What does it look like to find joy after losing a child? In this deeply moving episode of the Teaching Journeys Podcast, host Dave Roberts sits down with author Carrie Eaton, who lost her 3-year-old daughter Chelsea in 1995 — and lived to tell a story of miraculous healing and unshakable faith.

Carrie shares how she navigated decades of grief, survived two near-death experiences, caught a glimpse of heaven, and ultimately found peace through her relationship with God. She also opens up about releasing 27 years of self-blame and co-writing her book Walking in the Fullness of Joy After Tragedy — which she says God gave her word by word in under 30 days.

A conversation about grief, faith, healing, and the hope that joy is always waiting on the other side.

Carrie's Bio and Contact Information

Carrie Eaton currently resides in Elgin Texas and cares for her 92 year-old mother who has dementia and has for the past three years.

God And I have written two books: Walking in the Fullness of Joy .Faith without Borders is our second book that will be out later this year.

Carrie wants to give people hope that even through tragedy joy is on the other side of it.

Email:

[email protected]

Social Media Links:

https://www.instagram.com/carrie_eaton?igsh=aXFnYWtpOTlhdjl3&utm_source=qr

https://www.facebook.com/share/14adN9w3wVP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.threads.com/@carrie_eaton?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://open.spotify.com/user/31wy23toaccub26to5c2osxoiqbm?si=BPT82bUCRSO9K9CF3bF8SA

https://youtube.com/@carrieeaton8069?si=Li7csw_bQR6FzsHj

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-eaton-485b7357?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

https://a.co/d/018Ct82R

📚 Carrie's book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.

Keywords: child loss, grief, near-death experience, Christian faith, hope, healing, faith after tragedy

What happens when grief, toxic relationships, and rock bottom become the foundation for your greatest transformation?

In this powerful episode of the Teaching Journeys Podcast, host Dave Roberts sits down with Claudia Wyatt — internationally recognized keynote speaker, certified confidence coach, and founder of the Walkabout Method — for a deeply honest conversation about turning tragedy into purpose.

Claudia opens up about a decade of compounding loss: the death of her father and sister within a month of each other, two toxic marriages (including one to a master manipulator), and the slow erosion of her sense of self. She shares the exact moment — a simple walk with her dog — that sparked her awakening and ultimately led to building her signature coaching framework.

Whether you're a leader, a survivor, or simply someone ready to stop living on autopilot, this episode will energize and challenge you to take that first bold step forward.

Claudia Wyatt Bio and Contact Information

Claudia Wyatt is a globally recognized inspirational leader, international keynote speaker, consultant, coach and writer known as The Enthusiasm Igniter™ and Self-Doubt Eraser™. With over 20 years of experience coaching high-performing teams and leaders, she helps individuals and organizations break free from limiting beliefs, strengthen communication, and lead with unshakable confidence.

Claudia is a certified confidence, cognitive behavior and life purpose coach with emphasis in leadership, empowerment and wellness.

Having transformed profound personal loss into purpose, Claudia brings authenticity, heart, and fire to every stage she steps on. She is the founder of The Walkabout Method™, her signature framework guiding leaders & individuals to reclaim their power, elevate emotional intelligence, and lead boldly from within. Showing up as themselves for themselves and living on purpose.

Recognized &verified by Influential Women. Awarded Best Executive Life & Leadership Coach – Midwest USA (2025). World’s Rising High Women Leaders Making a Difference in 2023. One of the Most Admired Women Leaders in Business to Follow in 2022.

Claudia’s impact is immediate, audiences leave energized, empowered, and ready to rise.

Social Media Links:

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiawyattcoaching/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/theclaudiawyatt/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554805040594

Company pages:

LinkedIn: : https://www.linkedin.com/company/claudia-wyatt-coaching-llc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567176611416

Website: https://claudiawyatt.com/

To find out about Dave go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Vanessa's Bio and Contact Information

Vanessa Cardenas is a Relationship Reset Expert and Betrayal Recovery Specialist who has helped individuals and couples rebuild trust, restore emotional connection, and regain clarity from the inside out since 2017.

She is the founder of Understanding Ear and the creator of the HOPE Roadmap, a structured approach designed to help people stabilize after betrayal, navigate emotional disconnection, and make grounded decisions about what comes next in their relationships. Vanessa’s work focuses on emotional safety, intentional communication, and restoring self-trust when relationships feel uncertain or fractured.

