Hello, my friend.

If you’re in academic medicine and feeling exhausted, unclear, or quietly frustrated despite working hard, this episode is for you.

I’m joined by Dr. Stacey Ishman, MD, MPH, a former full professor with more than 20 years in academic medicine who now helps physicians build promotable, meaningful careers without sacrificing their lives.

We talk about what happens when effort stops translating into advancement, how invisible work and perfectionism drain energy, and why clarity, values, and intentional choice matter more than simply saying yes.

This is a conversation about alignment, identity, and direction — not doing more, but doing what actually moves you forward.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why effort alone doesn’t lead to promotion in academic medicine
• What happens when expectations are unclear and no one teaches you how to vet opportunities
• The cost of invisible work and perfectionism
• Why naming what you want to be known for changes your trajectory
• How values-driven yeses and nos protect both your career and your life
• Why coaching is support, not remediation
• A reminder many physicians need: joy is not something to postpone

Resources & Mentions

• Charting with Ease (download) https://dr-chrissie-ott.myflodesk.com/gq7zurcgdq
• The Art of Saying No guide for clinicians https://dr-chrissie-ott.myflodesk.com/gq7zurcgdq
• Dr. Stacey Ishman: https://medicalmentorcoaching.com

Stay Connected

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website & transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Hello, my friend.

I want to talk with you about language.

Not grammar or semantics, but the words we use to describe ourselves, our capacity, and our lives. The phrases we repeat so often they begin to feel like truth, even when they’re really just habits.

In this episode, I share some foundational ideas from Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, through the lens of coaching and lived experience. NLP explores how language, perception, and physiology interact to shape our experience, and how increasing awareness of that interaction gives us more choice and agency.

At a time when much feels outside of our control, this conversation is about reclaiming influence where it still exists. Inside your nervous system. Inside your self-talk. Inside the meaning you assign to what’s happening.

We talk about how our internal “map” of reality is not the same as the terrain itself. How meaning is assigned, not inherent. And how identity language, especially “I am” statements, can quietly limit possibility. I also share how shifting toward process-based language preserves safety, flexibility, and growth.

This isn’t about positive thinking or forcing affirmations you don’t believe.

It’s about awareness. About noticing what you’ve been agreeing to. And about gently choosing language that leaves room for who you’re becoming.

In this episode, we explore:

• How language shapes perception, physiology, and experience
• Why “the map is not the territory” matters in everyday life
• How meaning is created through interpretation, not events themselves
• The hidden cost of identity language and habitual “I am” statements
• How process-based language preserves agency and possibility
• Why change happens best in safety, not shame
• How gentle self-correction supports growth without self-criticism

Throughout the episode, I offer reflection invitations you can return to in real time or later. You may want to pause, notice the phrases you repeat most about yourself, and experiment with small rewordings. Nothing dramatic. Just subtle shifts that open space.

If something in this episode resonates, I’d love to hear from you. You can email us at [email protected] or send a DM on Instagram.

Thank you for being here, and for engaging in the quiet, powerful work of noticing how you speak yourself into being.

May your words become gentler, truer, and more spacious.

XO,
Chrissie

Resources & Mentions

• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Stay Connected

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website & transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Hello, my friend.

This end-of-year episode is a little different. It’s just you and me, and I want to offer you a tool rather than a conversation. If you’re approaching the new year feeling tired, reflective, or unsure how to move forward without forcing yourself into another round of goals or resolutions, this episode is for you.

Instead of goal-setting, I’m introducing a practice I call End-of-Year Self-Concept Accounting. It’s a structured, compassionate way to take stock of who you’ve been, what you’ve lived through, and who you’ve become over the past year, without judgment and without pressure to “fix” yourself.

This isn’t a gratitude list.

It’s not a performance review.

And it’s not about becoming someone else.

It’s about recognizing your growth, reclaiming your value, and intentionally closing the year so you’re not unconsciously carrying it forward.

