The Spiritually Curious Therapist

What if you didn't have to wait until you felt better to begin caring for yourself?

When we're living with persistent pain, uncomfortable symptoms, worry, or emotional distress, it's natural to want those experiences to go away. But sometimes, the constant effort to fix how we feel becomes another source of distress.

In this solo episode of The Spiritually Curious Therapist, I invite you to explore a different approach.

Rather than beginning with an explanation, I guide you through a simple practice of noticing discomfort without immediately trying to change it.

From there, we explores the pain–fear cycle, how our brain's predictions and expectations can influence our experience of some symptoms, and how the traditional Reiki precepts offer a framework for responding with greater curiosity, compassion, and awareness.

You'll also be guided through a gentle self-Reiki practice that you can return to whenever you need a moment of connection with yourself.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why fighting uncomfortable sensations can sometimes add to our distress.
• How fear, attention, and expectations can influence the experience of persistent pain.
• The five Reiki precepts and their relevance to everyday life.
• Why practicing gratitude doesn't mean dismissing anger, worry, or pain.
• How self-Reiki, gentle touch, and compassionate awareness can offer a different way to respond to discomfort.
• What it means to stay connected to yourself even when you're not feeling your best.

A question to carry with you:

What changes when your goal shifts from getting rid of a sensation to learning how to be with yourself while it's happening?

Explore Reiki for Persistent Pain & Symptoms

In-Person Reiki Retreat | November 20–21, 2026

Join me in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for a small-group, nonresidential retreat combining pain science education, self-Reiki, and practical approaches to relating differently to persistent pain and symptoms.

No previous Reiki experience is necessary.

www.therachihealing.com/reiki-retreat

Reiki for Persistent Pain & Symptoms Manual | $19.99

Can't attend the retreat? This manual was created to accompany live teaching but can also be used independently as a resource for exploring Reiki practices and a different relationship with persistent symptoms.

https://www.therachihealing.com/reikimanual

For helping professionals: Reiki-assisted psychotherapy consultation groups are available, including complimentary gatherings in November and December and new series beginning in January.

https://www.journeywithkindredsouls.com/consultation-group

Explore more: Watch Jodi's videos exploring the five Reiki precepts on the Nervous System & Soul YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@therachihealing

Reiki is a complementary practice and is not an established treatment for persistent pain or other medical conditions. The practices shared in this episode are educational and are not a substitute for medical or mental health care. If you're driving or need to remain attentive to your surroundings, save the guided exercises for another time.

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

Have you ever realized that you've spent so much time meeting everyone else's expectations that you're no longer sure what you actually want?

For Audra Phelps, that realization came while making an apple pie.

After spending much of her life in the Mormon Church, Audra made the difficult decision to leave behind the belief system that had shaped her identity, relationships, and understanding of what it meant to be a good wife, mother, and person.

Leaving gave her the freedom to make her own choices. But it also meant confronting something she hadn't anticipated: the fear and uncertainty of no longer having someone else tell her what was right.

In this episode of The Spiritually Curious Therapist, I sit down with Audra, founder of Mama Audra, to explore what happens when the beliefs and expectations we've built our lives around no longer feel true.

Together, we discuss the emotional impact of leaving a high-demand religion, the challenge of rebuilding identity, and the ways guilt, shame, and old conditioning can continue influencing our choices long after we've consciously rejected those beliefs.

Audra shares her personal journey of questioning her faith, navigating marriage and motherhood, and learning to recognize emotions she had spent years suppressing.

She also tells a powerful story about a Thanksgiving apple pie that revealed just how disconnected she'd become from her own wants and needs.

And in one of the most thought-provoking moments of the conversation, Audra reveals something she never expected to grieve after leaving her religion: certainty.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• Identity beyond expectations: Who are we when the roles and beliefs that once defined us no longer fit?
• The nervous system and uncertainty: Why freedom and choice can feel threatening when we've become accustomed to rigid rules and expectations.
• Emotional suppression and self-trust: How learning to recognize anger, guilt, grief, and resentment can help us reconnect with ourselves.
• The apple pie moment: What happens when we realize we've spent years anticipating everyone else's needs without considering our own.
• Grieving the life unlived: Navigating regret, questioning past choices, and discovering what we want moving forward.
• Conditioning and self-abandonment: How beliefs about being a good wife, mother, daughter, or person can shape our behavior long after circumstances change.
• The loss of certainty: Why developing the freedom to choose can also mean learning to tolerate not knowing.