For years, Vanessa was considered a best-kept secret, quietly supporting clients through some of the most painful and defining moments of their lives. In 2025, her work was formally recognized when she was named Best Relationship Coach in Westchester County.

Clients often describe her impact simply and powerfully. One shared, “Working with Vanessa helped me come back to myself. I stopped spiraling and finally trusted my own decisions again.”

She believes empowerment begins when people feel safe enough to trust themselves again and strong enough to choose what comes next.

Website

• https://www.UnderstandingEar.com

Booking / Sessions

• https://calendly.com/understandingear/

Instagram

• https://www.instagram.com/vanessa_understandingear/

Facebook

• https://www.facebook.com/UnderstandingEar/

YouTube

• https://www.youtube.com/@Vanessa-Cardenas

LinkedIn

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-understanding-ear/

Substack

• https://beyondbetrayal.substack.com/

Medium

• https://medium.com/@Vanessa-Cardenas

Book

Dealing with the Devastation of Your Partner’s Betrayal

https://amzn.to/3PcA6bj

To connect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Kat Polsinelli to the Teaching Journeys podcast to discuss how a decade-long abusive relationship shaped her life and mission. Kat, a domestic violence and PTSD survivor, shares her journey of leaving at 28 with two children, rebuilding identity, and helping others through speaking, her podcast Real Chat with Kat, and The Lotus Effect. She emphasizes that survivors are not alone, that abuse is often emotional and psychological, and that common biases and stigma—especially toward men—harm understanding; she cites domestic violence prevalence and deaths. Kat and Dave highlight why “just leave” is complex, the importance of safety planning, and how helpers can hinder by talking over survivors or taking control. Kat presents her TEDx “three Cs”—courage, curiosity, connection—plus a simple practice for judgment-free conversations, and previews a mid-May support community.

Kat's Bio and Contact Information

From stepping onto a stage at just 10 years old to stepping out of a decade-long abusive relationship, Kat Polsinelli's journey is one of courage, resilience, and radical transformation. Now a sought-after speaker, bestselling co-author, and host of Real Chat with Kat—a top 5% globally ranked podcast airing on four radio stations and two public TV stations—Kat is on a mission to shed light on the unseen wounds of emotional and psychological abuse while empowering others to reclaim their strength and rewrite their stories.

A survivor of domestic violence, PTSD, and the challenges of single motherhood, Kat speaks with raw authenticity about the invisible scars that linger long after the abuse ends. She chose to leave, to rebuild, and to lean into courage every day—and now she helps others do the same. Through her own story and hard-won insights, she challenges audiences to rethink what they know about trauma, healthy relationships, and resilience, offering a powerful look at the emotional and psychological toll of abuse and the path to healing.

Kat's talks go beyond inspiration—they spark deeper conversations and deliver practical change. She brings a no-nonsense approach with a compassionate heart, making her a powerful voice for colleges, healthcare professionals, law enforcement, and advocacy organizations. Whether she's speaking to students, educators, social workers, or criminal justice professionals, audiences walk away with greater understanding of the survivor experience and actionable tools to support those affected by abuse.

Featured in NashvilleVoyager, CanvasRebel, and Her Nation, Kat has taken the stage at universities, domestic violence awareness events, and criminal justice panels. She's here to challenge perspectives, create change, and prove that even the darkest moments can become catalysts for transformation.

Connect with Kat Polsinelli:

Website: www.the-lotus-effect.com

Podcast: Real Chat with Kat (available on all major platforms)

Socials: @KatPolsinelli

To connect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Emma Leach to the Teaching Journeys podcast to discuss how art and movement shape healing and meaning. Leach describes a childhood rooted in theater and visual art amid family instability and bullying, and how creative expression helped her cope. She shares the loss of her first love, Ray, who died of a heroin overdose at 27, and how discovering Gabrielle Roth’s Five Rhythms dance practice became a turning point, leading her to teach the method for 25 years and apply arts-based work with marginalized youth, prisons, and addiction. Leach explains Five Rhythms (flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness) as an energetic “wave” that supports intuition and trauma release. She also outlines her in-progress documentary, Let It Play, centered on Ray’s handmade guitar as a metaphor for grief, hope, and storytelling through musicians and dance.

Emma's Bio and Contact Information

Emma Leach has spent 35 years listening to bodies.

Not as objects to be trained or corrected, but as living texts, fluent in a language older than speech. Movement, for her, is not decoration or performance. It is metaphor in motion. A way meaning arrives before thought has time to organize it.

