This episode marks a shift.

After a year of building this podcast with Amanda, she’s stepping into a new chapter and it made me stop and ask what this space actually needs to be moving forward.

The answer was simple. Less polished. More real.

This episode is the start of turning this podcast into a diary... documenting what healing actually looks like behind the scenes. Not just gut health, but the nervous system, behaviour change, stress and the patterns that quietly build into flare-ups over time.

I break down one of the most important things I’ve learned through psychology and working with clients - people don’t resist change because they’re lazy, they’re at different stages of readiness.

And if you don’t understand that, you’ll keep trying to force change that isn’t going to stick.

This is where we start looking at what’s really going on underneath the surface and how small shifts in awareness can completely change the trajectory of your health.

If you want me to answer your questions on future episodes, you can submit them anonymously here:

https://g7d33kw5b1w.typeform.com/to/mymG6hNE

Katie Xo

Can autoimmune disease really be reversed — or is lifelong symptom management the only option?

In this episode of The Healing Chronicles, Amanda and Katie sits down with Casey Hibbard, journalist, founder of Rebuilding My Health, and author of Overcoming Autoimmunity, for a grounded and deeply human conversation about what’s actually possible when it comes to autoimmune healing.

After facing rising autoimmune markers herself and being told there were no real answers beyond monitoring and management, Casey began asking different questions — not just how to manage symptoms, but why autoimmunity develops in the first place. That search led her through her own healing journey and into interviewing hundreds of people who’ve experienced remission or profound improvement by addressing root causes.

Together, we explore what those recovery stories have in common and why healing often begins when people move beyond a diagnosis-first mindset and start looking at the body as a connected system.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What autoimmunity really is and why it may be more dynamic than we’re told

• Whether autoimmune diseases can be reversed or put into remission

• Common root causes behind autoimmune conditions, including gut dysfunction, chronic inflammation, toxic load, and chronic stress

• The role of gut health and the nervous system in autoimmune healing

• How belief, identity, and safety can influence physical outcomes

• The difference between managing symptoms and reclaiming your life

This episode isn’t about miracle cures or false hope. It’s about restoring agency, possibility, and a more complete understanding of healing especially for those who’ve been told “this is forever.”

🎧 Listen in and explore what might be possible for your body and your future.

To connect with Casey and explore more autoimmune recovery stories, visit Rebuilding My Health or listen to her podcast, Rebuilding My Health Radio, where she continues to share real, hopeful stories of healing and remission.

What happens when you stop numbing, stop performing, and start telling the truth about who you are?

In this episode of The Healing Chronicles, Amanda and Katie sit down with Samuel Gegen for a grounded conversation about identity, sobriety, and the internal shifts that change how we show up in our lives... not just our work.

While Samuel is known for mentoring founders, the heart of his story is deeply human. He shares how choosing sobriety became a turning point that forced him to confront his beliefs, regulate his nervous system, and rebuild trust with himself from the inside out.

Together, we explore what happens when you remove the coping mechanisms that once kept you functioning and how clarity, confidence, and capacity begin to return when your system finally feels safe enough to be honest.

This episode is for anyone who feels like they’ve been surviving on autopilot and is ready to come back into themselves.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• How identity shapes the way we experience confidence, safety, and self-trust

• Why sobriety can be a catalyst for deep personal and emotional healing

• The connection between overwhelm, coping strategies, and nervous system capacity

• What happens when you stop numbing and start feeling — without judgment

• How belief systems quietly shape the choices we make every day

• Why healing often begins with responsibility, not perfection

  
  

  Connect With Samuel:

• Instagram & YouTube: @samuelgegen

• Podcast: Million Dollar Seller

The holidays don’t have to derail your health — but they do require a different kind of support.

In this episode of The Healing Chronicles, we’re talking about how to stay connected to your body, your energy, and your nervous system during one of the most disruptive times of the year. Because the problem isn’t holiday food or celebrations — it’s the loss of rhythm, safety, and regulation that so many of us experience this season.

This is a gentle, realistic conversation about maintaining anchors instead of chasing perfection.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why the holidays feel so hard on the body (especially if you live with chronic stress or illness)
• How blood sugar, sleep, and the nervous system get thrown off — and how to support them
• Simple daily anchors that help your body feel safe, even when routines change
• Why rest, boundaries, and nourishment matter more than discipline
• How to move through the holidays without needing to “start over” in January

This episode is for anyone who wants to enjoy the season and care for their health, without restriction, guilt, or burnout.

✨ You don’t need to do more.
 ✨ You need to stay connected.

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

In this powerful and deeply compassionate conversation, we sit down with Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers — psychotherapist, researcher, and author of Sex, God, and the Conservative Church and Shameless Parenting — to explore how sexual shame, trauma, and cultural conditioning shape our relationship with our bodies, our health, and our capacity for connection.

Together, we unpack how shame (often formed early and carried silently) can live in the nervous system, disrupt intimacy, and even contribute to chronic stress and illness. Dr. Tina shares how reclaiming pleasure, safety, and embodiment isn’t indulgent or taboo — it’s a pathway to wholeness.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How sexual shame forms and why it’s so deeply embodied
• The link between trauma, the nervous system, and chronic illness
• Why pleasure is not frivolous, but actually healing
• How cultural and religious narratives disconnect us from our bodies
• What it means to heal sexuality gently, safely, and at your own pace
• Why reclaiming intimacy restores not just relationships, but self-trust

This is an honest, expansive conversation for anyone who has ever felt disconnected from their body, struggled with shame around intimacy, or sensed that healing requires more than symptom management.

