Rewritten Stories

“Every rite of passage begins with a story. The one we have been living, and the one waiting to be written.” – Cara Jones

Most of us carry a story that whispers I am powerless.

It splinters into shame, unworthiness, perfectionism, and survival patterns that never got the message the war is over.

This episode of Rewritten is about what happens when we face those patterns instead of hiding them. When grief, rage, fear, and shame are met with presence, they transform into fuel. When ritual is added to the threshold, breakdown becomes initiation.

This story was told live at this month's Stories of Love and Resilience event online.

Inside this episode you will hear:

• The root of the victim story and how it shapes our lives
• The three stages of a rite of passage: severance, threshold, initiation
• Cara’s story: When the War Is Over

Rewritten is not about erasing your story. It is about meeting it as raw material and choosing authorship.

It is an invitation to unpack the heavy suitcase, empty the psychic closet, and reclaim your power so that a new story can rise.

Registration is open until September 24th: join here

I’m Cara. Storyteller. Initiator. Voice-liberator.

After 25+ years as an Emmy-winning journalist, filmmaker, and trauma-informed coach, I guide soul-led creatives to tell stories that transform and ripple into collective change.

My work helps you alchemize the most tender parts of your past into magnetic, service-driven narratives that build real resonance and soulful visibility.

I do this work because I’ve lived the silence, disconnection and performance and I know the cost of holding it in.

This podcast, my coaching, and my storytelling mentorship are born from a simple vow:

Never abandon your voice again. Not for approval, branding or belonging

Also About Me — I’m a mother to a wild, wise 8-year-old who reminds me daily what untethered expression really looks like, wife to my favorite dance partner, Don, and dog-mama to our yellow Lab Henry.

📬 Want more reflections on truth-telling, soul-driven visibility, and storytelling as a path of expression and healing? You can join my email list at www.cara-jones.com

In this episode of Rewritten Stories, we step into the childhood world of Mia Brice, from her one woman show at the Marsh in San Francisco. 

✨ This is a conversation for anyone who has ever wondered if their story is “too much” and is ready to discover that truth spoken aloud can become medicine, not just for others, but for ourselves.

Inside this episode:

• Mia’s phone call to her younger self
• How internalized pain becomes toxic if left unspoken
• The liberation that comes with turning personal truths into shared human experience

Let this episode remind you:  telling your story is not indulgence - it’s an act of healing, a way of making meaning, and a bridge back to hope. 

Mia Brice is a wisdom alchemist, leadership and levity coach, devoted dog mom, student of Buddhism & seeker of doughnuts

Join the next free Stories of Love and Resilience event live online Sept 4th: https://www.cara-jones.com/stories-of-love-and-resilience

I’m Cara. Storyteller. Initiator. Voice-liberator.

After 25+ years as an Emmy-winning journalist, filmmaker, and trauma-informed coach, I guide soul-led creatives to tell stories that transform and ripple into collective change.

My work helps you alchemize the most tender parts of your past into magnetic, service-driven narratives that build real resonance and soulful visibility.

I do this work because I’ve lived the silence, disconnection and performance and I know the cost of holding it in.

This podcast, my coaching, and my storytelling mentorship are born from a simple vow:

Never abandon your voice again. Not for approval, branding or belonging

Also About Me — I’m a mother to a wild, wise 8-year-old who reminds me daily what untethered expression really looks like, wife to my favorite dance partner, Don, and dog-mama to our yellow Lab Henry.

📬 Want more reflections on truth-telling, soul-driven visibility, and storytelling as a path of expression and healing? You can join my email list at www.cara-jones.com

In this episode of Rewritten Stories, we step into a moving and transformative narrative from RJ Jennings, first shared on stage at the Stories of Love and Resilience event in Oakland.

RJ takes us on a journey of intergenerational healing….one that comes with more surprises than any of us saw coming.

✨ This is a conversation for anyone ready to break free from inherited patterns, embrace their truth, and boldly declare a new path forward.

