In this episode I am celebrating our first big podcast milestone: crossing over the 1000+ download mark in December! I’m sharing my gratitude for you all and reflections about reaching this many women and my visions and desires for where to take the podcast in 2021.

I introduce the theme for January of grief and loss as initiation and how to work with these more difficult experiences as they continue to show up in our lives and in the world during this time of the pandemic and great social change. 

I discuss the importance of relating to grief and loss, effective ways to work with these challenging energies, the essential role of community and the concept of post-traumatic growth as a possibility for how we can transform and return to an even more whole version of ourselves after some of our darkest times. 

In this episode I have the privilege to interview Holly Bullard about her journey of coming out and embracing her authentic sexual orientation while married to a man and parenting two young children. Holly shares openly with us about the series of events that coincided and ultimately  shattered her life as she knew it.  She describes the incredible metamorphosis she went through over the course of a decade-long journey that shifted the entire landscape of her life and disrupted her worldview for the better. 

We get to hear about Holly’s early life and how her circumstances created a desire to keep the peace and shaped her identity as a people pleaser. We learn about the powerful inner work Holly did to accept and value the full truth of who she is, despite being surrounded by criticism and judgement. We dive deep into Holly’s Christian faith and the complex reckoning she was called to do with her spiritual life and everything that she has come to understand as a result. 

This story is a powerful testament to the courage it takes as women to stand up for what we believe in, who we are and what is most true for us despite societal and cultural expectations. 

In this short and sweet episode I talk about the inevitable human experience of being in transition and how disorienting and challenging it can be when we are neither here nor there, but instead find ourselves to be in the messy middle.

Whether your personal life is in transition right now or you're simply feeling the collective state of affairs regarding the pandemic, we all know what it is like to feel in between. In this episode I walk you through the big picture categories of life and how to think about caring for yourself in different and creative ways. In each area of life I offer practical ways to create a more solid and strong foundation from which to ride out the uncertainty of being in the middle. 

This episode is full of gentle reminders, ways of thinking about the messy middle and a whole lot of love for you as you continue showing up for the complexity and nuance of your life. 

In this episode, I talk to psychotherapist, director and founder of the Colorado Women’s Center, Kendra Miguez. We discuss the most common issues she sees women struggling with when it comes to their inner life and how to overcome those challenges. She breaks down the  importance of women coming to define their own worth based on personal values.

We explore what is changing for women’s mental health in America, the transformational power of motherhood and how to identify if you or another woman has postpartum depression. We get to hear how the vision for this healing center came to Kendra as a result of facing her own challenges and darkness as a single mother struggling to put herself through two graduate programs. We unpack the value of adversity and learning to accept the presence of pain, even when it's hard and how these experiences can come to positively shape and define us. 

Show Notes:

https://www.coloradowomenscenter.com

http://kendramiguez.com

In this episode, I talk to Jungian analyst, psychiatrist, author and speaker Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen. She shares stories about her involvement in the women’s movement of the 1970’s including how Gloria Steinem helped her to advocate for women’s equality in the world of psychiatry. We explore what archetypal psychology is and how we can start to understand ourselves more deeply through the exploration of female archetypes. We discuss the current state of the world and the opportunities that are available right now for the human species to evolve and why it is so critical that women get clear about what matters to them. Jean shares wisdom about the importance of gathering in circles, having supportive women in our lives and the new world that is possible if we each find our voices and speak up for the values that we hold most dear. 

You can learn more about Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen on her website:
https://www.jeanbolen.com

In this refreshing and candid interview I speak with Conni Biesalski.  Conni is a creative entrepreneur, writer, author, YouTuber, and photographer on a mission to help others explore themselves, overcome inner blocks and share their creative gifts with the world. She is passionate about mindfulness, breathwork, plant medicine, psychology, philosophy and the creative process. Many years of depression, anxiety and chronic pain motivated her to experiment with endless healing modalities and learn from a variety of teachers all around the world. She runs the CREATE podcast and is the co-creator of The Breath Circle. 