In this episode, I guide you through six reflective “statements,” modeled after financial accounting, that help you reconcile your inner ledger and create a grounded opening balance for the year ahead.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why traditional goal-setting can actually block joy and increase self-criticism
• How to create a general ledger of the experiences that shaped you this year
• How to categorize growth assets, learning expenses, and internal investments
• How to intentionally release beliefs, roles, and obligations that no longer serve you
• How to recognize what has truly appreciated within you, even if no one else has measured it
• How to assess your current “net worth” in confidence, self-trust, and contribution
• How to carry lessons forward as wisdom rather than wounds
• How to begin the new year from who you’ve already become, rather than who you think you should be

Throughout the episode, I’ll invite you to pause, reflect, and write. You may want a pen and paper nearby, and I encourage you to give yourself protected, uninterrupted time to do this work, even if it’s not all in one sitting.

My hope is that this practice helps replace self-criticism with self-recognition, and urgency with clarity. When we take the time to see ourselves accurately, we create a much steadier foundation for joy, ease, and meaningful growth.

If this episode resonates with you, I’d love to hear what comes up. You can email us at [email protected] or send a DM on Instagram.

Thank you for being here, and for doing the brave, quiet work of becoming more fully yourself.

May there be fewer resolutions, more self-trust, and joy that comes from standing in your own earned truth.

 XO, Chrissie

Resources & Mentions

Influence Is Your Superpower by Zoe Chance
A thoughtful exploration of influence as an ethical, relational skill. Chrissie mentions this book when reflecting on visibility, leadership, and owning the impact you already have.

Stay Connected
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website & transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches
Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

There’s a moment many people are living in right now where the body knows something before the mind catches up.

You feel braced. Alert. A little stunned that certain conversations even need to be happening. And while you may technically feel supported in your work or community, safety still feels conditional.

That’s where this episode begins.

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by Dr. Anna Larson (she/any), a family medicine physician with over 15 years of experience in LGBTQ+ leadership, advocacy, and gender-affirming care. Anna is also a coach and intuitive healer who understands—both personally and professionally—what it means to live, parent, and practice medicine in a climate where identity, autonomy, and care are under scrutiny.

As a queer clinician myself, I’m Chrissie Ott, MD (she/her), and Anna and I talk honestly about how political rhetoric doesn’t just live in headlines—it lives in nervous systems. We explore how fear reactivates old survival patterns, why burnout is often a long-held scream rather than a personal failing, and what happens when people are forced to edit themselves in order to belong.

Anna shares deeply personal stories, including advocating for her patients and community while breastfeeding her infant—holding tenderness and resistance in the same moment. It’s a powerful reminder that care, joy, and justice are not mutually exclusive.

We also spend time talking about trans joy and queer joy—not as performance or bypass, but as embodied truth. Joy as regulation. Joy as resilience. Joy as something that becomes possible when people no longer have to explain, code-switch, or protect themselves in order to be safe.

This conversation naturally weaves into the origins of the Cultivate Pride retreat, a space Anna and I are co-creating for trans, queer, and allied people to rest, process, reconnect, and remember who they are when they’re not in survival mode.

In this episode, we explore:

• The difference between being supported and being truly safe
 • How political and cultural pressure lands in the body
 • Why burnout often masks years of suppressed expression
 • The real impact of disrupted gender-affirming care on patients, families, and clinicians
 • Trans joy and queer joy as grounding, non-performative, and deeply human
 • Community as a form of medicine
 • Advocacy that is sustained by tenderness rather than depletion
 • What becomes possible when people heal together

This episode isn’t about debating identity or ideology.

It’s about autonomy. Dignity. Care. And joy.

And it’s an invitation to remember: you were never meant to carry all of this alone.

Learn more about the Cultivate Pride retreat:
https://www.cultivatepride.com

Connect with Dr. Anna Larson (she/any):
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queerdoc.anna

Stay Connected
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website & transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches
Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

So let me tell you a story...

