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In this conversation with Allie Michelle, poet, spoken word performer, and author of four poetry collections, she and Karena cover the healing power of journaling and radical honesty on the page. They discuss how EMDR therapy rewired her nervous system in just eight sessions, the difference between the Lover and Seeker archetypes, and why fluid identity beats fixed personality systems. Youo’ll hear why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to expand empathy, and where she personally draws the line on AI in the creative process.
Can writing become a form of therapy?Allie makes the case that it can. Whether you've never touched a journal or you've been writing for years, this conversation will change the way you think about creativity, honesty, and what it means to truly feel your feelings.
Highlights:
(00:52) From Library Kid to Poet: Finding Words That Held Her
(05:31) Journaling as a Lifeline: How to Get Radically Honest on the Page
(11:52) AI, Authenticity & Where Allie Draws the Line
(22:41) Healing the Self: EMDR, Somatic Work & Coming Back Into Your Body
(24:52) Archetypes, Identity & The Many Versions of You
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Dr. Steven Storage is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at Amen Clinics, where brain SPECT imaging is used to diagnose and treat conditions like ADHD at the neurological level. In this episode, he and Karena cover the four pillars of brain health, how social media hijacks your dopamine, why ADHD is both genetic and environmental, the seven subtypes of ADHD, what low dopamine actually feels like, and a simple cognitive technique to stop negative thoughts from running your day.
What happens to your focus, your mood, and your sense of self when your brain isn't getting what it needs — and how do you even know?Dr. Storage breaks down the neuroscience in a way that's impossible to unhear, from why one bad night of sleep costs you 30% of your executive function to how your social media habit may be draining the same brain chemical you need to feel motivated. This is the brain health conversation that has been missing from the wellness space.
(00:38) The Four Pillars of Brain Health
(07:07) Social Media, Dopamine & the Addiction Loop
(11:59) ADHD Explained — Genetics, Perimenopause & What's Really Happening
(21:04) ADHD as a Superpower — And Why Medication Isn't the Enemy
(32:35) Brain Development, Early Diagnosis & Rewiring Negative Thoughts
Thanks for the support from our partners, including:
Guest ResourcesIf this episode moved you, please consider supporting The Big Silence Foundation and exploring our resources:
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Executive coach and bestselling author Amina AlTai joins Karena to unpack the hidden psychology behind burnout, overachievement, and what she calls the "ambition trap" — the exhausting space between feeling too much and never enough. After her own health crisis brought on by relentless overworking and undiagnosed autoimmune disease, Amina went back to study coaching, nutrition, and mindfulness, and built a practice helping high-achieving women reconnect with purposeful ambition. In this episode, they explore the five core childhood wounds that quietly shape our careers, how invisible labor fuels resentment, and the concrete steps to set boundaries, stop tolerating what's costing you, and find work that's truly yours.
How do you stop building your ambition on a foundation of childhood wounds and start living from a place of purpose?Recognizing the core wounds quietly driving your hustle is the first step toward breaking free from the ambition trap and reclaiming a life that's actually yours.
(00:16) The Burnout That Nearly Broke Her
(03:01) The Five Core Wounds Driving Your Ambition
(10:44) How Core Wounds Show Up at Work
(16:07) Boundaries, Burnout & Invisible Labor
(31:13) Reinvention, Purpose & the Passion Myth
Thanks for the support from our partners, including:
Guest Resources
If this episode moved you, please consider supporting The Big Silence Foundation and exploring our resources:
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Have a message for Karena? She'd love to hear from you and share your comment or question on air!
Leave Karena a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/KarenaDawn
In this conversation with Kenny Santucci — personal trainer, entrepreneur, and founder of Strong New York — Karena explores how growing up broke in New Jersey shaped his relentless work ethic, why he lost millions and kept going, and how fitness became his anchor through canceled deals, failed businesses, and a suicidal crisis. Kenny also shares his philosophy on building real community through fitness, what the industry gets wrong, and why he believes a healthier city starts one workout at a time.
How do you rebuild your life when every external win has been stripped away — and still choose to get up?Resilience isn't a personality trait. It's a decision you make in the dark, over and over again.
(00:46) Jersey Roots, Zero Hand-Outs
(03:15) The Fat Kid Who Became a Trainer
(13:57) From the Docks to the Gym Floor
(17:50) Getting Canceled and Going Broke
(32:57) What the Fitness Industry Gets Wrong
(53:29) Strong New York, Plant Medicine & the Supplement Stack
Thanks for the support from our partners, including:
Guest Resources:If this episode moved you, please consider supporting The Big Silence Foundation and exploring our resources:
Connect with The Big Silence Community:
Show Resources:
Have a message for Karena? She'd love to hear from you and share your comment or question on air!
Leave Karena a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/KarenaDawn
In this conversation with Dr. Shefali Tsabary, clinical psychologist and author of The Conscious Parent, Karena explores how unhealed childhood wounds get passed down through generations, why traditional discipline doesn't work, and how the three-step process of awareness, acceptance, and action can help you break toxic patterns — whether you're a parent or not.
How do we stop unconsciously passing our unhealed wounds onto the people we love most?
The path to conscious parenting begins not with your child — but with you.
