The Shadows We Cast

In this season two finale of 'The Shadows We Cast', Jenn St. John sits down with Zainib Abdullah, MSW, RSW, somatic trauma psychotherapist, founder of Wellnest, and advocate for collective healing and care, for a conversation about trauma, embodiment, and what it means to come home to ourselves.

Born in Iraq and immigrating to Canada as a child, Zainib shares how her own experiences of migration, grief, identity, and intergenerational trauma shaped both her personal healing journey and her professional work. Together, Jenn and Zainib explore the connection between the body, the nervous system, and emotional healing, challenging the idea that recovery happens through insight alone.

Throughout the conversation, they discuss somatic healing, nervous system regulation, ancestral resilience, collective care, spirituality, community, and the wisdom our bodies carry. They also explore why healing isn't always about becoming someone new, but often about reconnecting with parts of ourselves that have been hidden beneath survival.

Whether you're navigating trauma, burnout, grief, chronic stress, or simply feeling disconnected from yourself, this episode offers a compassionate invitation to slow down, listen inward, and consider what helps you feel grounded, connected, and rooted.

Because healing may not be about finding something outside of ourselves. Sometimes it's about remembering what was there all along.

Connect with Zainib:

Website

Instagram  

LinkedIn 

If this episode resonates with you, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with someone who may benefit from the conversation.

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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Kelly Campbell's life changed forever when her best friend Emma was killed in a car accident in 2007. What followed was years of unprocessed grief, trauma, and pushing forward—building a successful career while quietly struggling beneath the surface.

In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, Jenn sits down with leadership and legacy coach Kelly Campbell for an honest conversation about grief, burnout, identity, and the hidden emotional currents that shape our lives.

Kelly shares how the loss of her best friend, followed by the sudden death of another close friend years later, forced her to confront the grief she had spent years avoiding. Together, Jenn and Kelly explore why grief remains such a difficult topic in our society, how loss can impact our mental health long after the initial event, and what it means to find purpose and meaning after life's hardest transitions.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that grief isn't something to fix or rush through—it is something to honour, navigate, and ultimately integrate into our lives.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Grief, trauma, and post-traumatic stress
• Burnout and the hidden cost of always pushing forward
• Identity loss and major life transitions
• The connection between grief and mental health
• Meaning-making and honoring those we've lost
• Supporting others through loss and difficult seasons of life
• Practical ways to create space for healing

About Kelly Campbell

Kelly's journey into mental health advocacy was shaped by profound personal losses. After losing her best friend Emma in a 2007 car accident, and later her good friend Susan in 2024, Kelly discovered her calling in supporting others through life's most challenging transitions.

Following a 16-year career in federal public service, Kelly left government in 2024 to focus on guiding individuals, families, and organizations through personal transformation and lasting change. She currently serves as Senior Manager of Stakeholder and Government Relations for Matthew Perry House while operating her own legacy coaching practice.

As an ICF-Credentialed Leadership and Legacy Coach, Kelly combines executive expertise with deep emotional intelligence, believing that legacy flows through personal, familial, and systemic dimensions—like water carving enduring channels across landscapes. She joined Bereaved Families of Ontario – Ottawa Region first as a volunteer in 2023, then as Board Director in 2025, channeling her experiences into support for others navigating grief.

Connect with Kelly

• LinkedIn: Kelly Campbell
• Website: kellycampbell.ca
• Instagram:  @kellycampbell.ca 

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Nikki Glahn, Founder and Executive Director of Barrie Families Unite, a grassroots organization dedicated to ensuring individuals and families have access to essential needs with dignity, compassion, and respect.

What began as a local Facebook group during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a powerful community-driven movement supporting people experiencing poverty, housing insecurity, illness, trauma, addiction, and other life-altering challenges. Through practical support, community connection, and a commitment to preserving dignity, Barrie Families Unite has become a lifeline for many in the Barrie area.

But this conversation is about more than community services.

It's about the role connection, dignity, and belonging play in our mental wellbeing—and how healing is often supported not only through professional care, but through the communities that surround us.

Together, Nikki and I explore the connection between poverty and mental health, the hidden toll of chronic stress and survival mode, and the ways community care can help restore hope when people feel isolated or overwhelmed. We discuss stigma, systemic gaps, the importance of meeting basic needs, and why belonging is far more than a feeling—it can be a powerful form of healing.

This conversation is a reminder that mental health doesn't exist separately from the conditions people are trying to survive inside of. Safety matters. Stability matters. Dignity matters. And sometimes the most meaningful support comes from knowing you're not alone.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The origins of Barrie Families Unite during the pandemic
• The connection between poverty, chronic stress, and mental health
• Why dignity matters when people are seeking support
• How community care can become a powerful mental health intervention
• The hidden realities of survival mode and financial insecurity
• Reducing stigma around asking for help
• Building sustainable systems of support that strengthen communities
• Why belonging can be a powerful part of healing

About Nikki Glahn

Nikki Glahn is a community-driven leader, creative thinker, and advocate for purpose-led work. Nikki brings clarity, compassion, and strategic vision to projects she leads. She is known for her ability to build meaningful connections, translate big ideas into practical action, and guide teams through growth with integrity and care.

