In This Body

What if the responses that seem most confusing after sexual violence are actually the body’s most intelligent survival strategies?

In this episode, Ailey explores how culture has taught women to doubt their instincts and how institutions have historically silenced survivors. She unpacks what truly happens in the nervous system during trauma, including tonic immobility, dissociation, the fawn response, and why arousal during assault can be a protective reflex rather than desire.

Through the lenses of betrayal trauma, complex PTSD, and the window of tolerance, this episode examines why awareness can be delayed, why leaving can feel impossible, and how survival patterns often get misread as consent. Ailey also explores the links between sexual trauma, hypersexuality, eating disorders, and intergenerational patterns.

This is a compassionate guide to understanding survival so shame can give way to clarity, and healing can begin from the inside out.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Setting Intentions For A Hard Topic
• 4:41 Why Disbelief Persists Culturally
• 12:43 How Culture Primes The Body
• 19:01 Betrayal Trauma And Not Knowing
• 25:23 Why Leaving Isn’t Simple
• 37:28 Delayed Disclosure And Shame
• 42:48 Institutional Betrayal And Justice
• 48:14 Complex PTSD And The Window Of Tolerance
• 53:56 Hypersexuality As Adaptation
• 1:00:48 Eating Disorders, Body Image, And Trauma

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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What if the most radical thing you can do for your life and relationships is to feel your body right now? In this episode, we’re joined by somatic psychotherapist and movement pioneer Christine Caldwell to explore bodyfulness, the embodied counterpart to mindfulness, and why attention belongs in sensation, not just thought.

Christine shares how her work integrating dance therapy, body psychotherapy, and Buddhist practice led to founding the Somatic Counselling program at Naropa University. We explore how culture trains disconnection, how language reinforces the mind body split, and how returning to direct experience changes the way we act. She introduces the Moving Cycle of awareness, integration, and natural action, along with a simple practice she calls breathe, move, sense. We also touch on the influence of Thich Nhat Hanh and her book Conscious Moving.

If mindfulness has felt incomplete, this episode offers a grounded path back to your own skin. If it resonates, subscribe, share, and leave a review.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Welcome and Meet Christine
• 4:10 I Am My Body, Not In It
• 8:23 Synthesising Dance, Bodywork, And Psychology
• 12:59 Why Fields Became Siloed
• 17:43 Defining Bodyfulness Beyond Prescriptions
• 23:46 Technology, Consumerism, And Disembodiment
• 28:59 The Moving Cycle: Origins And Phases
• 33:51 Physical Free Association In Practice
• 38:40 Buddhism, Attention, And Everyday Practice
• 43:44 Enlightened Body And Sensorimotor Loop
• 47:55 A Doorway: Breathe, Move, Sense

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

What if the thing blocking pleasure isn’t technique, but a long war with your own body? In this episode, we talk with Emma-Louise Boynton, creator of Sex Talks and author of the forthcoming book Pleasure, about her journey from disconnection to desire, and the moment she realized pleasure and self conflict cannot coexist.

We explore how naming shame softens it, why body neutrality can be more sustainable than forced positivity, and how slowness and safety help the nervous system open to arousal. We also challenge cultural sex scripts and reframe sexual liberation as the freedom to choose what truly honours your body and heart.

If you’ve ever wondered if you are just not a sexual person, this episode offers language, tools, and hope. Start small. Pleasure grows where pressure eases. If this resonated, subscribe, share, and leave a review.

In this episode:

• 0:00 Welcome & Embodiment Mission
• 4:06 The Dinner Party Confession
• 12:53 Disembodiment & Pleasure Capacity
• 24:55 Shame, Silence, And Sex Scripts
• 31:15 From War To Body Neutrality
• 37:28 Learning Desire And Boundaries
• 41:49 Beauty Myths And Control
• 50:49 Debunking Sex Myths

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

What if the wisest part of you isn’t your thinking mind, but the sensations already alive in your body? In this episode, executive coach and Enneagram expert Courtney Smith joins us to explore how fear quietly shapes our choices and how learning to feel what’s here now can restore agency, presence, and pleasure.

Courtney shares her path from Yale Law and McKinsey to a body first approach blending the Enneagram, conscious leadership, and somatic awareness. We unpack three core fears: loss of security, approval, and control, and how they keep us looping familiar conflicts and drama triangle roles.