(00:23) From Psychologist to Conscious Parent: The Origin Story
(06:55) Triggers, Boundaries & Breaking the Cycle
(11:12) Screens, Mental Health & the Disconnection Crisis
(15:10) Control, Happiness & the Wake-Up Call We're All Avoiding
(23:11) Role Reversal, Self-Love & the Books That Can Change Your Life
Thanks for the support from our partners, including:
If this episode moved you, please consider supporting The Big Silence Foundation and exploring our resources:
Connect with The Big Silence Community
In this conversation with Dr. Marc Brackett, founder and director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Karena explores the science of emotional regulation, the RULER framework (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions), and why traditional approaches to handling feelings often fail. Dr. Brackett shares his personal story of childhood trauma, discusses the unique challenges men face with emotional expression, and provides practical strategies for dealing with grief, anxiety, and everyday emotional overwhelm.
How do you actually deal with your feelings instead of suppressing them—and why is emotional intelligence the key to better mental health, relationships, and longevity?
Understanding how to regulate your emotions isn't about fixing or judging them—it's about building the vocabulary and tools to recognize, understand, and work with what you're feeling.
(01:23) The RULER Framework & Navigating Grief Without Judgment
(07:18) Why Men Are Drowning in Suppressed Emotions & The Uncle Marvin Story
(15:42) From Trauma to Yale: Building Emotional Vocabulary & Understanding Anxiety
(27:35) Realistic Optimism, Toxic Positivity & Six Strategies for Dealing With Feelings
(38:46) The Dealing With Feeling Wheel: Monthly Check-Ins for Emotional Health
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In this conversation with Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in eating disorders and founder of Within Health and Galen Hope treatment centers, Karena explores the life-threatening reality of eating disorders as serious mental illnesses that claim one life every 52 minutes in America. Dr. Oliver-Pyatt explains the biopsychosocial foundations of eating disorders, shares her personal journey from ballerina to eating disorder specialist, and discusses the warning signs in athletes and high achievers. She reveals the controversial truth about GLP-1 medications and eating disorder risk, and provides actionable tools for reframing your relationship with your body through self-compassion and intentional self-care practices.
How do you stop fighting your body and start healing your relationship with food, weight, and self-worth?Understanding that weight stigma is trauma opens the door to compassion—and real recovery.
(01:13) The Deadliest Mental Illness You've Never Heard Of
(04:47) From Ballerina to Eating Disorder Psychiatrist
(18:32) Athletes, Perfectionism & the "Healthy" Eating Trap
(32:47) What Real Treatment Looks Like
(47:36) The GLP-1 Controversy: Ozempic, Wegovy & Eating Disorders
In this conversation with Bizzie Gold, founder of Break Method and creator of brain pattern mapping technology, Karena explores how childhood experiences create predictable patterns that shape your relationships, career, and mental health—and how understanding your source belief pattern can help you break free from self-deception and build a healthier life.
How do you rewire the brain patterns formed in childhood that still control your life today?Understanding your source belief pattern is the first step toward breaking free from self-deception and building the life you actually want.
(02:05) Brain Pattern Mapping & Bypassing Your Story
(06:16) The Sweet Spot of Trauma That Makes Great Entrepreneurs
(13:47) Enmeshment Patterns & The Right Side of the Spectrum
(27:18) Self-Deception & Why Your Brain Lies to You
(40:33) Growing Up with Psychiatric Illness & Finding Your Drive
(49:08) Self-Care for Workaholics & Pattern Opposition
What if your worst childhood trauma became the gateway to your greatest gift?
In this profoundly moving episode of The Big Silence, Karena sits down with Susan Grau: soul healer, grief and addiction therapist, and Hay House bestselling author. Her near-death experience transformed a childhood marked by extreme trauma into a life devoted to healing. Susan had a childhood that most people can't imagine surviving. But she’s transformed unimaginable pain into a life of powerful healing. Now a grief and addiction therapist who works with spirits from the other side, Susan shares how she learned to survive by becoming her unstable mother's "ally," how codependency became her survival strategy, and why she believes therapists need lived experience to truly help people heal.
True healing comes from walking through the fire, not just studying it from afar.
(02:43) A Near-Death Experience That Changed Everything
(05:51) Growing Up with a Mother with Mental Illness
(14:18) Addiction, Alcoholism & A Household of Dysfunction
(27:33) Her Brother's Suicide & Choosing to Become a Therapist
(38:13) Why Your Therapist Needs to Have Walked Through Fire Too
What if gratitude isn't just something you feel, but something you create more of every time you practice it?
In this grounding Mental Wellness Month meditation, Karena guides you through an 8-minute practice designed to help you reconnect with gratitude for your body, your breath, and your journey. Using breathwork, visualization, and mantras, this meditation invites you to pause and give thanks for all that has carried you to this moment. Perfect for finding beauty in the everyday, shifting your perspective, or simply celebrating all that you have and all that you are.
How do you cultivate gratitude as a way of living, not just a fleeting feeling?Gratitude is a practice. And every time you acknowledge it, you create more of it.
(00:00) Finding Your Peaceful Place & Connecting to Beauty
(03:30) Bringing Gratitude to Mind & Holding It in Your Heart
(06:00) Mantras & Radiating Gratitude Outward
If this episode moved you, please consider supporting The Big Silence Foundation and exploring our resources:
Connect with The Big Silence Community
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