Movement Is My Constant: Real conversations on movement, mindfulness, and making meaningful change - for creatives, caregivers, and mission-driven humans

By Ana Maia MarquesHealth & Fitness Mental Health Education Self-Improvement Fitness

Movement Is My Constant: Real conversations on movement, mindfulness, and making meaningful change - for creatives, caregivers, and mission-driven humans episodes

October 08 The Body Doesn't Lie
Episode Overview
Francisca Mix has spent nearly twenty years working at the intersection of somatic psychology and relational healing. In this conversation, we explore what happens when couples stop trying to talk their way through disconnection and start moving through it instead. From the neuroscience of stress responses to the surprising things partner dancing reveals about power, presence, and trust, this episode looks at what the body knows about a relationship long before the distance between them has a name.
What We Cover
How Francisca's own experience with partner dancing led her to dance/movement therapy — and eventually to a thesis on communication and Argentine tango
Why somatic psychology, once considered peripheral, is now reshaping how the field understands lasting change
What couples actually bring into the therapy room — and why their bodies are often saying something their words aren't
The animal instinct underneath conflict: why stressed nervous systems don't turn toward each other, and what conditions make turning toward possible
The Beyond Words® workshop — what happens when couples explore communication, trust, and intimacy through movement rather than conversation, including one unexpected outcome that surprised even Francisca
What longer-term couples look like in movement, versus newer ones — and what playfulness, or the loss of it, reveals about a relationship over time
Power dynamics and embodiment: why lead and follow in partner dancing shows up across all kinds of couples, regardless of gender
The limits of this work: when nervous systems are too activated for movement to help, and when separation — not togetherness — is the right first step
One simple practice to try at home: the back-to-back sway, and why it works at a physiological level
Resources & Links
Beyond Words® — Francisca's experiential workshop for couples: franciscacc.com/beyond-words-1
Couples Therapy in Motion® — movement-based training for mental health professionals: franciscacc.com/couples-therapy-motion
Polyvagal theory — referenced in relation to nervous system regulation and social engagement
Bartenieff Fundamentals — the movement framework underlying Francisca's somatic approach
Body-Mind Centering — referenced in relation to organ awareness and intentional embodied presence
About the Guest
Francisca F. Mix, MA, LPC, ACS, BC-DMT is the CEO and Founder of Francisca Consulting & Counseling, based in the Denver metro area of Colorado. A Licensed Professional Counselor, Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, and Approved Clinical Supervisor with nearly twenty years of experience, Francisca created Beyond Words®, an experiential workshop for couples, and Couples Therapy in Motion®, a movement-based training for mental health professionals. Her work integrates somatic psychology, nervous system awareness, and embodied approaches to help individuals and couples move beyond stuck relational patterns and reconnect — with themselves and with each other.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. If this episode made you curious about what your body might already be saying in the spaces between conversations, send it to someone who needs to hear it — a couple working through something, or a clinician looking for new ways in.
For more at the intersection of movement, the body, and what's underneath it, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale

