Soul Shift

What if true strength isn't about pushing harder, but learning when to let go?

In this episode of SoulShift, hosts Ali Anderson and Christine Morgenstern Shin welcome Nahum Vizakis, combat veteran, athlete, fascial stretch therapist and author, to explore the intersection of trauma, spirituality, body awareness and nervous system regulation.

Nahum shares his journey from military service and competitive bodybuilding toward a deeper understanding of healing and self-mastery. Discover how breathwork, mindful movement, intentional training and self-awareness can support personal growth, while exploring his philosophy of spiritual bodybuilding—building inner resilience alongside physical strength.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Nahum's journey from combat veteran to healer
• How identity shifts can transform our lives
• Why surrender can be more powerful than forcing change
• The relationship between body awareness and emotional experiences
• How past experiences can influence present-day patterns
• Reconnecting with yourself through breathwork
• Why vulnerability is a form of strength
• Recognising when old habits no longer serve you
• What a regulated nervous system can feel like
• How stress and overstimulation affect everyday life
• Spiritual bodybuilding and intentional training
• Healthy versus unhealthy approaches to discipline
• Biohacking through sleep, recovery and breathing
• Moving beyond trauma-driven behaviours
• Finding answers through stillness, support and self-awareness

About Nahum Vizakis

Nahum Vizakis is an athlete, combat veteran, fascial stretch therapist, astrologer and entrepreneur. Following a spiritual awakening during his 2010 Baghdad deployment, he explored healing traditions, biohacking and emotional alchemy. A competitive bodybuilder with multiple competition titles, he now combines physical discipline and spiritual exploration to help others pursue greater self-awareness and personal transformation.

Connect With Nahum Vizakis

Website

www.optimizinghuman.com

Instagram

@spiritual_bodybuilder - https://www.instagram.com/spiritual_bodybuilder/

Facebook

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551701597490  

YouTube

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBmmf1OpYLL7JrD2ExMQLA

LinkedIn

Nahum Vizakis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nahum-vizakis-596092266/

Books Mentioned

The Biohacker’s Guide to Spiritual Bodybuilding

Nahum's exploration of how physical discipline, intentional training, recovery, and inner awareness can work together.

The Indigo Flame

A personal account of trauma, transformation, spiritual awakening, and the journey toward self-mastery.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when a woman spends her entire life striving for approval, achieving, caring for everyone else—and eventually realizes she has lost connection with herself?

In this powerful conversation with naturopathic physician, lifelong model, author, and dancer Dr. Tricia Pingel, we explore the deeper story behind stress and burnout. Tricia shares how decades of external pressure, grief, caregiving, perfectionism, and constantly pushing forward eventually caught up with her body.

After losing her mother to cancer, Tricia was forced to confront a question that changed the direction of her life: What happens if I keep living this way?

Her answer led her to make some profound changes—including stepping away from a demanding medical practice and rediscovering something she had loved since childhood: dance. Hip-hop became an unexpected doorway back to joy, connection, and herself.

This conversation goes far beyond avoiding burnout. Tricia explores the difference between external and internal stress, why stress itself isn't necessarily the problem, how our relationship with technology can affect our nervous systems, the pressure women face to take care of everyone else, and why changing the way we respond to stress can be more powerful than waiting for life to become less stressful.

At the heart of it all is a simple but transformative message: you are worth showing up for.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why high-achieving women can lose connection with themselves while “doing everything right”
• How grief and loss changed Dr. Tricia Pingel’s understanding of health and success
• The lifelong search for external approval—and learning to trust internal wisdom
• How modeling shaped Tricia’s relationship with body image, achievement, and self-worth
• The difference between external stress and internal stress
• Why stress is part of life—and why our response to it matters
• How chronic stress can affect the body’s nutritional and hormonal systems
• The importance of recovery, boundaries, and allowing yourself to feel
• How technology and constant stimulation can influence our relationship with stress
• Why being busy has become intertwined with our ideas about success
• Tricia’s personal experience with burnout and reaching a breaking point
• How dance and joy became an unexpected part of her healing journey
• The courage to change your life even when the decision feels risky
• Why women need permission to prioritize themselves and set boundaries
• Finding community, connection, gratitude, and a new definition of success
• The powerful shift from living for external approval to choosing yourself

About Dr. Tricia Pingel

Dr. Tricia Pingel is a naturopathic physician, lifelong fashion model, and hip-hop enthusiast who helps leaders answer the question that changes everything: “What am I modeling?”

