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Episode 91: People can grow in meaningful ways after trauma. In this episode, host and psychotherapist Debra Sloss, explores the concept of Post-Traumatic Growth with Richard G. Tedeschi, PhD, one of the researchers who coined the term, and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, who shares how losing her husband to suicide shaped her life and public service. Beginning with a moving opening story from Holocaust survivor Gitta Ryle we then explore how people make meaning after trauma, why suffering and growth can coexist, and how connection, purpose, and support can help people rebuild after profound suffering.
What if post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is shaped not only by what happened, but by how much adaptation energy we had when it happened? In this episode, Thom explores stress, premature cognitive commitment, and why seemingly unrelated triggers can keep past overload alive in the nervous system. Thom also explains how Vedic Meditation helps dissolve accumulated stress and responds to a follow-up question about past-life trauma and karma. Listen or watch for a grounded Vedic perspective on recovery, resilience, and liberation from past impressions.Episode Highlights[00:45] Understanding Stress[04:04] Adaptation Energy and Stress Reaction[06:33] When Adaptation Energy Runs Low[10:15] Premature Cognitive Commitments[13:05] PTSD Is Not About Scale[16:05] How Stress Leaves the Body[19:50] Vedic Meditation for PTSD[24:29] 24-Hour Bliss and Liberation[29:22] Q - Do past lives affect PTSD?[29:34] A - Consciousness Carries Past Impressions[33:10] Recovery Depends on Adaptation Energy[36:22] No Single Event Causes BreakdownUseful Linksinfo@thomknoles.com https://thomknoles.com/https://www.instagram.com/thethomknoleshttps://www.facebook.com/thethomknoleshttps://www.youtube.com/c/thomknoleshttps://thomknoles.com/ask-thom-anything/
Trauma is often seen as something you either carry… or try to move past. But there is another possibility that most people never fully explore. In this episode of TribeTalk, Mike Casey and Ann Hutyra are joined by Karin Clarke to examine what happens after a traumatic experience and why people respond so differently. Some remain caught in repeating patterns, while others begin to shift into something new. This conversation looks at what it actually means to process an experience instead of avoiding it or becoming defined by it, and how those patterns can influence both your health and your sense of identity over time. This conversation explores: How post-traumatic growth differs from simply coping or “bouncing back” The patterns that keep people cycling through the same emotional loops Why avoidance and over-identification both prevent forward movement How the body continues to respond to unresolved experiences Questions you can begin asking yourself to create a different path If you have ever felt like something from your past is still shaping how you think, feel, or respond, this episode offers a different way to understand what may be happening. Work with the Modern Holistic Health team: https://modernholistichealth.com/appointment/ Learn more about Modern Holistic Health: https://modernholistichealth.com Explore the full TribeTalk podcast archive: https://modernholistichealth.com/podcasts Listen now and consider what moving forward could look like for you.
Ernest Ellender, a trauma-informed life coach, discusses the transition from psychology to life coaching, the impact of insurance on practice, the importance of childhood skills, parenting and trauma-informed coaching, top questions in life coaching, the behavioral and emotional triangle, a rule-based approach to healing, natural consequences in parenting, defining success in parenting, and book availability and contact information.TakeawaysTrauma-informed life coachingNatural consequences in parentingChapters00:00 Introduction to Ernest Ellender06:06 The Impact of Insurance on Practice11:55 Parenting and Trauma-Informed Coaching17:57 Behavioral and Emotional Triangle24:05 Natural Consequences in Parenting29:58 Book Availability and Contact Information
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with poet Sharon Israel about her poetry collection, Voice Lesson (Post Traumatic Press). Sharon Israel's poems are full of song and detail, movement and color; the pleasures she brings to the page are many and varied. We are as likely to find Israel's speaker sighting owls in the Catskills, or helping in her dad's butcher shop, as in the world of music implied by the title. In Voice Lesson, Israel's urge is alchemical, so that when she's behind the counter, “scoop[ing] shiny brains into plastic bags” she is also arranging them “carefully like pale jewels.” She's after a kind of transformation, and urges us, “Always make room/for that singing thing/inside you.” —Daisy Fried, author of Women's Poetry: Poems and Advice Sharon Israel, Sephardic American poet and soprano, was an early recipient of Brooklyn College's Leonard Hecht Poetry Explication Award, was nominated for “Best of the Net” 2016 and won Four Lines' 2020 winter poetry challenge. Her chapbook Voice Lesson was published by Post Traumatic Press. Her work has most recently appeared in Loud Coffee Press among other journals (print and on-line) and anthologies. . Sharon hosts the radio show and podcast, Planet Poet-Words in Space, on WIOX 91.3 FM in the Catskills. All podcast episodes are available on YouTube Music, Spotify and Apple. Sharon is a member of the sound/poetry duo OrphicMix with composer Robert Cucinotta. Sharon has also collaborated with Cucinotta on works for voice, live instruments, and electronics and has premiered several of his works in New York.Sharon has a B.A. from Brooklyn College and an M.S. from the New School of Social Research. She was a local news reporter, feature writer and music critic for Courier-Life publications, Women's ENews and for the late, lamented Brooklyn Phoenix; she worked as a shoe saleswoman, microbiology lab technician, secretary, had a short stint as a municipal bond salesperson, and worked over two decades as a grant writer and development director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with poet Sharon Israel about her poetry collection, Voice Lesson (Post Traumatic Press). Sharon Israel's poems are full of song and detail, movement and color; the pleasures she brings to the page are many and varied. We are as likely to find Israel's speaker sighting owls in the Catskills, or helping in her dad's butcher shop, as in the world of music implied by the title. In Voice Lesson, Israel's urge is alchemical, so that when she's behind the counter, “scoop[ing] shiny brains into plastic bags” she is also arranging them “carefully like pale jewels.” She's after a kind of transformation, and urges us, “Always make room/for that singing thing/inside you.” —Daisy Fried, author of Women's Poetry: Poems and Advice Sharon Israel, Sephardic American poet and soprano, was an early recipient of Brooklyn College's Leonard Hecht Poetry Explication Award, was nominated for “Best of the Net” 2016 and won Four Lines' 2020 winter poetry challenge. Her chapbook Voice Lesson was published by Post Traumatic Press. Her work has most recently appeared in Loud Coffee Press among other journals (print and on-line) and anthologies. . Sharon hosts the radio show and podcast, Planet Poet-Words in Space, on WIOX 91.3 FM in the Catskills. All podcast episodes are available on YouTube Music, Spotify and Apple. Sharon is a member of the sound/poetry duo OrphicMix with composer Robert Cucinotta. Sharon has also collaborated with Cucinotta on works for voice, live instruments, and electronics and has premiered several of his works in New York.Sharon has a B.A. from Brooklyn College and an M.S. from the New School of Social Research. She was a local news reporter, feature writer and music critic for Courier-Life publications, Women's ENews and for the late, lamented Brooklyn Phoenix; she worked as a shoe saleswoman, microbiology lab technician, secretary, had a short stint as a municipal bond salesperson, and worked over two decades as a grant writer and development director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/poetry
Overloaded nervous systems are not a sign of laziness. In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, Ky explores true post-traumatic growth.This season is sponsored by Sucreabeille. Check out the signature fragrance collab here:https://sucreabeille.com/products/why-did-i-walk-into-this-roomKy sits down with fashion model and therapist Monisha Holmes to discuss the physical toll of chronic stress and CPTSD. They discuss how to stop fighting your own biology and start using everyday tension to build a healthier, more accountable life. Listeners will learn actionable ways to check their emotional capacity instead of running themselves into the ground.The biological differences between surviving PTSD and actual post-traumatic growth.How to use metacognition to stop toxic overthinking loops.Breaking the cycle of hustle culture and emotional suppression to find lasting peace.Guest Website: https://www.monishaholmes.com/Guest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monishaholmesGuest Articles: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/author/429532/monisha-holmes/Join The Vibe With Ky: https://thevibewithky.comMental Health Hub: https://thevibewithky.com/mental-health-resources-hubInstagram: https://instagram.com/thevibewithkyPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/thevibewithkyFacebook Subscriber Hub: https://www.facebook.com/thevibewithky/subscribe/Disclaimer: I am not a licensed mental health professional. Please seek professional help if needed.
Hundreds of thousands of veterans live with traumatic brain injuries that can trigger chronic headaches, often made worse by PTSD. A researcher at UT Health San Antonio is using AI to help predict and prevent the pain before it starts.
What happens when we stop treating suffering as a fixed identity and start relating to it as a changeable state?In this conversation, Amy Wheeler is joined by Colleen Millen, a licensed marriage and family therapist and yoga therapist who works at the intersection of somatic psychotherapy, nervous system regulation, and post-traumatic growth. Colleen shares how “healing happens in present time,” why choice and consent are foundational to real change, and how small, repeatable practices can reshape patterns that once felt permanent.Together, they explore neuroplasticity in everyday language (“neurons that fire together wire together”), how somatic tracking restores access to the prefrontal cortex when stress responses take over, and why therapy and yoga therapy can be most effective when they are collaborative—rooted in agency, curiosity, and what is life-affirming for the individual. In This Episode, You'll HearWhy post-traumatic growth can be a more empowering framework than only focusing on post-traumatic stressHow agency and consent orient the healing process (“Do you even want to rewire this?”)A practical, listener-friendly explanation of Dan Siegel's “hand model of the brain” and what it means to “keep the lid on”How somatic approaches support regulation when words aren't accessibleWhy short-term coping practices can lead to long-term changeWhat it looks like to track psychobiological shifts in real time and “stay with” the moment of the changeA grounded reframe: depression or anxiety can feel like a trait—until, over time, it becomes “a jacket that doesn't fit anymore”How yoga philosophy (including kriyā yoga and bhāvanā/intentionality) can support behavior change without forcing a one-size-fits-all approachThe role of telehealth in expanding access—especially for postpartum clients and busy householders Key Moments (listener roadmap)Colleen's path: journalist → yoga teacher (since 1999) → LMFT journey (began 2009; licensed 2018)Why “post-traumatic growth” matters: hope, agency, and the possibility of a new relationship to sufferingSomatic psychotherapy basics: how stress shows up through the body (breath, belly, skin, heart rate)Window of tolerance + polyvagal orientation: getting a “map” for the nervous systemDan Siegel's hand model: a clear explanation for both audio and YouTube listenersNeuroplasticity in daily life: how intention + repetition + small practices reshape what's possiblePresent-time stabilization: why you don't always need to “go into the past” to healRepetition and practice: why the micro-moments matter—and how real change accrues over time Practical Takeaways (gentle, doable)Name the moment: “Something just happened.”Anchor in the body: feel your feet, notice your breath, sense support from the chair.Choose one tiny action you can repeat (a short walk, a grounding pause, a few breaths, a hand on the heart).Track the shift: What changes in your breath, pace, sensation, or clarity when you slow down?Repeat: consistency is what makes the new pathway more available under stress. About Colleen Millen (LMFT-CA)Colleen Millen is a somatic psychotherapist and yoga therapist who supports clients navigating anxiety, depression, and the desire for post-traumatic growth. Her work emphasizes nervous system education, present-time stabilization, and collaborative inquiry that honors choice, pace, and lived experience. She currently offers telehealth and hybrid services in California. Resources MentionedNARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) — inquiry, agency, and what you want for yourselfPolyvagal Theory — understanding states and regulationWindow of Tolerance — a framework for tracking arousal and capacityDan Siegel's Hand Model of the Brain — “flipping the lid,” cortex/offline vs. online regulation supportInterpersonal Neurobiology / Mindsight (Dan Siegel) Connect with Colleen (California)Positive Counseling & Psychology: PositiveCounselingPsychology.comRula: Rula.com
You keep asking if love is something you experience, generate, or distort. The answer is all three — and most of y'all are stuck on distort. Your nervous system is doing the Two-Step with childhood trauma and calling it chemistry. You didn't fall in love, you slipped on unfinished business wearing a dopamine mask. You turned suffering into Trauma Entrepreneurship, hiring pain like it's a side hustle and calling it alchemy. Post-traumatic growth? Cute story. Most of you just reinforced trauma loops in New Age clothing while your attachment style guarantees you keep choosing partners who confirm your deepest fears. Y'all got Comfortable Corpse Syndrome — relationship on autopilot, soul in the trunk banging “we still alive or nah?” You burn sage over smoke damage, reenact bloodlines in Ancestral Cosplay, and skip every Relationship Oil Change until the engine locks. One of you molted. The other stayed a hungry caterpillar. That's not growth, that's the Anchor & Sail Dynamic exposing the Love Identity Gap. You put your soul on Clearance Sale with every “it's fine,” bankrupting emotional capital while your body can't tell transformation from War-Home Confusion. Therapy? You want resurrection after driving straight into the ditch. Wake up. Love ain't waiting for you to feel ready. It's waiting for you to stop auditioning for the same generational script and finally become someone who can hold it without distortion.