55 min
September 24The Body Speaks Every Day
Episode Overview
In this episode, Beatrice Brunelli brings a perspective you don't often find in the movement world: one that is equal parts scientific and embodied. A former competitive athlete, engineer, and myofascial yoga teacher, Beatrice has spent years working at the intersection of fascial anatomy, the nervous system, and yoga practice. What emerges is a conversation about what it actually means to train the whole body — not as a collection of parts to manage, but as a living system in constant dialogue with what we do, feel, and experience.
What We Cover
How a teenager managing breathing problems in swimming and horse-riding competitions ended up charting a path toward myofascial yoga
What fascia is, why athletes tend to be more guarded in this tissue, and why that stiffness is something to work with, not against
The distinction between good stress and bad stress — and why sport itself is a stressor we rarely name as one
The BodyTensFlow® method: how it came to be, why time was the central design problem, and why 30 to 90 seconds of fascial work per area is enough to create a real response in the body
What the contrast between Italy and Northern Europe reveals about how differently we relate to the body — and the cultural shift that's already underway in how we train
What athletes and coaches would gain from treating movement as a complete system, and what's still standing in the way
Resources and Links
Beatrice's website: yogamiofasciale.it
Beatrice on Instagram: @beatrice.brunelli.yoga
About the Guest
Beatrice Brunelli is a myofascial yoga teacher, engineer, and creator of the BodyTensFlow® method. After fifteen years as a competitive athlete — first as a swimmer, then in horse riding — she studied energy engineering and worked for a multinational company before returning to movement full time. Her work sits at the intersection of fascial anatomy, nervous system science, and yoga practice, and she now teaches practitioners through a master's programme she developed in myofascial release. Her book on BodyTensFlow® is available in Italian, with more to come.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode landed for you — if you've ever pushed through instead of pausing, or trained the activity without training the system around it — share it with an athlete who might be ready to hear it differently.
For more at the intersection of movement, health, and performance, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
46 min
September 10Older Than You
Episode Overview
In this episode, therapist and EMDR trainer Erica Bonham makes the case that trauma doesn't live where we think it does — not in what we know, but in what the body has stored, patterned, and organized around long before the thinking mind gets a vote. Erica and Ana talk through what it actually takes to build a nervous system with more capacity: not bypassing what's hard, but developing the physical ability to stay present to it, one breath and one contraction-and-expansion at a time.
What We Cover
Why trauma "doesn't care what we know" — the difference between cognitive insight and what's actually stored in the body, and why knowing a boundary is healthy doesn't mean the nervous system will let you set one
Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn as physical survival strategies, and what a body stuck in a low-grade, functional freeze can look like day to day
Toning the vagus nerve as a literal physical practice — the same logic as building a muscle: it takes consistency, not a single good session, and it can be trained through yoga, breath, tai chi, or running with intention
A concrete grounding exercise: hand on the belly, attention two inches below and behind the navel, searching for the still point beneath the surface waves — and why she starts every practice in the lower body before the heart
How generational and ancestral trauma gets passed down, including research on epigenetic trauma transmission, and Erica's own work with EMDR and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy around patterns from her adoption that predate her own memory
Her EMBERS framework — Energy, Mind, Body, Emotions, Reaction, Senses — for tracing whether a pattern in the body is actually older than the person carrying it
The difference between breathwork used to build genuine capacity and breathwork used to bypass a feeling — and the research suggesting that "breathing through" anger can make people less assertive, and "breathing through" guilt can make them less likely to make amends
Why nervous system regulation isn't a retreat from injustice or collective struggle, but the physical groundwork that makes it possible to stay present to it without collapsing or shutting down
What actually happens in the body — the bracing, the defensiveness — when a word like "racism" or "patriarchy" enters a room, and why that felt response is more honest than the story told about it afterward
About the Guest
Erica Bonham, LPC, MA, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, a certified EMDR clinician, consultant, and trainer, and the founder of AVOS Counseling Center in Arvada, Colorado. She specializes in somatic and attachment-focused EMDR, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and nervous system regulation, with a practice focus that includes the LGBTQ community and trauma related to racial and social injustice, abuse, and spiritual harm. She is the author of Always Enough, Never Done: Volume I: Heal Your Nervous System, Turn Wounds Into Wisdom, and Cultivate Your Inner Badass, and a nationally sought-after speaker on trauma, embodiment, and collective healing.
Resources and Links
Always Enough, Never Done: Volume I - Erica's book on nervous system healing
AVOS Counseling Center — Erica's practice, based in Arvada, Colorado, including her free Nervous System Reset Toolkit (11 polyvagal exercises and 6 guided meditations)
Anne Lamott — sober writer Erica references for the idea of trusting the next right step even without seeing the whole path
The Body Keeps the Score — the well-known trauma book Erica references, adding that in her field it's often said the brain keeps the score while the body is the scorecard
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode landed somewhere, share it with someone who's been told to think their way out of a body that's still holding the story.
For more at the intersection of movement, the body, and what's underneath it, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
1 hr 7 min
August 26Slowing Down to Sixty
Episode Overview
In this episode, Brendan Cournane — a lawyer turned ultra-endurance runner and coach — talks about what it actually took to run 100+ marathons across all fifty states, seven continents, and all six World Marathon Majors, and why crossing every one of those finish lines never quite delivered the feeling he was chasing. A coronary artery disease diagnosis mid-training eventually forced him to stop, and to ask what all that mileage had really been for.
What We Cover
Growing up with a self-imposed sense that no accomplishment was ever quite enough — and how that pattern followed him from law school into decades of marathon running