Her personal transformation—including rediscovering her love of dance—changed the way she understood health, stress, joy, and the individuality of the nervous system.

Tricia is the author of Total Health Turnaround, host of the What Am I Modeling? podcast, and has been featured in Prevention Magazine, Women’s Health, and The Dr. Axe Show.

Find Dr. Tricia Pingel

Website: Dr. Tricia Pingel

Store: Total Health Apothecary

Facebook: @DrTriciaPingel

Instagram: @drpingel

Podcast: What Am I Modeling?

YouTube: @drpingel

TikTok: @drtriciapingel

LinkedIn: @tricia-pingel-nmd

Tricia specifically invites listeners to connect with her through her website and social platforms and let her know they heard her on SoulShift.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What if burnout isn't simply about being stressed - and the answer isn't to exercise harder, take more supplements, or try to fit another wellness strategy into an already overwhelming life?

In Episode 52 of SoulShift, Ali and Mindy sit down with Dori Martin, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and HTMA practitioner, to explore the deeper physiology behind midlife burnout, depletion, and the feeling so many women experience of “I’m doing everything right, so why don’t I feel like myself?”

After experiencing profound burnout through years of caregiving and chronic stress, Dori became passionate about understanding the connections between mineral balance, stress, metabolism, hormones, energy, and the nervous system. Her work focuses on helping women uncover patterns that may not be obvious from standard blood work alone.

The conversation begins with a powerful reframe: what worked for us earlier in life may stop working in midlife because our biochemistry and our capacity are changing. For women who have spent decades being high achievers, caring for everyone else, pushing through and continually reaching for the next goal, the body may eventually reach a point where it simply cannot keep operating in the same way.

Dori explains why depletion can show up as exhaustion, brain fog, low motivation, changes in mood, cravings, metabolic changes, and the feeling that even small demands suddenly feel overwhelming. Rather than viewing these experiences as personal failures, she invites us to consider what the body may be communicating—and whether pushing harder could actually be keeping us stuck.

A major focus of the conversation is HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) and how Dori uses mineral patterns as one piece of a larger picture. She explains why she sees testing as a way to open a conversation about energy and physiology rather than as a standalone answer. The hosts also discuss why mineral balance is nuanced, why taking a supplement simply because something is “low” isn't necessarily the solution, and why personalized guidance matters.

But this conversation isn't only about labs.

At its heart, it's about learning to listen.

Dori, Ali, and Mindy explore the connection between physiology and psychology, the importance of foundational habits, the impact of modern environments on our bodies, and why midlife may require us to stop asking “What else should I do?” and start asking “What does my body actually need right now?”

And perhaps the most memorable reframe of all: we're complicated plants living in a modern environment that doesn't always fit our physiology or psychology.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why midlife women can feel depleted even when they’re “doing everything right”
•  How chronic stress, high achievement, and years of pushing through affect the body
• Why burnout is more than emotional—and how physiology impacts psychology
• How mineral balance connects to cellular energy, metabolism, hormones, and stress
• What HTMA can reveal that standard blood work may not
• Why mineral balance is complex and why more supplements aren’t always the answer
• The risks of intense exercise, detoxes, and wellness trends when the body is already depleted
• Why foundational habits like sleep, hydration, sunshine, breathing, rest, and nutrition matter
•  How individualized strategies and proper sequencing can support resilience
• The connection between mineral balance, blood sugar, cravings, and eating behaviors
• Why working with an experienced practitioner can help interpret complex testing
• Moving beyond self-blame and learning to listen to what your body needs
• How slowing down and rebuilding capacity can help restore energy and resilience
•  Rethinking what midlife women need to feel healthy, engaged, and fully alive

Connect with Dori Martin

• Website: www.dorimartin.com
• Instagram: @midlifeenergy.dori
• Facebook: Dori Martin on Facebook

Mentioned in the Episode

Foundations to Fabulous + HTMA:

www.lightenup.thrivecart.com/foundations-to-fabulous-htma

Affiliate link:

Affiliate link: https://lightenup.thrivecart.com/foundations-to-fabulous-htma/partner/

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when we stop treating the body as a diagnosis to solve and begin seeing the person, the story, and the lived experience behind the symptoms?