You could not think your way out of the pattern. That is not a failure of insight. That is the nature of complex trauma. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof return to one of the most resonant threads in Trauma Rewired's history: complex post-traumatic stress. Several years ago they recorded a series on CPT that changed how thousands of listeners understood themselves. This is the revision. Not a replacement of what came before, but a deepening, one shaped by advances in trauma research, neuroscience, and by the hosts' own continued growth. The reframe at the center of this episode is one that matters: complex trauma is not a disorder. It is not something wrong with you. It is a predictive nervous system pattern, an intelligent set of adaptations shaped by prolonged relational stress, often beginning in childhood, that made complete sense in the environment they were formed in. The question is not what is wrong with you. The question is what did your nervous system learn and how can it learn something new? Elisabeth and Jennifer trace the history of CPT as a clinical concept, from Judith Hermann's early naming of what PTSD could not capture, through Pete Walker's lived experience framework, into the current neuroscience of predictive patterning, interoception, and the body as the site of both the wound and the healing. They explain why complex trauma has no single memory to point to, why it often lives in sensation and state rather than narrative, and why that means healing looks different here than it does for single-event trauma. The episode also goes deep on something that does not get named enough in healing spaces: the trap of the healing vortex. The way that understanding complex trauma can become its own form of nervous system activation, another thing to fix, another layer to excavate, another reason the system cannot rest. Real growth, they argue, requires repetition and safety and time, but it also requires rest, play, and the gradual experience of being okay in the present moment without urgency. This episode opens the new CPT series and previews what is coming: the inner critic, toxic shame, social anxiety, emotional flashbacks, and self-abandonment, each explored not as pathology but as nervous system strategies that once served a purpose and can now be worked with differently. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why complex trauma is better understood as a predictive nervous system pattern than a disorder The difference between CPT and PTSD and why that distinction matters for healing Why there is often no single memory in complex trauma, and why the experience lives in the body instead How interoception becomes disrupted in the context of chronic relational stress Why the nervous system seeks familiar environments, even harmful ones, and how that perpetuates the cycle How systemic and cultural trauma shapes the nervous system in the same way interpersonal trauma does What neuroplasticity actually requires: repetition, safety, and time, not insight alone Why pushing too hard into somatic work can backfire, and what pacing actually looks like How the healing vortex keeps people stuck and what stepping out of it makes possible What observer capacity is, why it is one of the most important markers of growth, and how it develops A preview of the five distinguishing characteristics of CPT that will be explored throughout the series Chapter Markers 0:00 - CPT Shows Up Most Clearly in Relationships 1:13 - Welcome: Revisiting the Complex Trauma Series 2:04 - Why We Are Updating This Framework Now 4:25 - What Complex Trauma Is and Where the Term Came From 6:19 - Judith Hermann, Pete Walker, and Why This Language Matters 7:15 - Why We Use CPT Instead of CPTSD 8:07 - The Distinguishing Patterns: How Complex Trauma Shows Up 10:16 - DSM vs ICD-11: The Diagnosis Question 11:38 - CPT vs PTSD: Different Patterns, Different Healing 13:08 - When There Is No Memory: Implicit Patterning and the Developing Brain 15:20 - CPT as a Predictive Nervous System Pattern 17:09 - The Five Distinguishing Characteristics of CPT 18:07 - Trauma Lives in the Body, Not Just the Story 20:56 - Complex Trauma Is Fundamentally Relational 22:21 - Re-Patterning Secure Attachment Through Somatics 26:35 - Embodied Presence as the Foundation 29:55 - Systemic and Cultural Trauma: This Is Not Only Individual 34:24 - Pacing, Rest, and the Healing Vortex 37:24 - The Role of Play and Pleasure in Nervous System Re-Patterning 41:18 - Building Observer Capacity: The Shift From This Is Who I Am to This Is Happening in Me 43:22 - What Is Coming in the Rest of the CPT Series Resources and Links NSI Foundations Bundle for coaches and practitioners: neurosomaticintelligence.com/foundations Two week Rewire Trial of guided neuro somatic training: rewiretrial.com Learn more about Elisabeth's work at brainbased.com Learn more about Jennifer's work at her YouTube channel: Sacred Synapse https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com All rights in our content are reserved
We are without another episode of Invincible for another couple of years and also brimless! Join us for our takes on current MCU retconning rumors, Invincible season finale, Daredevil and The Boys. Come thru and chill!
Get AudioBooks for Free Best Self-improvement Motivation Post-Traumatic Growth: Tana Amen's Healing Guide Turn pain into growth with Tana Amen. Learn how to build resilience, heal emotionally, and grow stronger through challenges. We Need Your Love & Support ❤️ Get 3 Audiobooks Free -
Damaged: A First Responder’s Experiences Handling Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by James Meuer https://www.amazon.com/Damaged-Responders-Experiences-Handling-Post-Traumatic/dp/1449799558 One man’s journey as a first responder suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He takes you through real emergency calls; some are graphic and have scarred his heart forever and so has PTSD. He was a hero in the eyes of most, and yet PTSD tried to take that away from him. He’s haunted by what he has seen and by the dreams that follow. The dreams are wicked and prevent him from sleep. Daytime does not ward off the attacks; even small things like a door slam send him into hyper-vigilance. He will lose everything before he will find his way. About the author James Meuer was born at Travis AFB California into a military family. He spent his early years in Texas before returning to California. He initially pursued an education to be a doctor becoming a paramedic and firefighter instead. After his sixteen-year career in California he moved to Texas and continued working as a Paramedic. He also served as a Paramedic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He returned to continue his career in Texas. Shortly after his return, the spinal fractures he suffered years earlier took its toll and being diagnosed with PTSD, he reluctantly retired. His story titled DAMAGED-a first responder’s experiences handling post traumatic stress disorder, is now available. James can be contacted at damagedthebook@outlook.com “My faith simply wraps itself around everything I write and I consider it my mission to encourage First Responders’ with PTSD.”
In this episode, we review the high-yield topic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from the Psychiatry section.Follow Medbullets on social media:Facebook: www.facebook.com/medbulletsInstagram: www.instagram.com/medbulletsofficialTwitter: www.twitter.com/medbullets
Gregory, Justin and Lyndon discuss the disappointment around a successful Kickstarter campaign that did not bring in as much money as hoped. Is the market becoming more challenging for comics creators?Pick up The Last Breeds wherever books & comics are sold: https://www.amazon.ca/Last-Breeds-Jonathan-Ball/dp/1962594041Transition clips are from Wall Street (1987) - https://youtu.be/NtTkHu8R2_Q?si=zCwtTuKVo3aWtyAQBuy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/superpulpscienceFollow the gang online:https://www.instagram.com/gmbchomichuk/https://www.instagram.com/chasingartwork/https://www.instagram.com/chadwickginther/GMB Chomichuk's online store: https://www.gmbchomichuk.caChasing Artwork's online store: https://www.chasingartwork.com/Production: Dan VadeboncoeurTitles: Jesse Hamel & Nick Smalley
With a mix of pure motivational messaging and practical action you can start taking to deal with adversity, this week's episode of the Faculty Factory is a celebration of tenacity in the face of a tough time. We also feature some very important clips and snippets surrounding post-traumatic growth in this best of the Faculty Factory "greatest hits" episode. This "Best of the Faculty Factory" compilation episode features clips from three masterful episodes in the Faculty Factory archive. (If you're interested in hearing the full conversations, you can find the original episodes below.) Appearing in order are the episodes that were clipped for this podcast: What I Learned from the “Masters of Adversity” with George S. Everly, Jr., PhD, FACLP, FAPA: https://facultyfactory.org/masters-of-adversity/ New Roles, Change, and Post-Traumatic Growth with Wendy Ward, PhD, ABPP, FAPA, FNAP : https://facultyfactory.org/wendy-ward/ Vulnerability and Post-Traumatic Growth to Help Find Meaning in Medicine with Nicole Piemonte, PhD: https://facultyfactory.org/nicole-piemonte/ Although a lot of the conversation is shaped by a time of COVID (many of these interviews took place as we were still in the throes of the global pandemic, or emerging from it), there are gems of wisdom and storytelling throughout this broadcast that can help anyone looking to emerge from a challenging time. As Dr. Ward mentions, there are reasons to be hopeful, based on the post-traumatic growth literature, for many of us to emerge from a traumatic event as "better than baseline."