Rooted in the Five Rhythms as her main body of study, Emma has been teaching this practice for 25 years. Over decades of guiding others through sweat, silence, pulse, and release, she has witnessed how movement tells truths the intellect cannot negotiate. The body speaks sideways, symbolically, through weight and rhythm and pause. It reveals what words circle but never quite land on.

Alongside this devotion to movement practice, Emma has wandered widely through other art forms. Visual art. Installation. Clowning. Burlesque. Theatre and ritual theatre. Each discipline added texture, tension, and contrast. Each offered another doorway into presence, risk, and transformation. Yet again and again, she found herself returning to the body as the primary instrument, the original stage, the first storyteller.

Now her work is evolving. What once lived in separate rooms is beginning to converse. From this convergence, Movement Metaphor is emerging. A living, expanding practice that recognizes the body as a generator of meaning rather than a vehicle for ideas. In this work, movement does not illustrate concepts. It unlocks them.

Emma’s inquiry rests on a simple, radical knowing. When the body moves with attention, something beyond intellect comes online. Memory. Image. Instinct. Archetype. The unsayable finds form. Gesture becomes sentence. Rhythm becomes revelation.

Her work invites people into that threshold, where language dissolves into motion and motion reassembles as understanding. Not tidy. Not fixed. Alive.

Emma Leach continues to explore, create, and listen. Following movement not as an answer, but as a question that keeps unfolding.

🎵 About the Documentary: Let It Play is currently in post-production and seeking support. Follow Emma's journey at emmadance.co | Instagram: @EmmaChristinaRed

To connect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Deanna Scaldaferri to the Teaching Journeys podcast to discuss her work as a licensed massage and bodywork therapist, Reiki master, intuitive life coach, speaker, and facilitator of a narcissistic abuse recovery support group in Charlotte, North Carolina. Deanna shares how her Italian-American, Catholic upbringing, living overseas (especially in Germany), and major traumas—including being a 9/11 survivor, losing her parents, and leaving a dangerous 20-year narcissistic relationship—shaped her path. She describes recovery tools including faith, psychotherapy, somatic work, neuroplasticity/rewiring, massage, Reiki, and energy protection for empaths. Deanna explains similarities and differences between massage and Reiki, emphasizing nervous system regulation, trauma release, and clarity/intuition.

Deanna's Bio and Contact Information

Deanna Scaldaferri is a Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist, Usui Holy Fire III Reiki Master, Intuitive Life Coach and Public Speaker. Her passion is helping people grow on their life’s journey and spiritual path to find healing, balance, health, love and happiness. She approaches every person with a total MIND, BODY, SPIRIT mindset and treats each client individually. She offers a safe and trusting place, and the ability to hold space with compassion & empathy, without judgment. Massage therapy and Reiki energy healing are her main tools in helping others release stress & heaviness to feel better in their bodies physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually. She has overcome heavy trauma and many obstacles in her personal life, and feels inspired to help others do the same. Deanna is grateful to be of service to others in attaining a healthier and happier life.

Deanna has been facilitating a Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support Group in Charlotte for the last 4+ years. She herself is a survivor of this emotional, verbal & psychological abuse, and knows first-hand how damaging it is to the mind, body and spirit. The intention of the group and its monthly meetings is to educate, learn, grow and heal, all in community with like-minded people who are seeking recovery and healing in their lives from these toxic and abusive relationships. Deanna creates a safe space where survivors can feel heard and truly seen, and recognize that they are not alone. Many members of this group book private sessions with Deanna for massage, coaching or Reiki energy healing to help find clarity and purpose in their lives, as well as to help release trauma from the body. Deanna offers holistic healing tools to get to the root cause of people's blockages in their lives, that keep them from moving forward. She helps them reconnect with themselves, build a sense of empowerment and heal from the inside out.

www.healinghandsbydeanna.com

https://www.meetup.com/charlotte-narcissistic-abuse-recovery-meetup-group

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

https://www.deannadecamillo.com/

Deanna would like to offer a promotional item of a 10% discount to any of The Teaching Journeys Podcast listeners

for booking a private session with me. Anyone can book me virtually for Reiki

Energy Healing or Intuitive Coaching. The coupon code to use is: DAVE10%OFF

To vonnect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Michelle Kuei, a business and visibility marketing coach for coaches and founder of Elevate Life Coaching, who helps certified coaches get clients through her signature client enrollment method. Kuei shares her journey overcoming deep negative self-talk rooted in an 11-year-old car accident that left her physically disabled, immigrant identity, feeling she didn’t belong, and using a “diamond” metaphor for personal transformation. She explains how choosing a new path led her to get fit and eventually hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on crutches, shaping her views on empowerment and taking bold action. Kuei defines true visibility as being seen by providing non-harmful value and fostering belonging, describes her mission and evolution to training other coaches, and argues motivation isn’t enough without determination, dedication, and discipline. She discusses barriers like limiting beliefs and past trauma and her memoir Perfectly Normal.