Trading one coping mechanism for another: getting sober and replacing drinking with distance running, then escalating from three miles to marathons to fifty states to Antarctica

The "false summit" as both a literal experience — watching daybreak reveal another peak above the one he thought was the top of Kilimanjaro — and a pattern that repeated at every marathon finish line

Chasing runner's high and flow state, and why trying to hold onto either one tends to make it disappear

The morning during marathon training when a four-mile run felt wrong in a way he recognized wasn't just fatigue — and the coronary artery disease diagnosis, two stents, and pacemaker that followed

Losing "marathoner" as a defining identity without losing the training and discipline underneath it

Deep, diaphragmatic breathing as a physiological tool — how shallow chest-breathing keeps the body in fight-or-flight, and how slower breath work affects blood flow, the vagus nerve, and clear thinking under stress

Overtraining and under-recovery — using Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel's months of enforced bed rest as an example of what the body does when effort isn't matched by rest

The physical, felt difference between striving and acceptance, and starting as small as three conscious breaths a day when a full meditation practice isn't realistic
Resources & Links
Seeking Serenity: Finding Happiness by Embracing Your Present Attitude — Brendan's book

Coach Brendan — Brendan's coaching site, for anyone who wants to reach out directly

Richard Rohr — referenced for the line that a person who doesn't transform their pain will transmit it

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — referenced for flow theory and the nature of effortless, unforced performance

Simone Manuel — Olympic swimmer referenced as an example of overtraining syndrome and the recovery it required
About the Guest
Brendan Cournane is a Chicago-based running coach, motivational speaker, and practicing municipal finance lawyer. Since getting sober in 1989 and qualifying for the 100th Boston Marathon in 1995, he has completed more than 100 marathons, including one in every U.S. state, on all seven continents, and all six World Marathon Majors — a combination fewer than 250 people worldwide have completed. A coronary artery disease diagnosis in 2022, which led to two stents and a pacemaker, ended his marathon training and reshaped how he thinks about effort, recovery, and identity. He now coaches endurance athletes and professionals through Coach Brendan Running and is the author of Seeking Serenity: Finding Happiness by Embracing Your Present Attitude.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode landed somewhere, share it with someone who's chasing a summit, a fight, or a personal record and has never quite asked themselves why the bar keeps moving.
For more at the intersection of movement, the body, and what's underneath it, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
1 hr 2 min
August 19Michael Herr: The Weight We Carry Up the Wall
Episode Overview
In this episode, therapist and climber Michael Herr talks about what actually drove fifteen years of climbing and a decade of boxing — and what happened when he watched a climbing partner nearly die and his body simply refused to climb again. Drawing on his book The Shadow of the Climber, Michael traces how shame and the need to prove something can power real athletic achievement, right up until the moment the body stops going along with it.
What We Cover
How fifteen years of climbing and an earlier decade of boxing were both, in Michael's words, about controlling his inner world through activities with real danger attached

The witnessed climbing accident that left him unable to watch people lead climb, unable to go near ropes, unable to be in the mountains — a full-body trauma response, not a decision

Why achievement can run on shame and a sense of inadequacy as much as on love of the sport, and what it feels like to reach a goal and not get "the stamp" — the cup with a hole in the bottom

