VIRGIN.BEAUTY.B!TCH

Cheryl Fidelman is the creator of The Conscious Codependence™ Process and The 3 Codes to Clear Codependency. For nearly 20 years, she has helped highly capable, accomplished people understand why they can be extraordinarily competent in their professional lives yet lose themselves in their intimate relationships. Through her work with The 3 Codes—rooted in Belonging, Safety, and Identity—Cheryl helps people uncover patterns that lead them to look outside themselves for their sense of Self and return to a deeper relationship with who they truly are.
 
Growing up in a chaotic household with an emotionally unstable mother, Cheryl openly admits that her path to recovery was prompted by surviving childhood trauma and by navigating severely codependent relationships. Her healing journey spanned more than 30 years of therapy, 12-step programs (including Codependents Anonymous), plant medicine journeys, and various alternative healing modalities.
 
In our conversation, she shares that her soapbox is that she’s out to normalize codependency. In her own words: "I wake up every day with that purpose, mission, and passion, and I've done it for 20 years. This is the rock I'm pushing up the hill. I want to normalize it because I think it's wildly common. It's especially common among high achievers because everything looks fine on the outside, but behind the scenes, there's a personal disconnect with themselves, in their intimate relationship, or with their body, or they're achieving because that's what their traumatic identity tells them to do. So that’s it; I'm just out to normalize it, and I'm gonna keep going with that torch."

Nilki is a Certified Life Coach specializing in sex, intimacy, and confidence coaching. With a background in massage therapy, her experience also draws on modern Western chiropractic theories and her extensive work in wellness and holistic Eastern practices. This background has shaped her coaching approach and helps clients live happy, healthy, connected lives.

One foundational idea in her coaching is that meaningful change begins with self-awareness, which can mature into self-acceptance. Before we can build healthier relationships, stronger intimacy, or more confidence, we first have to be willing to understand what is actually true about us, including our desires, patterns, needs, shame, attachment tendencies, fears, and the parts of ourselves we may have learned to judge, hide, or suppress. 

Nikki is also the author of The Intimacy Archives, a library of thoughtful, straight-talking articles about sex, relationships, confidence, desire, communication, and the psychology behind how we connect, free from shame or judgement. Get ready to get intimate.

Rissa Miller is a true Renaissance woman. As a folklorist, author, herbalist, diviner, speaker, and poet whose work explores the intersection of history and ritual tradition, Rissa brings dark culture and regional legend into thoughtful contemporary conversation. Her research and storytelling draw on esoteric history, including ghost tales, witchcraft, cryptids, and folklore, and invite audiences to examine how stories of the past shape their present beliefs and experiences. 
 
In this conversation, Rissa helps us explore societal expectations placed on women’s emotions—especially anger—and how suppressing those feelings can affect mental and physical health. Rissa shares personal stories and insights into female empowerment, and discusses the importance of rituals that help process difficult emotions. Tune in for honest reflections, myth-busting about women’s anger, inspiration to embrace every part of your emotional journey, and a soul-stirring poem at the end from her new poetry book, Goodnight Poet.

At 19 years old, Rhiannon survived a kidnapping and assault that would shape her life’s purpose. Now an attorney and public speaker, she uses her voice to empower others—especially survivors of trauma.
 
Rhiannon is the author of the upcoming memoir My Beauty From Ashes, a deeply personal account of healing, identity and reclaiming one’s story. Her writing journey has evolved into a powerful path toward forgiveness as a force for healing.
 
In 2023, Rhiannon delivered a TEDx talk titled Forgiving the Unforgivable, where she shared her perspective on trauma, recovery, and forgiveness. Through her work as a writer and in the courtroom, she continues to advocate for mental health awareness, victims’ rights and survivor empowerment. Hear the uncanny power of forgiving the unforgivable.

Welcome back to the Virgin Beauty B!tch Podcast. Here, we challenge social stereotypes and encourage women to embrace their full selves—including parts of themselves that society would rather they disown. In this conversation, Christopher and Heather explore the powerful and complex relationship women have with the word "bitch," a controversial identity that can also inspire transformation.