Michelle’s Bio and Contact Information

Michelle Kuei (pronounced Ku-way) is a Business and Visibility Marketing Coach, ICF-accredited coach, and founder of Elevate LifeCoaching — a company built on one simple belief: your coaching certification gave you the skills to change lives. It just didn't teach you how to find the people whose lives you're meant to change.

She works with certified female coaches who are talented, trained, and completely stuck on how to get clients consistently. Using her signature Client Enrollment Method — a 7-step framework built around visibility, messaging, and client attraction — she helps coaches stop second-guessing themselves and start building businesses they're genuinely proud of.

Michelle brings a rare combination of credentials to her work: ICF accreditation through iPEC, certified copywriter, email and content marketing strategist, and a background in conversion copywriting and social media marketing. She doesn't just teach coaches how to show up online — she teaches them how to show up in a way that actually converts.

Her thought leadership has been featured in Life Coach Magazine, Influence Digest (Top 15 Coaches in Los Angeles), the Los Angeles Tribune, and on FOX.

She's also the author of Perfectly Normal: An Immigrant's Story of Making It in America — a memoir about resilience, identity, and having the courage to build a life that doesn't fit the mold.

And if you really want to understand how Michelle operates: she's physically disabled and hiked 26 miles of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. That same stubborn, keep-going energy is exactly what she brings to every client, every program, and every stage she steps on.

Her mission hasn't changed: help purpose-driven women turn their coaching skills into a profitable, fulfilling business — without losing themselves in the process.

Website: http://elevatelifecoaching.org

IG: http://instagram.com/elevatelifecoach

FB: http://facebook.com/lifecoachingbyelevate

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/michellekuei

Email: [email protected]

To connect with Dave , go to davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Anca Uni, an award-winning trauma expert, healing innovator, former IT and cybersecurity leader, and author of “Soulful Alignment: Daily Reflections for Enlightened Connections.” Anca shares how moving from Romania to Canada, corporate leadership, and personal experiences (immigration, divorce, single parenting, quitting smoking) shaped her mission to bring “soul back into tech” and help people heal at the root rather than cope. She describes client challenges such as anxiety, insomnia, and addictions, and her approaches including hypnotherapy, reiki, energy work, sound healing (crystal bowls, tuning forks, mantras, breathwork), and nervous system regulation, including distance healing.

Anca’s Bio ( In Her Own Words)

Anca Uni, born and raised in Europe, has three deep passions: 5D healing, a master’s degree in computer science, and dancing. Having spent a significant part of my life as an IT and cybersecurity professional, I know that world inside out. Now, my mission is to bring soul back into tech—helping IT professionals and corporations not just survive but truly thrive.

At one point in my life, I struggled with my own trauma and weight challenges, which led me on a journey to find sustainable healing modalities. By combining these methods, I’ve created Signature Programs and Healing Interventions to help my clients achieve their goals. Witnessing transformations in myself and those I’ve helped fuels my passion and determination to create a lasting social impact.

I’m a Hypnotherapist & 5D Healer, NLP Master Coach, Reiki Master, and Trauma-Aware Coach, with a track record of transforming over 200 lives and earning five-star reviews. Over the past decade, I’ve pioneered healing modalities that seamlessly blend Neuroscience, Quantum Energy, Subconscious Communication, and Spirituality to create profound 5D Healing experiences. Recognized as an innovator in the healing space, my work has been honored with multiple prestigious awards, including Best Service, Best Choice, and Canada’s Choice for Hypnotherapy.

I am passionate about making a societal impact and helping people break free from trauma, emotional pain, and internal turmoil, guiding them toward elevated consciousness for profound 5D Healing, self-love, inner peace, abundance, and lasting empowerment. My mission is to assist those ready to change and heal, especially those who have been let down by traditional modalities.