The difference between movement as avoidance and movement as arrival, and how presence and avoidance can live in the same body on the same route

A boxing daydream Michael carried for decades — walking to the ring, facing a "monster" — and what happened when he finally stepped into an actual ring at 34

Moving from cognitive behavioral therapy to depth psychology in his own clinical work, and what that shift cost his sense of professional identity

The idea of the "golden shadow" — what the people and pro athletes we admire are pointing us toward in ourselves

Where Michael's relationship with climbing stands now: mostly on pause, sport climbing over alpine routes, and giving himself permission to move because he wants to, not because something in him is compelling it
Resources & Links
The Shadow of the Climber: The Psychology of Extreme Sports — Michael's book

Carl Jung — psychiatrist referenced for the original concept of the shadow

Peter Croft — climbing legend Michael interviewed for the book, known for early hard solos in Yosemite

Dean Potter — free solo and BASE-jumping climber referenced in the book, who died in a wingsuit accident

Tommy Caldwell — referenced for a line on using climbing as distraction from feeling

Rocky Mountain National Park / Longs Peak "The Diamond" — the Colorado alpine climbing Michael describes as the icon of the region
About the Guest
Michael Herr is a therapist and climber, and the author of The Shadow of the Climber: The Psychology of Extreme Sports. Trained originally as a cognitive behavioral therapist, his own clinical path moved toward depth psychology as he began to recognize how much of his climbing — and before that, ten to fifteen years of boxing — was shaped by forces he wasn't fully conscious of. He has spent roughly fifteen years climbing in and around Boulder, Colorado, with Rocky Mountain National Park as home ground. The Shadow of the Climber draws on his own climbing history, his clinical training, and interviews with figures in the climbing world to look at what pulls people toward extreme sports — and what those sports can end up covering for.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode landed somewhere, share it with someone who's chasing a summit, a fight, or a personal record and has never quite asked themselves why the bar keeps moving.
For more at the intersection of movement, the body, and what's underneath it, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
56 min
July 15Unlocking Systems Through the Body: Suzanne Roberts on The Great Reconnection
Episode Overview
In this episode, Suzanne Roberts shares profound insights from her five-decade journey at the intersection of the body, leadership, and systemic change. Her work invites us to see movement as a gateway to wholeness, connecting individual energy to collective systems and societal structures.
What We Cover
The foundational concept of "The Great Reconnection"—returning to wholeness by remembering what was never lost

How disconnection manifests personally, within teams, and in cultural systems

The polarity system design and its application to understanding life energy as a dual force within us

The importance of honoring the body's signals as the language of systemic health and personal truth

Practical steps for cultivating inner calm and stillness through simple physical and mental practices

The role of social systems like racism and white supremacy as energetic patterns embedded in the body and collective consciousness

Approaches to redesign organizational and societal structures rooted in vitality, unity, and life energy

How movement, in a broad sense, sustains us and connects us to our inherent wholeness
Resources & Links
I't Deeper Than That - Suzanne's book