Therapy can happen spontaneously. Trauma can lead to understanding. We often help others better because we've had a similar experience. A wide-ranging discussion about education, government, the media, and morbid entertainment, along with a critique of social attitudes towards offenders.More on the Mendota Study
Most people talk about resilience. Rachel Druckenmiller lived it. Six weeks into a global pandemic, while trying to save a brand-new business, Rachel was out for a run when she was literally hit by a Chevy Silverado. Two days later—with a spinal fracture and wearing a back brace—she was on Zoom teaching leaders how to find hope in uncertainty. But this isn't just a "hustle culture" story. In this episode, Rachel reveals the deep, often painful work of Post-Traumatic Growth. She explains why we often choose the "safe" path of being muted over the brave path of being seen, and how a brush with death finally gave her the courage to stop silencing her own voice. Connect with Rachel Druckenmiller: Website: RachelDruckenmiller.com Hire Rachel to Speak: Booking Form Listen to her Music: Available on Spotify Instagram: @unmutedlife LinkedIn: Rachel Druckenmiller Contact ANI Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
Our HWHW special guest is Dr. Mari Marquez, a personal growth educator who specializes in personal development and post-traumatic growth following the loss of loved ones. She is an international selling children's book author and holds a Ph.D. in psychology. Through her work, Dr. Mari offers research-backed tools for adaptation and personal growth in both English and Spanish through her workshops, resources, and her "Growth After Loss" podcast. She serves as a facilitator for the Resilient Parenting Program through Arizona State University. Additionally, she co-leads a Spanish-speaking support group with the Modern Widows Club. Dr. Mari has received specialized training in post-traumatic growth, grief support, and prolonged grief disorder. She has had the honor of supporting many affected by traumatic losses in navigating their grief. She was a featured speaker at our Modern Widows Club 2022 Widow Empowerment Event in Scottsdale, AZ. Since then, she has been paving a way towards more empowering widow research. Find Dr. Mari Marquez at https://drmarimarquez.com Instagram, Facebook & YouTube @drmarimarquez Find Modern Widows Club® The Movement for Widow Care (MWC) on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin and Widow Life® at Substack.
Our HWHW special guest is Dr. Mari Marquez, a personal growth educator who specializes in personal development and post-traumatic growth following the loss of loved ones. She is an international selling children's book author and holds a Ph.D. in psychology. Through her work, Dr. Mari offers research-backed tools for adaptation and personal growth in both English and Spanish through her workshops, resources, and her "Growth After Loss" podcast. She serves as a facilitator for the Resilient Parenting Program through Arizona State University. Additionally, she co-leads a Spanish-speaking support group with the Modern Widows Club. Dr. Mari has received specialized training in post-traumatic growth, grief support, and prolonged grief disorder. She has had the honor of supporting many affected by traumatic losses in navigating their grief. She was a featured speaker at our Modern Widows Club 2022 Widow Empowerment Event in Scottsdale, AZ. Since then, she has been paving a way towards more empowering widow research. Find Dr. Mari Marquez at https://drmarimarquez.com Instagram, Facebook & YouTube @drmarimarquez Find Modern Widows Club® The Movement for Widow Care (MWC) on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin and Widow Life® at Substack.
From Trauma to Triumph: The Three Ingredients for Post-Traumatic GrowthGuest: David Dachinger, Retired Fire Lieutenant, EMT, Peer Coach and Grammy-Nominated Producer Host: Julie RigaWhat if your greatest trauma became your most powerful mission? In this transformational episode, Julie Riga sits down with David Dachinger, a stage four cancer survivor, retired fire lieutenant, Grammy-nominated producer, and resilience advocate, to unpack the three essential ingredients for post-traumatic growth: identity release, meaning making, and mission activation. This is a conversation about courage, clarity, and the power of choosing life.From Trauma to Triumph: The Three Ingredients for Post-Traumatic GrowthAbout This EpisodeIn this deeply moving episode, Julie Riga welcomes David Dachinger, a clear testament to transformation, resilience, and purpose-driven leadership. Together they explore what it means to evolve through adversity and how every leader and entrepreneur can activate their own post-traumatic growth journey. David shares how a stage four cancer diagnosis became the catalyst for a legacy of healing, purpose, and mission activation.Guest BackgroundDavid Dachinger is a retired fire lieutenant and EMT who hosts Responder's Resilience: Igniting the Shift Within, engaging experts on first responder mental health. He serves as a peer coach for 22ZERO, supporting first responders and veterans. A two-time Grammy Award nominee, his life changed in 2014 with a stage four cancer diagnosis that became the foundation of his advocacy for purposeful living and wellness.Fun Fact: David's favorite food is the Holy Shiitake pizza from Mellow Mushroom.The Three Ingredients for Post-Traumatic Growth1. Identity Release A stage four diagnosis instantly shifted David from caregiver to patient. Clinging to a victim identity blocks transformation. Through intentional word choice and daily gratitude, he released the old self and stepped into a healed identity. Like the lobster, we must shed the old shell to grow a stronger one.2. Meaning Making The same event affects people differently because it is the meaning we assign that determines our outcome. David reframed adversity by asking, "What is the gift in this?" Gratitude practice, present-moment awareness, and a shift in self-talk became his most powerful tools. Words, he discovered, are medicine.3. Mission Activation David and his wife created Live Calm with Cancer, a book, app, and calming TV experience for patients. He then joined 22ZERO to help first responders, veterans, and cancer patients heal trauma. His full-circle return to cancer advocacy, equipped with lived experience and proven tools, is a masterclass in turning pain into purpose.Key Quotes"Suffering is optional. We have a choice in every situation.""How do I turn these adversities into my superpower?""We are powerful creators. Positive self-talk is the core of all of it."Key Takeaways for LeadersRelease the old identity. Growth begins when you stop defining yourself by trauma or circumstance.Make meaning intentionally. The meaning you assign to adversity determines whether it becomes a wound or a wisdom.Activate your mission. Pain with purpose becomes power. Your story is meant to serve someone else's transformation.Words are medicine. Language shapes belief, belief shapes biology, and biology shapes your life.Suffering is optional. You always have a choice, and that choice is the foundation of fulfillment and legacy.ConnectDavid Dachinger: www.respondertv.com | 22ZERO: www.22zero.org | LinkedIn, Instagram, FacebookJulie Riga: www.julieriga.com/lead | LinkedIn, Instagram, FacebookSubscribe to Stay On Course wherever you listen to podcasts.#StayOnCourse #PostTraumaticGrowth #Leadership #Transformation #PurposeDriven
Rich — a leukemia survivor, nurse practitioner, and longtime oncology clinician — to talk about what it's really like to survive cancer, rebuild your life after treatment, and live with long-term side effects.Rich was diagnosed with leukemia at age 28, underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplant at Dana-Farber / Brigham and Women's, and is now a 29-year survivor. His experience as both a patient and provider offers a rare, honest look at cancer survivorship, prostate cancer side effects, sexual health, mental health, and post-traumatic growth.In this conversation, we cover:What it's like to be told you have leukemia in your 20sStem cell transplant and long-term survivalTurning cancer into purpose and becoming an oncology NPCommon prostate cancer side effects (urination, bowel changes, erectile dysfunction)How doctors actually manage these symptomsSexual health after cancer treatmentMental health, grief, and post-traumatic growthHow to rebuild your life after active treatmentThis episode is for patients, survivors, caregivers, and anyone navigating life after a cancer diagnosis.
Join me, a three-time Iraq War combat veteran, who has been through a decades-long journey with PTSd, and now walking through Post Traumatic Growth as I help you understand PTSd from a biblical perspective. Combat-related PTSd is something many Americans deal with, either as veterans or families of veterans. It's one of the most misunderstood issues of our day by mental healthcare professionals and church leaders. Yet, the answers are right there in the Bible if we're willing to look.SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCombatChristianTRIVITA:Use my TRIVITA link to get started on your wellness journey: https://bit.ly/HealthyChristianCovenant Eyes: If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones from the dangers of p*rn, get Covenant Eyes: https://bit.ly/Restore-CovenantUSE CODE RESTORE30 at checkout to get your first 30 days FREE when you use the link ✅Other ways for you to support the ministry:
How can trauma become a catalyst for creative transformation? What lessons can indie authors learn from the music industry's turbulent journey through technological disruption? With Jack Williamson. In the intro, Why recipes for publishing success don't work and what to do instead [Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast]; Why your book isn't selling: metadata [Novel Marketing Podcast]; Creating a successful author business [Fantasy Writers Toolshed Podcast]; Bones of the Deep – J.F. Penn. Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with writing software, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 15% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jack Williamson is a psychotherapist, coach, and bestselling author who spent nearly two decades as a music industry executive. He's the founder of Music & You, his latest nonfiction book is Maybe You're The Problem, and he also writes romance under A.B. Jackson. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Finding post-traumatic growth and meaning after bereavement, and using tragedy as a catalyst for creative transformation Why your superpower can also be your Achilles heel, and how indie authors can overcome shiny object syndrome Three key lessons from the music industry: embracing change, thinking creatively about marketing, and managing pressure for better creativity The A, B, C technique for PR interviews and why marketing is storytelling through different mediums How to deal with judgment and shame around AI in the author community by understanding where people sit on the opinion-belief-conviction continuum Three AI developments coming from music to publishing: training clauses in contracts, one-click genre adaptation, and licensed AI-generated video adaptations You can find Jack at JackWilliamson.co.uk and his fiction work at ABJackson.com. Transcript of the interview with Jack Williamson Jo: Jack Williamson is a psychotherapist, coach, and bestselling author who spent nearly two decades as a music industry executive. He's the founder of Music & You, his latest nonfiction book is Maybe You're The Problem, and he also writes romance under A.B. Jackson. Welcome to the show. Jack: Thank you so much for having me, Jo. It's a real honour to be on your podcast after listening all of these years. Jo: I'm excited to talk to you. We have a lot to get into, but first up— Tell us a bit more about you and why get into writing books after years of working in music. Jack: I began my career at the turn of the millennium, basically, and I worked for George Michael and Mariah Carey's publicist, which I'm sure you can imagine was quite the introduction to the corporate world. From there I went on to do domestic and international marketing for a load of massive artists at Universal, so the equivalent of the top five publishers in the publishing world that we all work in. Then from there I had a bit of a challenge. In December 2015, I lost my brother, unfortunately to suicide. For any listener or any person that's gone through a traumatic event, it can really make you reassess everything, make you question life, make you question your purpose. When I went through that, I was thinking, well, what do I want to do? What do I want out of life? So I went on this journey for practically the next ten years. I retrained to be a psychotherapist. I created a bucket list—a list of all the things that I thought maybe my brother would've wanted to do but didn't do. One of the things was scatter his ashes at the Seven Wonders of the world. Then one of the items on my bucket list was to write a book. The pandemic hit. It was a challenge for all of us, as you've spoken about so much on this wonderful podcast. I thought, well, why not? Why not write this book that I've wanted to write? I didn't know when I was going to do it because I was always so busy, and then the pandemic happened and so I wrote a book. From there, listening to your wonderful podcast, I've learned so much and been to so many conferences and learned along the way. So now I've written five books and released three. Jo: That's fantastic. I mean, regular listeners to the show know that I talk about death and grief and all of this kind of thing, and it's interesting that you took your brother's ashes to the Seven Wonders of the world. Death can obviously be a very bad, negative thing for those left behind, but it seems like you were able to reframe your brother's experience and turn that into something more positive for your life rather than spiralling into something bad. So if people listening are feeling like something happens, whether it's that or other things— How can we reframe these seemingly life-ending situations in a more positive way? Jack: It is very hard and there's no one way to do it. I think as you always say, I never want to tell people what to do or what to think. I want to show them how to think and how they can approach things differently or from a different perspective. I can only speak from my journey, but we call it in therapeutic language, post-traumatic growth. It is, how do you define it so it doesn't define you? Because