A Question to Sit With

Audra's story raises a question that extends far beyond religious deconstruction:

How much of the life you're living reflects what you genuinely want, and how much reflects what you learned you were supposed to want?

Sometimes the first step toward change isn't making a big decision.

It's noticing the small, everyday moments when we override our own preferences, feelings, and needs.

And getting curious about why.

Connect with Audra:

Visit Mama Audra to learn more about her work and explore her free masterclass, Five Shifts Every Former Mormon Woman Needs to Make.

www.mamaaudra.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/mamaaudraofficial/?hl=en
FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571178607920
TT: Mama Audra
You-Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@Mama-Audra
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audra-phelps-b422786a/

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

What does it actually mean to be regulated?

Does it mean feeling calm? Being happy? Having control over our emotions? Or is it something more flexible, the ability to respond to what life is asking of us in any given moment?

In this episode of The Spiritually Curious Therapist, I'm joined by Andrew Keaveney, a breathwork and meditation teacher with the Art of Living, for a conversation about the relationship between our breath, emotions, nervous system, and overall well-being.

Andrew shares how his interest in meditation began as a teenager and eventually led him to spend four years in India exploring contemplative practices. We talk about how different breathing patterns can influence our emotional experience, the research surrounding SKY Breath Meditation, and why developing a regular practice may be more useful than searching for a quick fix.

We also explore something that feels especially relevant to me right now: the changing seasons of our lives.

As we move through different developmental stages, our bodies, energy levels, responsibilities, and priorities change. Yet we often continue expecting ourselves to function exactly as we did before.

What if, instead of constantly trying to get back to where we were, we became more curious about what this season of life is asking of us?

In this episode, we explore:

• What nervous system regulation actually means, and why it isn't about being calm all the time
• How breathing patterns and emotional states influence one another
• SKY Breath Meditation and research on stress, anxiety, sleep, and heart rate variability
• The relationship between breathwork, HeartMath, and contemplative practices
• Why regulation is an ongoing practice rather than a one-time intervention
• The importance of personal agency and having tools we can use ourselves
• Navigating menopause, aging, empty nesting, and other life transitions
• Why rest and periods of withdrawal can be just as valuable as productivity
• The role of silence, reflection, and spaciousness in creativity
• Happiness as a practice and the small moments of joy we may be overlooking

One of the ideas I especially appreciated was Andrew's description of restful alertness, being present and aware without being tense, and at ease without becoming disengaged.

We also return to the importance of noticing what is already here. Sometimes we're so busy anticipating what's next that we miss the moments of contentment happening right in front of us.

Perhaps finding our center isn't about making life stop changing. Perhaps it's about learning how to meet ourselves wherever we are.

Connect with Andrew and learn more:

Art of Living: https://www.artofliving.org

Art of Living Retreat Center: https://artoflivingretreatcenter.org

Andrew also shares his work on Substack, YouTube, and Instagram.

@artoflivingusa
https://andrewkeaveney.substack.com/
https://www.instagram.com/andrew.keaveney/
https://www.youtube.com/@andrew.keaveney

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

You can recognize a pattern, understand where it came from, and have plenty of reasons to change it. So why can doing something different still feel so difficult?

In this episode, I sit down with hypnotherapist Nelson Whiting to explore that question, and the beliefs about ourselves that may sit beneath familiar behaviors.

Nelson shares his introduction to hypnosis and how his approach has shifted toward asking questions that help people discover their own meanings. I bring my therapist’s curiosity to what he calls the subconscious, the relationship between emotional experience and insight, and the challenge of guiding someone without supplying their answers.

One thread I kept coming back to was shame: how quickly “I’m struggling with something” can become “There’s something wrong with me.”

