Send us Fan Mail

What do the women who raised us leave behind in us?

In this episode of Raised by Women, I sit down with Chantal Kur, a divorce and family law mediator from South Africa, for a thoughtful conversation about grief, independence, resilience, and the values passed through generations of women.

Chantal shares what it meant to be raised by a strong mother and grandmother, how losing her mother changed the course of her life, and why that loss deepened her commitment to helping others through some of life’s hardest transitions.

We talk about self-reliance, intuition, family legacy, emotional strength, and the kind of wisdom that isn’t learned in textbooks—but through life itself.

This episode is for anyone navigating change, carrying the influence of the women before them, or learning how pain can become purpose.

Sometimes the greatest inheritance is not money or status. It’s strength, values, and the ability to keep going.

To connect with Chantal, visit her following sites:

• Website: https://divorcemediations.co.za/
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/DivorceMediations
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/divorcemediations/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chantalkur

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when the women who raise us become the very people who help save us?

In this deeply moving episode of Raised by Women, I sit down with Cherry Fargo to talk about surviving childhood abuse, the grandmother who changed the course of her life, and the long journey of healing that followed.

Cherry shares what it was like to live in silence and fear as a child, how her grandmother stepped in to protect her, and how years later she had to face the deeper emotional wounds trauma left behind.

We also talk about:

• the strength of women across generations
• the impact of childhood trauma on identity
• grief, faith, and loss
• breaking family cycles
• healing shame and fear
• turning pain into purpose

Cheri also opens up about losing multiple loved ones, navigating grief while rebuilding her own life, and how her personal healing journey eventually led her to help other women walk toward hope and restoration.

This is a conversation about resilience, legacy, and what it means to become the safe place you once needed.

🎧 Listen / watch for a deeply honest conversation about healing, family, and the women who carry us forward.

To connect with Cherry, visit

• Website: https://beingremade.org
• Book a 20 minute discovery call: https://app.paperbell.com/checkout/packages/184458
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/beingremade/
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/BeingRemade/

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when life pushes you into an experience you can’t explain and no one around you understands?

In this episode, Taylor shares her powerful story of spiritual awakening that began during a deeply vulnerable time in her life. After struggling with trauma, low self-confidence, and feeling misunderstood by traditional systems, she began a journey of healing that led her to mentorship, nervous system work, intuitive development, and a deeper understanding of ancestral patterns.

We explore how pain can become purpose, the importance of safe community, and why many women today are being called to reclaim their voice, their energy, and their connection to something greater.

This conversation is a reflection on courage, healing, and the quiet ways our lineage and lived experiences shape how we live and lead.

If you are navigating change, seeking meaning, or learning to trust yourself again, this episode is for you.

To connect with Taylor

• Website: https://www.tayloralagna.com/
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/thetaylored_spirit/
• Feelings and needs inquiry - Gift: https://www.tayloralagna.com/gift

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

She stopped pleasing everyone and found joy again

What happens when you stop living to meet expectations and start living to feel alive?

In this heartfelt conversation, Tina shares her journey from people-pleasing and cultural pressure to rediscovering joy, playfulness, and personal freedom. Raised in a Vietnamese immigrant family shaped by survival and sacrifice, she reflects on how generational patterns influenced her relationships, self-worth, and leadership style.

After a pivotal breakup just before the pandemic, Tina began a gradual process of self-reclamation. Through journaling, emotional awareness, and courageous daily choices, she shifted from feeling disconnected from her life to genuinely loving the person she is becoming.

Together, we explore the deeper leadership lessons hidden inside healing work how reclaiming joy can change how we lead, how we relate to others, and how we shape the legacy we carry forward.

This episode is a reminder that growth doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like small acts of play, choosing yourself, and giving permission to live more freely.

Listen if you are navigating identity shifts, life transitions, or the quiet work of becoming.

To connect with Tina:

• Websites: https://linktr.ee/tinaohoang
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/playfully.unrestricted/
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091289967922

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when you realize the beliefs, patterns, and survival instincts that shaped your life were never truly yours to begin with?

In this episode, I’m joined by Luna, writer and author of Meet Me at the Ruins, for a powerful conversation about growing up in a high-control religious environment, the long road of unconditioning, and what it means to rebuild identity after trauma.

Luna shares how discovering the public history of the group she was raised in changed the way she understood her childhood, her family, and herself. We talk about consent, agency, boundaries, parenting after harm, and the layered work of deciding what parts of you are rooted in truth and what parts were formed through fear, control, or survival.

This conversation is honest, thoughtful, and deeply human. It explores what healing can look like when there are no simple answers, no neat endings, and no perfect way to parent, recover, or move forward. It is also a conversation about legacy: how we choose not to pass certain patterns on, how we repair in real time, and how we learn to live with more integrity in our bodies, relationships, and homes.

If you’ve ever had to question the systems that raised you, untangle inherited beliefs, or choose a different path for the next generation, this episode will stay with you.

In this episode, we explore:

• growing up in a high-control religious environment
• family estrangement and the cost of naming harm
• parenting with consent and gentle boundaries
• healing through research, writing, and reflection
• body autonomy, identity, and inherited patterns
• what it means to build a different legacy

To connect with Luna:

• FB: https://www.facebook.com/lunawestish
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/lunawestish/
• TikTok: **Luna Westish (@lunawestish)**
• Luna’s Book: https://bookshop.org/a/115025/9798986371665
• Recommended book: The body is not an apology https://bookshop.org/a/115025/9781523090990
• Suggested books on cults: https://bookshop.org/shop/lunawestish

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when the life you built no longer feels aligned with who you are becoming?

In this episode of Raised by Women, I sit down with Steve, a former corporate project leader who spent decades managing large teams and high-stakes systems  until divorce, empty nesting, and organizational restructuring forced him to pause.