The Great Reconnection - Suzanne's framework

Suzanne on Instagram

Dr. Stone — identified as the founder of polarity therapy

Fernando Flores — referenced for a system of accountability, trust, and feedback

George Floyd — referenced in the context of organizational interest in race and systemic racism
About the Guest
Suzanne Roberts is the Founder of UnifyingSolutions and a transformational speaker, facilitator and author with over four decades of experience guiding leaders and organizations toward sustainable, systemic change. She is the creator of Polarity System Design™- a methodology that empowers individuals and teams to reclaim their inner capacity, lead with clarity, and design cultures rooted in purpose, equity, and lasting impact.
Suzanne creates spaces where people can thrive and contribute with clarity and purpose. Her book and documentary, It’s Deeper Than That: Pathway to a Vibrant, Purposeful, Life, will premiere October, 2025.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode sparked something, share it — share it with someone who's been taught to see their body as something to fix, hide, or fear instead of a source of wisdom.
For more at the intersection of movement, health, and systems change, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
49 min
July 01Terrified and Hopeful, All at Once
Episode Overview
Nine months after fracturing his femur in three places on an obstacle course, G. Scott Graham joins the podcast still mid-recovery — not narrating the comeback from a safe distance, but living inside it.
A career coach, Tai Chi teacher, long-distance paddleboarder, Appalachian Trail hiker, and EMT instructor, Scott is also the author of Come As You Are: Five Years Later, a memoir that moves between losing his husband Brian after 31 years together and the unexpected grief of falling in love again with Peter.
This conversation traces how movement once became a way of outrunning stillness, what Buddhist philosophy's concept of the "near enemy" reveals about mistaking momentum for avoidance, and why Scott insists equanimity isn't armor — it's the capacity to stay open to what scares you.
What We Cover
Scott’s transformative experience hiking the Appalachian Trail and how it shaped his identity

The distinction between movement as healing versus avoidance, and how to recognize the difference

Exploring the practice of Vipassana and its relevance to slowing down and observing the mind

The concept of equanimity as openness in the face of fear, not armor

How slow movement and Tai Chi cultivate silence in the mind and presence in the body

The powerful metaphor of “second arrow” in Buddhist teachings—how our reactions to pain prolong suffering

The impact of grief, love, and loss on the body and the mind’s micro-movements toward acceptance

The importance of persistence, grit, and pushing beyond comfort zones in recovery and growth

The role of stillness in healing and how to distinguish genuine presence from hiding or avoidance

Reflections on humor, vulnerability, and the humor in the strangeness of our ideas of strength
Resources & Links
Come As You Are: Five Years Later - Scott Graham book
Scott Graham on Medium
Scott Graham website
About the Guest
G. Scott Graham is an existential handyman — fixing what’s broken, realigning what’s off-kilter, and helping people rebuild their lives with meaning, purpose, and the occasional strip of duct tape. He’s also an author, career coach, business coach, and psychedelic support coach based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Scott is driven to help clients follow their “true azimuth” — a direction distinct from “true north.” It’s not about chasing some universal ideal. It’s about identifying what genuinely matters to you. It’s about recognizing the forces that pull your life off course and learning how to adjust so you still arrive where your heart wants to go. When you’re 90 and looking back, your life should feel like it was truly yours — filled with pride, purpose, and meaning. No regrets.
Call to Action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode sparked something, share it — share it with someone who's been taught to see their body as something to fix, hide, or fear instead of a source of wisdom.
For more at the intersection of movement, health, and systems change, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
50 min
June 17The Root as Foundation: Sydney Zwicker on Pelvic Health, Touch, and the Nervous System
Episode Overview
In this episode, I sit down with Sydney Zwicker — fascia-based bodyworker, pelvic health educator, and founder of Sovereign Touch Bodywork and Pelvic Care — for a conversation about reclaiming women's bodies as a site of wisdom rather than fear. Sydney's own healing path, which began after surviving sexual assault in her late teens, led her from talk therapy through somatic and dance-based therapies into a decade-plus practice in pelvic touch work, trauma integration, and the nervous system.
Together we explore why movement and touch can access what words and intellect alone cannot, what "non-agenda touch" really means, and how the pelvis — often called the body's foundation — connects directly to breath, voice, posture, and the wider nervous system. Sydney makes the case that embodiment, especially for women, isn't indulgent self-care but a quiet form of rebellion with consequences for relationships, sexuality, and the larger systems we live inside.
This episode offers a grounded, anatomy-first entry point into deeper questions of safety, pleasure, and truth — and a reminder that healing is rarely linear, but spiral.
What We Cover
Sydney's path from surviving sexual assault to building a career at the intersection of bodywork, movement, and trauma integration.

Why movement, more than stillness, helps women access the "sensation body" — and how touch extends that same principle.

The meaning of "non-agenda touch" and how it differs from a fix-it approach to pain and dysfunction.

