Trust the Whispers

I went into my first therapeutic psilocybin journey prepared to face some sh*t.

I expected old wounds, defense mechanisms, maybe even a few hours of confronting the parts of myself I hadn't been able to access through years of therapy and healing work.

Instead…I got the cosmos.

In this episode, Bre and I unpack the entire experience, from why I chose a facilitated mushroom journey and how I prepared, to what happened during those five hours and the surprisingly physical recovery afterward.

We talk about what it felt like to experience myself as both incredibly small and part of something infinitely bigger, why asking for another damn blanket became a lesson in receiving what I need, and the mantra that followed me through the experience:

Not my shit to carry.

Perhaps the biggest realization came afterward: I went into the journey believing there were still parts of myself I couldn't access because my defenses were too strong. What I found instead was evidence of just how much Internal Safety I've already built and the capacity to feel difficult things, stay with myself through them, and trust that they will move through.

This isn't an episode about mushrooms being the answer. It's an honest conversation about one very personal experience with psilocybin, healing, self-trust, compassion, surrender, boundaries, and what can happen when we feel safe enough to loosen our grip on control.

What if the thing you're meant to build starts as a hobby?

In this episode, we follow a real conversation about creativity, entrepreneurship, and learning to trust what keeps calling you back. What begins as custom sugar cookies quickly becomes something much bigger—a discussion about purpose, identity, grief, community, and the courage to create something that doesn't yet exist.

Chaley and I talk about why hobbies don't always have to become businesses, how repeated nudges deserve our attention, overcoming the fear of charging for your gifts, and why sometimes the best next step is simply to run the experiment.

You don't need the whole roadmap.

Sometimes you only need enough courage to take the next step.

When I first started Strong Is Beautiful, people would send me viral “what to do if…” self-defense videos all the time. What to do if someone grabs your ponytail. What to do if someone grabs you from behind. What move to use in this scenario or that one.

And while they were always sent with good intentions, something about that approach to safety never sat right with me.

Because watching a 30-second technique isn’t the same as being prepared to use it when the stakes are high.

In this minisode, I’m unpacking how that frustration eventually changed the way I think about safety altogether—and why I believe some of the most important safety training happens in the seemingly insignificant moments of everyday life.

We’ll talk about practicing in low-stakes moments for high-stakes situations, cultivating self-trust, and the evolution toward what I now call Internal Safety + External Readiness.

Because safety isn’t about memorizing a response for every possible “what if.” It’s about building the capacity to trust yourself and respond when you need to.

Have you ever felt like something was "off" but couldn't explain why?

In this episode, we explore one of the most overlooked forms of intuition: your body's ability to communicate long before symptoms become impossible to ignore. From childhood experiences of not being believed to chronic illness, endometriosis, stress, sleep, digestion, and women's health, we unpack how many of us learn to silence our bodies in order to keep functioning.

We also dive into the differences between Western and Eastern medicine, why self-advocacy matters, and how learning to observe your own patterns can completely change your relationship with your health.

Your body has been whispering all along.

Maybe it's time to start listening.

Have you ever felt pulled toward something more... while every logical part of you argues against it?

This conversation explores the messy beginning of trusting yourself. We talk about recognizing the difference between anxiety and intuition, navigating self-doubt, questioning beliefs about careers, money, and success, and why building a life that feels aligned often means letting go of the version of yourself you thought you were supposed to become.

If you've ever wondered whether it's too late to start over, this conversation is for you.

Season 2 begins with a new voice, a new season, and a new conversation.

As we welcome Breanna Kawasaki as our third co-host, we explore what it means to stop living by expectation and start living in alignment. Together, we unpack why so many women find themselves questioning careers, relationships, identity, and purpose—not because they're having a crisis, but because they're finally giving themselves permission to become who they've always been.

From trusting your experience over outside validation to learning that courage isn't the absence of fear, this conversation is an invitation to slow down, take inventory, and ask yourself: What if this isn't a midlife crisis... but a midlife awakening?

In this episode, Alison and Chaley delve into the complexities of the authentic self versus the strategic self, exploring how these identities shape our interactions and emotional experiences. They discuss the importance of therapy in recognizing and understanding these aspects of ourselves, the role of strategic patterns in our behavior, and the necessity of self-reflection and compassion in personal growth. The conversation emphasizes the significance of feeling emotions and embodying them to foster genuine connections and self-awareness.

What happens when the world tells you you're "too much," or inside you feel like you're "not enough"?

In Part 1 of this two-part series, Alison and Chaley unpack the complex relationship between external feedback and internal self-perception. They explore the confusion that arises when societal expectations clash with how we actually feel about ourselves—and why so many of us struggle to reconcile the two.

This episode dives into:

• How being told you're "too much" shapes your self-image
• The gap between external perceptions and internal feelings of inadequacy
• Why feedback from others can distort our sense of worth
• The journey toward self-acceptance when external judgments feel louder than internal truth

If you've ever felt caught between who you're told you are and who you feel you are, this conversation will resonate. It's messy, it's real, and it's the starting point for understanding your own worth beyond what others project onto you.

This week on Trust the Whispers, we’re talking about the kind of love that celebrates, not silences. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship has captured the world’s attention but beyond the headlines, there’s something deeper here. In a world that often asks women to be less...less ambitious, less loud, less themselves....their partnership shows what it looks like when a man isn’t intimidated by a woman’s light, but inspired by it.
Join us as we explore what true partnership looks like, why it’s okay to want more than “bare minimum” love, and how to recognize the green flags (or yellow) in your own relationships.

This conversation explores the Enneagram's role in education, focusing on how different personality types influence learning styles, student behavior, and the educator's approach. The discussion highlights the importance of emotional safety, recognizing individual motivations, and fostering a supportive learning environment. Both speakers share personal experiences and insights on how understanding oneself and others can enhance the educational experience for both students and teachers.