Inside this episode:

• RJ’s upbringing on the south side of Chicago
• Lessons in love and resilience from his family
• The healing practice of self-declaration
• An unexpected family connection that shifted everything
• The freedom that comes with finding — and using — your voice

Let this episode remind you: when you declare your truth, you don’t just rewrite your story - you create a new legacy. RJ Jennings is a somatic executive coach and facilitator mentored by the late Sensei Wendy Palmer. He is a joyous dad, granddad and Aikido black belt.

I’m Cara. Storyteller. Initiator. Voice-liberator.

After 25+ years as an Emmy-winning journalist, filmmaker, and trauma-informed coach, I guide soul-led creatives to tell stories that transform and ripple into collective change.

My work helps you alchemize the most tender parts of your past into magnetic, service-driven narratives that build real resonance and soulful visibility.

I do this work because I’ve lived the silence, disconnection and performance and I know the cost of holding it in.

This podcast, my coaching, and my storytelling mentorship are born from a simple vow:

Never abandon your voice again. Not for approval, branding or belonging

Also About Me — I’m a mother to a wild, wise 8-year-old who reminds me daily what untethered expression really looks like, wife to my favorite dance partner, Don, and dog-mama to our yellow Lab Henry.

📬 Want more reflections on truth-telling, soul-driven visibility, and storytelling as a path of expression and healing? You can join my email list at www.cara-jones.com

In this episode of Rewritten Stories, we step into a raw and transformative narrative from Carla Zilliox, first shared on stage at the Stories of Love and Resilience event in Oakland.

Carla’s story is a powerful reminder that sometimes our greatest gifts are buried under what we were shamed for. 

✨ This is a conversation for anyone standing at the threshold of healing, ready to transform old wounds into wisdom and to see emotions not as burdens, but as strengths.

Inside this episode:

• Carla’s story of Llorona
• Metamorphosis from shame to authenticity
• The liberation that comes with sharing your story aloud

Let this episode remind you: your past does not define you — but owning it can set you free.

Carla Zilliox recently retired from 45 years in communications. She’s now entering her ‘Crone Soul’ Era of trusting her wisdom and guides others to do the same.

I’m Cara. Storyteller. Initiator. Voice-liberator.

After 25+ years as an Emmy-winning journalist, filmmaker, and trauma-informed coach, I guide soul-led creatives to tell stories that transform and ripple into collective change.

My work helps you alchemize the most tender parts of your past into magnetic, service-driven narratives that build real resonance and soulful visibility.

I do this work because I’ve lived the silence, disconnection and performance and I know the cost of holding it in.

This podcast, my coaching, and my storytelling mentorship are born from a simple vow:

Never abandon your voice again. Not for approval, branding or belonging

Also About Me — I’m a mother to a wild, wise 8-year-old who reminds me daily what untethered expression really looks like, wife to my favorite dance partner, Don, and dog-mama to our yellow Lab Henry.

📬 Want more reflections on truth-telling, soul-driven visibility, and storytelling as a path of expression and healing? You can join my email list at www.cara-jones.com

“Storytelling, when done from truth, becomes a rite of passage,  a way to alchemize pain into power.” – Cara Jones

This season of Rewritten is not just a return, it’s a new chapter.

After walking through a year that stripped everything: anxiety, hormonal upheaval, and the sting of my book being rejected for being “too heavy,” I re-emerge with a deeper truth:

✨ Storytelling is not performance. It’s initiation.

A vision during breathwork cracked me open: It’s time to release the inheritance of pain and choose joy as the new bloodline.

This episode is for creators, healers, and humans ready to stop performing their wounds — and begin creating from the full spectrum of who they are.

Inside this episode:

• The intimate unraveling that shaped this new season
• The psilocybin ceremony that changed everything
• How rejection led to realignment
• A call to storytellers: stop making pain your brand
• Why joy is now my north star

Let this episode be your permission slip to tell the whole truth — not just the heavy, but the holy.

I’m Cara. Storyteller. Initiator. Voice-liberator.