From there, we move into a spiritually curious conversation about guilt, identity, faith, and perfectionism. We consider what becomes possible when we loosen an either/or perspective and make room for an option we haven’t recognized yet.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The gap between understanding a pattern and changing it
• Nelson’s perspective on hypnosis and subconscious beliefs
• Shame, worthiness, and the recurring belief “I’m not good enough”
• Asking questions without imposing a practitioner’s beliefs
• The difference between repeating affirmations and believing them
• Spiritual perspectives on guilt, growth, and being human
• My familiar question: “What is my brain predicting—and what else is possible?”

A question to take with you:
When something is difficult to change, what do you start believing about yourself? What other understanding might be available?

Connect with Nelson for a free copy of his Book:
No Limits Hypnotherapy
Book: Your Problem Isn’t Pornography

Listener note: This episode includes Nelson’s personal, spiritual, and practice-based perspectives. Exploring beliefs does not mean that people cause their illnesses or are responsible for everything that happens to them. Please approach this conversation as an invitation to inquiry, alongside appropriate medical and mental health care.

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

Appointments. Tests. Treatments. Exercises. Supplements. Checking whether something feels better, or worse.

When you live with persistent pain or physical symptoms, caring for your body can start to feel like a full-time job.

In this solo episode, I explore what happens when life becomes organized around monitoring, protecting, and trying to fix the body, and why I bring Reiki into this conversation as a self-practice.

At the heart of this episode is a distinction from my From Lock to Liberation framework: the symptom itself is not the lock. The lock is the protective prediction and the pattern that forms around it.

That prediction might sound like: “If I don’t stay on top of this, something bad could happen.”

I talk about how Reiki offers opportunities to practice a different kind of attention: warmth, curiosity, and presence without making every moment another test of whether your symptoms are improving.

In this episode, I explore:

• How understandable efforts to manage symptoms can become exhausting patterns.
• The difference between knowing you’re safe and feeling safe.
• The pain-fear loop and how it can contribute to some persistent pain experiences.
• Where I see connections between Reiki self-practice and somatic tracking.
• Breath, grounding, self-touch, and the Reiki precepts as invitations to self-compassion.
• What it might mean to be with your body without immediately trying to change it.

A question to take with you

What has my system learned about my body because of everything I’ve been through, and is there another possibility?

Learn Reiki with me

I also share an invitation to my small, six-person Reiki retreat for people living with persistent pain and physical symptoms, November 20–21 in the Philadelphia area. We’ll explore Reiki as a self-practice and a gentler way to listen, notice, and respond to the body.

Note:  This is a two-day, nonresidential retreat—you’ll return home Friday evening and join us again on Saturday.

You’re welcome to reach out with questions or to learn more.

Here is the link for more information on the retreat: therachihealing.com/reiki-retreat

Listener note

Persistent pain and physical symptoms can have multiple, overlapping causes. This episode does not establish the cause of anyone’s symptoms. Reiki is offered here as a complementary self-practice, and the connections I discuss with pain reprocessing therapy reflect my approach to integrating these practices. They do not establish Reiki as a proven treatment for neuroplastic pain. Please continue appropriate medical care and seek evaluation for new, changing, or concerning symptoms.

If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who might appreciate it. Follow The Spiritually Curious Therapist for more conversations about psychotherapy, spirituality, and mind-body healing.

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

Spiritual language can offer hope and connection. It can also raise questions about how we understand suffering, responsibility, and healing.

In this episode, I sit down with Sanné Lind, author of Soul Intelligence: Quantum Living from the Inside Out and creator of the Quantum Soul Sync Method. Drawing on her personal experience with depression, loss, and decades of spiritual exploration, Sanné shares how she approaches emotional patterns and reconnecting with herself.

One thread I wanted to explore was the meaning behind the language we use. Terms like “frequency,” “creating your reality,” and “taking responsibility” can land very differently depending on someone’s history. I ask Sanné to clarify those ideas, especially where they intersect with trauma, shame, and relationships.