In this episode of SoulShift, Ali and Mindy welcome their teacher, mentor, and longtime influence, Andrea Nakayama, for a powerful conversation about functional nutrition, narrative medicine, personalized care, and what it truly means to understand the whole person.

Andrea shares the deeply personal experiences that shaped her work, including losing her husband to a terminal brain illness while she was pregnant, navigating grief and solo parenting, and later confronting her own autoimmune diagnosis. Those experiences revealed the gaps between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease, and ultimately led her toward systems biology, functional nutrition, and narrative medicine.

Together, they explore why modern healthcare can sometimes reduce people to their diagnoses, why protocols alone cannot capture the complexity of an individual life, and how a person’s history, relationships, stress, sleep, joy, grief, and identity all belong in the healing conversation.

Andrea introduces the principles that have guided so much of her teaching: everyone is unique, all things matter, and everything is connected. She explains how narrative medicine helps practitioners move beyond intake forms and rehearsed medical stories to ask deeper questions about who someone is, how they got here, and what their lived experience can reveal.

The conversation also challenges the current obsession with biohacking, longevity protocols, supplements, testing, and trying to reverse aging. Andrea offers a more nuanced and compassionate perspective on midlife: one that honors change, meaning, relationships, joy, community, and the wisdom that comes with age.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen more deeply, question the noise, and remember that your body is not a puzzle waiting for someone else’s perfect answer. Your story matters—and it is an essential part of your health.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Andrea Nakayama’s personal journey into functional medicine and nutrition
• How grief, illness, and lived experience can transform the way we understand healing
• The gap between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease
• Why people are often treated as their diagnosis rather than as whole human beings
• How modern healthcare became heavily focused on acute care and protocols
• The importance of pluralism and having different kinds of practitioners involved in healthcare
• Why practitioners need to be evidence-informed rather than “evidence enslaved”
• What narrative medicine is and how it supports deeper listening
• How poetry, music, art, fiction, and reflection can help us access parts of our story
• The difference between starting with someone’s plate and starting with their story
• Why healing is a process rather than a one-session answer or quick fix
• Andrea’s guiding principles: everyone is unique, all things matter, and everything is connected
• Why sleep, stress, relationships, movement, joy, meaning, and identity all influence health
• The dangers of becoming overly focused on biomarkers and missing personal mediators
• How to begin when “everything matters” feels overwhelming
• The foundational trifecta of sleep, bowel movements, and blood sugar balance
• Why doing less, more slowly, can create a stronger foundation for healing
• How to become more discerning about supplements, tests, biohacking, and wellness marketing
• Rethinking longevity and aging beyond fear, performance, and optimization
• Why midlife should be approached as a new chapter rather than a return to youth
• The role of meaning, community, friendship, love, and connection in healthy aging
• How to listen to the body and honor what it needs in the present moment

About Andrea Nakayama

Andrea Nakayama became a Functional Medicine Nutritionist after losing her husband to a terminal brain illness in her thirties, an experience that exposed the profound gaps between medical expertise and the lived reality of disease.

While navigating grief, solo parenting, and her own autoimmune diagnosis, Andrea turned to systems biology to better understand the body and narrative medicine to hold the human story. Her personal search eventually grew into the Functional Nutrition Alliance, an acquired multi-million-dollar health education technology company that trained thousands of practitioners worldwide.

Today, Andrea works at the intersection of functional nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and narrative medicine, with a particular focus on women in midlife and beyond. Her teaching emphasizes a whole-person approach to health rooted in curiosity, context, individuality, and the understanding that every aspect of a person’s life can matter in the healing process.

Connect with Andrea Nakayama

• Website: www.andreanakayama.com
• Substack: www.andreanakayama.substack.com
• Instagram: @andreanakayama - https://www.instagram.com/andreanakayama/
• YouTube: Andrea Nakayama
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/fxnalliance
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndreaNakayama.page

·         LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreanakayama

Andrea shares weekly writing, insights, and opportunities for connection through her Substack, which she describes as a place for evidence, reflection, and conversation.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when three women with very different backgrounds, experiences, and areas of expertise come together around one shared belief: women deserve more than symptom management, quick fixes, and wellness advice that was never designed for the complexity of their lives?

In this special 50th episode of SoulShift, Ali Anderson, Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, and Christine Morgenstern Shin pull back the curtain and share the stories, experiences, and beliefs that brought them together to create this podcast.

