She Thrives | meaningful conversations on women's health

What if some of the most powerful medicine for your health is already in your kitchen?

In this episode, I sit down with Peter Jackson-Main, a naturopath and medical herbalist with nearly 50 years of practice. Peter is Academic Director and Course Director for Herbal Medicine at the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM) in London, and the author of Natural Healing: Staying Well Naturally in the Modern World.

We talk about what herbal medicine really is today, how it can work alongside conventional medicine, and why Peter believes in "a herbalist in every home and a practitioner in every community." I also share my own experience of using herbs during my fertility journey with PCOS.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Peter's 50-year journey into natural healing began
• What a herbalist actually does, and how a personalised herbal treatment works
• Where herbs fit alongside conventional medicine, including during fertility treatment
• The Hippocratic order of healing: lifestyle first, then herbs, then intervention
• When you can support yourself at home, and when to see a practitioner
• Peter's pantry essentials: spearmint, ginger, fire cider, and chamomile
• Herbs for sleep and stress, including passionflower
• Supermarket teabags vs. quality herbs: what's worth knowing
• Using herbs responsibly and safely
• Why "a woman thrives when her intuitive knowledge is respected and acted upon"

Resources mentioned:

• Natural Healing by Peter Jackson-Main (Aeon Books): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Healing-Staying-Naturally-Modern/dp/180152193X
• College of Naturopathic Medicine: https://www.naturopathy-uk.com
• CNM Herbal Medicine courses: https://www.naturopathy-uk.com/courses-eu/courses-herbal-medicine/
• CNM short courses, including Herbs for Everyday Living: https://www.naturopathy-uk.com/short-courses/

Connect with me: Instagram @katiakhomich_

Bloating, urgency, unpredictable bowel movements — and a diagnosis that often feels like a shrug: "it's just IBS." In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Sophie Kuizenga-Wessel, holistic physician and founder of Mind Your Gut, to unpack what's really going on beneath that label.

We start with the name of her practice — Mind Your Gut — and what it means to truly listen to your body without tipping into hypervigilance. Sophie shares a real case study from her clinic: a woman who'd struggled with symptoms for years and had been told to just live with it, and how they got to the root of it through the lens of the gut-brain-microbiome connection.

We talk about:

• Why IBS is increasingly understood as a disorder of gut-brain-microbiome communication, not just "normal test results, no answers"
• SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and why up to 60% of people with IBS may have it
• The vagus nerve as the two-way communication highway between gut and brain
• Gut-directed hypnotherapy, yoga nidra, and other ways to support the nervous system
• Laxatives, myth-busted: when they're okay to use and when they can make things worse
• Coffee — on an empty stomach or not? Sophie's honest, non-dogmatic take
• Why IBS symptoms often intensify in your thirties, forties, and into perimenopause

This conversation is a reminder that there's no single right way to eat or live — just what's true for your body, right now.

Guest: Dr. Sophie Kuizenga-Wessel
Website: mindyourgut.amsterdam

Instagram: @mindyourgutamsterdam/

Most of us were handed a period-tracking app and told that was the same as knowing our bodies. It isn't. In this episode, I sit down with Sabrina Nowicki, co-founder and CEO of Cyclisity — the fertility awareness app built as the companion to the beloved book Taking Charge of Your Fertility, written by Sabrina's aunt, Toni Weschler.

We talk about what the fertility awareness method actually is, and why your cycle deserves to be treated as a vital sign — a real window into your overall health, whether or not you ever want to become pregnant. Sabrina shares the tradition that started it all (an annual lunch with her aunt, every year since her first period), her own honest fifteen-year story with the pill, and how the same knowledge can help a woman trying to conceive and a woman trying to avoid it.

This one is for anyone who's ever felt like her body was speaking a language no one taught her to read.