often when you have a bereavement of a loved one, a family member, it can be very traumatic, but how can you take meaning and find meaning in it? There's a beautiful book called Man's Search for Meaning, and the name of the author escapes me right now, but he says— Jo: Viktor Frankl. Jack: Yes. Everyone quotes it as one of their favourite books, and one of my favourite lines is, “Man can take everything away from you, apart from the ability to choose one thought over the other.” I think it's so true because we can make that choice to choose what to think. So in those moments when we are feeling bad, when we're feeling down, we want to honour our feelings, but we don't necessarily want to become them. We want to process that, work through, get the support system that we need. But again, try to find meaning, try to find purpose, try to understand what is going on, and then pay it forward. Irrespective of your belief system, we all yearn for purpose. We all yearn for being connected to something bigger than ourselves. If we can find that through bereavement maybe, or through a traumatic incident, then hopefully we can come through the other side and have that post-traumatic growth. Jo: I love that phrase, post-traumatic growth. That's so good. Obviously people think about post-traumatic anything as like PTSD—people immediately think a sort of stress disorder, like it's something that makes things even worse. I like that you reframed it in that way. Obviously I think the other thing is you took specific action. You didn't just think about it. You travelled, you retrained, you wrote books. So I think also it's not just thinking. In fact, thinking about things can sometimes make it worse if you think for too long, whereas taking an action I think can be very strong as well. Jack: Ultimately we are human beings as opposed to human doings, but actually being a human doing from time to time can be really helpful. Actually taking steps forward, doing things differently, using it as a platform to move forward and to do things that maybe you didn't before. When you are confronted with death, it can actually make you question your own mortality and actually question, am I just coasting along? Am I stuck in a rut? Could I be doing something differently? One of the things that bereavement, does is it holds a mirror up to ourselves and it makes us question, well, what do we want from our life? Are we here to procreate? Are we here to make a difference? Some of us can't procreate, or some of us choose not to procreate, but we can all make a difference. And it's, how do we do that? Where do we do that? When do we do that? Jo: That's interesting. I was thinking today about service and gratitude. I'm doing this Master's and I was reading some theology stuff today, and service and gratitude, I think if you are within a religious tradition, are a normal part of that kind of religious life. Whether it's service to God and gratitude to God, or service and gratitude to others. I was thinking that these two things, service and gratitude, can actually really help reframe things as well. Who can we serve? As authors, we're serving our readers and our community. What can we be grateful about? That's often our readers and our community as well. So I don't know, that helped me today—thinking about how we can reframe things, especially in the world we're in now where there's a lot of anger and grief and all kinds of things. Jack: That's what we've got to look at. We are here to serve. Again, that can take different shapes, different forms. Some of us work in the service industry. I provide a service as a psychotherapist, you serve your listeners with knowledge and information that you gather and dispense through the research you do or the guests you have on. We serve readers of the different genres that we write in. It's what ways can we serve, how can we serve? Again, I think we all, if we can and when we can, should pay it forward. Someone said this to me once in the music industry: be careful who you meet on the way up and how you treat them on the way up, because invariably you'll meet them on the way down. So if you can pay forward that kindness, if you can be kind, considerate, and treat people how you want to be treated, that is going to pay dividends in the long run. It may not come off straight away, but invariably it will come back to you in some way, shape, or form in a different way. Jo: I've often talked about social karma and karma in the Hindu sense—the things that you do come back to you in some other form. Possibly in another life, which I don't believe. In terms of, I guess, you didn't know what was going to happen to your brother, and so you make the most of the life that we have at the moment because things change and you just don't know how things are going to change. You talk about this in your book, Maybe You're The Problem, which is quite a confronting title. So just talk about your book, Maybe You're The Problem, and why you wrote that. Put it into context with the author community and why that might be useful. Jack: Thank you for flagging my book. I intentionally crossed out “maybe” on the merchandise I did as well, because in essence, we are our own problem. We can get in the way, and it's what happened to us when we grew up wasn't our fault, but what we do with it is our responsibility. We may have grown up in a certain period or a climate. We didn't necessarily choose to do that, but what we do with that as a result is up to us. So we can stay in our victimhood and we can blame our parents, or we can blame the generation we are in, or we can blame the city, the location—however, that is relinquishing your power. That is staying in a victim mindset rather than a survivor or a thriver mindset. So it's about how can we look at the different areas in our life. Whether that is conflict, whether that is imposter syndrome, whether that is the generation we're born into. We try to understand how that has shaped us and how we may be getting in our own way to stop us from growing, to stop us from expanding, and to see where our blind spots are, our limitations are, and how that may impact us. There's so much going on in the moment in the world, whether that is in the digital realm, whether that is in the geo-climate that we're in at the moment. Again, that's going to bring up a lot for us. How can we find solutions to those problems for us so that we continue to move forward rather than be restricted and hindered by them? Jo: Alright. Well let's get into some more specifics. You have been in the author community now for a while. You go to conferences and you are in the podcast community and all this kind of thing. What specific issues have you seen in the author community? Maybe around some of the things you've mentioned, or other things? How might we be able to deal with those? Jack: With authors, I think it is such a wonderful and unique industry that I have an honour and privilege of being a part of now. One of the main things I've learned is just how creative people are. Coming from a creative industry like the music industry, there is a lot of neurodivergence in the creative industries and in the author community. Whether that is autism, whether that is ADHD—that is a real asset to have as a superpower, but it can be an Achilles heel. So it's understanding—and I know that there is an overexposure of people labelling themselves as ADHD—but on the flip side to that, it's how can we look at what's going on for us? For ADHD, for example, there's a thing called shiny object syndrome. You've talked about this in the past, Joanna, where it's like a new thing comes along, be it TikTok, be it Substack, be it bespoke books, be it Shopify, et cetera. We can rush and quickly be like, “oh, let me do this, let me do that,” before we actually take the time to realise, is this right for me? Does this fit my author business? Does this fit where I'm at in my author journey? I think sometimes as authors, we need to not cave in to that shiny object syndrome and take a step back and think to ourselves, how does this serve me? How does this serve my career? How does this work for me if I'm looking at this as a career? If you're looking at it as a hobby, obviously it's a different lens to look through, but that's something that I would often make sure that we look at. One of the other things that really comes up is that in order for any of us to address our fears and anxieties, we need to make sure that we feel psychologically safe and to put ourselves in spaces and places where we feel seen, heard, and understood, which can help address some of the issues that I've just mentioned. Being in that emotionally regulated state when we are with someone we know and trust—so taking someone to a conference, taking someone to a space or a place where you feel that you can be seen, heard, and understood—can help us and allow us to embrace things that we perceive to be scary. That may be finding an author group, finding an online space where you can actually air and share your thoughts, your feelings, where you don't feel that you are being judged. Often it can be quite a judgmental space and place in the online world. So it's just finding your tribe and finding places where you can actually lean into that. So there'd be two things. Jo: I like the idea of the superpower and the Achilles heel because I also feel this when we are writing fiction. Our characters have strengths, but your fatal flaw is often related to your strength. Jack: Yes. Jo: For example, I know I am independent. One of the reasons I'm an independent author is because I'm super independent. But one of my greatest fears is being dependent. So I do lots of things to avoid being dependent on other people, which can lead me to almost damage myself by not asking for help or by trying to make sure that I control everything so I never have to ask anyone else to do something. I'm coming to terms with this as I get older. I feel like this is something we start to hit—I mean, as a woman after menopause—is this feeling of I might have to be dependent on people when I'm older. It's so interesting thinking about this and thinking— My independence is my strength. How can it also be my weakness? So what do you think about that? You're going to psychotherapist me now. Jack: I definitely won't, but it's interesting. Just talking about that, we all have wounds and we all have the shadow, as you've even written about in one of your books. And it's how that can come from a childhood wound where it's like we seek help and it's not given to us. So we create a belief system where I have to do everything myself because no one will help me. Or we may have rejection sensitivity, so we reject ourselves before others can reject us. So it's actually about trying, where we can, to honour our truths, honour that we may want to be independent, for example, but then realising that success leaves clues. I always say that if you are independent—and I definitely align a hundred percent with you, Joanna—I've had to work really hard myself in personal therapy and in business and life to realise that no human is an island and we can't all do this on our own. Yes, it's amazing with the AI agents now that can help us in a business capacity, but having those relationships that we can tap into—like you mentioned all of the people that you tap into—it's so important to have those. I always say that it's important to have three mentors: one person that's ahead of you (for me, that would be Katie Cross because she's someone that I find is an amazing author and we speak at least once a month); people that are at the same level as you that you can go on the journey together with (and I have an author group for that); and then someone that is perceived to be behind you or in a younger generation than you, because you can learn as much from them as they can learn from you. If you can actually tap into those people whilst honouring your independence, then it feels like you can still go on your own journey, but you can tap in and tap out as and when needed. Sacha Black will give you amazing insights, other people like Honor will give you amazing insights, but you can also provide that for them. So there's that safety of being able to do it on your own. But on the flip side, you still have those people that you can tap into as and when necessary as a sounding board, as information on how they were successful, and go from there. Jo: No, I like that. If you're new to the show, Sacha Black and Honor Raconteur have been on the show and they are indeed some of my best friends. So I appreciate that. I really like the idea of the three mentor idea. I just want to add to that because I do think people misunderstand the word mentor sometimes. You mentioned you speak to Katie Cross, but I've found that a lot of the mentors that I've had who are ahead of me have often been books. We mentioned the Viktor Frankl book, and if people don't know, he was Jewish and in the concentration camps and survived that. So it's a real survivor story. But to me, books have been mostly my mentors in terms of people who are ahead of me. We don't always need to speak to or be friends with our mentors. I think that's important too, right? Because I just get emails a lot that say, “Will you be my mentor?” And I don't think that's the point. Jack: Oh, I a hundred percent agree with you. If you don't have access to those mentors—like Oprah Winfrey is one of the people that I perceive as a mentor—I listen to podcasts, I read her books, I watch interviews. There is a way to absorb and acquire that information, and it doesn't have to be a direct relationship with them. It is someone that you can gain the knowledge and wisdom that they've imparted in whatever form you may consume it. Which is why I think it is important to have those three levels: that one that is above you that may be out of reach in terms of a human connection, but you can still access; then the people at the same level as you that you can have those relationships and grow with; and again, that one behind that you can help pave the way for them, but also learn from them as well. So a hundred percent agree that that mentor that you are looking for that may be ahead of you doesn't necessarily need to be someone that is in a real-world relationship. Jo: So let's just circle back to your music industry experience. You mentioned being on the sort of marketing team for some really big names in music, and I mean, it's kind of a sexy job really. It just sounds pretty cool, but of course the music industry has just as many challenges as publishing. What did you learn from working in the music