We also discuss:

• Why knowing about a pattern may feel different from changing it.
• Sanné’s metaphor of “clearing the cache” of old beliefs about ourselves.
• How she understands uncomfortable emotions as opportunities for inner work.
• The difference between turning inward and overlooking someone else’s harmful behavior.
• The role of support and discernment in her healing.
• What she means by connecting with her “inner beloved.”

For me, being spiritually curious includes asking questions about how a teaching might affect the person receiving it. This conversation gave me plenty to explore.

Connect with Sanné

Find her work and book at quantumsoulsync.com.

Listener note

This conversation includes depression, suicide loss, and Sanné’s account of stopping medication abruptly. As I clarify in the episode, that is not a recommendation. Please consult your prescribing clinician before changing or stopping medication. Sanné’s spiritual explanations reflect her perspective.

If you appreciate these conversations, please follow The Spiritually Curious Therapist, share an episode, or leave a rating or review. Your support helps more people find the podcast.

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

What does it mean to be loyal to your body?

For Paula Atkinson, that question carries a lot of weight. After years of trying to control, shrink, and override her body, including an experience with anorexia that nearly took her life, Paula now talks about her body in a radically different way: with trust.

In this conversation, Paula and I explore body liberation as something much deeper than body positivity or learning to like what you see in the mirror. We talk about what happens when we stop measuring our bodies through someone else’s gaze and begin paying attention to what it actually feels like to live inside them.

Paula shares how her relationship with her body moved from control to trust, and why being “infinitely loyal” to her body has become such an important part of how she lives now.

We also get into the complicated territory around weight loss, dieting, GLP-1 medications, aging and changing bodies, and the difference between making a choice about your body and believing your body needs to change in order for you to be okay.

One of my favorite ideas from our conversation is Paula’s belief that “infinite permission equals infinite choice.” That stayed with me.

Because maybe body liberation isn’t about arriving at a place where you love every part of your body every day.

Maybe it’s about having choice.

Listening instead of overriding.

Trusting instead of constantly controlling.

And learning that you don’t have to abandon yourself, or your body, to belong.

In this episode, we explore:

• Paula’s experience with anorexia and the early messages she received about her body
• The difference between body positivity and body liberation
• What it means to become loyal to your body
• How control can become a form of self-abandonment
• Body trust, permission, choice, and autonomy
• Weight loss and whether wanting your body to change is incompatible with body liberation
• GLP-1 medications and the complicated conversations surrounding them
• Aging, menopause, and living in a body that naturally changes
• Why your experience of living in your body may matter more than someone else’s experience of looking at it

This is a conversation about our bodies, but underneath it, I think it’s really a conversation about relationship: the relationship we have with ourselves, whose voice we listen to, and what becomes possible when we decide to stay on our own side.

Connect with Paula:

Insta: @pauladatkinson
Website: https://www.pauladatkinson.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pauladatkinson/
TikTok: @pauladatkinson5
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WINWWY
Episode of Surrounded: https://youtu.be/M7K87rGoGps?si=KPjMLmxc4KPfp0nJ

Interested in Reiki Training?

Reiki I & II for Mental Health and Helping Professionals

Living with Chronic Pain and Illness - this Reiki retreat may be exactly what you need.  More Information Here

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

What are we really looking for when we chase achievement, approval, success, or even rebellion?

For my guest Katie Padilla, so much of it came back to one very human longing:

To be seen. To be loved. To feel deeply connected.

Katie is a certified family law specialist, founder of Bloom Family Law, collaboratively trained attorney, certified coach and meditation teacher. But the path that brought her there is anything but conventional.

As a highly sensitive child growing up in a family experiencing conflict and divorce, Katie remembers feeling alone and longing for a kind of connection she wasn't receiving. She developed a deep relationship with God at a very young age, and an inner sense that there was something more for her.

Then she stopped trying to be the “good girl.”

Katie became what she calls the black sheep and the rebel. She dropped out of college, moved to San Francisco, partied hard and intentionally explored the opposite of the perfectionism and anxiety that had defined her earlier life.

And for a while, it worked.

Until it didn't.

What she thought she might find through freedom, rebellion and experience was the same thing she'd been looking for all along: deep love, connection and acceptance.