Mindy shares her deeply personal journey from years inside the weight-loss industry to discovering a different path—one rooted in functional nutrition, eating psychology, transformation, and freedom from diet culture. Ali explores her passion for understanding the connections between gut health, hormones, the nervous system, and the underlying biology that can influence how women feel. Christine reflects on her own healing journey and the profound impact of the nervous system, resilience, ancient wisdom, and self-love on whole-person wellbeing.

Together, they explore why their different perspectives actually make their work stronger. Nutrition, biology, nervous-system health, mindset, meaning, and emotional healing aren't isolated pieces—they are interconnected parts of the human experience.

The SoulShift Sisters also talk honestly about why they believe women, particularly women in midlife, need a different kind of wellness conversation. A conversation that recognizes hormonal changes, identity shifts, relationships, grief, career transitions, changing family dynamics, and the many layers of life that the nervous system is carrying all at once.

This episode is a personal introduction to the heart behind SoulShift—and a reminder that healing isn't about having everything figured out. It's about continuing to learn, grow, reconnect with yourself, and create the conditions that allow transformation to happen.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why the SoulShift Sisters created the podcast and what they hope to offer women
• The personal experiences that led each of them into the world of health and healing
• Mindy's journey from the weight-loss industry toward freedom from diet culture
• The connection between gut health, hormones, the nervous system, and overall wellbeing
• Christine's personal healing journey and what it taught her about nervous-system health
• Why healing requires looking beyond symptoms and quick fixes
• How nutrition, biology, nervous-system health, mindset, and meaning work together
• Why women in midlife need wellness conversations that acknowledge the complexity of this stage of life
• The importance of feeling witnessed, understood, and accompanied through transformation
• Why SoulShift isn't about optimization or perfection
• How the three sisters' different specialties complement one another
• What the SoulShift Sisters have learned from each other
• Why they don't position themselves as having everything figured out
• The promise behind SoulShift and the kind of conversations listeners can expect

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when you do everything “right” and it still isn’t enough to protect your health?

In this powerful episode of SoulShift, Ali, Mindy, and Christine sit down with Tara Benoit, a former CEO, elite athlete, functional wellness practitioner, and author of Torn Heart, to explore what can happen when years of high achievement, stress, trauma, and pushing beyond your limits eventually catch up with the body.

At 46, Tara experienced a rare SCAD heart attack—spontaneous coronary artery dissection—despite spending decades prioritizing fitness, nutrition, and her health. Her experience forced her to confront a profound loss of trust in her body, the grief of losing the life she knew, and the realization that strength isn't always about pushing harder.

Tara shares how her recovery led her to look beyond isolated symptoms and understand the interconnected nature of the body, including the relationship between stress, the nervous system, gut health, hormones, and overall well-being. She also opens up about menopause, trauma, PTSD, and the identity shifts that can accompany a major health crisis.

Most importantly, Tara speaks about the importance of listening to your body, advocating for yourself, finding the right healthcare team, and using your voice when something doesn't feel right. Her story is ultimately one of transformation—from fear and loss of control to deeper self-trust, purpose, and hope.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Tara's journey from elite athlete and CEO to surviving a SCAD heart attack at 46
• What happens when a lifetime of high achievement comes at a biological cost
• The loss of trust in your body after a major health event
• How trauma, chronic stress, and years of pushing through can affect the body
• The connection between the brain, gut, hormones, and nervous system
• Why symptoms can sometimes be dismissed or treated in isolation
• The difference between conventional and functional medicine approaches
• Navigating menopause alongside a major health crisis
• Grieving the loss of your former identity and learning who you are now
• Why listening to your body's signals matters
• Advocating for yourself when you feel dismissed by the healthcare system
• Finding the courage to use your voice and ask for the care you need
• Turning a life-altering experience into a mission to help other women
• Rebuilding hope, self-trust, and a stronger relationship with your body

Tara emphasizes that women should not dismiss symptoms that feel wrong or assume they're being dramatic or overthinking. Her own experience of seeking care repeatedly before receiving a diagnosis became a major part of her mission to encourage women to advocate for themselves.

Today, Tara helps high-performing women better understand their health and become stronger from the inside out. Her mission is to ensure that no woman feels dismissed, diminished, or left behind in her own body.

She is the author of Torn Heart and has used her experience to advocate for women with SCAD and inspire greater awareness and support.

