For our season opener, I am deeply honored to sit down with Mrs. Jennifer Douglas; wife, mom, author, speaker, and fierce patient advocate. We dive deep into her path through diagnosis, treatment, and beyond, as detailed in her book and video course, A Breast Cancer Journey: One Step at a Time.

What started as a private, therapeutic outlet for Jennifer in 2020 has become an incredible resource for others. We didn't sugarcoat the experience. Instead, we dug into the realities of the journey:

✨The Power of Self-Advocacy: Why setting physical and emotional boundaries, and learning to push for the specific care you need, is absolutely non-negotiable.

✨Reclaiming Intimacy: We broke the silence on sexual wellness during and after cancer. Jennifer shares her proactive approach to finding medical providers who will have open, honest conversations about this critical, yet often overlooked, piece of women's health and femininity.

✨The Emotional Truth: We validated the very real anger and fear that comes with the loss of normalcy, and why acknowledging these feelings is an essential step toward becoming "happy, healthy, and whole."

Cancer can change your style, your identity, and even your support systems. But ultimately, this kickoff episode is about moving past simply surviving. It’s about learning to strive, rise, and thrive. Jennifer fully embodies this mindset and I am so honored to share this conversation with you.

Once again, we sit down with the amazing Dr. Tom Murray to discuss how couples can navigate life when health challenges touch a relationship. We discuss how roles shift and intimacy can feel distant.

Join Prowl The LAB for a candid, compassionate conversation with Dr. Tom Murray, award‑winning author of Making Nice with Naughty (2023 Global eBook Silver Medalist), widely featured clinician, and dynamic educator seen in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and The Daily Mail.

Together, Dr, Murray and I explore practical, no‑nonsense ways couples and parents stay connected under stress. Grounded in our belief that healthy sexuality fuels holistic well‑being, Dr. Murray shares actionable strategies to navigate fear, fatigue, and changing identities while protecting desire, closeness, and joy.

We’ll learn:

🧑🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏼Simple rituals and communication frameworks that rebuild trust and tenderness.

🧑🏿‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏾How to redefine intimacy (beyond intercourse) and keep pleasure on the table.

👩🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏼Boundaries, self‑compassion, and co‑regulation skills that reduce resentment and burnout.

🧑🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏽Ways to support each other when one partner serves as caregiver, or when one partner navigates a diagnosis, treatment, or survivorship

Couples, this conversation is for you. We recognize the challenges that come with daily life. When adverse health states, trauma, or different‑ability comes into frame, the physical, emotional, and sexual bonds between partners get tested. This conversation aims to help couples turn that test into testimony.

You can learn more about Dr. Murray and snag a copy of his book here: ⁠

apathtowellness.com ⁠(Company)⁠

drtommurray.com ⁠(Company)

This week, we sit down for a candid and powerful conversation with Ms. Alexandra Harbushka, founder of Life with Herpes, a leading resource dedicated to supporting individuals living with this common condition.

In this must-listen episode, we dive deep into the often-unspoken emotional landscape of a herpes diagnosis. We explore the pervasive issues of stigma and shame that are unfortunately attached to the virus, and discuss how these deeply personal emotions are not just feelings, but powerful forces that can significantly influence health outcomes.

Key Discussion Points:

• The Emotional Toll: How the fear of judgment keeps people silent, isolated, and prevents them from seeking essential physical and mental health support.

• The Shame-Health Connection: Understanding the scientific link between chronic emotional stress (shame, anxiety) and compromised immune function and overall well-being.

• Challenging the Narrative: Alexandra shares her journey from diagnosis to advocacy, offering actionable advice on how to reclaim your identity and move beyond a label.
• Communication & Relationships: Strategies for open, honest conversations with partners, friends, and family, and the importance of finding a supportive community.

If you or someone you know has been impacted by an STD diagnosis, this episode offers a crucial blend of compassion, education, and empowering steps toward self-acceptance and optimal health.

What happens when the doctor becomes the patient, and then the advocate? In this deeply human conversation, we sit down with Dr. Liz O'Riordan, a former consultant breast surgeon whose life changed at 40 with a Grade 3 breast cancer diagnosis. After chemotherapy, a chest wall recurrence that led to going flat, surgical menopause, and a second recurrence in 2023, Liz’s world shifted again, this time from the operating theatre to survivorship, from clinician to narrator of her own story.

