In this episode of Somatics on Screen, we’re getting into Sex and the City Season 1, Episode 7: “The Monogamists.”

This episode gives us A LOT to work with somatically.

Carrie realizes she and Big may have very different ideas about what dating each other actually means. Miranda finds herself dating someone whose desire for closeness and time together exceeds her own capacity for it. And Charlotte is confronted with a sexual act she genuinely does not want to do — while also navigating the pressure, expectations, and relational consequences attached to saying no.

So naturally, we’re talking about sexual fawning, attachment, relational capacity, desire, boundaries, and what happens when two people want very different amounts of closeness.

With Charlotte, I unpack the difference between choosing something sexually because you genuinely want to and overriding your own disgust, hesitation, or lack of desire because you’re afraid of what saying no might cost you.

And through Carrie and Miranda, we explore something I think gets flattened in dating conversations all the time: two people can like each other and still have very different capacities for intimacy, commitment, frequency of contact, or relational closeness. Those differences don’t automatically make one person avoidant and the other needy — but they do give us information.

Welcome back to Somatics on Screen, where we use television as an excuse to talk about what bodies, attachment systems, and nervous systems are doing underneath the plot.

📚 READ TIRED OF BEING GOOD
My book, Tired of Being Good: A Nervous System Map for Reclaiming Your Body After a Lifetime of Fawning, is a deeper exploration of fawning, boundaries, anger, desire, self-abandonment, and learning to hear yourself again.

https://us.amazon.com/Tired-Being-Good-reinhabiting-lifetime-ebook/dp/B0H1K2MZ4V

🔥 SEXUAL FAWNING COURSE
My on-demand course for understanding sexual fawning and building a more embodied relationship with consent, desire, sexual boundaries, pleasure, and your body’s yes/no/maybe.

https://stan.store/kalisomatics/p/sexual-fawning-course

Welcome to the first episode of Somatics on Screen, a new Your Own Medicine Podcast subseries where I analyze TV and film through the lens of somatic psychology.

And for episode one, we’re starting with the pilot of Sex and the City.

We’re looking underneath the dating drama at what might be happening in the body: attachment patterns, the fawn response, relational anxiety, self-abandonment, and the ways our nervous systems can shape how we date, who we pursue, and how we try to secure connection.

We talk Carrie, Big, Samantha, Charlotte, Miranda, and the pilot’s whole experiment with women attempting to have sex “like men” — while asking what some of these behaviors might look like when viewed through attachment and nervous-system frameworks rather than simply as “good” or “bad” dating decisions.

Basically: somatic psychology meets my desire to aggressively overanalyze television.

If you have a TV show or movie you think would be particularly juicy for Somatics on Screen, send me your recommendations. I’m building the list for future episodes.

FREE: Capacity to Be Disliked Meditation
A free somatic practice for building more nervous-system capacity for someone to be disappointed in you, disagree with you, or simply… not like you.

JOIN THE COVEN
My monthly Kali Somatics membership for ongoing somatic education, live workshops, Q&A/coaching, and deeper conversations around fawning, boundaries, anger, relationships, and everything we get into here.
https://stan.store/kalisomatics/p/the-coven-kali-somatics-monthly-membership

SEXUAL FAWNING COURSE
An on-demand course for understanding sexual fawning and building a more embodied relationship with consent, desire, boundaries, pleasure, and your body’s yes/no/maybe.
https://stan.store/kalisomatics/p/sexual-fawning-course

In this episode, I interview somatic therapist, nutritionist, and author Luis Mojica about the link between trauma recovery and nutrition, a focus of his book Food Therapy (releasing April 28). Mojica explains “food-induced stress,” arguing that nervous system regulation is affected by what we eat daily, not just breathwork or therapy, and categorizes foods as stimulants (caffeine, sugar, skipping meals), depressants (fried/processed flour and fat like fries, pizza, pasta), and balancers (beans, greens, proteins). He describes “seesaw regulation,” shame-free “unconscious alchemy” behind cravings, and how balancing meals can shift mood, sleep, glucose, and stress responses. They discuss examples including insomnia tied to nocturnal hypoglycemia, improved blood sugar, boundaries revealed when removing coping foods, and how culture and processed diets shape regulation. Mojica shares a tracking practice and invites pre-order readers to a free book club.

Connect with Kallie on Instagram:

https://stan.store/kalisomatics?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleARQsKhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaekIYy6yHKiLmOfqLB6P1B-SfHnOs4TfxYjIbTGbdPPNBhh4_0CTn1CThQmHw_aem_wge7M1c9I3gInfyi0T7sGA

Connect with Luis on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/holistic.life.navigation?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Buy Luis's book here:

https://amzn.to/4ci3byy

In this episode, we welcome back teacher, counselor, and author David Bedrick, founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame-Based Studies, to discuss his “unshaming” approach to shame and trauma healing. Bedrick contrasts traditional pathology-and-fix models with meeting symptoms—such as eating struggles, anger, addiction, codependency, anxiety, and insecurity—with curiosity, respect, and embodied listening to uncover their meaning and intelligence. He shares a story from a Slovak eating-disorder documentary session where a client’s throat-closing response reveals a powerful boundary and a “revolution” in expression, emphasizing organic pacing rather than quick fixes. Kallie relates the approach to post-infidelity insecurity in a new relationship and discovering boundary intelligence. They also discuss Bedrick’s book The Unshaming Way and his upcoming Unshaming Way Workbook (March 17), designed with step-by-step somatic practices and poetry.