industry that you think might be particularly useful for authors? Jack: The perception of reality was definitely a lot different. It does look sexy and glamorous, but the reality is similar to going to conferences. It's pretty much flight, hotel, and dark rooms with terrible air conditioning that you spend a lot of time in. So sorry to burst the illusion. But I mean, it does have its moments as well. There is so much I've learned over the years and there's probably three things that stand out the most. The first one was I entered the industry right at the height of the music industry. In 2000, 2001. That was when Napster really exploded and it decimated the music industry. It wiped half the value in the space of four years. Then the music industry was trying to shut it down, throwing legal, throwing everything at it, but it was like whack-a-mole. As soon as one went down such as Napster, ten others popped up like Kazaa. So you saw that the old guard wasn't willing to embrace change. They weren't willing to adapt. They assumed that people wanted the formats of CDs, vinyls, cassettes, and they were wrong. Yes, people wanted music, but they actually wanted the music. They didn't care about the format, they just wanted the access. So that was one of the really interesting things that I learned, because I was like, you have to embrace change. You can't ignore it. You can't push it away, push it aside, because it's coming whether you like it or not. I think thankfully the music industry has learned as AI's coming, because now you have to embrace it. There's a lot of legal issues that have been going on at the moment with rights, which you've covered about the Anthropic case and so on. It's such a challenge, and I just think that's the first one. The second one I learned was back in 2018. There was an artist I worked on called Freya Ridings. At that time I was working at an independent record label rather than one of the big three major record labels. She had great songs and we were up against one of the biggest periods of the year and trying to make noise. At the time, Love Island was the biggest TV show on, and everyone wanted to be on it in terms of getting their music synced in the scenes. We were just like, we are never going to compete. So we thought, we need to be clever here. We need to think differently. What we did is we found out what island the show was being recorded on, and we geo-targeted our ads just to that island because we knew the sync team were going to be on there. So we just went hard as nails, advertised relentlessly, and we knew that the sync people would then see the adverts. As a result of that, Freya got the sync. It became the biggest song that season on Love Island, back when it was popular. As a result of that, we built from there. We were like, right, we can't compete with the majors. We have to think differently. We need to do things differently. We need to be creative. It wasn't an easy pathway. That year there were only two other songs that were independent that reached the top 10. So we ended up becoming a third and the biggest song that year. The reason I'm saying that is we can't compete with the major publishers. But the beauty of the independent author community is because we have smaller budgets—most of us, not all of us, but most of us—we have to think differently. We have to make our bang for our buck go a lot further. So it's actually— How can we stay creative? How can we think differently? What can we do differently? So that would be the second thing. Then the third main lesson that I learned, and this is more on the creative side, is that pressure can often work against you, both in a business sense, but especially creativity. I've seen so many artists over the years have imposed deadlines on them to hand in their albums, and it's impacted the quality of their output. Once it's handed in, the stress and the pressure is off, and then you realise that actually those artists end up creating the best material that they have, and then they rush to put it on. Whether that's Mariah Carey's “We Belong Together,” Adele with her song “Hello,” Taylor Swift did the same with “Shake It Off”—they're just three examples. The reason is that pressure keeps us in our beta brainwave state, which is our rational, logical mind. For those of us that are authors that are writing fiction, or even if we are creating stories in our nonfiction work to deliver a point, we need to be in that creative mindset. So we need to be in the alpha and the gamma brain state. Because our body works on 90-minute cycles known as our ultradian rhythm, we need to make sure that we honour our cycle and work with that. If we go past that, our creativity and our productivity is going to go down between 60% and 40% respectively. So as authors, it's important—one, to apply the right amount of pressure; two, to work in breaks; and three, to know what kind of perspective we're looking at. Do we need to be rational and logical, or do we need to be creative? And then adjust the sails accordingly. Jo: That's all fantastic. I want to come back on the marketing thing first—around what you did with the strategic marketing there and the targeted ads to that island. That's just genius. I feel like a lot of us, myself included, we struggle to think creatively about marketing because it's not our natural state. Of course, you've done a lot of marketing, so maybe it comes more naturally to you. I think half the time we don't even use the word creative around marketing, when you're not a marketeer. What are some ways that we can break through our blocks around marketing and try to be more creative around that? Jack: I would challenge a lot of authors on that presumption, because as authors we're in essence storytellers, and to tell a story is creative. There's a great quote: “One death is a tragedy. A thousand deaths is a statistic.” If you can create a story, a compelling narrative about a death in the news, it's going to pull at the heartstrings of people. It's going to really resonate and get with them. Whereas if you are just quoting statistics, most people switch off because they become desensitised to it. So I think because we can tell stories, and that's the essence of what we do, it's how can we tell our story through the medium of social media? How can we tell a story through our creative ads that we then put out onto Facebook or TikTok or whatever platform that we're putting them out—BookBub, et cetera? How can we create a narrative that garners the attention? If we are looking at local media or traditional media, how can we do that? How can we get people to buy in to what we're selling? So it's about having different angles. For me with my new romance book, Stolen Moments, one of the stories I had that really has helped me get some coverage and PR is we recorded the songs next door to the Rolling Stones. Now that was very fortunate timing, very fortunate. But everyone's like, “Oh my God, you recorded next door to the Rolling Stones?” So it's like, well, how can you bring in these creative nuggets that help you to find a story? Again, marketing is in essence telling a story, albeit through different mediums and forms. So it's just how can you package that into a marketable product depending on the platform in which you're putting it out on. Jo: I think that's actually hilarious, by the way, because what you hit on there, as someone with a background in marketing, your story about “we recorded an album for the book next door to the Rolling Stones”—it's got nothing to do with the romance. Jack: Oh, the romance is that the pop star in the book writes and records songs. Jo: Yes, I realised that. But the fact is— For doing things like PR, it's the story behind the story. They don't care that you've written a romance. Jack: Yes. Jo: They're far more interested in you, the author, and other things. So I think what you just described there was a kind of PR hook that most of us don't even think about. Jack: I'm sure a lot of authors already know this, so it's a good reminder, and if you don't, it's great. It's called the A, B, C technique. When you get asked a question, you Answer the question. So that's A. You Build a bridge, and then you go to C, which is Covering one of your points. So whenever you get asked a question, have a list of things you want to get across in an interview. Then just make sure that you find that bridge between whatever the question is to cover off one of your points, and that's how you can do it. Because yes, you may be selling a story, like I said, about writing the songs, but then you can bridge it into actually covering and promoting whatever it is you're promoting. So I think that's always quite helpful to remember. Jo: Well, that's a good tip for things like coming on podcasts as well. I've had people on who don't do what you just mentioned and will just try and shoehorn things in in a more deliberate fashion, whereas other people, as you have just done with your romance there, bring it in while answering a question that actually helps other people. So I think that's the kind of thing we need to think about in marketing. Okay, so then let's come back to the embracing change, and as you mentioned, the AI stuff that's going on. I feel like there's so many “stories” around AI right now. There's a lot of stories being told on both sides—on the positive side, on the negative side—that people believe and buy into and may or may not be true. There's obviously a lot of anger. There's, I think, grief—a big thing that people might not even realise that they have. Can you talk about how authors might deal with what's coming up around the technological change around AI, and any of your personal thoughts as well? Jack: I was thinking about this a lot recently. I mean, I guess everyone is in their own ways and forms. One of the things that came up for me is we have genre expectations and we have generation expectations. When we look at genres, you will have different expectations from different genres. For romance, they want a happily ever after or a happy for now. For cosy mysteries, they expect the crime to be solved. So we as authors make sure we endeavour to meet those expectations. The challenge is that if we are looking at AI, we are all in our own generations. We might be in slightly different generations, but there are going to be different generation expectations from the Alpha generation that's coming up and the Beta generation that's just about to start this year or next year because they're going to come into the world where they don't know any different to AI. So they will have a different expectation than us. It will just be normal that there will be AI agents. It will just be normal that there are AI narrators. It will be normalised that AI will assist authors or assist everyone in doing their jobs. So again, it is a grieving period because we can long for what was, we can yearn for things that worked for us that no longer work for us—whether it's Facebook groups, whether it's the Kindle Rush. We can mourn the loss of that, but that's not coming back. I mean, sometimes there may be a resurgence, but essentially, we've got to embrace the change. We've got to understand that it's coming and it's going to bring up a lot of different emotions because you may have been beholden to one thing and you may be like, yes, I've now got my TikTok lives, and then all of a sudden TikTok goes away. I know Adam, when he was talking about it, he'll just find another platform. But there'll be a lot of people that are beholden to it and then they're like, what do I do now? So again, it's never survival of the fittest—it's survival of the most adaptable. I always use this metaphor where there are three people on three different boats. A storm comes. And the first, the optimist, is like, “Oh, it'll pass,” and does nothing. The pessimist complains about the storm and does nothing. But the realist will adjust the sails and use the storm to find its way to the other side, to get through. It's not going to be easy, but they're actually taking change and making change to get to where they need to go, rather than just expecting or complaining. I get it. We are not, and I hate the expression, “we're all in the same boat.” I call bleep on that. I'm not going to swear. We're not all in the same boat. We're all in the same storm, but different people are going through different things. For some, they can adjust and adapt really quickly like a speedboat. For others, they may be like Jack and Rose in the Titanic on that terrible prop where they're clinging to dear life and trying to get through the storm. So it's about how do I navigate this upcoming storm? What can I do within my control to get through the storm? For some it may be easier because they have the resources, or for some of us that love learning, it's easy to embrace change. For others that have a fear mindset and it's like, “Oh, something new, it's scary, I don't want to embrace it”—you are going to take longer. So you may not be the speedboat, but at some point we are going to have to embrace that change. Otherwise we're going to get left behind. So you need to look at that. Jo: The storm metaphor is interesting, and being in different boats. I feel I do struggle. I struggle with people who suddenly seem to be discovering the storm. I've been talking about AI now since 2016. That's a decade. Jack: Yes. Jo: Even ChatGPT has been around more than three years, and people come to me now and they're talking about stories that they've seen in the media that are just old now. Things have moved on so much. I feel like maybe I was on my boat and I looked through my telescope and I saw the storm. I've been talking about the storm and I've had my own moments of being in the middle of the storm. Now I definitely do struggle with people who just seem to have arrived without any knowledge of it before. I oscillate between being an optimist and a realist. I think I'm somewhere between the two, probably. But I think what is driving me a little crazy in the author community right now is judgment and shame. There are people who are judging other people, and there's shame felt by AI-curious or AI-positive people. So I want to help the people who feel shame in some way for trying new technology, but they still feel attacked. Then those people judge other authors for their choices to use technology. So how do you think we can deal with judgment and shame in the community? Which is a form of conflict, I guess. Jack: Of course. I think with that, there's another great PR quote: “If it bleeds, it leads.” Especially in this digital age, there's a lot of clickbait. So the more