The Ashley Rivard Podcast

Lauren is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, and a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist-Supervisor. Lauren’s professional focus is helping to reduce stigma around mental health issues and bring awareness, healing, and recovery to those in search of a more fulfilled and meaningful life.

Her areas of expertise are trauma and addiction, as well as intimacy and relationship issues. Trained in Somatic Experiencing, Neuroaffective Touch, EMDR, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and Neurofeedback, she works somatically with a wide range of issues. 

In this episode we discuss:

• What dynamics covid has created with couples; less connection, more addiction, or more addiction, less connection
• How behavior addiction has been on the rise and coping mechanisms to combat it
• How to keep a relationship thriving after covid
• Why novelty in a relationship is a must
• How to deal with children who are distant learning from home
• The concept of permission
• Tools on how to navigate depression

Connect with Lauren:
Instagram:
Email: [email protected]
https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/83245

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com

Lauren is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, and a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist-Supervisor. Lauren’s professional focus is helping to reduce stigma around mental health issues and bring awareness, healing, and recovery to those in search of a more fulfilled and meaningful life.

Her areas of expertise are trauma and addiction, as well as intimacy and relationship issues. Trained in Somatic Experiencing, Neuroaffective Touch, EMDR, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and Neurofeedback, she works somatically with a wide range of issues. 

In this episode we discuss:

• What dynamics covid has created with couples; less connection, more addiction, or more addiction, less connection
• How behavior addiction has been on the rise and coping mechanisms to combat it
• How to keep a relationship thriving after covid
• Why novelty in a relationship is a must
• How to deal with children who are distant learning from home
• The concept of permission
• Tools on how to navigate depression

Connect with Lauren:
Instagram:
Email: [email protected]
https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/83245

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com

A former Apple software engineer turned international sex and intimacy educator, turned relationship coach. Ken is in his 20th year helping couples bond, co-create, have great sex, thrive, and live happily ever after. His work has garnered mentions in Business Insider, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and Medium.  Ken is also a frequent contributor to The Good Men Project.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why men want sex and women want love is wrong

• What men are truly looking for and don’t consciously know

• What men need to be focusing on during sex

• Why women need to have the courage to speak up and be willing to hurt the male's ego in order to get to the common goal, great sex

• Why men usually miss the mark in the sex

• How to take your sex life from good to great

• Why the financial provider and emotional provider roles don’t work anymore

• Why pacing has a lot to do with sex

• How to keep sex alive in a monogamous relationship

Connect with Ken:
https://kenblackman.com
https://medium.com/straight-talkers
https://www.facebook.com/KenBlackmanPersonal/
https://goodmenproject.com/author/kenkenblackman-c…

Connect with Ashley:
ashleyrivard.com
Instagram: @ashleydrivard

John and Jackie Melfi are swingers in an open relationship. Together they are the driving force behind coletteclubs.com, a swingers' club brand with locations in Dallas, New Orleans, Houston, and Austin. John has been in the swinger club industry for 20 years, and when he and Jackie met, they expanded the business in order to reach and educate more couples and singles curious about the lifestyle.  Their first venture together was the award-winning lifestyle blog, Openlove101.com. Today this swinging powerhouse coaches couples on the lifestyle, provides video content, blogs weekly on the topic, and have been the recipients of numerous industry awards.

In this episode we discuss:

• What it looks like to have a play partner 
• How jealousy and fear don’t enter the equation
• What are the benefits and repercussions of this lifestyle
• What betrayal looks like for Jackie and John
• How being in an open relationship and swinging lifestyle has created far more emotional intimacy in their relationship
• How the taboo of open relationships can create unfair treatment
• How their kids view their lifestyle
• What the different levels look like in an open/swinging relationship

Connect with John and Jackie:
coletteclubs.com
openlove101.com
worldlovesummit.com
https://www.instagram.com/openlove101/
https://www.facebook.com/openlove101
https://www.youtube.com/user/openlove101
https://twitter.com/openlove101

Connect with Ashley:
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Twitter:@ashleyrivard

Franky Carillo was convicted in the 1991 shooting of Donald Sarpy.  His conviction was reversed by the Los Angeles County Superior Court March 14, 2011, after he served twenty years in prison.  He is married, has three children and is planning to run for the California State Assembly.  His story is also told in the Netflix series, The Innocence Files.