A day ago, I sat across from someone who has reshaped the way many women think about running. Not as punishment. Not as performance. Simply as a gentler path back to themselves.

That someone is Dr. Michelle Quirk.

Michelle is a pediatrician and run coach who talks about movement in a way that softens the nervous system. She offers a kind of grounded wisdom that makes you wonder what might be possible if running felt kinder and more connected.

Early in our conversation she said something that caught my attention. There is something called the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, and when women start estrogen replacement, many of the aches and pains they think are running injuries go away.

For so many midlife women, especially physicians, this matters. You are not too old to run. You are not imagining the discomfort. And joy is still available to you.

Michelle did not grow up a runner. She began the way many of us do, with limiting beliefs, self-doubt, and memories of forced fitness tests. Everything shifted when she started running slowly, listening to her body, and leaving her headphones at home. Running became a mindfulness practice and even a place where she processed her grief after losing her father.

In this episode, Michelle and I talk about:

• Why running can be a kind activity rather than a punishing one
 • The identity myths that keep women from seeing themselves as runners
 • What perimenopause and menopause change in the body
 • The often overlooked relationship between hormones and joint pain
 • How slowing down can make running safer and more joyful
 • How running supported Michelle through grief
 • The possibility of redefining athleticism in midlife
 • What it means to let movement be an invitation instead of a mandate

This episode is not about becoming an athlete. It is about reclaiming your relationship with your body and reconnecting with joy, especially in midlife.

Michelle brings warmth, clarity, and a deeply human perspective to the idea that movement can be a pathway back to yourself.

Connect with Dr. Michelle Quirk
Website: https://mindful-marathon.com/coachmichelle
Podcast: https://mindful-marathon.com/podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindful.marathon/

Stay Connected

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website and transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

So let me tell you a story.

A few weeks ago at the Physician Coaching Summit, I walked into a room where the energy felt… different.

Warm. Bright. Alive in a way you can feel in your chest.

And at the center of it was Dr. Zarya Rubin.

She’s one of those people who radiates something you can’t fake — joy, yes, but also this grounded wisdom that only comes from having walked through some real fires. I’d already known her work around burnout and midlife wellness, but meeting her in person? Seeing the way she held the room? Hearing her talk about midlife, the nervous system, and the realities we don’t say out loud?

I immediately knew we needed to have this conversation.

Because here’s the thing Zarya understands better than almost anyone:

Midlife is not the beginning of the end.
 It’s the beginning of finally telling the truth.

She’s lived the unraveling — the panic attacks, the autoimmune crash, the sleepless nights, the identity confusion, the “why am I doing everything ‘right’ and still falling apart?” exhaustion.
She’s lived the perimenopause plot twists no one prepares you for.
She’s lived inside that very specific flavor of perfectionism that looks like competence on the outside and feels like collapse on the inside.

And she’s lived the rebuilding, too.
The healing.
The choosing joy not as a perk, but as a lifeline.

In this episode, Zarya and I talk about:

• The midlife moment where your body becomes louder than your to-do list
• Why burnout for high-achieving women can look “functional” until the day it’s not
• How perimenopause makes everything you’ve been ignoring impossible to outrun
• What perfectionism was protecting her from — and why it cost her so much
• The surprising thing (hello, tango!) that brought her back into her body
• Why functional medicine finally helped her make sense of her symptoms
• And the joy practices she returns to again and again

This is not a conversation about “fixing” midlife.
It’s a conversation about reclaiming it — your autonomy, your voice, your nervous system, your pleasure, your meaning.

Zarya is funny, brilliant, deeply human, and refreshingly honest about what it takes to go from burnout to balance, and from balance to actual joy.

If you’ve been navigating your own midlife reckoning (or wreckoning, I promise you’ll exhale hearing this one.

Connect with Dr. Zarya Rubin

Website: https://www.zaryarubinmd.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaryarubinmd
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outsmart-burnout-midlife-wellness-for-women-with-dr/id1816580256
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaryarubinmd
TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdg5sbx-Fpc

Stay Connected with Me

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website + transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

🎧 Full transcript + more at: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

If you’ve ever wondered “Who am I when I’m not my role?” or “What comes after medicine?” this is the episode you want in your ears.