We move into practice by welcoming fear, tracking it in the body, and asking, If I weren’t scared, what would I be doing? We also explore pleasure as information, not indulgence, but a compass toward aliveness and truth.

You’ll leave with tools to notice sensation, spot fear driven patterns, and choose presence over performance. If this resonated, subscribe, share, and leave a review, then ask yourself: if fear disappeared for one hour, what would you choose?

In this episode:

• 0:00 – Opening And Embodiment Mission
• 5:14 – From Head To Body-Based Presence
• 10:02 – Enneagram Beyond Typing
• 16:42 – Presence Begins With Sensation
• 23:57 – Bypassing With Self‑Knowledge
• 28:53 – Why Growth Is Uncomfortable
• 34:55 – Socialisation, Fear, And Scripts
• 41:48 – The Drama Triangle Explained

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

In this solo episode of How To Be In This Body, Ailey Jolie reflects on carrying breast implants for 15 years and the moment she finally had enough capacity to hear the “no” she couldn’t access almost two decades ago. This is a conversation about consent, power, and why trauma tools designed for single events often fail to address lives shaped by repetition, surveillance, and the gaze.

Ailey explores how trauma research centered on male bodies overlooks a common female experience: disembodiment without a clear origin story. From self-objectification to the dulling of interoception, she traces the cultural and clinical forces that teach bodies to doubt their own knowing.

Rather than chasing perfect regulation, this episode reframes healing as capacity—the ability to feel fear, grief, and hope while still moving toward what is right. Distinguishing “scoreboard” healing from “story” healing, it invites a different question: not what broke you, but what you were shaped to hold. This episode is for anyone who’s tried every somatic tool and still feels far from home.

In this episode:

• Opening And Embodiment Mission
• The Gap In Trauma Theory
• A Child’s Wish And Split Survival
• Patterning Danger And Adolescence
• Violations In Medicine And Aftermath
• Self‑Objectification And Losing Interoception
• Beauty Culture’s Profitable Wounds
• Choosing Explant And Choosing Trust
• Repair Through Consent And Care

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

What if the stories your body carries are the map back to belonging? In this conversation with Palestinian–American poet and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan, we explore how narrative, trauma, and the nervous system meet inside a living body. Hala shares how displacement shaped her love of books and oral histories, why writing still arrives as mystery, and how creative practice can offer coherence when life feels scattered.

We move beyond buzzwords to talk about embodiment as a political act—how storytelling becomes witness and resistance when institutions fail. Hala offers practical ways to return to your body: hand over heart, 4-7-8 breathing, hot baths without a phone, and the simple mantra “this is just what’s happening.” She also unpacks why perfectionism makes somatics feel inaccessible and how choosing to feel—even discomfort—builds resilience.

This episode is for anyone curious about creativity as healing, building distress tolerance, and holding grief and agency at the same time. Expect clear language, grounded tools, and gentle guidance for reconnecting to your body and your story.

In this episode:

• 0:00 – Welcome And Episode Setup
• 3:37 – Narrative As A Unifying Thread
• 9:53 – How Narrative Works In The Body
• 14:46 – Displacement, Reading, And Early Survival
• 20:47 – Creativity As Conduit And Mystery
• 30:17 – Safety, Downregulation, And Rewriting
• 36:52 – Storytelling As Survival And Alliance
• 42:12 – Memory, Erasure, And Resistance
• 49:07 – Embodiment As Political Practice

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Experience: Insight Timer
• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

• Follow: Instagram
• Find: Website
• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

What if a devoted practice is quietly pulling you away from your body instead of deeper into it. In this episode, we sit down with Megan Campbell, yoga teacher, trainer, retreat leader, and psychotherapist, to explore what embodiment really asks of us beyond perfect poses or polished language.

Megan shares how grief surfaced unexpectedly through practice, the allure and limitations of modern wellness culture, and the steady courage it took to move from the studio into the therapy room. Together, we examine the ways embodiment can become performative, and how returning to sensation, cycles, and nervous system awareness creates a safer path back to self.

This conversation offers a compassionate look at healing that values both story and somatics, honors fluctuation rather than fixing, and reminds us that sometimes the most therapeutic move is to slow down and feel more, not do more.