So Katie changed direction again.

She went back to school, worked incredibly hard, got into law school, became an attorney, and finally achieved the kind of success that made everyone around her proud.

And something still wasn't right.

Because people admired her accomplishments. They respected the title.

But Katie realized:

Admiration isn't the same thing as love.

That realization eventually followed her into family law.

Katie had created her own firm because she wanted to practice differently, only to discover that she'd recreated many of the same patterns she'd been trying to leave behind.

Once again, she had to ask herself:

Is this actually who I am?

And that question changed the way she practices law.

In this conversation, Katie and I explore the tension between connection and authenticity, the roles we take on in order to feel safe and valued, and what happens when we begin trusting our own internal compass rather than the expectations around us.

And eventually, we bring all of that into Katie's work with divorce.

Because perhaps saying “I don't want this anymore” isn't the whole awakening.

Maybe it's the beginning of asking:

What do I want?
What is actually true for me?
What have I been doing because I thought I was supposed to?
And who am I when some of those roles begin to fall away?

We talk about Katie's work with foster youth, her own childhood and spirituality, rebellion and perfectionism, achievement and identity, the nervous system, family court, women's changing relationship with marriage and divorce, and why she believes difficult transitions can become opportunities to meet ourselves more deeply.

Katie's story left me thinking about how many different ways we can spend our lives trying to find the thing we've been looking for all along.

And what might change when instead of looking outside ourselves, we begin listening to what's been there all along.

Connect with Katie:

Website: bloomlegalcoach.com

IG: @bloomfamilylaw 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/katie-padilla-bloom

The Third Presence Reiki I and II for Mental Health and Helping Professionals

Reiki Retreat for People Living with Chronic Pain and Illness

🔓 From Lock to Liberation
A weekly reflection on the patterns that keep us stuck, the possibilities we may not be seeing, and one question to carry into your week.
→ Join the conversation

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

What happens when the search for healing becomes another way of avoiding what we're trying so hard not to feel?

My guest today, Megan Ashton, spent nearly 17 years searching for something that would help her heal.

She studied yoga, Reiki, holistic nutrition and clinical hypnotherapy. She traveled the world, living in places many of us might imagine as idyllic. She tried talk therapy and eventually plant medicine.

And yet, underneath it all, Megan was struggling with bulimia, alcohol dependence, painful relationships, and a sense that no matter where she went or what she tried, she couldn't escape what was happening inside of her.

As Megan says during our conversation: “Wherever you go, there you are.”

Things began to change when a friend invited her to try conscious connected breathwork.

Megan describes what happened during that first experience, the grief and longing that surfaced, and how giving herself a place to actually feel began to change her relationship with the behaviors she had been using to numb.

But this isn't simply a conversation about the potential of breathwork.

Megan is now the founder of Unity Breathwork and a strong advocate for greater safety and training standards within the breathwork community. We talk about why something being “just the breath” doesn't necessarily mean it's appropriate for everyone, and why facilitator training, screening, choice and agency matter.

In this episode, we explore:

• When the pursuit of healing can become another form of escaping
• Megan's experience with bulimia and alcohol dependence
• The shame of struggling privately while publicly working in the wellness world
• Why numbing behaviors can make sense when we understand what they're providing
• Megan's first conscious connected breathwork experience
• What began changing when feeling no longer seemed quite so unsafe
• The difference between everyday breathing practices and conscious connected breathwork
• The nervous system and non-ordinary states of consciousness
• Why agency and choice are essential in trauma-informed work
• The importance of properly trained breathwork facilitators
• Contraindications and why screening matters
• What overachievers and people pleasers may need to consider when they're encouraged to “go deeper”
• Touch, connection and corrective experiences
• How Megan integrates Reiki into her work
• Why healing doesn't necessarily mean curing the human experience

One of the things I appreciated most about this conversation is that Megan doesn't present healing as a place we finally arrive.

She talks openly about still being a work in progress and about the difference between appearing healed and actually being willing to stay present with ourselves.

Maybe the question isn't always, “What else do I need to try?”