Today, I sit down with my dear friend Dr. Anne Pendo — internist, former chief wellness officer, certified physician coach, grandmother-with-a-tea-set, and lifelong hope giver — to talk about something we don’t talk about enough:

Life… after.

After the pager.
After the identity.
After the decades of being the one people turn to.
After the grief that rearranges your entire insides.
After the moment when you say, “I can’t keep doing this the way I’ve always done it.”

Anne shares how she spent more than 30 years in medicine asking herself four questions:

Those questions stayed with her through leadership, culture change, and personal tragedy.
They stayed with her after her son Robbie died.
And they stayed with her when she realized she couldn’t “work her way through” that grief — that the only way forward was to feel it fully and trust the helpers around her.

And eventually, those same four questions led her toward something new.

Not a quitting.
Not a losing herself.
Not a walking away.

But a gentle, honest, deeply intentional choosing of a life after medicine that still holds purpose, connection, presence, and meaning.

In this conversation, Anne talks about:

• What surprised her most when she stepped away from clinical practice
• Why she didn’t miss it — and what that told her
• How she learned to rest for the first time since 1975 (yes, really)
• The moment a Christmas card cracked her heart open and whispered: this is what you want more of
• Being a “warm blanket” presence and why that matters in every kind of healing
• How coaching became a natural extension of who she already was
• The tiny joys — bedtime songs, tea parties with Eloise, Olive and Ollie’s therapy dog rounds — that keep her anchored now
• And what it means to continue your purpose, even when your job title changes

This episode is tender and honest and full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from someone who has truly lived through the dark and still chooses hope — on purpose.

If you’re in a season of transition, grief, burnout, or asking yourself what comes next… you’ll feel so seen here.

Connect with Dr. Anne Pendo

Website: https://www.annependomd.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annependo/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annependomd/

Stay Connected with Chrissie

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website: https://www.chrissieottmd.com

🎧 Full transcript + more at: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches

Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

What do you do when the work you love begins to hollow you out?

When you’re showing up for little patients with big needs—and your own family at home—while quietly wondering how long you can keep going?

If you’ve ever felt that tension between your vocation and your wellbeing, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of Solving for Joy, I sit down with Dr. Kirin Palmer, pediatrician and founder of Pure Joy Pediatrics, to explore what it means to stay human in medicine. Kirin shares openly about navigating burnout, motherhood, and identity, and how receiving coaching gave her something physicians rarely talk about: permission to be supported.

In the middle of a season that asked more of her than she had to give, Kirin realized her only way through wasn’t more grit—it was more presence. She began choosing small, grounding practices that tethered her back to herself and back to the joy she built her practice around.

What emerged wasn’t balance in the traditional sense. It was sustenance—a way of moving through medicine that centers humanity, connection, and the simple joy of caring for children with her whole, grounded self.

Together, we talk about how receiving care reshapes the care you give, why presence matters more than perfection, and how joy can become a compass when everything around you is pulling at your edges.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What burnout looked and felt like for Dr. Kirin Palmer
 • How coaching supported her through a demanding and vulnerable season
 • Why presence—not performance—is the foundation of her pediatric practice
 • How she keeps joy at the center of caring for kids and caring for herself
 • What “sustenance” means in medicine, and why so many physicians are running on empty
 • The power of receiving support when you’re usually the one providing it
 • What helps her stay grounded when her mind starts future-tripping

If you’ve been longing for space to breathe, to soften, or to simply come home to yourself in your work, I hope this conversation opens a gentle door back to curiosity, compassion, and a more sustainable kind of joy.