I’m also a published author of “Soulful Alignment: Daily Reflections for Enlightened Connections.” My hope is that this guided journal will find its way into as many homes as possible and become a trusted companion. I bring a deep passion for fostering meaningful connections and an extensive background in psychology, relationship counseling, and personal development. My mission is to empower as many people and couples as I can to navigate the intricate terrain of love and intimacy, providing thoughtfully crafted prompts, exercises, and insights to help you strengthen your bonds, communicate effectively, and nurture lasting, fulfilling relationships. Drawing from my years of experience, I aim to guide you on a transformative journey toward deeper connection, self-discovery, and enduring love.

Website: www.ancauni.com

To connect with Dave go to www.davidrobertsmsw.com

Host Dave Roberts welcomes Nino Fincher, a rapid therapy expert on anxiety and purpose clarity coach, to discuss experiences shaping her path, including her grandfather’s death at 15 and her shift from an atheist upbringing to following Christ after studying philosophy, comparative religion, and evidence for Jesus’ claims. They explore faith, non-ordinary phenomena, and the idea of transcendent reality. Nino explains Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), developed by Marisa Peer, combining CBT, hypnotherapy, and neurolinguistics to reach root causes quickly, often serving high performers, CEOs, athletes, veterans, and first responders. She outlines her MOVE framework (Movement, Overcome, Value, Expectation) for escaping stagnation, previews her September book on getting out of a rut, and describes her 2023 children’s book “Kooba Says Hi,” inspired by life in the Middle East.

Nino’s Bio and Contact Information

Nino Fincher is a rapid therapy expert on anxiety and a purpose clarity coach.

Her clients span multiple countries and cultures .

Nino speaks on mind's operating system , purpose and mind engagement.

She has a new book on moving out of stagnant state , coming this fall.

Connect with Nino Fincher:

🌐 Website: ninofit.com

💼 LinkedIn: Nino Fincher

To connect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com

What if your biggest career crisis was actually your greatest creative breakthrough?

In this episode of the Teaching Journeys Podcast, host Dave Roberts sits down with Dr. Tasha Golden — touring singer-songwriter turned behavioral scientist — for a fascinating conversation about creativity, mental health, and the power of the arts to heal.

Dr. Golden was the first Director of Research for the International Arts and Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her journey from performing on stage with her band Ellery (featured on ABC, Showtime, Fox, and Netflix) to earning a PhD in public health is anything but conventional.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How music creates "safe spaces" that allow people to share what they've never told a doctor or therapist

• Dr. Golden's 3-pillar Creative Mindset Framework (Deconstruction, Imagination, Action) and how to apply it in your work and life

• Why "growth is on the other side of the questions we are not asking" — and how to start asking them

• The science of talkability — why art makes difficult topics speakable

• How Arts on Prescription is revolutionizing healthcare by prescribing cultural experiences to treat loneliness, depression, and anxiety

• Inside Project Uncaged — a trauma-informed creative writing program for incarcerated girls driving real policy change

• Why organizations get stuck solving the wrong problems — and how a creative mindset fixes that

• Whether you're a leader, educator, healthcare professional, or creative, this conversation will challenge you to see the world — and your challenges — in an entirely new way.

Tasha’s Bio and Contact Information

Tasha Golden, PhD, is a touring artist turned behavioral scientist who speaks and consults globally on creativity, wellbeing, and change.

Dr. Golden was the first Director of Research for the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is adjunct faculty in the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and lead author of "Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities". Named one of Fierce Pharma's "Fierce 50" for her work integrating arts and healthcare, she has published extensively on intersections of arts, behavior, and wellbeing.

Golden's work emerged from her career in the arts. As singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, she toured internationally, with songs in TV/film (ABC, SHOWTIME, FOX, NETFLIX). Her experiences on the road, and subsequently with burnout and depression, shaped her current work in arts and health. She is founder of Project Uncaged, a trauma-informed writing program for incarcerated girls, and developer of "How We Human”—a mental health training for creative professionals.

Dr. Golden helps clients and audiences combine creativity and science to advance wellbeing, innovation, and impact.

🔗 Connect with Dr. Tasha Golden:

http://www.tashagolden.com/

Visit tashagolden.com/teachingjourneys for free resources and information for Dave’s podcast audience.

Subscribe to the Teaching Journeys Podcast for weekly conversations with extraordinary guests dedicated to passing knowledge across generations.

To connect with Dave, go to davidrobertsmsw.com