In this episode:

• Why your cycle is the "fifth vital sign"
• Fertility awareness vs. predictive tracking apps
• The method for conception and contraception
• Informed choice, hormones, and the pill
• Charting through your late 30s, 40s, and perimenopause
• The role of a partner in women's health

About Sabrina
Sabrina Nowicki leads Cyclisity with an engineering and product design background, bringing the technical expertise and user-centered thinking critical to making Cyclisity a successful Fertility Awareness Method cycle charting app — and the official charting app of Taking Charge of Your Fertility (TCOYF). Cyclisity was also co-founded by Toni Weschler, MPH, the author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility, and was built from the ground up to mesh perfectly with the TCOYF knowledge base and approach to FAM.

Links:

• Cyclisity app: cyclisity.com
• Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler

Cyclisity is currently available in the US & Canada, with a worldwide launch on the way.

In today's episode, I sit down with Tracee Stanley — bestselling author, yoga nidra teacher, and founder of the Empowered Life Circle — to talk about her new book, Living Ritual: Infuse Each Day with Purpose and Spirit.

This conversation is for anyone standing in a chapter of transition — a fertility journey, perimenopause, a shift in career or relationships, or simply that quiet feeling that something is missing even when life looks full on paper. Tracee's work centers on "householders" — people with jobs, families, and full lives — and her core message is that you don't need a retreat, hours of free time, or perfect conditions to access something sacred. You only need to learn to see what's already there.

We talk about:

— Why so many successful, accomplished women still feel like something essential is missing
 — Tracee's own story: her years as a Hollywood film producer, and the moment she realized her life had to change
 — The difference between a habit and a ritual — and why presence, not time, is the only real ingredient
 — Micro-rituals: small, doable practices you can weave into an ordinary day, from how you wake up to how you pour your morning coffee
 — Liminal space — the pause between the inhale and the exhale, between who you were and who you're becoming — and why learning to notice it changes everything
 — Menopause as initiation: Tracee's beautiful reframe of a transition our culture rarely honors, including her own experience with hot flashes, sleep disruption, and letting go of shame
 — Why ritual matters most in uncertain seasons of life, and how to mark transitions our culture no longer marks for us
 — Permission — to rest, to slow down, to give yourself grace through every season of becoming

This conversation isn't about adding more to your plate. It's about noticing the sacred that's already woven into your ordinary day — the doorway, the cup, the breath, your own body.

Get the book: Living Ritual by Tracee Stanley
 https://read.macmillan.com/lp/living-ritual-9781649634573/

Follow Tracee:
 Website — https://www.traceestanley.com/
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/tracee_stanley

This one is for you if you know that it's been a while since you tended to that sadness, frustration, shame, fear. Doing that requires courage and enough inner resources, feeling rested enough to handle the potential heaviness. And I can't overemphasise how often a practice like this creates a sense of lightness, release. I invite you to try it. And at any point, if it feels too much – pause it. You can always return when there is a bit more inner resources, capacity to feel what words can't describe. The main ask – is kindness towards this very experience, this very You who is in the midst of it. 

you can always reach out back to me if you feel you need a little more guidance. If you feel you can't do it on your own. 

Warmly, 

Katia 

Second practice episode of the Fertility Series where I teach you to use the power of your breath. Well-researched breath-work exercise with the goal to communicate to your nervous system that You are safe. It always works. Because it's physiologically imprinted into how we function. 

Come back to this practice every time when there is something important ahead of you. Something that makes you feel small. 

Let the breath in. 

Always release fully. 

No holding. 

This is first practice episode specifically with fertility theme in mind. 

Many of my clients share that the hardest thing for them is to fall asleep and feel recovered. When thoughts arouse imagination. When body is wired but tired. Yoga Nidra (or Non- Sleep-Deep-Rest) is something that you can do before bed, or in the afternoon, on in the airport. The idea is to create conditions for deep rest. You may fall asleep by the end of it. Or maybe you'll just drift between sleep and wakefulness for a couple of moments. And this counts, trust me. 