To find Kallie on social media and explore her offers: https://stan.store/kalisomatics

To sign up for Kallie's 6-month program, SHED: https://kalisomatics.com/shed

To find David on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david.bedrick/

To order David's new The Unshaming Way Workbook:

https://www.amazon.com/Unshaming-Way-Workbook-Reflection-Self-Blame/dp/B0FFG5HF69

Victoria from Season 10 of Below Deck Mediterranean joins us today. In this episode we explore what happens to your nervous system under pressure, how grief shapes relationships & life, navigating messy connection on camera, and why manifestation isn’t just mindset — it’s about what your body feels safe to receive.

Follow Victoria on Instagram at @victorianadaoiz

To learn more about, SHED, our upcoming 6-month program starting March 31st, click the link below:

https://kalisomatics.com/SHED

Courtney Robertson is best known from Ben Flajnik’s season of The Bachelor, where she was labeled the “villain”—called manipulative, calculated, and the Black Widow—for being confident, s*xually expressive, and openly chosen early by the lead in a high-pressure, highly surveilled environment. In my work around fawning and nervous system survival, her season is a powerful example of what happens when being agreeable or palatable doesn’t actually protect you, and a woman stops performing niceness to manage other people’s discomfort. This conversation isn’t about rehashing reality TV—it’s about identity, shame, motherhood, and what it takes to be visible again after being flattened into a role, especially when the culture is quick to punish women for not fawning.

In this episode, I sit down with two-time Survivor winner and author Parvati Shallow for a raw and refreshing conversation about intuition, expression, and reclaiming your inner villain.

✨ We dive into:

Intuition + Self-Trust: how developing a deeper connection with your body opens access to guidance, clarity, and a friendlier relationship with the world around you.

Freedom of Expression: moving beyond self-auditing and PR-trained polish to share experiences authentically—without rehashing every word later.

Gaslighting & Self-Trust: how building inner trust becomes the antidote to external invalidation.

Villain Work: why embracing your shadow is essential for healing, boundaries, and personal power.

We also talk about Parvati’s time winning Survivor: Australia vs. USA, her new book Nice Girls Don’t Win, and the launch of our upcoming course How Villains Are Made—a six-week live program designed to help you step into your unapologetic self.

💥 If you’re ready to explore your edges and embody the parts of yourself you’ve been told to hide, join us here: https://kalisomatics.com/howvillainsaremade2

This is the final free workshop offered by me for the foreseeable future—and it’s a potent one.

In this session, we dive into the often-overlooked survival strategy of fawning at work—where you overextend yourself, blur boundaries, and people-please in the name of job security, approval, or stability.

You’ll learn:

What workplace fawning looks like (and why it’s not your fault)

How it’s connected to your nervous system, safety, and family dynamics

Grounding practices to reconnect with your body and your “no”

How to recognize urges and somatic cues before burnout hits

Practical tools to start setting boundaries without sabotaging your livelihood

This episode includes real participant shares, somatic exercises, and honest conversation about the cost of chronic overgiving at work—and how to begin to build a new pattern from the inside out.

If you want to go deeper, I also share details about SHED, my 6-month live somatic program for people who intellectually understand the fawn response but don’t know how to stop doing it.

🌀 To learn more and register for SHED, click the link below:

https://kalisomatics.com/SHED

🧠 For more content like this, subscribe and follow.

What happens when you spend your life reading everyone else’s emotions but feel disconnected from your own? What’s the cost of peacekeeping at the expense of your truth?

In this episode of the Your Own Medicine Podcast, I sit down with licensed psychotherapist Meg Josephson, whose new book Are You Mad at Me? comes out August 5th. We explore the fawn response—the lesser-known survival strategy characterized by overthinking, chronic conflict avoidance, and compulsive people-pleasing.

Meg shares her personal story, including the impact of growing up with a rageful father and a mother with Alzheimer's, and how these shaped her fawning patterns. We also discuss:

Anger, grief, and nervous system healing

The pressures of self-disclosure in a digital world

Boundaries that feel good in the body

Writing about trauma with integrity

Why fawning is more than just “being nice”—it’s a trauma response

This is an honest, grounded, and tender conversation about what it means to reclaim your needs, your body, and your voice—especially when you’ve been wired to abandon them.

📖 Preorder Are You Mad at Me?: https://megjosephson.com

🎧 Learn more about my current offerings: https://kalisomatics.com/SHED

In this special workshop replay, I guide you through the somatic foundations of sexual fawning—why it happens, how it shows up, and what to do with the shame, confusion, and disconnection that often follows.

Whether you’re a recovering fawner or just beginning to realize how often your body says “yes” while your mind says “no,” this episode offers a grounded space to reflect and reconnect.

We explore:

• Why sexual fawning is not about being manipulative—but about safety

• How trauma responses can show up in “safe” relationships

• The subtle and overt ways we override our boundaries for connection

• How to begin reclaiming your inner no (and your real yes)

🧠 Want to go deeper? Join my 6-month somatic program SHED. We start August 27th : https://kalisomatics.com/shed

🌿 Join me in Greece, May 2026: https://kalisomatics.com/greeceretreat

⚠️ TW: This episode includes mention of sexual trauma, coercion, and dissociation. Please care for your body and nervous system as you listen.