After 25+ years as an Emmy-winning journalist, filmmaker, and trauma-informed coach, I guide soul-led creatives to tell stories that transform and ripple into collective change.

My work helps you alchemize the most tender parts of your past into magnetic, service-driven narratives that build real resonance and soulful visibility.

I do this work because I’ve lived the silence, disconnection and performance and I know the cost of holding it in.

This podcast, my coaching, and my storytelling mentorship are born from a simple vow:

Never abandon your voice again. Not for approval, branding or belonging

Also About Me — I’m a mother to a wild, wise 8-year-old who reminds me daily what untethered expression really looks like, wife to my favorite dance partner, Don, and dog-mama to our yellow Lab Henry.

📬 Want more reflections on truth-telling, soul-driven visibility, and storytelling as a path of expression and healing? You can join my email list at www.cara-jones.com

So much of finding our voices is about remembering who we are and saying YES to our soul’s call. 

In this episode I speak to a long time psychotherapist and guide who uses psilocybin mushrooms in her practice. 

Together we explore:

• How plant medicine can help us heal by turning towards vs way from our pain 
• The trance of struggle and how our awareness of it can wake us up
• The importance of trust in ourselves and the unfolding of our lives in answering our souls call 

✨For more true stories, practical wisdom, and contemplations on speaking your truth, showing up and being seen in your life, and your soul-driven work, I welcome you to my email list. Click here to sign up.

📓For full show notes, visit www.cara-jones.com

Meet your host, Cara Jones

Untethered Voice is hosted by me, Cara Jones, a former Emmy award-winning journalist, storyteller, visibility guide, and human cheeseball.

I bring a 25+ year career in journalism, filmmaking and coaching (including deep trauma-informed study and somatic practice), to support you in telling the stories that will magnetize your people and allow you to authentically grow your business. I help you untether your voice and unearth the one-of-a-kind wisdom in your lived experience, so your purpose work can reach your people. 

I’m also the proud dance partner of my husband Don, mama to dog Henry, and 7-year-old Ellie whose naturally untethered voice inspires my work every day.

There are endless sounds and stories held in our bodies, when we learn to free them, we discover our one-of-a-kind music.

In this episode on The Music In You with Phoenix Song we dive into:

• How to let go and free our voices
• How our sound can become a channel for the wisdom of our bodies, ancestors and more
• Working with the inner child to free up your expression
• How music and sound can help us heal and accept more of ourselves

✨For more true stories, practical wisdom, and contemplations on speaking your truth, showing up and being seen in your life, and your soul-driven work, I welcome you to my email list. Click here to sign up.

📓For full show notes, visit www.cara-jones.com

Meet your host, Cara Jones

Untethered Voice is hosted by me, Cara Jones, a former Emmy award-winning journalist, storyteller, visibility guide, and human cheeseball.

I bring a 25+ year career in journalism, filmmaking and coaching (including deep trauma-informed study and somatic practice), to support you in telling the stories that will magnetize your people and allow you to authentically grow your business. I help you untether your voice and unearth the one-of-a-kind wisdom in your lived experience, so your purpose work can reach your people. 

I’m also the proud dance partner of my husband Don, mama to dog Henry, and 7-year-old Ellie whose naturally untethered voice inspires my work every day.

Whatever it is you are afraid to be, you have likely tucked away in what’s called your “shadow.”

Your shadow contains vital parts of yourself that, when cut off, also cut off your life force and ability to create amazing things in this world. 

These buried parts of ourselves want expression and, when we pretend they are not there, usually end up causing trouble.

On the flip side, you can harness the power of what’s in your shadow to fuel your life, creativity and work.

“Our shadows are necessary parts of ourselves. Inside of each shadow is a gift and when we try to cut parts of ourselves off we no longer have access to that gift.”  - Joanna Lindenbaum/ Coach & Founder @ Applied Depth Institute

In this episode on The Power Hiding in Our Shadows, Joanna Lindenbaum and I dive into:

• What the “shadow” is and why we hide parts of ourselves in it
• My personal experience and struggles with reclaiming my inner leader
• One thing I never thought I’d say out loud 
• How to notice and bring buried parts of you back to your consciousness and life

✨For more true stories, practical wisdom, and contemplations on speaking your truth, showing up and being seen in your life, and your soul-driven work, I welcome you to my email list. Click here to sign up.