polarising, the more emotion-evoking the headline, the more likely you are to engage with that content—whether that is reading it or whether that's posting or retweeting, or whatever format you are consuming it on. So unfortunately, media has now become so much more polarising. It's dividing us rather than uniting us. So people are going to have stronger positions. There's so much even within this to look at. One is, you have to work out where people are on the continuum. Do they have an opinion on AI? Do they have a belief? Or do they have a conviction? Now you're not going to move someone that has a conviction about something, so it's not worth even engaging with them because they're immovable. Like they say, you shouldn't talk about sports, politics, and religion. There are certain subjects that may not be worth talking about, especially if they have a conviction. Because they may not even be able to agree to disagree. They may not be willing or able to hear you. So first and foremost, it's about understanding, well, where are those people sitting on the continuum of AI? Are they curious? Do they have an opinion, but they're open to hearing other opinions? Do they have a belief that could be changed or evolved if they find more information? That's where I think it is. It's not necessarily our jobs—even though you do an amazing job of it, Joanna—but a lot of people are undereducated on these issues or these new technologies. So in some cases it's just a case of a lack of education or them being undereducated. Hopefully in time they will become more and more educated. But again, it's how long is a piece of string? Will people catch up? Will they stay behind? Are they fearful? I guess because of social media, because of the media, as they say, if you can evoke fear in people, you can control them. You can control their perspectives. You can control their minds. So that's where we see it—a lot of people are operating from a fear mindset. So then that's when they project their vitriol in certain cases. If people want to believe a certain thing, that's their choice. I'm not here to tell people what to think. Like I said earlier, it's more about how to think. But I would just encourage people to find people that align with you. Do a sense test, like a litmus test, to find where they sit on the continuum and engage with those people that are open and have opinions or beliefs. But shy away or just avoid people that have convictions that maybe are the polar opposite of yours. Jo: It's funny, isn't it? We seem to be in a phase of history when I feel like you should be able to disagree with people and still be friends. Although, as you mentioned, there's certain members of my family where we just stay on topics of TV shows and movies or music, or what books are you reading? Like, we don't go anywhere near politics. So I do think that might be a rule also with the AI stuff. As you said, find a community, and there are plenty of AI-positive spaces now for people who do want to talk about this kind of stuff. I also think that, I don't know whether this is a tipping point this year, but certainly— I know people who are in bigger corporates where the message is now, “You need to embrace this stuff. It is now part of your job to learn how to use these AI tools.” So if that starts coming into people's day jobs, and also people who have, I don't know, kids at school or people at university who are embracing this more—I mean, maybe it is a generational thing. Jack: Yes. Look, there were so many people that were resistant to working from home, or corporations that were, and then the pandemic forced it. Now everyone's embraced it in some way, shape, or form. I mean, there are people that don't, but the majority of people—when something's forced on you, you have to adapt. So again, if those things are implemented in corporations, then you're going to see it. I'm seeing so many amazing new things in AI that have been implemented in the music industry that we'll see in the publishing industry coming down the road. That will scare a lot of people, but again, we have to embrace those things because they're coming and there's going to be an expectation—especially from the younger generations—that these things are available. So again, it's not first past the post, but if you can be ahead of the wave or at least on the wave, then you are going to reap the rewards. If you are behind the wave, you're going to get left behind. So that's my opinion. I'm not trying to encourage anyone to see from my lens, but at the same time, I do think that we need to be thinking differently. We need to always embrace change where we can, as we can, at the pace that we can. Jo: You mentioned there AI things coming down the road in the music industry. And now everyone's going, wait, what is coming? So tell us— What do you see ahead that you think might also shift into the author world? Jack: There are three things that I've seen. Two that have been implemented and one that's been talked about and worked on at the moment. The first, and this will be quite scary for people, is that major record labels—so think the major publishers on our side—they're all now putting clauses in their contracts that require the artists that sign with them to allow their works to be trained by their own AI models. So that is something that is now actually happening in record labels. I wouldn't be surprised, although I don't have insight into it, if Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, et cetera, are potentially doing the same with authors that sign to them. So that's going to become more standardised. So that is on the major side. But then on the creative side, there are two things that really excite me. The music AI platforms that we're hearing about, the stories that we've seen in the press, and it's the fact that with a click of a button, you can recreate a song into a different genre. I find it so fascinating because if you think about that—turning a pop song into a country song or a rap song into a dance song—the possibilities that we have as authors with our books, if we wish to do so, are amazing. I just think, for example, with your ARKANE series, Joanna, imagine clicking a button and just with one click you can take Morgan Sierra and turn her into a romantic lead in a romance book. Jo: See, it's so funny because I personally just can't imagine that because it's not something I would write. But I guess one example in the romance genre itself is I know plenty of romance authors who write a clean and a spicy version of the same story, right? It is already happening in that way. It's just not a one-click. Jack: Well, I think you can also look at it another way. I think one of the most famous examples is Twilight. With Twilight and Stephenie Meyer, if she had the foresight—and I'm not saying she didn't, just to clarify—but fan fiction is such a massive sub-genre of works. And obviously from Twilight came 50 Shades of Gray. Imagine if she had the licensing rights like the NFTs, where she could have made money off of every sale. So that you could then, through works that you create and give licence, earn a percentage of every release, every sale, every consumption unit of your works. There are just so many possibilities where you can create, adapt, have spinoffs that can then build out your world. Obviously, there may need to be an approval process in there for continuity and quality control because you want to make sure you're doing that, but I think that has such massive potential in publishing if we wish to do so. Or like I said, change characters. Like Robert Langdon's character in Dan Brown's books—no longer being the kind of thriller, but maybe being a killer instead. There's so many possibilities. It's just, again, how to think, not what to think—how to think differently and how we can use that. So that's the second of three. Jo: Oh, before you move on, you did mention NFTs and I've actually been reading about this again. So I'm usually five years early. That's the general rule. I started talking about NFTs in mid-2021, and obviously there was a crypto crash, it goes up and down, blah, blah, blah. But forget the crypto side—on the blockchain side, digital originality, and exactly what you said about saying like, where did this originate? This is now coming back in the AI world. It could be that I really was five years early. So amusingly—and I'm going to link to it in the notes because I did a “Why NFTs Are Exciting for Authors” solo episode, I think in 2022—it may be that the resurgence will happen in the next year, and all those people who said I was completely wrong, that this may be coming back. Digital originality I think is what we're talking about there. But so, okay, so what was the other thing? Jack: So the third one is the one that I'm most excited about, but I think will be the most scary for people. Obviously consumption changes and formats change. Like I said, in music I've seen it all the time—whether it's vinyl to cassettes, to CDs, to downloads, to streaming. Again, there's different consumption of the same format, and we see that with books as well, obviously—hardbacks, paperbacks, eBooks, audiobooks. Now with the rise of AI, AI narration has made audiobooks so much more accessible for people. I know that there are issues with certain people not wanting to do it, or certain platforms not allowing AI narration to be uploaded unless it's their own. The next step is what I'm most excited about. What I'm seeing now in the music industry is people licensing their image to then recreate that as music videos because music videos are so expensive. One of my friends just shot a music video for two million pounds. I don't think many authors would ever wish to spend that. If you can license your image and use AI to create a three-minute music video that looks epic and just as real as humanly possible, imagine if those artists—or if we go a step further, those actors—license their image to then be used to adapt our books into a TV series or a film. So that then we are in a position where that is another format of consumption alongside an audiobook, a paperback, an eBook, hardcover, special edition, and so on and so forth. It potentially has the opportunity to open us up to a whole new world. Because yes, there are adaptations of books that we're seeing at the moment, but for those of us that are trying to get our content into different formats, this can be a new pathway. I'm going to make a prediction here myself, Joanna. Jo: Mm-hmm. Jack: I would say in the next five to ten years, there will be a platform akin to a Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Apple Plus, where you can license the rights to an image of an actor or an actress. Then with the technology—and you may need people to help you adapt your book into a TV series or a film—that can then be consumed. I just think the possibilities are endless. I mean, again, I think of your character and I'm like, oh, what would it be if Angelina Jolie licensed her image and you could have her play the lead character in your ARKANE series? I mean, again, the possibilities potentially are endless here. Jo: Well, and on that, if people think this won't happen—1776, I don't know if you've seen this, it's just being teased at the moment. Darren Aronofsky has made an American revolutionary story all with AI. So this is being talked about at the moment. It's on YouTube at the moment. The AI video is just extraordinary already, so I totally agree with you. I think things are going to be quite weird for a while, and it will take a while to get used to. You mentioned coming into the music industry in 2000, 2001—I started my work before the internet, and then the internet came along and lots of things changed. I mean, anyone who's older than 40, 45-ish can remember what work was like without the internet. Now we are moving into a time where it'll be like, what was it like before AI? And I think we'll look back and go like, why the hell did we do that kind of thing? So it is a changing world, but yes, exciting times, right? I think the other thing that's happening right now, even to me, is that things are moving so fast. You can almost feel like a kind of whiplash with how much is changing. How do we deal with the fast pace of change while still trying to anchor ourselves in our writing practice and not going crazy? Jack: Again, it's that everything everywhere all at once—you can get lost and discombobulated. I always say be the tortoise, not the hare—because you don't want to fly and die. You want pace and grace. Everyone will have a different pace. For some marathon runners, they can run a five-minute mile, some can run an eight-minute mile, some can run a twelve-minute mile. It's about finding the pace that works for you. Every one of us have different commitments. Every one of us have different ways we view the industry—some as a hobby, some as a business. So it's about honouring your needs, your commitment. Some of us, as you've had people on the podcast, some people are carers. They have to care. Some people are parents. Some people don't have those commitments and so can devote more time and then actually learn more, change more as a result. So again, it's about finding your groove, finding your rhythm, honouring that, and again, showing up consistently. Because motivation may get you started, but it's habit and discipline that sees you through. Keep that discipline, keep that pace and grace. Be consistent in what you can do. And know where you're at. Don't compare and despair, because again, if you look at someone else, they may be ahead of you, but the race is only with yourself in the end. So you've got to just focus on where you are at and am I in a better place than I was yesterday? Am I working on my business as well as in my business? How am I doing that? When am I doing that? And what am I doing that for? If you can be asking yourself those questions and making sure you're staying true to yourself and not burning out, making sure that you are honouring your other commitments, then I think you are going at the pace that feels right for you. Jo: Brilliant. Jo: Where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jack: Thank you so much for having me on, Joanna, today. You can find me on JackWilliamson.co.uk for all my nonfiction books and therapy work. Then for my fiction work, it is ABJackson.com, or ABJacksonAuthor on Instagram and TikTok. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jack. That was great. Jack: Thank you so much. The post Post-Traumatic Growth, Creative Marketing, And Dealing With Change with Jack Williamson first appeared on The Creative Penn.