In this interview we cover many rich topics including:  

• Conni's experience of coming out as a Queer woman at age 26
• The path of finding her unique gender and personal expression in the world
• How she has worked with shame, self-judgment and self-abandonment and which modalities have helped her to heal and feel more free despite years of depression and anxiety
• How Conni has figured out how to use social media in an authentic and meaningful way for her and why it is so important to do so 
• The challenges Conni faced around embracing her emotional life and how she now supports others to heal through breathwork and creativity
• The power of shifting our stories, owning our shadows and making different decisions in the name of self-worth

You can find Conni in these places:

www.conni.me 

Instagram: @conni.biesalski 

Twitter: @connibie 

YouTube: youtube.com/connibiesalski

In today’s solo episode, I share some thoughts on how we can make the most of this upcoming holiday season even though many of us are dealing with a lot of disappointment and limitation in the face of the pandemic.

I offer some prompts for reflection to help guide in the process of acknowledging/working with loss, looking for the opportunities and assessing what may want to fill the spaces or gaps that have been left open.

I offer some orientation and framing for the final 6 weeks of the year and how I am thinking about what is most important in these weeks prior to entering 2021. I discuss the importance of feeling into our personal values and then working backwards to bake in the experiences, people and things that will support us to feel as oriented and on track with our personal needs as we step into the new year.  Finally, I offer some thoughts on “less as more,” some books to support the process of evaluating our lives more closely and identifying which handful of things tend to create the most important rewards or experiences for us.

https://katenorthrup.com/

https://gregmckeown.com/

In this episode I speak with Holistic Psychotherapist, Dr. Kellie Kirksey, about her early life experience of having a skin condition that made her feel ‘other’ than her peers. We get the opportunity to hear about how that sense of being outside of the norm motivated Dr. Kellie to become a contemplative person and to take interest in spiritual life and holistic healing. 

We learn about the important role that Dr. Kellie’s mother played in caring for and nurturing her sense of well-being as well as the community leadership positions that her grandmother and great-grandmother took in caring for the Black community during the Jim Crow Era. 

We discuss the ancestral trauma of slavery and how Dr. Kellie has come to unpack and understand her own lived experience as a Black woman in America. She invites us into deeper connection with our body, music, art and movement to experience the healing and transformative power of creativity and also shares with us a powerful poem at the end with the call to STAY AWAKE.

www.drkelliek.com

In this interview I speak with Dr. Sara Gottfried about her pioneering work in the field of women’s health. We cover her personal journey on her path to becoming an OBGYN and all that it entailed. We discuss the enormity of being conscious mothers raising daughters and each of our challenging postpartum experiences. Dr. Gottfried unpacks the hidden opportunity that is available to us when we are faced with unwanted symptoms and where to start when we find ourselves needing additional help with our health. She educates us on why biology, psychology and spirituality cannot be separated and explains why the decoding of our health struggles can be such an empowering process. We learn about the current status of women’s health in the U.S., what has improved, what is still not working and where we need to go. Dr. Gottfried sheds light on the major hormonal transitions that women go through in puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and menopause and how we can take care of ourselves in the face of these changes.

Show Notes:

https://www.saragottfriedmd.com/

https://shop.reset360.com/

https://www.wellnessfx.com/

https://www.mymedlab.com/

https://www.onegevity.com/

https://marcusinstitute.jeffersonhealth.org/

https://www.saragottfriedmd.com/patient/

In today’s solo episode, I share my thoughts about why it is so important for us to find responsible, mature and effective ways of dealing with conflict. I offer 10 practical tools and methods for approaching conflict and break each one down with examples so that you can use them right away in your own life. I give ideas about what to do before entering a hard conversation, how to engage during the heart of the challenging conversation and how to come to resolution, repair and completion by the end of the dialogue. I discuss why any unresolved conflict in our personal life has a significant impact on the other areas of our life such as work, health and general well-being. I explain why taking responsibility and leadership in our relationships is a critical component of our empowerment and how to embrace the process.