You can find more info about Dr. Tina's work and links to her books, on her website: 

https://www.tinaschermersellers.com/

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

In Part 2 of our sleep series, Amanda and Katie shift from unpacking the root causes of poor sleep to giving you clear, practical, chronic-illness–friendly strategies you can start using tonight.

This is the episode that finally explains how to actually support your nervous system, your gut, your hormones, and your circadian rhythm so your body can rest — even if you’ve struggled with sleep for months or years.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why traditional sleep hygiene doesn’t work when your system is inflamed or dysregulated
• What to do if your brain feels too awake at night, even when your body is exhausted
• The nervous-system tools that work fastest to reduce night-time wiredness
• Why your body needs rhythm, structure, and predictability to feel safe enough to sleep
• The crucial role of blood sugar balance in calming night-time cortisol spikes
• Why building resilience — not perfection — is the real key to healing your sleep
• The concept of “body trust” and how to rebuild it after years of burnout or chronic stress

If you feel like you're doing everything right yet still struggling to get quality rest, this episode is for you.

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

Struggling with insomnia, 3 AM wake-ups, or that wired-but-exhausted feeling? In this episode we break down the real causes of poor sleep — gut issues, cortisol, histamine, and nervous system stress, and how to finally support your body.

Forget the generic advice — the blackout curtains, the no-screens rule, the chamomile tea.

If you’ve tried all of that and you’re still not sleeping…
there are deeper mechanisms at play, and we’re unpacking them.

In this episode, we explore:

• How stress, trauma, and hypervigilance confuse your circadian rhythm
• Why your gut might be keeping you awake (yep — inflammation kills melatonin production)
• What “tired but wired” actually means
• The cortisol–melatonin dance your body performs every night
• Why traditional sleep advice fails people with chronic illness
• The surprising connection between histamine overload and insomnia
• How low DAO, poor digestion, and nutrient deficiencies show up as night-time anxiety

What’s Coming in Part 2

Next week, we go deeper with:

 ✨ myth-busting the most common sleep advice
 ✨ chronic-illness-specific sleep strategies
 ✨ nervous system tools
 ✨ how to rebuild trust with your body
 ✨ and practical ways to actually implement these changes

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

What does it really take to compete as an athlete while living with a chronic illness? In this episode of The Healing Chronicles, Amanda sits down with Katie fresh off her competition at the ATHX Games in Birmingham.

They explore the unique challenges and lessons that come with balancing chronic illness, training & performance and how movement can become a powerful form of medicine when approached with self-awareness and compassion.

🔑 In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Katie’s experience competing at the ATHX Games
• The realities of being an athlete with a chronic illness
• Why listening to your body is essential for performance and healing
• How movement can support the nervous system, immune health, and resilience
• Finding balance between pushing limits and honoring rest

Whether you’re an athlete, someone navigating chronic illness, or simply curious about the connection between movement and healing, this conversation will leave you feeling inspired and empowered.

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

In this candid, laugh-filled Q&A episode, we’re answering your questions—everything from how we met and started the podcast, to the hardest parts of living with Crohn’s and colitis that most people never see.

We get real about:

• The invisible emotional toll of chronic illness (and the mindset shifts that change everything)
• The one piece of advice we’d give our younger selves after diagnosis
• Daily habits and rituals that have transformed our health
• Comfort foods that help during flares
• How movement, rest, and slowing down can both be medicine
• What we might be doing if we weren’t health coaches and podcasters
• Our funniest behind-the-scenes moments so far

This episode is equal parts personal stories, practical takeaways, and plenty of laughs. Whether you’re here for the health tips, the real talk, or just to feel a little less alone in your own journey, you’ll leave with hope, encouragement, and maybe a craving for soup.

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE

In this episode, I’m opening up about my own journey with colitis—how it began, what it took from me, and the unexpected ways it reshaped my life.

For years, I let my diagnosis dictate what I believed I could and couldn’t do. I built a life around avoiding flare-ups, managing symptoms, and staying “safe.” But somewhere along the way, I realized I wasn’t just protecting my health... I was shrinking my world.

In this deeply personal conversation, I share:

• The early signs I ignored and the turning point I couldn’t avoid
• What it felt like to lose pieces of my identity to illness
• Why chasing “remission” isn’t the same as healing
• The mindset shift that helped me stop living like a patient and start living like me again
• How rebuilding trust with my body became the foundation for everything else

This isn’t just a story about colitis. It’s about breaking out of the limitations we place on ourselves when life doesn’t go to plan. 

If you’ve ever felt defined by your diagnosis, my hope is that this episode helps you see the possibilities that still exist, even when the path forward looks nothing like you imagined.

Support the show

If you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you’d take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with someone who needs to hear this. Your support helps this podcast reach more people who are ready to take control of their health and start thriving.

You are stronger than you think, healing is possible, and we'll be here every step of the way. Until next time—take care and keep going.

✨ Connect with us:

📩 [email protected]

Join Our Community & Download Free Resources HERE