We know that we 'should' relax. But relaxing isn't a switch. So knowing it, and trying – often makes us feel worse. This practice is not a switch either, but it's an invitation to notice your body breathing and feel supported for just this very moment. 

This week, I sit down with Maayke Ruyffelaere, bioengineer and founder of MAIWE,a skincare brand that grew out of her own decades-long battle with reactive, acne-prone skin. We talk about what's wrong with the skincare industry today — and why fewer, better products often beat a 10-step routine.

We cover: the skin barrier and how it gets damaged, the link between hormones and skin health, what "fragrance-free" really means, and how to choose skincare with intention instead of noise.

MAIWE is now available at SKINS Amsterdam (since June 8th, 2026) and online.

Website: maiweskin.com
Instagram: @maiweskin

What if the missing piece in your health journey isn't one more protocol to follow — but finally claiming the right to slow down. 

In this episode I sit down with Stefanie Klaver, founder of Klaever Health, a holistic health coach whose approach to healing is unlike anything I've come across before. Over more than a decade of working with clients — and through her own personal crisis of losing everything — Stefanie has developed a method built on one radical premise: you are not broken.

We talk about what it actually means to heal by doing less, why your symptoms are not your enemy, and how the body, when you stop long enough to listen, already knows what it needs. Stefanie also walks us through her unique Attunement method — 15 minutes of silence at the start of every session — and shares some remarkable client stories that will make you look at your own body very differently.

In this episode we cover:

• Why "you are not broken" is the most important thing Stefanie's clients need to hear
• The yin-yang imbalance at the root of most chronic symptoms — and why we're collectively yin-deprived
• How doing all the right wellness things can itself become a form of avoidance
• What Attunement is, how it works, and why 15 minutes of silence can change everything
• The woman whose debilitating period cramps disappeared after one honest conversation with her partner
• Fertility beyond conception — tapping into creative energy on the journey
• Why state matters more than form (yes, even with food)
• How to build trust with your body in just five minutes a day

Mentioned in this episode: The Spiritual Child by Dr. Lisa Miller

Connect with Stefanie: Instagram: @klaeverhealth Website: klaeverhealth.com

What if the reason you haven't found the relationship you want has nothing to do with not being ready — and everything to do with the stories you've been told about what ready even means?

In this episode of She Thrives, I sit down with Lennart Klipp — psychology-based life and relationship coach, based between Amsterdam and Los Angeles, and relationship expert on the Dutch version of Married At First Sight — for a conversation I've wanted to have on this show for a long time. We talk about love. Real love. Not the Instagram version.

We get into why so many self-aware, successful women keep finding themselves in the same dynamics with different people. Why the high bar and the comfortable solitude can feel like independence but sometimes function as protection. Why the self-help industry's promise — work hard enough on yourself and you'll be free from pain — is not only unrealistic, but can quietly make you feel more broken than when you started.

Lennart brings something rare to this conversation: the belief that your patterns aren't problems to fix. They are intelligent responses to real experiences. And that is a very different place to start.

We also talk about the pendulum of self-love — why you are not meant to feel confident and open every day, and why for women, something as real as a hormonal shift can make the exact same situation feel completely different on a Tuesday than it did the week before.

This one is for the woman who has done the work, read the books, knows herself reasonably well — and still wonders why love feels harder than it should.

In this episode:

• Why busy, successful women struggle to prioritise connection — and what's really underneath that
• The "good enough" partner question — and why perfection is the wrong standard
• Masculine and feminine energy, polarity, and why none of it is as simple as we're being told
• The pendulum of self-love and why you will never permanently arrive
• What it actually takes to meet someone worth meeting — in a world of apps and full calendars
• Why your patterns aren't flaws — and what it looks like to gently update them

Connect with Lennart Klipp: 

Website: lennartklipp.com 

Instagram: @lennartklipp. 

pcoming retreat: details at lennartklipp.com