In a world filled with uncertainty and challenges, finding happiness can often feel like an elusive goal. In this episode, Chelsea engages in a captivating conversation with author Beth Romero about her recently released book, Happy AF,  and her mission to prove that happiness is not just a fleeting emotion, but a choice that can be practiced and cultivated through consistent efforts. 

Beth addresses the incongruence between internal feelings and outward presentation and emphasizes the distinction between joy and happiness, positioning the latter as a consistent commitment and a lens through which to interpret life. Happy AF becomes a poignant life raft toward cultivating practices such as gratitude and affirmations, particularly during bouts of heartbreak and depression. Chelsea and Beth delve into the significance of maintaining consistency in happiness practices, encouraging listeners to experiment with different approaches. They touch on the transformative power of empathy in relationships and the potential for altering one's internal narrative to cultivate a more authentic, supportive, and positive existence.

Beth Romero:

Website: https://bethromeroauthor.com

Happy AF via Amazon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethromero12

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethromeroauthor1

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com

Email: [email protected]

Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com

Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott

In this courageous episode, we explore the complex world of codependency, trauma, and the healing path towards self-sovereignty. Our guest speaker The Conscious Codependence Coach, Cheryl Fidelman, bravely shares how her own codependent patterns formed as a result of her early exposure to trauma and instability. At the tender age of 4, she was sexually molested and two years later her father left after a domestic violence dispute, leaving her to shoulder the weight and responsibility of managing her mother’s mental health struggles.

Throughout the conversation, Cheryl introduces her own unique methodology, Conscious Codependency Recovery, designed to guide individuals on their journey to overcoming codependency and becoming a sovereign being with boundaries and an open heart. 

She sheds light on the importance of recognizing the difference between true needs and codependent “illusions of needs,” our true selves and the "traumatic identity" we develop as a result of early life experiences, as well as the distinction between healthy intimacy and codependent intimacy. 

We also take a deep dive into forgiveness, emphasizing the significance of self-responsibility and healing the impact of past trauma rather than focusing on the story and assigning blame, as well as the idea of breaking one’s own heart, as codependents often unconsciously create situations that lead to heartbreak.

Join us in exploring how to break the cycle of codependency, find your true nature, access deep, healthy intimacy, and embody freedom through the healing process.


Cheryl Fidelman:

Website: https://cherylfidelman.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cherylfidelman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherylfidelman
Book a call: https://cherylfidelman.com/connect

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: breakupward@icloud,com
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott

Tune in as we sit down with the inspiring anti-bullying activist and author of "My Real-Life Rom Com," Carrie Berk. Together, we journey through the fascinating world of modern relationships, where the realms of dating apps, influencer status, and mental health intersect.

Prepare to relate as we peel back the layers of our personal stories, revealing how our self-concept intricately weaves its threads into our love lives in this digital era. We'll challenge the notion that "people always leave" and explore why raising our expectations in relationships is not only possible but essential.

Carrie Berk:

Website: https://www.carrieberk.com
My Real-Life Rom Com: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, Bookshop.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/carrieberkk
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@carrieberkk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carrieberkk
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carrieberkk

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott

Celebrated for her prominent role in As the World Turns, actress Melanie Smith has redirected her professional journey toward the exploration of heartache, grief, and reinvention. Her endeavors have encompassed guiding numerous individuals in breaking free from their past, unearthing their authentic identities, and masterminding profound shifts in their life trajectories.

Joining Thank You Heartbreak at the 7-minute mark, Melanie provides an exclusive peek into the genesis of her inaugural book, "Unfinished Business: 8 Steps to Heal Your Trauma, Transcend Your Past, and Transform Your Life." She delves deeply into the intricate tapestry of emotions that propelled her research, recounting her personal odyssey of conquering childhood illness and subsequent solitude, debunking the illusion of an idealized existence, and embarking on the profound inner journey that facilitated her harmonious union with self and others.

Within this emotionally charged narrative lies the poignant tale of her mother's untimely departure due to a rare form of cancer, the tragic death of her sister, the dissolution of her marital bond, and the dizzying relinquishment of her once-cherished dream home. These cascading adversities served as the impetus for her to confront a fundamental query: "Who would I be, could I be, if nothing or no one had ever gotten in my way?"

Melanie’s work surrounding Unfinished Business underscores the significance of addressing lingering unresolved issues, which have the potential to obstruct the path to self-discovery and self-fulfillment, ultimately preventing individuals from embracing their destined sense of self.

Key episode themes:

• Trauma from being diverted from our perceived life purpose.
• Link between early validations and entrapment in adult obligations.
• Recovery as a vital life skill for inner peace and abundance through life's pain.
• Trust in oneself and a higher pattern.
• Value of charge-free and trigger-free dating.
• Body as a guide to finding our sweet spot of belonging.
• Girls abandon their bodies; boys abandon their hearts.
• Healing potential of relationships.
• Self-attunement for self-understanding.
• Distinguishing between the necessity for survival-driven special attention and ordinariness.

Melanie Smith:

Website: https://workwithmelaniesmith.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniesmithofficial
Unfinished Business: https://unfinishedbusinessthebook.com
Unfinished Business via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-Trauma-Transcend-Transform

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalo

Clinical psychologist and author Dr. Cortney Warren is an expert on addictions, self-deception, romantic relationships, eating pathology, and the practice of psychology from a cross-cultural perspective. In today’s episode, she joins Chelsea 9:45 minutes in to talk about her latest self-help book on breakups, Letting Go of Your Ex: CBT Skills to Heal the Pain of a Breakup and Overcome Love Addiction. 