Maybe sometimes it's worth asking:

“What am I hoping I won't have to feel?”

Try Breathwork with Megan — Free September 27 Session

Megan is offering a free virtual conscious connected breathwork group session on September 27.

The experience is approximately two hours and includes preparation, 55 minutes of guided breathing, grounding, integration and a sharing circle. Megan screens participants in advance and provides modifications when appropriate.

You can learn more and register through Unity Breathwork, where you'll also find information about Megan's one-on-one sessions, retreats and professional breathwork facilitator training.

Follow Megan on instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/unitybreathwork/

YouTube: @unitybreathwork

Interested in our Reiki I and II trainings?  More information here https://www.therachihealing.com/reiki-training

Apply to be on the Spiritually Curious Therapist Unlock: Real Time Lock to Liberation Session

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...

What happens when being the person who can handle everything becomes part of your identity?

My guest, Amanda Hill, knows that experience well.

Amanda is a licensed mental health counselor, nationally certified counselor, board-certified life coach, author, podcast host, and founder of Connections of Hope, a multi-location counseling practice in Indiana.

But long before she was running a growing mental health practice, Amanda was a newly divorced mother with two very young children, trying to figure out how to keep the bills paid and take care of her family.

On the outside, people saw someone who had it together.

On the inside, she was struggling.

Amanda describes herself as hyper-independent and shares how difficult it was for her to ask for help, even during periods when she barely had enough money to feed herself after feeding her children.

One of the parts of our conversation that stayed with me was what happened when Amanda finally did ask for help.

The person she was afraid to need, her dad, showed up.

And while that didn't immediately erase the shame she felt about needing support, over time it gave her a different experience of what it could mean to depend on someone.

We talk about that experience and so much more, including:

• Where hyper-independence can come from
• Why asking for help can feel like failure
• What Amanda learned from becoming a single mother
• The role her faith played during some of her hardest years
• Why hope doesn't always mean knowing how things will work out
• How our past experiences shape what our brain and nervous system predict will happen next
• The relationship between our thoughts and our physiology
• Why we can't simply “think positive” when our nervous system is in survival mode
• What happened when Amanda's daughter reached the same age Amanda was when she experienced a traumatic event
• Learning to approach activation with curiosity rather than fear
• Parenting, presence, perfectionism, and the impact of social media
• How Amanda's own experiences eventually informed the work she does today

We also talk about the name Connections of Hope, which feels especially meaningful after hearing Amanda's story.

The woman who once found it so difficult to let herself need other people ultimately built a practice centered around two things that became deeply important in her own life:

Connection and hope.

And maybe there's something in that for all of us.

Sometimes strength looks like figuring out the next step and continuing to move forward. And sometimes strength looks like allowing ourselves to say, “I can't do this by myself.”

Connect with Amanda Hill

Instagram: connectionsofhope4u 

Facebook: connectionsofhope

https://www.tiktok.com/@mentalhealthwithamanda1?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc;

You Tube: @mentalhealthwithamanda 

Podcast: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/48zMd4OwRLSx36vG3c4rg5?si=lMZPwXIdQ2ifma73Lhj0Rg; 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mental-health-with-amanda/id1885180390; 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-hill-4078b3126/

Amanda is the founder of Connections of Hope, LLC and author of Making Sense of Dysfunction. You can also find her podcast and YouTube channel, Mental Health with Amanda.

Share what resonated for you

Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!

For our 2027 season, we’re exploring how we stay connected to ourselves while navigating relationships, difficult emotions, and the expectations of others.

Our listeners may seem capable and composed while privately struggling with people-pleasing, perfectionism, anxiety, resentment, or persistent pain and symptoms. We’re curious about what helps people acknowledge their feelings, express their needs, and build relationships that have room for them, too.

Spiritual curiosity is part of this exploration: questioning who we’ve learned we’re supposed to be, reconnecting with our values and inner experience, and discovering what makes life meaningful. Our conversations bring psychotherapy, nervous system science, spirituality, and lived experience into dialogue.

Could your professional or lived experience contribute to this conversation?

If so, complete an application to be on the podcast here

Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
...