Rooted in a deep belief in equity, sustainability, and community wellbeing, her leadership style is collaborative and people-centred, balancing structure with creativity and accountability with empathy.

Nikki is committed to creating environments where people feel empowered and respected.

She is a proud mom of 2 amazing humans, a wife to one lucky guy and a dog mama to our furry family member. She enjoys travel, camping, curling, skiing, hiking and spending time with people who fill her cup!

Connect with Barrie Families Unite

Website: www.barriefamiliesunite.com

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrie-families-unite-b752872a1/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@teambfu2939

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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In this episode of 'The Shadows We Cast', Jenn sits down with David Granirer — counselor, stand-up comic, and founder of Stand Up For Mental Health™ — to explore what it means to live for decades without language for what you’re carrying, and how laughter, storytelling, and connection can become unexpected pathways toward healing.

David shares his experience living with bipolar disorder, the shame and isolation that followed his hospitalization as a teenager, and the reality of spending nearly twenty years living with undiagnosed depression before finally understanding what was happening beneath the surface.

Together, Jenn and David explore:

* the normalization of suffering and survival mode
* the emotional exhaustion of pretending to be okay
* the impact of finally being understood
* how shame grows in silence
* and why connection can change the way we carry pain

The conversation also dives into David’s internationally recognized organization, Stand Up For Mental Health™, which teaches stand-up comedy to people living with mental health challenges. Over the past two decades, the program has helped hundreds of people transform some of the hardest moments of their lives into storytelling, confidence, community, and laughter.

This episode is called 'Release' because at its heart, it’s a conversation about what happens when we stop carrying everything alone.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide, depression, and mental health hospitalization.

Connect with David Granirer & Stand Up For Mental Health™
Website: www.standupformentalhealth.com
TikTok: @standupformentalhealth
YouTube: @standupformentalhealth
Instagram: @smhgranirerdavid

Guest Bio:
David Granirer, RPC, M.S.M. is a counselor, stand-up comic, author, and founder of Stand Up For Mental Health™ (SMH), a program teaching stand-up comedy to people with mental health issues. David who himself suffers from bipolar is featured in the VOICE Award winning documentary Cracking Up. He also received a Life Unlimited Award from Depression Bipolar Support Alliance, an Award of Excellence from the National Council of Behavioral Health, a Champion of Mental Health Award, and a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada, and was recognized as one of the 150 Canadian Difference Makers in mental health. A sought after keynote speaker, he has worked with mental health organizations to perform and train SMH groups in over 50 cities in Canada, the U.S., and Australia.

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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Misty Pratt, author of All In Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health, joins Jennifer St John for a layered conversation about women’s mental health, systemic bias, emotional inheritance, and the stories that become embedded in our bodies, relationships, and nervous systems over time.

Together, they explore how women’s distress has historically been misunderstood, medicalized, and dismissed — from the legacy of hysteria to modern conversations around burnout, anxiety, mental load, and nervous system overwhelm.

Misty reflects on her grandmother’s late-life psychotic break, her own experiences with panic attacks and anxiety, and the long process of understanding what her body had been trying to say before she had language for it. Jennifer shares reflections from her own family’s journey as the two discuss intergenerational trauma, invisible labor, somatic healing, and the pressure many women feel to “hold it all together.”

This conversation explores:
• Gender bias in medicine and mental health care
• The history and lasting legacy of hysteria
• Burnout, mental load, and invisible labor
• Anxiety, panic attacks, and nervous system dysregulation
• Somatic therapy and body-based healing
• Intergenerational trauma and emotional inheritance
• Rest, boundaries, and adaptive coping
• Why healing is both personal and systemic

This episode is thoughtful, honest, and deeply validating — especially for listeners who have ever felt like their exhaustion, anxiety, or overwhelm was something they simply needed to “fix” within themselves.

Connect with Misty Pratt:
Website: Misty Pratt Official Website
Instagram & Threads: @mistyprattwriter
LinkedIn: mistypratt
Substack: Misty Pratt Substack

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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In this episode, Jenn St John sits down with psychotherapist and trauma expert Jenifer Freedy for a deeply grounding conversation about nervous systems, survival patterns, and what it really means to regulate.