What followed wasn’t a breakdown. It was an awakening.

We explore how subconscious fears formed in childhood — scarcity, survival, anxiety quietly shape our adult decisions, from work habits to confidence to relationships. Steve shares how discovering Psych-K shifted his understanding of fear, belief patterns, and personal agency.

We talk about:

• How inherited fear influences adult behavior
• Why awareness alone isn’t enough for change
• Work identity vs. authentic self
• Imposter syndrome in leadership
• The cost of workaholism
• What “self-sovereignty” really means

This conversation isn’t about abandoning your career. It’s about leading yourself differently inside it or beyond it.

If you’ve ever felt the quiet nudge that something deeper is calling you, this episode will meet you there.

 To connect with Steve 

• Special Discount for listeners: RBW_001
• https://www.self-sovereignty.com/offers
• Check-out Steves EBook   
• www.self-sovereignty.com

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

Some stories don’t begin with a plan they begin with a moment that quietly changes everything.

In this episode, Mazna shares her journey from being born prematurely in Pakistan to building a life shaped by endurance, resilience, and personal transformation. After witnessing her mother survive a stroke and major brain surgery, Mazna experienced a deep shift in how she viewed her own health, energy, and future.

What started as a simple decision to begin running became a life changing pathway that eventually led her to complete marathons and trek some of the world’s most challenging mountain landscapes including K2 Basecamp, Machu Picchu, Rainbow Mountain, and Mount Kilimanjaro.

But this conversation goes far beyond physical accomplishment. Mazna reflects on emotional inheritance, cultural expectations, aging, and how resilience is often shaped by the women who came before us. She shares how witnessing her mother’s strength and sacrifice influenced her own ability to endure hardship, adapt to change, and continue showing up even during life’s unexpected disruptions.

Together, we explore how endurance experiences shape identity, why growth often happens organically, and the truth that many people carry invisible mountains while navigating everyday life.

This episode is a reflection on becoming and the ways our stories, our bodies, and our lineage shape who we grow into over time.

To connect with Muza

• E-mail: [email protected]
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/muzna.amin
• IG: muzrocksandruns

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

Behind every life story is a network of people who quietly shape who we become.

In this episode, Tom shares his journey growing up in a close-knit Italian immigrant family built on sacrifice, work ethic, and deep family loyalty. From watching his parents build a life from nothing, to working in high-intensity law enforcement environments, Tom reflects on how resilience, service, and strength became part of his identity.

He opens up about the women who anchored his life his mother, aunts, cousin, and grandmothers whose unwavering support and selflessness shaped how he shows up in the world today.

Tom also shares his deeply personal experience surviving stage four cancer, describing how faith, family, and mental resilience helped him endure one of life’s most difficult seasons. Now pursuing law school and authoring a memoir based on his career in policing, he reflects on reinvention, purpose, and the lessons he hopes to pass forward.

This conversation explores how family influence, adversity, and personal faith shape identity, leadership, and the stories we carry into the next generation.

Connect with Thomas

• Website: https://www.lifeenforcement.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/A-Life-In-Law-Enforcement-A-Police-Memoir-The-Good-The-Bad-The-Corrupt-61566561005998/?locale=lv_LV
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-carchidi-653345331/

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

Catalina’s story is one of survival, awakening, and learning how to live beyond inherited pain.

Born into instability and abuse, Catalina entered the foster care system at a young age, navigating trauma, abandonment, and identity loss throughout her childhood and early adulthood. For years, survival shaped her decisions, relationships, and sense of self.

In this deeply honest conversation, Catalina shares how a life altering relationship ending became the turning point that forced her to confront patterns of self-abandonment and begin rebuilding her life with intention.

Through healing practices, reconnecting with creativity, and learning to be present, Catalina discovered her voice and purpose. Today, she uses her lived experience to advocate for trauma-informed foster care reform and support others in rediscovering their identity beyond survival.

This episode explores how generational patterns influence identity, why presence is a powerful form of healing, and how reclaiming your voice can transform pain into leadership and service.

If you have ever felt defined by your past, struggled with abandonment, or wondered how healing shapes who you become, this conversation offers both perspective and hope.

To connect with Catalina:

• Websites: https://catalinarising.com
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/catalinarises/

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle

Send us Fan Mail

What we inherit isn’t just tradition it’s how we care for ourselves, how we nourish others, and how we understand wellness.

In this episode of Raised by Women, Tess shares her journey growing up in Hong Kong in a household shaped by strong, nurturing women. Raised by her mother and sisters, she learned early that food was more than sustenance it was love, connection, and culture.

Her life shifted when she was diagnosed with hypoglycemia in her thirties, forcing her to examine long-held habits shaped by family tradition. What began as a personal health wake-up call became a global journey spanning London, New York, Los Angeles, and Miami ultimately leading Tess to build a career in nutrition and holistic wellness coaching.

Together, we explore:

• How cultural traditions influence health and identity
• The hidden wisdom passed through mothers and family rituals
• The power of female support systems during major life transitions
• Why strength and softness are not opposites but complements
• How small, sustainable changes create lasting transformation

This conversation is a reminder that wellness is deeply personal, culturally rooted, and often shaped long before we realize it.

If you’ve ever questioned the habits you inherited or felt called to redefine wellness on your own terms, this episode invites you into that reflection.

To connect with Tess, visit the following sites:

• Websites:https://glowithtess.com
• IG: https://www.instagram.com/glowithtess/?hl=en
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/Glowithtess/
• Book: https://confidentyoubook.com/ 

If this conversation stirred something in you, join the Inner Circle a private space for listeners and guests to stay connected and continue the reflection beyond the show

www.willijahdawson.com/innercircle