📓For full show notes, visit www.cara-jones.com

For more information about Joanna Lindenbaum’s work visit: applieddepthinstitute.com

Meet your host, Cara Jones

Untethered Voice is hosted by me, Cara Jones, a former Emmy award-winning journalist, storyteller, visibility guide, and human cheeseball.

I bring a 25+ year career in journalism, filmmaking and coaching (including deep trauma-informed study and somatic practice), to support you in telling the stories that will magnetize your people and allow you to authentically grow your business. I help you untether your voice and unearth the one-of-a-kind wisdom in your lived experience, so your purpose work can reach your people. 

I’m also the proud dance partner of my husband Don, mama to dog Henry, and 7-year-old Ellie whose naturally untethered voice inspires my work every day.

We are not taught to see ourselves accurately and so, for so many of us, the prospect of being seen makes us want to run and hide.

Photographer and breathwork facilitator Melodee Solomon uses fear as fuel to create.

She holds space for people to be more fully seen with her camera and, in doing so, step into the next level of their work. 

In this episode on The Medicine of Creativity and Being Seen, Melodee and I dive into:

• Why being seen can bring up so much for so many
• How the resistance to being seen can become creative fuel
• How the natural world support our creativity
• Melodee’s story of the life-saving medicine of creativity
• Our upcoming retreat in Joshua Tree June 28th and why you should come!

✨For more true stories, practical wisdom, and contemplations on speaking your truth, showing up and being seen in your life, and your soul-driven work, I welcome you to my email list. Click here to sign up.

📓For full show notes, visit www.cara-jones.com 

For more about Melodee and our Edgewalker’s Retreat visit:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58b609b81b10e310610a1a68/t/663a62e15dede84996675c87/1715102434180/EDGEWALKERS+RETREAT+BROCHURE+-+REGULAR+RATES.pdf

Meet your host, Cara Jones

Untethered Voice is hosted by me, Cara Jones, a former Emmy award-winning journalist, storyteller, visibility guide, and human cheeseball.

I bring a 25+ year career in journalism, filmmaking and coaching (including deep trauma-informed study and somatic practice), to support you in telling the stories that will magnetize your people and allow you to authentically grow your business. I help you untether your voice and unearth the one-of-a-kind wisdom in your lived experience, so your purpose work can reach your people. 

I’m also the proud dance partner of my husband Don, mama to dog Henry, and 7-year-old Ellie whose naturally untethered voice inspires my work every day.

You don’t need to spill your guts and life traumas online to grow an audience.

You need only learn how to speak human to human.

Excavating your one-of-a-kind truth is one of the most powerful ways to connect with yourself and your people.

In this episode on 10 True Things + Other Ways To Stir Your Truth, I dive into:

• Why paying attention to who you’re speaking to frees you up to say what you have to say
• Prompts to help you get to the deeper layers of your truth
• My favorite “10 true things” prompt including my May 2024 answers

✨For more true stories, practical wisdom, and contemplations on speaking your truth, showing up and being seen in your life, and your soul-driven work, I welcome you to my email list. Click here to sign up.

📓For full show notes, visit www.cara-jones.com

Meet your host, Cara Jones

Untethered Voice is hosted by me, Cara Jones, a former Emmy award-winning journalist, storyteller, visibility guide, and human cheeseball.

I bring a 25+ year career in journalism, filmmaking and coaching (including deep trauma-informed study and somatic practice), to support you in telling the stories that will magnetize your people and allow you to authentically grow your business. I help you untether your voice and unearth the one-of-a-kind wisdom in your lived experience, so your purpose work can reach your people. 

I’m also the proud dance partner of my husband Don, mama to dog Henry, and 7-year-old Ellie whose naturally untethered voice inspires my work every day.