy. Together, they unpack why shame, self criticism, and disconnection from the body can create real barriers to pleasure, arousal, and desire.

Aleks shares insights from her work in eating disorder recovery and explains how control can begin to feel like safety. The conversation also explores the fawn response in sex, the difference between compliance and consent, and why learning your body’s subtle signals can transform the way you relate to intimacy.

From there, Ailey and Aleks move into practical ways to reconnect with desire, beginning outside the bedroom through everyday experiences of pleasure, sensation, and preference. They also discuss co regulation, trauma informed pacing, and the role the nervous system plays in connection and sexuality.

If you have ever felt disconnected from your body or unsure how to access pleasure in an embodied way, this conversation offers a compassionate and grounded place to begin.

In this episode:

• 4:41 Why Body Hate Blocks Pleasure
• 11:01Eating Disorders And False Control
• 17:08 Body Image Patterns In Sex
• 20:53 Shame Based Messages About Sex
• 28:03 Desire As A Relearned Skill
• 34:15 Trauma Informed Safety And Pace
• 40:22 Co Regulation In Intimacy
• 45:19 Curiosity Over Shame

You can read the full transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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