In this episode: 

• 0:00 – Setting The Embodiment Intent
• 7:08 – Teaching Early And Finding Voice
• 10:02 – Women’s Bodies, Ritual, And Safety
• 17:06 – Seasons, Cycles, And Chakras
• 20:28 – Naming Burnout And Aging Out
• 27:32 – Pedestals, Patriarchy, And Credit
• 34:27 – Fixing The Body Or Feeling It
• 39:42 – Seeing Nervous Systems In Motion
• 45:42 – Windows Of Tolerance In Practice

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Experience: Insight Timer
• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

What if your body isn’t a barrier to spirituality, but the place where the sacred actually meets you. This is the heart of the conversation with spiritual teacher and retreat leader Brandon Nappi, whose work weaves together Christian mysticism, Zen practice, and somatic healing.

Together, we explore a spirituality that is grounded, honest, and lived through the body. Brandon shares how his understanding of faith was transformed through contemplative practice and relationship, learning to hold both insight and belovedness at once. We name the ways body and spirit have been divided through history, and we also remember the quieter traditions that insisted on an embodied faith.

This episode offers a practical, compassionate invitation to begin where sensation and breath are available, to build capacity through daily practice, and to meet discomfort without bypassing it. For anyone engaged in leadership, healing, or inner work, this conversation is a reminder that the body can be a place of refuge, devotion, and return.

In this episode: 

• 0:00 – Welcome And Embodiment Framing
• 3:26 – Body As Home: Defining Embodiment 
• 11:11 –  Meeting Buddhism And Somatics
• 16:43 – Practice Grounding: Zazen And Breath
• 22:24 – How The Body Was Split From Spirit
• 29:27 – Slow Repair: Somatics And Unlearning
• 32:42 – Men’s Work: From Fragility To Feeling
• 39:34 – Why Spirit Still Matters In Somatics
• 46:00 – The Bandage Story: Sitting With Pain

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Experience: Insight Timer
• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

• Follow: Instagram
• Find: Website
• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

In this episode of How To Be In This Body, we explore the fawn response as an adaptive survival strategy (not a character flaw) and trace a gentle path from self-abandonment back to self-contact. Dr. Ingrid Clayton, clinical psychologist and author, brings together clinical insight, lived experience, and practical tools for building internal safety and reducing shame.

Together, Ailey and Ingrid unpack how fawning develops, why danger can feel familiar, and how our bodies learn to prioritize connection over selfhood. This conversation offers compassion, language, and embodied understanding for anyone who has learned to appease in order to survive and who is ready to begin coming home to themselves.

In this episode:

• 0:00 – Embodiment And Show Welcome
• 1:47 – Meet Dr Ingrid Clayton
• 8:16 – Agency, Validation And Reclaiming Story
• 16:28 – The Missing Discourse On Fawning
• 20:26 – Codependency Versus Trauma Response
• 23:27 – How Fawning Feels In The Body
• 28:34 – From Self-Abandonment To Self-Contact
• 34:57 – Fawning In The Therapy Room 
• 41:34 – Trust Your Body’s Unique Path
• 44:27 – Everyday Practices For Regulation

You can read the transcript here

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

• Find: Website
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• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

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• Email: info@aileyjolie.com

Join Ailey Jolie for a raw and personal solo episode of How To Be In This Body. In this New Year's reflection, Ailey shares what happened when her body stopped letting her perform; a year of health crises, the real story behind her viral posts, and the decision to focus her attention on her upcoming book and course INBODY. 

In this episode, she explores what it means to let go of an identity built around being needed, why she's done setting goals from the neck up, and the question she's carrying into this year: how do I actually want to spend my time? This episode is for anyone in their own season of stopping, listening, or questioning what comes next. 

In this episode: 

• 0:00 – Welcome and Embodiment Focus 
• 1:16 – New Year Messaging Challenged 
• 3:06 – Illness as Unwanted Teacher 
• 8:15 – Writing from Inside the Body 
• 10:31 – Calm Versus Capacity 
• 22:31 – Stopping the Performance 
• 26:00 – Self-Regulation Needs Co-Regulation 
• 33:20 – Holding Less to Live More 
• 39:20 – Capacity, Fawn Response, and Needs

Learn more about Ailey Jolie:

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• Experience: Insight Timer
• Sign up: InBodyMethod
• Email: [email protected]

To follow along with the In This Body podcast:

• Follow: Instagram
• Find: Website
• Email: info@aileyjolie.com