Jannah Scott grew up in San Fransisco, amidst diverse friends and the unique leadership of her mother. It's no surprise then that Jannah found her place as a leader in government and civil society, both nationally and internationally. Having served as Policy Advisor on Faith and Community Initiatives to former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, Jannah was given the opportunity to serve in President Obama's administration as Deputy Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As you can tell, her heart is for policies, programs, and local initiatives that promote peace for all people. But as Jannah shares in this episode, she also has an immense heart for prayer and a big love for Jesus--gifts encoded in her DNA. Her mother was a prayer warrior; so was her grandmother. Jannah credits her mother's many prayers as the reason she overcame substance use, allowing her to grow into the resilient leader she was made to be.Join us as Jannah shares about her substance use recovery, her experience with tragic grief, her time and work during the Obama administration, and the collective trauma of the black community. There's so much to learn from her leadership. Don't miss this episode!Today, Jannah is the CEO of the American Center for Religious Freedom (ACRF), and has been since 2017. To learn more: https://www.acrf.global/home To connect with Jannah: ceo@acrf.email
Get AudioBooks for FreeBest Self-improvement MotivationCreate Post-Traumatic Growth | Tana AmenLearn how to transform trauma into strength with Tana Amen. Discover powerful strategies to build resilience, healing, and personal growth after adversity.Get AudioBooks for FreeWe Need Your Love & Support ❤️https://buymeacoffee.com/myinspiration#Motivational_Speech#motivation #inspirational_quotes #motivationalspeech Get AudioBooks for Free Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
This episode describes what complex Post Traumatic Stress disorder (cPTSD) is, how it's diagnosed, and how it's different to similar disorders like PTSD and borderline personality disorder. This episode was inspired by the angry comments on Dr. Kibby's latest reel on spotting emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder. When someone has a history of childhood trauma and they struggle with intense emotions, self-esteem issues, and relationship problems- what disorder do they have? In this episode, Dr. Kibby delves into the criteria for complex PTSD, which is still not an official disorder in the DSM-V. Yet, so many people struggle with symptoms from long, painful histories of trauma that has shaped their entire lives and personalities.Dr. Kibby also discusses the nuanced differences between Complex PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder, revealing how trauma shapes self-esteem, relationships, and emotional regulation in surprising ways. If you've ever wondered why these disorders often overlap—and how understanding their distinctions can transform healing—you'll want to hear this.Dr. Kibby shares her own experiences with online criticism around trauma representation, sparking a deeper conversation about stigma and bias in mental health. She dives into the hidden intricacies of CPTSD, explaining why it's often overlooked in the DSM-5 but recognized worldwide, and how prolonged trauma affects the brain's ability to process memories, dissociate, and regulate emotions.She also talks about how how trauma, whether overt or subtle, can lead to complex self-protection mechanisms that impact every aspect of life. Then she finishes with listing the best evidence-based treatments, from prolonged exposure to cognitive processing therapy and DBT, tailored for each disorder's unique challenges. She emphasizes the power of compassion and personalized treatment over stigma, advocating for a mental health field that treats all disorders with empathy and respect. Why diagnosis isn't about labels- it's a pathway to personalized healing and recovery.Resources:Sarr, R., Quinton, A., Spain, D., & Rumball, F. (2024). A Systematic Review of the Assessment of ICD‐11 Complex Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) in Young People and Adults. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 31(3), e3012.Simon, J. J., Spiegler, K., Coulibaly, K., Stopyra, M. A., Friederich, H. C., Gruber, O., & Nikendei, C. (2025). Beyond diagnosis: symptom patterns across complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1668821.
Kyle Trautmann, founder of High Vibe Holonomics, the first and only institution devoted to Energy Literacy and Flow for Post-Traumatic Growth. He helps 6 to 7 figure entrepreneurs and business owners elevate their energy, heal, and achieve greater success by mastering what he calls the seven systems of the human experience.Through his process of Education to Liberation, Kyle has guided over 10,000 individuals through personal transformation, teaching them how to change their energy signature and unlock their full potential.Now, Kyle's story of overcoming substance abuse and a severe brain injury to build a multiple six-figure organisation demonstrates how true mastery of energy and consciousness can lead to remarkable post-traumatic growth.And while expanding his teachings through The Holonomic Institute, he continues to make complex concepts of energy and consciousness accessible to anyone ready to change their life from the inside out.Here's where to find more:www.highvibeholonomics.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kyle.a.trautmannhttps://www.instagram.com/kyleatrautmannhttps://www.instagram.com/highvibeholonomics________________________________________________Welcome to The Unforget Yourself Show where we use the power of woo and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots, and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you ACTUALLY want to do!We're Mark and Katie, the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself System and on this podcast, we're here to share REAL conversations about what goes on inside the heart and minds of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business. From the accidental entrepreneur to the laser-focused CEO, we find out how they got to where they are today, not by hearing the go-to story of their success, but talking about how we all have our own BS to deal with and it's through facing ourselves that we find a way to do the fucking thing.Along the way, we hope to show you that YOU are the most important asset in your business (and your life - duh!). Being a business owner is tough! With vulnerability and humor, we get to the real story behind their success and show you that you're not alone._____________________Find all our links to all the things like the socials, how to work with us and how to apply to be on the podcast here: https://linktr.ee/unforgetyourself
In this episode of Trauma Rewired, we explore autoimmune conditions through a nervous-system and psychoneuroimmunology lens—moving beyond the idea that the body is "attacking itself." Instead, we examine autoimmunity as an adaptive output of a system that has lived in chronic threat for too long. Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof unpack how immune response, emotional expression, boundaries, trauma history, and social stress intersect at the level of physiology. Drawing on research from ACEs, chronic inflammation, the HPA axis, the inflammatory reflex, and shame-based immune activation, they explain how the brain's predictions—rather than isolated biology—shape immune behavior. You'll hear why autoimmune conditions disproportionately affect women and marginalized communities, how emotional suppression and boundary violations translate into inflammation, and why anger, shame, and safety are biological—not just psychological—processes. The episode closes with a grounded conversation on post-traumatic growth: what it means to live in partnership with the body, retrain predictions through sensory and interoceptive work, and expand resilience alongside medical care. This is an invitation to replace self-blame with curiosity—and to see regulation, expression, and safety as central to immune health. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: Autoimmune as protection, not self-attack 08:40 – Autoimmune, ACEs, gender, and nervous system prediction 21:05 – Chronic inflammation, HPA axis & the inflammatory reflex 35:20 – Boundaries, anger, shame & post-traumatic growth 52:00 – Closing reflections & integration Key Takeaways Autoimmune responses can be understood as nervous-system outputs shaped by prediction and chronic threat. Early adversity, emotional suppression, and social stress significantly increase inflammatory load. Boundaries are physiological capacities rooted in interoception and proprioception—not just communication skills. Training safety, expression, and regulation can complement medical care and reduce flare frequency. Call to Action: Join us for a free NSI workshop Feb 11: Integrating the Nervous System with Precision and Purpose: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/integration-workshop/ Learn to work with Boundaries at the level of the body and nervous system at boundaryrewire.com Sacred Synapse: an educational YouTube channel founded by Jennifer Wallace that explores nervous system regulation, applied neuroscience, consciousness, and psychedelic preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Get a two-week free trial of neurosomatic training at rewiretrial.com Resources Mentioned NIH – Autoimmune Diseases & Women: https://orwh.od.nih.gov/research/maternal-morbidity-mortality/autoimmune-diseases Danese & Lewis (2017) Psychoneuroimmunology of Early-Life Stress: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27860545/ Dube et al. (2009) ACEs & Autoimmune Risk: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19234146/ McEwen & Gianaros (2016) Stress, Brain & Disease: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26766224/ Dickerson & Kemeny (2004) Shame, Social Threat & Inflammation: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15250837/ Disclaimer: Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and RewireTrial.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com. All rights in our content are reserved.
Episode Timeline:0:00 - Intro0:28 - The Redemptive Power of Conversation2:54 - Redefining Trauma in Modern Culture3:17 - Advertisement4:16 - Redefining Trauma (Continued)8:57 - The Partner's Perspective: Getting Unstuck13:36 - Practical Tools: The Three Circles of Self-Care17:10 - The Human Need to Be "Seen"24:13 - Post-Traumatic Growth: A Spiritual Journey29:16 - Processing vs. Resolving Trauma33:37 - Conclusion: Finding Transformation in the Valley To learn more about the Sex, God, & Chaos team, click the link below:www.sexgodchaos.comLooking for help? Book an appointment with LifeWorks Counseling today:www.lifeworks.msYou can purchase your copy of Sex, God, & Chaos here:www.amazon.comLink for our sponsor, Hope Quest:https://hopequestgroup.orgLink for our sponsor, The Samson Society:https://www.samsonsociety.com/
Adversity and grief are universal aspects of life. Most of us will encounter a form of trauma that triggers a survival response, anchoring the mind in past pain. However, this physiological loop does not have to be a life sentence. By cultivating resilience, we can navigate through the overwhelm and move toward post-traumatic growth, where it is possible to rediscover a profound sense of happiness and joy. To reframe how we think about trauma and post-traumatic growth, Harvesting Happiness Podcast Host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with MC McDonald, a research professor and life coach specializing in trauma psychology and philosophy. MC describes the physiological survival mechanisms at the core of the body's trauma response and the benefits of post-traumatic growth. She offers insights about the in-depth research that is the foundation of her book, The Joy Reset: Six Ways Trauma Steals Happiness and How to Win It Back. Like what you're hearing? WANT MORE SOUND IDEAS FOR DEEPER THINKING? Check out More Mental Fitness by Harvesting Happiness bonus content available exclusively on https://harvestinghappiness.substack.com/ and https://medium.com/@HarvestingHappiness.