More from Dr. Kirin Palmer:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirinpalmermd/
Practice IG: https://www.instagram.com/purejoypediatrics/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirin-palmer-md-13476524/
Website: https://www.purejoypediatrics.com/

Stay connected with me:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website: https://www.chrissieottmd.com

🎧 Full transcript and more: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

Physician Coaches:

https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

What if depression isn’t a flaw to fix—but a signal calling you back to yourself?

In this episode of Solving for Joy, I sit down with Dr. Ardeshir Mehran, psychologist, researcher, and author of You Are Not Depressed. You Are Un-Finished, for a conversation that reimagines emotional suffering as an invitation to wholeness.

Dr. Mehran’s groundbreaking Emotional Rights Framework identifies seven core human needs—from belonging and mattering to self-expression and purpose—and shows how depression, anxiety, and burnout emerge when those needs go unmet. Together, we explore how reconnecting with our innate emotional “rights” can transform disconnection into vitality, numbness into meaning, and survival into joy.

We also talk about the difference between depression and burnout, how emotional pain can become a compass for healing, and why the journey toward joy always begins with remembering who you are.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
 • What the seven Emotional Rights reveal about healing and human flourishing
 • Why depression and anxiety are intertwined signals, not separate diagnoses
 • The three forms of depression—transition-based, disconnection-based, and surrender-based
 • How somatic work and emotional awareness can restore calm and agency
 • What it means to turn depression into energy, focus, and purpose
 • How meaning, alignment, and delight converge in the experience of joy

If you’ve ever felt like success left you empty, or that healing means something deeper than managing symptoms, I hope this conversation helps you see emotional pain not as a dead end—but as a doorway back to connection, wholeness, and joy.

More from Dr. Ardeshir Mehran:
Website: https://ardeshirmehran.com
Book: You Are Not Depressed. You Are Un-Finished
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ardeshirmehran

Stay connected with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website: https://www.chrissieottmd.com

🎧 Full transcript and more: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

Physician Coaches:
www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

We’ll be taking a short break over the next couple of weeks as we prepare for and recover from the Physician Coaching Summit at Civana Wellness Resort & Spa in Carefree, Arizona. It’s the perfect time to catch up on previous episodes you may have missed—we’ll be back soon with more conversations to help you solve for joy.

But did it ever actually fit?

So much of what we were taught about health, weight, and nourishment has shaped how we care for children—and ourselves. But if you’ve ever felt like those rules never quite matched the real world, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of Solving for Joy, I sit down with Jill Castle, pediatric dietitian, parent coach, and author of Kids Thrive at Every Size. Together, we explore what happens when we move beyond fixing—when we stop trying to perfect or control—and instead start truly seeing the children, parents, and patients in front of us.

Jill is the creator of The Nourished Child framework and host of The Nourished Child podcast. For decades, she’s helped families release shame and confusion around food and find a more grounded, joyful way to nourish their kids and themselves.

We talk about how expertise meets humility, how joy and health can coexist in every body, and why supporting parents often begins with healing the stories we inherited about our own.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
• What The Nourished Child teaches about compassionate, shame-free care
• How to help kids “thrive at every size” while supporting both physical and emotional health
• Why family culture matters more than perfection or portion sizes
• How you can move beyond fixing toward curiosity, connection, and trust
• What it means to reclaim joy—in feeding, in medicine, and in how you care

If you’ve ever felt the tension between evidence and empathy, or wondered how to hold multiple truths at once, I hope this conversation invites you back to curiosity, compassion, and joy.

More from Jill Castle:
Website: https://jillcastle.com
Podcast: The Nourished Child https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nourished-child/id1149940384
Book: Kids Thrive at Every Size https://a.co/d/f1FuNSR
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidnutritionist

Stay connected with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website: https://www.chrissieottmd.com

🎧 Full transcript and more: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

Physician Coaches:
www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com

Music by Denys Kyshchuk (AudioCoffee): https://www.audiocoffee.net

Next week on Solving for Joy:
Psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Ardeshir Mehran joins me for a conversation about emotional suffering—not as something to fix or mask, but as a pathway back to meaning, connection, and a life that feels truly well lived.