Connect With Tara

Website: www.tarabenoit.com

Instagram: @tarabenoitofficial

LinkedIn: Tara Benoit

Facebook: Tara Benoit Inspires

TikTok: @tarabenoitinspires

YouTube: Tara Benoit Official

Her book, Torn Heart, is available on Amazon in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback formats.

 Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What happens when the roles, titles, accomplishments, and identities you've built your life around suddenly change?

In this deeply personal and empowering episode of SoulShift, Ali, Mindy, and Christine sit down with leadership development coach Angie Huestis, founder of Leading You to Freedom, to explore what it really means to know your worth beyond what you do, achieve, or provide for others.

Angie shares her personal journey from childhood fear and self-doubt to building a highly successful career, leading a multi-million-dollar organization, and eventually experiencing the profound loss of her mother and the collapse of the business she had built so much of her identity around. Those experiences forced her to ask a transformative question: Who am I without what I do?

The conversation explores how women can become disconnected from themselves through roles, expectations, comparison, people-pleasing, and the pressure to appear strong and successful. Angie shares how identifying her core values helped her stop comparing herself to other women and reconnect with who she truly was.

The conversation also explores the relationship between fear, childhood experiences, safety, and the patterns we carry into adulthood. Angie explains how fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of what others think affected her life—and how surrounding herself with supportive women helped her begin to feel safe enough to face those fears.

Together, the hosts and Angie explore why comparison can quietly steal our joy and confidence, how forgiveness can create freedom, and why the people we surround ourselves with can either reinforce old stories or help us rise into our potential. Angie also shares her simple but memorable approach to facing fear: “punch fear in the face” and do it afraid.

This episode is a powerful reminder that you don't have to earn your worth. You don't have to accomplish more, become more confident, or hold everything together before you are worthy.

You matter now. Exactly as you are.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why so many women tie their identity and self-worth to achievement, roles, and success
• Angie's powerful question: “Who am I without what I do?”
• How major life transitions can create an identity crisis—and also open the door to transformation
• The connection between childhood experiences, fear, safety, and adult patterns
• Why fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of judgment can keep us playing small
• How comparison quietly steals joy, confidence, and personal freedom
• Using your core values to reconnect with who you truly are
• Why knowing your values can help you stop comparing yourself to other women
• The difference between being valuable for what you provide and knowing your inherent worth
• How forgiveness can become a powerful pathway toward freedom
• The importance of self-forgiveness and releasing stories that no longer serve you
• Why supportive community can help us grow beyond the limits we place on ourselves
• How to recognize when the people around us are reinforcing old patterns
• Why transformation doesn't require reinventing your entire life overnight
• Angie's practical approach to facing fear through small, courageous actions
• How taking one small step while afraid can gradually change our relationship with fear
• Learning to live with greater intention, choice, clarity, confidence, and freedom

Connect With Angie

Website: www.angiehuestis.com

Instagram: @angiedhuestis

Facebook: Angie Tanner-Huestis

Leadership & Community: Learn more about Angie's Leading You to Freedom work and Leader Connect through her website.

Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What if your struggle with food isn't actually about food?

In this powerful solo episode of SoulShift, Mindy Gorman-Plutzer shares the deeply personal journey that led her from decades inside the weight-loss industry to a completely different understanding of food, health, body image, and freedom.

Mindy opens up about spending years at odds with her body, measuring her worth through weight and appearance, and eventually recognizing the deeper system of beliefs she had absorbed from diet culture. Her own experience became the catalyst for returning to school and exploring the intersection of eating psychology, functional nutrition, nervous system regulation, and sustainable healing.

At the heart of this episode is a powerful reframe: food is often not the problem—it can be the solution we're using to cope with problems that haven't yet been named.

Mindy explores what can happen beneath food restriction, food obsession, emotional eating, and chronic dieting, including the roles of stress, nervous system dysregulation, physiology, beliefs, safety, and unmet emotional needs.

She also addresses the growing conversation around GLP-1 medications and why quieting hunger or food preoccupation may not automatically heal someone's relationship with food, their body, or themselves.

This is an invitation to move beyond the cycle of restriction, shame, and self-blame and toward a more compassionate path—one that honors both psychology and physiology.