To close out this amazing month of solidarity, advocacy, and hope Dr. O'Riordan and I explore how illness reshapes identity, career, body image, and intimacy. Liz speaks candidly about grief, fertility loss, and the pressure to “bounce back,”. Through writing and advocacy, she’s forged a path that honors pain and possibility; becoming the woman, wife, and physician she is today.

Within this episode we also discuss:

• How caring for women with breast cancer informed Liz’s empathy, communication, and clinical lens before her own diagnosis

• Moving from physician to patient; going flat; surgical menopause; targeted therapy; and the physical and emotional realities of recurrence

• Retiring from the work she loved, navigating grief, and building a new identity and purpose through writing and voice

• Sexuality and wellness after cancer and naming libido changes without shame, co-creating intimacy, and aligning care with consent, comfort, and curiosity

• Releasing pressure to “return to normal,” setting boundaries, and rebuilding connection on your terms

This episode centers dignity, agency, and the full truth of survivorship. If you’re navigating treatment, recurrence, or life after cancer, you’ll find language, validation, and practical hope here.

Learn more about and contact Dr. Liz O'Riordan here: www.liz.oriordan.co.uk

Erinn Hoel is a licensed sex therapist and the founder of Hoelistic Health, where she specializes in helping women reclaim their natural desire and deepen intimate connection in their relationships.

As the creator of the signature Desire to Fire Method, Erinn has developed a comprehensive three-phase approach that addresses the root causes of low libido. Her methodology focuses on removing the underlying blocks that inhibit sexual desire, enhancing natural arousal responses, and empowering women to experience fulfilling intimacy that feels effortless rather than obligatory.

Through her holistic methodology practice, Erinn has helped hundreds of women reclaim their sensuality and desire, resulting in transformations that enhance not only intimate relationships but overall confidence, self-worth, and increased life satisfaction.

Contact Erinn Here:

https://www.hoelistichealth.com/

Today on this episode of the Prowl The LAB podcast, we welcome Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, respected breast medical oncologist, educator, and advocate, to explore how social media can be a true equalizer for accessible, trusted oncology information. We talk candidly about showing up with integrity online: staying evidence‑based; centering patients and caregivers, and; providing information and/or resources that reduce harm and close equity gaps.

This matters in the virtual space because most people search online first, algorithms amplify both facts and myths, and misinformation can delay care, erode trust, and widen disparities, especially for communities already facing barriers. This conversation offers practical guardrails for clinicians, advocates, and patients: cite and date sources, align with current guidelines, be clear when data is evolving, disclose conflicts, correct mistakes openly, use inclusive language, and reject shame‑based narratives.

You’ll leave with a better understanding about why integrity and ethnical behavior is so critical to guarding against misinformation, decreased knowledge, shame, fear, or overwhelming feelings of helplessness.

Follow Dr. Teplisky here:

LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/eleonora-teplinsky-md-fasco-220aa02

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/drteplinsky/?__pwa=1#

Interlude Podcast:

https://www.Interludecancerstories.com

About Talaya Dendy:2025 Bush Fellow | Founder Cancer Doula, Guide, & Advocate | Cancer Thriver | Founder “Survivor Series” |🎙️Podcast Host of Navigating Cancer TOGETHER | Survivorship Expert | Motivational Speaker

About this episode:

If you’ve never heard of a “cancer doula,” you’re not alone. Talaya Dendy pioneered this role to walk beside patients and families with practical guidance, emotional steadiness, and informed advocacy, from appointments and decisions to the unseen moments in between. Talaya’s work bridges the gap between what we’re told and what we need to carry it, honoring culture, identity, and the realities so many of us face along the way.

Though we spoke a while ago, I held this episode especially for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as it is one of the closest to my heart, and one that truly fed my soul. So, this is an invitation to anyone navigating diagnosis, treatment, or survivorship, especially our sisters and brothers who’ve carried more than their share up until this moment. I left the conversation truly changed; with deeper gratitude and a renewed commitment to reclaim the pieces of myself that healing asked me to hide. I’m sharing it with you because It will meet you with purpose and grace, exactly where you are. Listen in, and if it resonates, pass it to someone who needs this kind of support right now.