Gems from this episode: overcoming love addiction with radical self-honesty, the skill of self-forgiveness, the courage to be honest with yourself and therein free to choose the life that aligns with who you really are, understanding why your own boundaries are so important to your own mental health, the power of the post-breakup pause, dating as an experiment and initiative of self-discovery, and why living and loving with your eyes wide open increases self-esteem and self-efficacy, decreases self-deception, and sets you up for a life of least regret.

Dr. Cortney Warren

Website: https://drcortney.com
Letting Go of Your Ex: via Amazon 
TEDx Talks: Honest Liars 
Psychology Today: Blog
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcortneywarren
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drcortneywarren
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CortneySWarren
Contact: https://drcortney.com/contact-cortney-warren

Two-time guest, musician, beloved mindfulness writer, and author of Kickass Recovery, Billy Manas, joins Chelsea 9:30 minutes in for their yearly check-in about all the highs and lows they're recovering from.

Billy Manas:

Website: https://www.billymanas.com
Kickass Recovery: via Amazon
Substack: https://substack.com/profile/12500734-billy-manas
elephant journal: https://www.elephantjournal.com/profile/billy-manas
Music Show Dates: https://www.billymanas.com/shows
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billymanas2
Twitter: https://twitter.com/billymanas

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreak
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/musings

Thought leader and author of The Power of Wonder: The Extraordinary Emotion That Will Change the Way You Live, Learn, and Lead Monica Parker shines a spotlight on the magical yet little-understood human emotion that is wonder, making a case for how cultivating openness, curiosity, and absorption in the midst of everyday setbacks, disappointments, and heartbreaks can help us breathe, believe, and breakupward. 

Monica Parker:

Website: https://www.monica-parker.com
The Book: https://www.monica-parker.com/the-book
The Power of Wonder via Amazon
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monicacparker
Twitter: https://twitter.com/monicacparker

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreak
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/musings

Keynote speaker, success coach, author, television host, and philanthropist, Simon T. Bailey's purpose in life is to help you discover your brilliance and increase psychological well-being. Today's guest helped me regain the strength, perspective, and incentive to bring myself back to life. It was a game changer and life saver.

We discuss his book Ignite the Power of Women In Your Life—A Guide for Men, heartbreak of climbing the ladder of perceived success only to discover it was propped against the wrong wall, building a house but losing a home, chasing money but having no meaning, pursuing power without purpose and gaining status but having no satisfaction, the hopelessness that greets you and your relationship when you're focused on outward appearances more than internal connections, healing the mother wound, filling the hole within you in order to show up whole in relationships, latching onto relationships out of desperation versus inspiration, how cherishing goes steps beyond loving someone, dating with more intention and communication before even meeting, ego versus eco, igniting the power of women, affirming men, suicidal ideation, the power and encouragement of going "just a little bit more" and becoming who you're meant to be as you answer a problem connected to your unique wiring, and so much more poignant and life-enhancing insights.

Forever grateful for Simon T. Bailey:

Website: https://simontbailey.com
Books: https://simontbailey.com/books
Ignite the Power of Women in Your Life–A Guide for Men: https://www.amazon.com/Ignite-Power-Women-Your-Life
Courses: https://simontbailey.com/courses
Speaking; https://simontbailey.com/speaking
Contact: [email protected]

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreak
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/musings

Psychotherapist, Truth Teller, and advocate for being a "difficult" woman, Tonya Lester joins Chelsea 9:10 minutes in to talk about the upside of being difficult (the good kind of difficult, that is), what's worse than heartbreak (spoiler: it doesn't involve a relationship ending), the masks we wear and the self we forfeit in order to attract and keep partners, freeing ourselves from the spiral of "if-only" I had been/done/or behaved like XYZ, the healing powers of curiosity, self-compassion, and vowing to use our past to change our future, internal family systems methodology, the motive of the mean voice, how shock absorbers in relationships always finish last, the power of self-possession,  "kind narcissism," and why presenting ourselves as fully — vulnerably and accurately — as soon as possible is the best way to set ourselves up for a love that aligns with our true nature and intentions.

Psst: I loved this episode!

Tonya Lester:

Website: https://www.tonyalester.com
Services: https://www.tonyalester.com/services
Blog: https://www.tonyalester.com/blog
Psychology Today Articles: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/tonya-lester-lcsw
Free Quiz on Your Difficulty Level: https://assessments.catchengine.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyalesterpsychotherapy
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tonyalesterlcsw

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreak
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/musings

As a pain avoidant culture, we’ve been taught to fix what hurts us. To rush to the solve. To make it go away. That something’s wrong with us if we’re not feeling lovable. In today's episode, transformational and potentiality coach and author of 911 From Your Soul, Jeanine Thompson provides us an alternative approach and her signature soul solution, encouraging us to surrender to the challenge, journey, or crisis and rest in the darkness until the next reveal illuminates.

Jeanine Thompson:

Website: https://www.jeaninethompson.net
Services: https://www.jeaninethompson.net/potentiality-coaching
911 From Your Soul: https://www.jeaninethompson.net/book-release
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_jeaninethompson_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeaninethompsonllc

Chelsea Leigh Trescott:

Website: https://breakupward.com
Email: [email protected]
Advice Column: https://www.huffpost.com
Writing: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-leigh-trescott
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thankyouheartbreak
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/musings