As Mindy reminds us throughout the episode: Your body is not broken. It is brilliant.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Mindy's personal journey from chronic dieting and body dissatisfaction to food freedom
• Her 30-year experience working with women around food and their bodies
• What led her to question the beliefs she had absorbed from diet culture
• How diet culture can become so normalized that we don't recognize it
• Why food is often a coping strategy rather than the underlying problem
• The connection between eating psychology, emotions, safety, and unmet needs
• Why understanding the why beneath the what can change the way we approach food
• How chronic restriction and stress can affect the body's physiology
• The relationship between nervous system regulation and food behaviors
• Why eating psychology and functional nutrition can work together
• Mindy's Four Rs framework for moving toward freedom
• Recognizing patterns and understanding what's happening beneath them
• Rejecting diet culture and beliefs that tell us our bodies need to be fixed
• Reclaiming trust, energy, and connection with the body
• Radical acceptance and what it really means to come home to yourself
• Mindy's perspective on GLP-1 medications and the emotional work that can accompany their use
• Why medication may quiet appetite without necessarily resolving shame or food beliefs
• Moving from external control toward genuine trust and freedom
• The importance of addressing both psychological and physiological aspects of healing

About Mindy Gorman-Plutzer

Mindy Gorman-Plutzer is a Certified Functional Nutrition & Lifestyle Practitioner, Board Certified Integrative Health Coach, Certified Eating Psychology Coach, and founder of The Freedom Promise.

After spending 30 years working with women around food and their bodies—including 10 years within the weight-loss industry—Mindy spent the last 16 years helping women move away from diet culture's toxic messaging and toward a more sustainable, compassionate relationship with their bodies.

Her own journey led her back to school, where she deepened her understanding of food, physiology, eating psychology, nervous system regulation, and the complex relationship between mind and body.

Mindy is the author of The Freedom Promise and Midlife Metamorphosis: The Journey From Diet Culture to Radical Acceptance. Through education, compassion, and evidence-based coaching, she helps women break free from chronic dieting, rebuild trust with their bodies, and create lasting food freedom.

Links mentioned:

The Freedom Promise

The Freedom Promise

Free Guide: What If You Were Never the Problem?

Get the Free Food Freedom Guide

Free Guide: 5 Things Your GLP-1 Can't Do

Get the GLP-1 Guide

Book: The Freedom Promise

Learn More About The Freedom Promise Book

Book: Midlife Metamorphosis: The Journey From Diet Culture to Radical Acceptance

View the Book on Amazon

Instagram:

@mindygormanplutzer 

Coaching: Email [email protected] with “SoulShift” in the subject line or message to receive 15% off any coaching program.

Resources & Links:

• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

Betrayal can leave wounds that go far deeper than we realize. Whether it happened recently or decades ago, unhealed betrayal can affect our sense of safety, self-worth, relationships, health, and ability to trust ourselves and others.

In this powerful episode of Soul Shift, Ali and Mindy are joined by Dr. Debi Silber, PhD researcher, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and founder of The PBT Institute, to explore the science behind betrayal and why it requires a different approach to healing than other forms of loss.

Dr. Debi shares her groundbreaking research into Post Betrayal Syndrome® and explains why so many people remain stuck long after the betrayal itself has ended. Her research identified five predictable stages of betrayal recovery, with many people becoming stuck in Stage 3 - a place where they may appear functional on the outside while living behind emotional walls, numbing, avoiding, distracting, or struggling with persistent physical and emotional symptoms.

Together, they explore how betrayal can disrupt trust, safety, identity, confidence, and even our relationship with our own internal compass. Dr. Debi also explains the difference between simply becoming resilient after trauma and experiencing true transformation - and why stages four and five offer an opportunity to rebuild your life in a completely new way.

This conversation offers a powerful reminder: betrayal does not have to become a life sentence. Healing is possible, and there can be something beyond simply “getting back to normal.”

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why betrayal is a distinct type of trauma and requires a different approach to healing
• How betrayal can affect our identity, confidence, self-worth, trust, and sense of safety
• What Post Betrayal Syndrome® is and why it can go unrecognized for years or even decades
• The physical, mental, and emotional symptoms associated with unhealed betrayal
• Why symptoms such as fatigue, sleep issues, overwhelm, hypervigilance, and difficulty trusting may have deeper roots
• Why so many people become stuck in Stage 3 of betrayal recovery
• The difference between functioning and actually healing
• The five stages of betrayal recovery and what happens at each stage
• How numbing, avoiding, and distracting can keep us stuck
• Why familiar patterns can feel safer than creating something new
• How betrayal can shape our relationships, health, behaviors, and beliefs long after the original experience
• The difference between resilience and transformation
• How to begin taking back your personal power after betrayal
• Four questions to help you recognize whether you may be stuck
• Why telling yourself the truth can be the beginning of transformation
• How healing can create space for new relationships, boundaries, confidence, health, purpose, and self-love

About Dr. Debi Silber

Dr. Debi Silber is a PhD researcher, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and founder of The PBT Institute. Her research into betrayal uncovered three groundbreaking discoveries: betrayal is a distinct trauma unlike other forms of loss, it can create a measurable condition known as Post Betrayal Syndrome®, and recovery follows five predictable stages.