The Services:
1. Holistic Wellness Guidance
2. Emotional & Mindset Support
3. Patient Advocacy Support & Healthcare Navigation Guidance
4. Communication Guidance

What You Can Expect:
✔ To be truly heard, seen, and valued throughout your journey.
✔ Personalized support tailored to your unique needs.
✔ Expert guidance and empathy from a Certified Patient Advocate and trained Health & Wellness Coach.
✔ A compassionate partner and guide who understands your journey.
✔ Holistic support that addresses the whole person

How To Contact Talaya Dendy:

On the Other Side:

• ontheotherside.life (Company)
• substack.com/@cancerdoula (Other)
• talayadendy.pro (Portfolio)

When health challenges touch a relationship, roles shift and intimacy can feel distant. Join Prowl The LAB for a candid, compassionate conversation with Dr. Tom Murray, award‑winning author of Making Nice with Naughty (2023 Global eBook Silver Medalist), widely featured clinician, and dynamic educator seen in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and The Daily Mail.

Together, Dr, Murray and I explore practical, no‑nonsense ways couples and parents stay connected under stress. Grounded in our belief that healthy sexuality fuels holistic well‑being, Dr. Murray shares actionable strategies to navigate fear, fatigue, and changing identities while protecting desire, closeness, and joy.

We’ll learn:

🧑🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏼Simple rituals and communication frameworks that rebuild trust and tenderness.

🧑🏿‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏾How to redefine intimacy (beyond intercourse) and keep pleasure on the table.

👩🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏼Boundaries, self‑compassion, and co‑regulation skills that reduce resentment and burnout.

🧑🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👩🏽Ways to support each other when one partner serves as caregiver, or when one partner navigates a diagnosis, treatment, or survivorship

Couples, this conversation is for you. We recognize the challenges that come with daily life. When adverse health states, trauma, or different‑ability comes into frame, the physical, emotional, and sexual bonds between partners get tested. This conversation aims to help couples turn that test into testimony.

You can learn more about Dr. Murray and snag a copy of his book here: apathtowellness.com (Company)drtommurray.com (Company)

In this debut solo episode, Ebonie Michelle inviteslisteners into a powerful reflection on our value as women, beyond partnership. Through two of the 5 Circles of Sexuality—Identity and Sensuality—she explores what it means to define your worth on your own terms, especially as women navigating chronic illness, trauma, or different-ability. This is not a conversation about waiting for love; it’s about loving ourselves in this moment, whether single or partnered. Through radical self-recognition, a focus on self-care,and unapologetic truth-telling, Ebonie offers a blueprint for sovereign living regardless of relationship status. Whether married, dating, or single by choice or circumstance, this episode is a reclamation of joy, presence, and the powerof our womanhood.

In this powerful episode, relationship and sex therapist Shadeen Francis joins us to explore what it means to seek joy, thrive with purpose, and live our intimacy with authenticity, especially when our stories include illness, trauma, or difference. Healthy sexuality isn’t just about technique orperformance, it’s also about emotional intelligence: the self-awareness, empathy, communication, boundaries, and values alignment that allow our desire to be both honest and healing.

Together, we unpack how reframing our experiences can turnthe test into a testimony. Shadeen offers practical ways to move from shame to self-trust, from silence to language, and from survival to thriving. We discuss consent as a practice of care, boundaries as an expression of self-respect, and how pleasure can be a compass for holistic well-being.

Shadeen Francis is a licensed marriage and family therapist and recognized relationship and sex therapist, educator, and speaker. Her work focuses on intimacy, emotional wellness, and liberation, with a reputation for making conversations about sexuality accessible, compassionate, and stigma-free.

She teaches and consults with organizations, leads workshops and keynotes on healthy relationships and sexual wellness, and has been featured across national media for her expertise.

Shadeen  is also a speaker, advocate, and author known for groundbreaking work at the intersection of social justice, sexuality, and optimal health. You’ve seen her on ABC, NBC, CBS, Jameela Jamil’s “Dear Shadeen,” and collaborating with NBA All-Stars, Playboy, Bumble, and more. To learn more about Shadeen and her amazing work, we encourage you to visit her website and follow her for more inspiration and powerful insights.

Website: https://www.shadeenfrancis.com

Socials: @shadeenfrancis