Together, they explore how chronic stress, trauma, and emotionally unsafe environments shape the way we move through the world long after the original danger has passed. Jenifer shares powerful insights into the nervous system — including the now widely recognized “fight, flight, freeze” responses — and explains why so many of us live stuck in states of hypervigilance, shutdown, over-functioning, or emotional exhaustion without fully understanding why.

Jenn and Jenifer also talk candidly about parenting, grief, high-functioning survival, and the ways unresolved wounds can quietly surface in relationships and everyday moments. Throughout the conversation, Jenifer offers compassionate, practical tools for slowing down, reconnecting with the body, and learning how to return to ourselves with less shame and more awareness.

This episode is a reminder that regulation isn’t about perfection or staying calm all the time. It’s about understanding that our nervous systems learned to protect us — and that healing begins when we stop seeing those responses as failures, and start seeing them with compassion.

Topics discussed include:
• Nervous system regulation
• Trauma and chronic stress
• Fight, flight, freeze, and shutdown responses
• Parenting and generational patterns
• Somatic therapy and polyvagal theory
• Emotional safety and self-awareness
• High-functioning survival patterns
• Grief, healing, and repair

About Jenifer Freedy:
Jenifer Freedy is a psychotherapist and trauma expert with more than 25 years of experience working in the fields of trauma, grief, and loss. Her work integrates somatic therapy, parts work, and polyvagal (nervous system) principles to help clients better understand the connection between the body, trauma, and healing. She also provides professional trainings and supervision, and her upcoming book, Reclaiming What Was Lost, focused on healing from childhood sexual abuse, will be released in Fall 2026 through New Harbinger Publishing.

Connect with Jenifer:
Website: www.jeniferfreedy.com
Instagram: @jeniferfreedy_psychotherapist
LinkedIn: Jenifer Freedy

If this episode resonated with you, please consider following, sharing, or leaving a review. These conversations help remind people they are not alone.

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too.

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In this episode, I sit down with Caitlin Morrison, Executive Director of the Matthew Perry House, to talk about the experience of loving someone through the illness of addiction — and what it means to carry that experience forward after loss.

There’s a version of this story we don’t talk about very often.

The one where someone you love spends years struggling, finally finds their way to recovery… and then is gone.

Together, we explore what families often carry behind the scenes: the early signs that something isn’t quite right, the cycles of hope and disappointment, and the emotional weight of trying to support someone you can’t “fix.”

This conversation also moves beyond the personal into something deeply hopeful — the work Caitlin is leading through the Matthew Perry House, a first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative in Ottawa focused on long-term, community-based recovery. Grounded in the understanding of addiction as a medical illness, this model addresses a critical gap in care: what happens after treatment ends.

This is a conversation about love, grief, understanding — and legacy.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What families often notice before they have language for addiction
• The cycles of hope, relapse, and emotional impact on loved ones
• The limits of control — and what “support” can really look like
• Reframing addiction as an illness, not a failure
• Recovery, and the part we don’t often talk about
• The vision behind the Matthew Perry House and long-term recovery support

About Caitlin:

Caitlin Morrison is the Executive Director of the Matthew Perry House, carrying forward her brother Matthew Perry’s legacy by advocating for long-term recovery support. With a deep commitment to breaking down stigma and improving access to resources, Caitlin has played a pivotal role in the development of the Matthew Perry House Ottawa, a first-of-its-kind transitional housing initiative.

Learn more:

🌐 https://matthewperryhouse.ca

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewperryhouse

🎧 Follow, share, and help these conversations reach more people.

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too.

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In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Tychon Carter for a conversation about identity, self-trust, and what it really means to come back to yourself.

Tychon shares his experience of growing up feeling misunderstood — navigating early messages around masculinity, emotional expression, and what it meant to be “right” or “wrong.”

We talk about the identity shift that comes in early adulthood, especially when something that once defined you suddenly falls away — and the quiet, often confusing experience of feeling misaligned, even when everything looks “good” on the outside.

Tychon reflects on how his time on Big Brother Canada became an unexpected turning point — not because of the game itself, but because of what happens when the noise disappears and you’re left with your own instincts.

Throughout this conversation, we explore vulnerability, emotional literacy, and the process of rebuilding self-trust — including the powerful work of forgiving the version of yourself who had to survive.

We also talk about the small, practical ways we can begin to reconnect with ourselves — from noticing what we feel, to creating routines that support both our mental and physical well-being.

This is a conversation about embodiment — about learning to listen, to trust, and to return to who we are beneath everything we’ve been taught to be.

ABOUT TYCHON CARTER

Tychon Newman-Carter is a Canadian speaker, mental health advocate, and community builder, widely known as the first Black winner of Big Brother Canada and a contestant on The Amazing Race Canada.

Beyond television, Tychon has built a platform centered around emotional awareness, personal growth, and self-trust. Through his work, he shares openly about his own experiences navigating identity, masculinity, and mental health — using storytelling, humor, and lived experience to make these conversations more accessible.