In this episode we discuss:

•  What happened that led Franky to being convicted of a double life sentence for murder
•  How he was framed to be the murderer
•  How his faith of being free wavered, but he was always able to find the strength to keep going
•  How he worked through his anger, depression and isolation in prison
•  What the misconceptions are of prison
•  How the Innocence Project was an ultimate catalyst to helping him get free
•  What he learned in prison and how he utilizes those lessons today

Connect with Franky:
Facebook: Franky Carrillo
Instagram: FrankyCarrillo_
Twitter: @carrillofranky

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com

Asha Ismail is the Director of ONGD Save a Girl Save a Generation. She was born in a town in Kenya called Garissa, near the border of Somalia. Since 2001, she has been living in Spain. She started advocating against female genital mutilation (FGM) and other practices, such as forced marriages and different forms of abuse and violence against girls for the past 30 years.  She has worked at a grassroots level in Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania, where she raised awareness and promoted education to eradicate these practices.  

She continues her work in Spain, through the organization that she co-founded, helping women who have been affected in one way or another by these practices.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why her people practice female genital mutilation
• How culture, tradition, and religion play into FGM
• Who is performing FGM to these young girls
• The average age FGM is practiced
• What the effects are on a woman emotionally, mentally and physically from undergoing this practice
• Why the sexuality of a woman is a threat and why FGM removes that threat
• Why some women cannot pinpoint where their depression and anxiety come from and when they do
• What Asha feels the solutions to eradicate FGM are
• Why social norms play a huge role in perpetuating FGM and reinforcing why women aren’t good enough just the way they are

Connect with Asha:
http://www.saveagirlsaveageneration.org/
Twitter: @save_a_girl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saveagirlsaveageneration

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com

Dr. Kate Wolitzky-Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She is a clinical psychologist with nearly 20 years of expertise in anxiety and related disorders. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Psychology's Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders. Dr. Kate completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at UCLA in the Anxiety Disorders Research Center.  She has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continuously since her graduate career and is currently the Principal Investigator for several studies in which she is developing and evaluating behavioral treatments for co-occurring anxiety and substance use disorders.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is anxiety and where does it stem from

• Is anxiety predisposed and is it curable

• How do we know if we are anxious or depressed and what are some solutions in getting through it?

• Why suppressing our anxiety makes it worst

• What to do when we are down a rabbit hole of emotions and need to get out

• How to work through OCD, hypochondria and PTSD

• How exposure therapy and cognitive behavior therapy work and why they’re beneficial

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com

Paul is an author, investigative reporter, documentary film producer, syndicated columnist, journalist, and screenwriter.  He has covered war zones, natural disasters, and presidential campaigns, including a well-received article for the New York Times regarding mental and emotional health.

In today’s episode we discuss:

• Why being a natural iconoclast can breed separation

• How to get comfortable being uncomfortable and why it takes a lifetime to learn, it takes a lifetime

• Why alcohol almost ruined his God-given talents

• What his addiction looks like and how he got through

• Why growing up in a love-based culture made it challenging for him to move to a fear-based culture

• Tools and solutions to living a grounded life and what it takes to feel good in your skin

Connect with Paul:
Facebook: Paul VanDevelder
www.paulvandevelder.com

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com
Linkedin: Ashley Rivard

Ginger Pullman is a Los Angeles based tarot card reader and reiki/ spiritual healer. She comes from a long lineage of tarot card readers.

In this episode we discuss:

• How our intuition plays into who we are

• How intuitive energy healing helps remove “clingers” that hold you back

• Why knowing your past lives can help you move forward in this life

• Tools and solutions you can do for yourself to clear your energy field of anger, sadness, jealousy and more

• What we can do for self-care

• How tarot can help alleviate anxiety and depression, and why some therapists are recommending their clients to supplement with tarot

Connect with Ginger:
Instagram: @tarotwithginger
Website: seekeymelrose.com

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram; @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com
Twitter: @ashleyrivard
Linkedin: ashleyrivard

Jayne Amelia Larson is an actress and voice-over artist, a creative content producer, and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Driving The Saudis published by Simon & Schuster. When she was a young teen she lost her eldest brother to suicide.  She realized almost 40 years later that she had not dealt with the grief until she started writing her novel, Solving For X.  It is about the painful aftermath of a son suicide in the shell-shocked family left behind and his sister’s search to make sense of his decision to take his young life.

In this episode we discuss:

• How shame, guilt, and isolation played into her experience after her brother took his life
• How societies stigmas/misperceptions impacted her grief
• What she and her family did to cope
• Why it wasn’t okay to talk about how he died and how she pretended it didn’t happen
• Why it took her 40 years to deal with her grief 
• The self-care tools she practices today
• What her grief looks like now versus when he took his life
• Why if she would have addressed the grief earlier on, her life would have turned out better
• How the novel she just finished writing was a healing tool to move through her grief
• What she wants people to know, who are grieving a loss of a loved one to suicide

Connect with Jayne:
Website: Jayneamelialarson.com
Twitter: @jadal 
Instagram: Jayneamelialarson

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com