She is a two-time TEDx speaker with more than two million combined views, a two-time #1 international bestselling author, and host of the From Betrayal to Breakthrough podcast. Her work has been featured on FOX, CBS, and Dr. Oz, and she founded National Forgiveness Day.

Dr. Debi's research has included more than 100,000 people across more than 50 countries, helping identify patterns in the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of betrayal.

Connect with Dr. Debi Silber:

The PBT Institute

From Betrayal to Breakthrough Podcast

Dr. Debi Silber on YouTube

Dr. Debi Silber on Instagram

Dr. Debi Silber on LinkedIn

Recommended Resources

Watch Dr. Debi's TEDx talk “Do You Have Post Betrayal Syndrome?”

Watch the TEDx Talk

Listen to From Betrayal to Breakthrough:

Listen to the Podcast

Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨

What if the answer to burnout isn't doing less—but learning how to play again?

In this inspiring episode of Soul Shift, hosts Christine Morgenstern Shin and Mindy Gorman-Plutzer welcome developmental psychologist, burnout coach, and speaker Dr. Erica Buchholz for a fascinating conversation about the overlooked science of play.

Together they explore why so many high achievers become trapped in cycles of productivity, perfectionism, and chronic stress - and why traditional advice often fails to create lasting change.

Dr. Erica Buchholz is a developmental psychologist, professional speaker, burnout coach, and expert in adult well-being. With a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology and more than two decades of experience, she helps high achievers recover from burnout through neuroscience, neuro-agility, and the transformative power of play.

As a certified Laughter Yoga Instructor and LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, Erica combines evidence-based psychology with joyful, embodied experiences that help individuals and organizations build resilience, creativity, emotional flexibility, and sustainable success. Her work demonstrates that play isn't childish—it's one of the most powerful tools we have for improving mental health, reducing stress, and thriving throughout adulthood.

You'll discover why laughter, curiosity, imagination, and joyful experiences aren't distractions from meaningful work, they're essential ingredients for living a healthier, more connected life.

Whether you're experiencing burnout, navigating a major life transition, or simply feeling disconnected from joy, this conversation offers practical, science-backed ways to reconnect with yourself and create lasting well-being.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why burnout is more than exhaustion—and what your nervous system is trying to tell you
• The surprising neuroscience behind play and adult well-being
• How laughter changes brain chemistry and reduces stress
• Why high achievers often struggle to prioritize joy
• The connection between curiosity, creativity, and resilience
• How perfectionism quietly fuels burnout
• Why play improves relationships, leadership, and communication
• The importance of psychological safety in personal growth
• Small daily practices that restore energy and prevent burnout
• How to reconnect with purpose through fun, connection, and presence

Resources & Links Mentioned

Burnout Recovery Resource Vault:

https://ericabuchholz.ac-page.com/the-vault

Guest Website:

https://becomingplayful.com/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@becomingplayful

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/becomingplayfulcoaching/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-buchholz/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EveryoneHappier

Connect with Dr. Erica Buchholz

Dr. Erica Buchholz is passionate about helping high achievers recover from burnout by combining developmental psychology, neuroscience, and the healing power of play. Through coaching, speaking, workshops, and practical resources, she helps individuals and organizations cultivate resilience, joy, creativity, and sustainable well-being.

Learn more at https://becomingplayful.com/ or explore her free Burnout Recovery Resource Vault packed with practical tools to help you move from exhaustion to renewed energy.

Resources & Links:

• Explore Mindy’s work at www.thefreedompromise.com
• Connect with Ali at www.aliandersonwellness.com
• Learn more about Christine at www.radiantheart.health  

Subscribe & Review:

If this conversation touched your heart, please subscribe to SoulShift wherever you listen to podcasts. Your reviews and shares help us reach more people who need to hear they’re not alone.

✨ Let’s shift — gently, together. ✨