His work also explores intergenerational trauma and anti-Black racism within African-Canadian communities, while emphasizing the importance of mindfulness, meaningful relationships, and purposeful routines as foundations for resilience and well-being.

Connect with Tychon

• Website: https://www.tychoncarter.com/
  
  
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/tychonxcarter
  
  
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tychoncarter
  
  
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tychonxcarter

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

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Amanda Patrick joins me for a conversation about inheritance—what we’re given, what we absorb, and what we eventually have to decide to do with it.

In this episode, Inheritance, Amanda shares the story of her childhood—marked by poverty, neglect, and profound loss—and the long, complex path of what it means to carry that forward into adulthood.

At just 13 years old, Amanda experienced a tragic event that would shape the course of her life. What followed were years of survival—leaving home at 15, navigating instability, masking pain, and building a life from the ground up without support. But as Amanda shares, survival is only one part of the story.

This conversation explores what we inherit—not just from our families, but from the environments we grow up in. The patterns we learn. The coping mechanisms that once kept us safe. And the difficult, often painful work of deciding what we keep… and what we lay down.

We talk about:

• Growing up in neglect and the loneliness that lingers long after
• Trauma, coping, and the masks we learn to wear
• Addiction, sobriety, and the turning point into motherhood
• The power of long-term therapy and self-awareness
• Estrangement, boundaries, and the grief that comes with choosing distance
• And how healing can evolve into service

Today, Amanda is the co-founder of LADR Consulting, a speaker, and the founder of Gift-a-Family—an initiative that has raised over $200,000 to support children who might otherwise be overlooked during the holidays.

Her story is not linear. It’s not simple. But it is deeply human.

And at its core, it’s about this:

We don’t get to choose what we inherit.
But we do get to choose what we do with it.

GUEST INFORMATION

Amanda Patrick is a business strategist and co-founder of LADR Virtual Assistants, where she helps entrepreneurs streamline operations and build scalable systems. She is also a speaker and philanthropist, and the founder of Gift-a-Family, a community initiative that has raised over $200,000 to support hundreds of children. Through her “Drop the Mask” presentations, Amanda works with youth to build confidence, resilience, and self-trust. She’s also a proud mom and pickleball enthusiast.

Connect with Amanda:
Instagram: @amandalelepatrick
Instagram: @ladrcoaching
Instagram: @gift_a_family
Website: https://www.ladrconsulting.com/

CONTENT NOTE

This episode includes discussions of childhood trauma, neglect, addiction, and suicidal ideation. Please take care while listening and choose a time and space that feels supportive.

SUPPORT RESOURCES

If this episode brought something up for you, you don’t have to sit with it alone.

Canada: Call or text 988
Simcoe County Crisis Line: 1-888-893-8333
U.S.: Call or text 988
Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too.

Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most.

In this episode of The Shadows We Cast, I sit down with Christina Orfanakos, MSW, RSW—Registered Social Worker and founder of Grace North Therapy—for a conversation about attachment, survival patterns, and what it really means to begin feeling safe again.

Some patterns don’t start with us.
They start in the environments we learned to survive in.

We talk about the ways early experiences—especially those shaped by silence, unpredictability, or emotional disconnection—can shape how we move through the world as adults.
How hyper-independence, people-pleasing, over-functioning, and even success can all be rooted in adaptations we learned long before we had language for them.

And how those same patterns that once protected us…
can quietly keep us stuck.

Christina brings both professional insight and deep compassion to this conversation, grounded in her work with women and mothers navigating overwhelm, burnout, and disconnection. Her approach is rooted in attachment theory and the belief that meaningful change happens when we feel seen, understood, and supported.

We also explore:

• how attachment patterns are formed—and how they show up in adulthood
• the difference between empathy and caretaking
• why awareness is the first step, but not the only one
• how to begin reconnecting with your body and nervous system
• and what it looks like to gently shift patterns that no longer serve you

This is a conversation about understanding—not fixing.
About compassion—for the parts of you that learned to survive.
And about the possibility of something different.

About Christina:
Christina Orfanakos is a Registered Social Worker and the founder of Grace North Therapy. She works with women and mothers navigating overwhelm, burnout, and disconnection, with a focus on attachment, emotional regulation, and reconnecting to self.

Connect with Christina:
Instagram: @gracenorththerapy
Website: gracenorththerapy.com
LinkedIn: Christina Orfanakos, MSW, RSW

Host/Producer/Writer/Director: Jenn St John

Editor: Andrew Schiller
Website: www.jennstjohn.ca
Follow along:
Instagram: @jenn_stjohn
LinkedIn: Jenn St John

If this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who might need to hear it too.

Subscribe, leave a review, or just send a little love—your support helps these conversations reach the people who need them most.