The "bitch paradox" is an experience women face when encouraged to be bold and empowered, only to be criticized or ostracized when their confidence makes others uncomfortable. It’s a journey women undertake as they confront their conditioning, discover their true identities, and navigate the fine line between self-expression and societal acceptance. 

There’s no sugar or spice in this conversation. Get ready for an honest, insightful, and inspiring exploration of what it means to be "that bitch"—and why your journey toward accepting her matters more than you might think.

Melinda Love is a women's empowerment and sexuality coach, consulting hypnotist, artist, and educator with 19 years in the healing arts and personal growth. Melinda has also worked consciously with the Bitch Archetype since 2018 and unconsciously, long before that. Her work offers an opportunity to hold space for other women as they embrace the unconscious parts of their psyche that manifest as habits and patterns they believe others won’t appreciate. 

In this conversation, Melinda talks us through women embracing the Bitch within themselves, the Bad Girl, as an antidote to Good Girl conditioning that keeps women not only small and powerless but also, in many cases, calculating or vengeful in ways that are harmful to others and to themselves. 

The inner Bitch knows what she wants for herself and what is good for the world. When hidden away or stuffed down, she can be the stereotype few people appreciate. When respected and nurtured, she’s a visionary, a woman the world is hungry for, because of what she has to offer in conscious collaboration.

This lively and enlightening conversation features Cassandra Pickett, a certified CliniCoach, licensed therapist, and host of the "Girl, You Good?" podcast. Cassandra joins us to discuss the complexities of identity that hinder ambitious women.

Cassandra shares her own transformative journey and the challenges of living authentically in a world that often demands people-pleasing and perfection. Together, we explore why so many high-achieving women struggle with self-alignment, how to redefine self-compassion, and why reclaiming an identity like “bitch” can be a revolutionary act of empowerment. Are you ready for candid truths, actionable insights, and a celebration of coming home to yourself?

Carolyn Brouillard is an author, publisher, and teacher who asks tough questions, such as “What would it feel like to truly love your life?” These are questions she faced in her three-decade-long journey in exploring consciousness and the art of authentic living.
 
Her expertise is hard-earned, forged at the intersection of radical rebellion, corporate leadership, and the hard-won freedom of self-sovereignty. By distilling her insights into a practical framework for personal transformation, Carolyn hopes to help others bring inner truth into their lived reality. She is the founder of Untamed Press and author of “Your Untamed Truths: Reclaiming Self-Sovereignty.” Are you ready to face your Untamed Truths?

Naomi Kahn, June Carbone, and Nancy Levitt are three distinguished law professors and co-authors of the groundbreaking book Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy.

Together, they explain why so many women feel that, no matter how educated they are, how ambitious and effective they prove themselves to be, or how hard they work, they can’t seem to get ahead or even level the playing field. Research exposes the reasons, and these three legal scholars not only put it in black and white but also discuss with us the kind of betrayal women feel when the rules of the game limit their opportunities and potential. 

We discuss why women’s economic progress has stalled, how unproductive competition holds women back, and the triple-bind obstacles they face. But we also explore simple solutions to fix it.

Dr. Beth Hedva was our obvious first inviter for our Year of the BITCH series. Dr. Hedva is a renowned psychologist, author, and expert in transpersonal therapy, whose groundbreaking research on betrayal, trust, and forgiveness is recognized by governments and the United Nations, which call on her to help individuals heal from deep emotional wounds.

Betrayal, we’ve all experienced it, sometimes as the perpetrator, sometimes as the victim; either way, the word comes loaded with pain, anguish and suffering. However, Dr. Hedva points out that betrayal is also a necessary experience that can lead to self-discovery and personal empowerment. How that can work in your life is a must-listen. It’s important to know that Dr. Hedva is a pioneering psychologist and the award-winning author of Betrayal, Trust and Forgiveness, which delves deeply into the concept of betrayal and its profound potential to foster healing. For women, this can manifest as newfound resilience, strength, and agency. This conversation invites you to know betrayal beyond the perpetrator or the victim.