How the pelvis functions as a diaphragm, breathing in rhythm with the body's other respiratory and structural systems.

The mirrored relationship between the jaw and the pelvis, and what tension in one can reveal about the other.

How cultural conditioning, not personal failure, shapes most women's disconnection from their bodies.

The link between embodiment, sexual sovereignty, and broader cultural and relational change.

Why numbness and dissociation are protective responses, not failures, and what it takes to move back into sensation.

Simple, accessible ways to start reconnecting to the pelvis and root through breath and touch.

Why anatomical understanding is a foundation for, not a barrier to, deeper spiritual or erotic exploration.
Resources
Sovereign Touch Bodywork and Pelvic Care — Sydney Zwicker's practice
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine — the foundational text behind Somatic Experiencing, closely aligned with the "fact-checking the nervous system" and unfinished stress-response cycles Sydney describes
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk — widely known starting point for how trauma lives in the body, useful for anyone new to that framing
Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski — research-grounded look at women's sexuality and arousal, pairs well with the episode's focus on sexuality and the pelvis
Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers — the standard reference on fascia for bodyworkers, fits Sydney's "fascia-based" framing if you want something more technical
Full Body Presence by Suzanne Scurlock-Durana — a craniosacral-rooted guide to body awareness, gentler and more accessible than the others if you want something practice-oriented rather than clinical
About the Guest
Sydney Zwicker is a fascia-based bodyworker, pelvic health educator, and founder of Sovereign Touch Bodywork and Pelvic Care. Her work weaves together over a decade of study in women's health, sexuality, trauma integration, and the nervous system, grounded in embodied awareness. After surviving sexual assault in her late teens, Sydney's own healing journey moved through talk therapy, somatic therapy, and dance movement before landing in hands-on pelvic bodywork — the practice she's now offered for almost a decade. She helps women build a relationship with their pelvis, their nervous system, and their own truth through what she calls non-agenda touch: approaching the body with curiosity instead of the goal of fixing it. Find more of Sydney's work through Sovereign Touch Bodywork and Pelvic Care [add website/social links].
Call to action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode sparked something, share it — share it with someone who's been taught to see their body as something to fix, hide, or fear instead of a source of wisdom.
This summer, join me at the Sun & Light retreat with Five Senses Retreats — July 31–August 2, 2026, at Haltia Lake Lodge in Nuuksio National Park, Finland — where I'll be leading a session series called Move & Settle. Use code MiMC15 for a discount on your booking.
For more at the intersection of movement, health, and systems change, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
1 hr 9 min
June 03Embracing Grief as a Mobilizer for Purpose and Growth
Episode Overview
In this episode, Camille Ellis shares her journey through unimaginable loss—the death of her son—and how she transformed grief from a debilitating experience to a source of profound purpose. Her insights illuminate how grief, when consciously integrated, can lead to personal growth, deeper love, and meaningful service.
Camille Ellis is a certified coach, speaker, and resilience mentor who helps people rise after devastating loss. At 60, Camille is proof that reinvention is possible at any stage, and that choosing herself was the beginning, not the end.
She speaks powerfully about courage, grief, self-trust, and building a meaningful life after everything falls apart.
This episode offers a masterclass in transforming grief into a vessel for love, purpose, and resilience. Camille’s story exemplifies that although grief brings pain, it also opens pathways to profound connection, spiritual growth, and a more compassionate life.
Coming from a lineage of healers, Camille reflects on how we can go back to ourselves by embracing the different experiences that prepare us for what's coming.
What We Cover
Camille’s personal story of losing her son and the immediate shift in her perspective towards love and acceptance.

How grief acts as a physical and emotional experience that impacts breathing, posture, and heart space.

The importance of loving what is and practicing gratitude to soften the pain of loss.

The concept of viewing death as a celebration of a fulfilled journey, not just an end.

How spiritual beliefs and purpose-driven living help navigate grief and foster resilience.

The significance of love as a healing force that enables growth beyond pain.

Practical methods for managing grief: journaling, loving affirmations, and shifting thoughts.

The necessity of letting go of rigid stories and embracing the unpredictability of life.

Building courage and maintaining virtues as foundation stones for facing life’s challenges.

The evolution of grief over years, transforming into a relationship with love and remembrance.
Resources
The work of Byron Katie

Camille Ellis - official website

International Suicide Hotlines
About the Guest
Camille Ellis is a Certified Life Coach, speaker, and resilience mentor who helps people rise after devastating loss. Her story includes surviving abuse, losing a child to suicide, enduring years of emotional loneliness. Camille helps people who feel broken, stuck, or lost after major life events rediscover strength, clarity, and direction. Her clients learn how to move through grief without being consumed by it, reclaim their voice, and build a life that feels honest and fulfilling—even after devastating loss. Find more of Camille's work on her official website and Instagram or Facebook accounts.
Call to action
Subscribe to Movement Is My Constant wherever you listen. And if this episode sparked something, share it—share it with someone who's succeeding on the outside but running on empty.
For more at the intersection of movement, health, and systems change, join the newsletter at movementismyconstant.com/newsletter.
🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
59 min
May 20Strength in Softness: Rethinking What It Means to Perform at Your Peak
Episode overview
My guest on this episode digs into the core of what it means to operate at the highest levels of performance, blending mental resilience, emotional awareness, and balance. Stuart Wade, a high performance mindset coach and clinical hypnotherapist, offers profound perspectives on how men (and everyone) can cultivate sustainable success without losing their sense of authenticity or well-being.
Resources & links
Stuart's visualisation audio tool
Connect with Stuart on Linkedin
More on Stuart's work online
Book: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk - concept referenced in episode
What we cover
Stuart Wade shares the influence of martial arts and Bruce Lee on his understanding of performance and self-expression

How high achievers often develop a performance-based identity that can become limiting or even cages

The role of childhood programming and societal expectations in shaping limiting beliefs about masculinity and capability

The importance of presence and vulnerability learned through martial arts, and how softness can be a strength

Differentiating between suppressing emotions and intentionally processing them with discipline

The impact of loneliness and social isolation among high performers, and how trust and support systems can mitigate this

A holistic approach to high performance, integrating body, mind, emotions, and relationships

Redefining high performance to include quality of life, balance, and overall well-being
About the guest
Stuart Wade is a High Performance Mindset Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist, and lifelong martial artist with a bold vision—to elevate human potential at the highest levels in order to create lasting, global change.
From a shy six-year-old boy inspired by Bruce Lee to a 5th Dan Blackbelt in Taekwondo, 2nd Dan in Kickboxing, and four-time World Champion, Stuart’s journey has been anything but ordinary. At just eight, he failed his first Blackbelt test. That failure was a defining moment—igniting a relentless drive for mastery that would shape the rest of his life.
Call to action
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🎙️ More Episodes: movementismyconstant.com
📱 Follow on Instagram: @movementismyconstant
✨ Want to go deeper? Explore my mindfulness courses and 1:1 sessions at MiCa Mindfulness — designed to support caregivers, creatives, and mission-driven humans.
Episode Credits
Produced, Edited and Mixed by Chris Forbes
Artwork Design by Utterly Create
Music is by Pictures of a Floating World from the Free Music archive.org
Be sure to follow and tag Movement is My Constant on Instagram
🎧 Subscribe now and get grounded, insightful episodes that feel like a deep exhale
55 min

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Movement Is My Constant: Real conversations on movement, mindfulness, and making meaningful change - for creatives, caregivers, and mission-driven humans

Movement Is My Constant: Real conversations on movement, mindfulness, and making meaningful change - for creatives, caregivers, and mission-driven humans episodes

About Movement Is My Constant: Real conversations on movement, mindfulness, and making meaningful change - for creatives, caregivers, and mission-driven humans

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Tara Brach