Hosts:Dr. Ashlee Gethner, LCSW – Child of a Police OfficerJennifer Woosley Saylor, LPCC S – Child of a Police OfficerGuests:AJ DeAndrea - Retired Police OfficerMadalena DeAndrea - Senior Manager of Strategic Projects, Recovery, and Resiliency for Jeffco Public Schools, Child of a Police OfficerEpisode OverviewIn this powerful episode, hosts Ashlee and Jennifer welcome father-daughter duo AJ DeAndrea and Madalena DeAndrea for a conversation that weaves together generational lessons on resiliency, mental health, and the impact of trauma both personally and professionally.AJ DeAndrea, a retired deputy chief from Arvada, Colorado, shares his experience as a first responder involved in multiple high-profile incidents, including three school shootings. His career reflections highlight not only the professional complexities of law enforcement but the lasting effects these events have on families.Madalena DeAndrea gives listeners a deeply personal account of surviving the Borderline Bar and Grill shooting in Thousand Oaks, California. She discusses how growing up as the daughter of a police officer shaped her own resiliency, practical safety skills, and approach toward post-traumatic growth. With openness, she details her healing journey—how agency, small actionable steps, and the support of her family and trusted professionals helped her move from trauma toward recovery and growth.Together, the DeAndreas discuss the importance of age-appropriate openness with family about traumatic events, the evolution of mental health support within law enforcement, and their commitment to sharing these insights across the country.Thank you for tuning in! Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review "When The Call Hits Home" on your favorite podcast platforms!Follow Us:- Facebook: When The Call Hits Home Podcast- Instagram: @whenthecallhitshome- Whenthecallhitshome.com---This podcast does not contain medical / health advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.The information contained in this podcast is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Training Velocity LLC and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the Podcast or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the podcast for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, COURSE OF TREATMENT, DIAGNOSIS OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT YOU OBTAIN THROUGH THIS PODCAST. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Parham for one of the most vulnerable conversations I've ever recorded.We explore how Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome doesn't just live in history—but in habits, coping mechanisms, and quiet forms of self-hatred we normalize every day. I openly unpack my own relationship with smoking—not as a moral failure, but as a learned survival behavior shaped by unexamined agreements with myself.Blending insights from Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome and the audiobook The Four Agreements, this conversation moves beyond theory into embodiment—what it actually looks like to heal in real time. We talk about how self-hatred can disguise itself as comfort, routine, or “just the way I am,” and how vulnerability becomes the gateway to self-respect, clarity, and freedom.This episode isn't about shame.It's about awareness.It's about unlearning.It's about choosing to live in integrity with yourself—one honest moment at a time.If you're ready to listen deeply, reflect courageously, and begin rewriting the agreements you've unknowingly been living by, this conversation is for you.
In this powerful episode of Get Obsessed, we sit down with Kevin Donaldson—a former police officer, host of The Suffering Podcast, and co-author of the groundbreaking book MAN YOU ARE CRAZY. Kevin shares his raw, personal journey through trauma and recovery, shedding light on why so many men suffer in silence. We dive deep into the cultural stigmas surrounding masculinity, the physiological impact of "toughing it out," and how men can reclaim their lives through vulnerability and community. Key Takeaways The "Man Box" Trap: How traditional expectations of masculinity prevent men from seeking help until they reach a breaking point. The Reality of PTSD: Kevin shares his experience as a first responder and how unaddressed trauma manifests in daily life. Suffering as a Catalyst: Why Kevin believes that leaning into your suffering—rather than running from it—is the only way to find true strength. Practical Tools for Recovery: Navigating the path from "crazy" to healthy, including the importance of therapy, peer support, and physical wellness. Breaking the Cycle: How fathers and mentors can model healthy emotional intelligence for the next generation of men. Notable Quotes "We are taught to be the protectors and the providers, but we aren't taught how to protect our own minds." "Vulnerability isn't a weakness; it's the ultimate tactical advantage for your long-term survival." Resources Mentioned Book: MAN YOU ARE CRAZY by Kevin Donaldson and Dr. Jaime Brower. Podcast: The Suffering Podcast Support: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (Available 24/7) Connect with Kevin Donaldson Website: TheSufferingPodcast.com Instagram: @TheSufferingPodcast LinkedIn: Kevin Donaldson About Get Obsessed The Get Obsessed podcast is dedicated to exploring the passions, mindsets, and habits that drive high performers. We believe that what you obsess over defines your future. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What Happens When the Future You Planned Doesn't Happen When fertility treatments end without a baby, you don't just grieve the child you hoped for. You grieve the future you were building your life around. In this episode of The So Now What? Podcast, you explore post-traumatic growth after infertility and why it matters for women who are childless not by choice. Not in a toxic-positivity way. Not as a lesson you were supposed to learn. But as a way to understand what happens after years of trying, waiting, and living in a fertility holding pattern. If you've ever thought, I'm not the same person I was before IVF, this episode helps you understand why—and what becomes possible next. In this episode, you'll hear: Why infertility and fertility treatments do count as trauma, even if no one ever named it that way How years of IVF, IUI, medical procedures, and waiting shaped your nervous system and identity Why the end of fertility treatments feels so disorienting, not just sad What post-traumatic growth actually means and what it does not mean The seismic "rebuild" moment that happens when the life you planned no longer exists The five areas where post-traumatic growth often shows up after infertility Why growth is optional, not required, and only happens when you feel safe enough How to move forward without erasing your dream of motherhood or minimizing what you endured What it looks like to find a starting point again after the fertility holding pattern ends Why post-traumatic growth matters after infertility You didn't go through infertility to grow. You didn't suffer for a reason. And you don't need to reframe your loss to justify moving forward. Post-traumatic growth simply explains what happens when your assumptions about the future break and you're left asking, So now what? This episode helps you see that wanting forward movement does not mean you're forgetting what mattered. It means you're ready to stop living in permanent disappointment and start building a life that feels connected, grounded, and meaningful—on your terms. Thrive After Infertility This episode reflects the core work you do inside Thrive After Infertility, the coaching program created for women who have completed fertility treatments and are ready to stop feeling incomplete because fertility treatments failed. Inside Thrive, you learn how to: Move out of the fertility holding pattern Reconnect with your body and nervous system Navigate relationships in a world full of parents Create meaning and direction for the decades ahead Growth doesn't come from time passing. It comes from learning how to intentionally rebuild after loss. Free resource mentioned in this episode If you've ever been told, "You can always adopt," or "Everything happens for a reason," and didn't know how to respond, download the free guide: The Top 27 Things People Say When You're Childless (and How to Respond)
Hosts:Dr. Ashlee Gethner, LCSW – Child of a Police OfficerJennifer Woosley Saylor, LPCC S – Child of a Police OfficerEpisode OverviewIt's the kickoff to 2026 for "When The Call Hits Home"! Jennifer and Ashlee reunite after the holidays each with a few survival stories to share about sick kids, hospital visits, and football games. This episode takes a deep dive into mental health in the world of first responders, focusing on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the concept of Post Traumatic Growth.Key Topics DiscussedPTSD: Clinical & Real-World DefinitionsWhat PTSD means according to the diagnostic manual, how its definition and understanding have evolved.Early understanding of trauma as mainly war or abuse, contrasted with today's broader view (cumulative events, “big T” and “little T” trauma).Common symptoms: not just flashbacks & nightmares also avoidance, numbness, irritability, concentration issues, and impulsivity.First Responders & Mental HealthUnique challenges faced, stigma around seeking help, and how even “expected” work-related trauma can have serious mental health impacts.Barriers to mental health support historically, and how policy is slowly catching up (e.g. recognizing PTSD as a compensable injury).The Power of Resilience & GrowthResilience as “bouncing back” – Rocky Balboa style!Introduction to Post Traumatic Growth: moving beyond survival to genuine transformation.Five domains of post traumatic growth:Appreciation of lifeRelationships with othersNew possibilitiesPersonal strengthSpiritual changeReal-world examples of first responders not just surviving trauma, but thriving and inspiring meaningful change in themselves and their communities.Family MattersHow PTSD and growth impact the family dynamics of first responders; encouragement for family-wide healing and mutual support.Personal stories, including the hosts' own experiences as children of first responders.Therapy: Beyond DiagnosisThe importance of not just earning diagnoses, but focusing on recovery, growth, and positive psychology.Shout-outs to the transformative process of therapy and the courage it takes to seek help.A Symbolic ReflectionThe Japanese art of Kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with gold, serves as metaphor for healing: your flaws and brokenness can become strengths and sources of beauty.Don't ForgetShop the merch store for some WTCHH swag!Stay tuned for exciting announcements and new episodes in the new year.If this episode resonated with you, please share your thoughts and stories with us - we love hearing from you!For questions or more info, reach out to the hosts, and remember: When the call hits home, Jennifer and Ashlee are here for you.Thank you for tuning in! Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review "When The Call Hits Home" on your favorite podcast platforms!Follow Us:- Facebook: When The Call Hits Home Podcast- Instagram: @whenthecallhitshome- Whenthecallhitshome.com---This podcast does not contain medical / health advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.The information contained in this podcast is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Training Velocity LLC and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the Podcast or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the podcast for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, COURSE OF TREATMENT, DIAGNOSIS OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT YOU OBTAIN THROUGH THIS PODCAST. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.
Hosts: Dr. Ashlee Gethner, LCSW – Child of a Police Officer Jennifer Woosley Saylor, LPCC S – Child of a Police Officer Episode Overview It's the kickoff to 2026 for "When The Call Hits Home"! Jennifer and Ashlee reunite after the holidays each with a few survival stories to share about sick kids, hospital visits, and football games. This episode takes a deep dive into mental health in the world of first responders, focusing on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the concept of Post Traumatic Growth. Key Topics Discussed PTSD: Clinical & Real-World Definitions What PTSD means according to the diagnostic manual, how its definition and understanding have evolved. Early understanding of trauma as mainly war or abuse, contrasted with today’s broader view (cumulative events, “big T” and “little T” trauma). Common symptoms: not just flashbacks & nightmares also avoidance, numbness, irritability, concentration issues, and impulsivity. First Responders & Mental Health Unique challenges faced, stigma around seeking help, and how even “expected” work-related trauma can have serious mental health impacts. Barriers to mental health support historically, and how policy is slowly catching up (e.g. recognizing PTSD as a compensable injury). The Power of Resilience & Growth Resilience as “bouncing back” – Rocky Balboa style! Introduction to Post Traumatic Growth: moving beyond survival to genuine transformation. Five domains of post traumatic growth: Appreciation of life Relationships with others New possibilities Personal strength Spiritual change Real-world examples of first responders not just surviving trauma, but thriving and inspiring meaningful change in themselves and their communities. Family Matters How PTSD and growth impact the family dynamics of first responders; encouragement for family-wide healing and mutual support. Personal stories, including the hosts’ own experiences as children of first responders. Therapy: Beyond Diagnosis The importance of not just earning diagnoses, but focusing on recovery, growth, and positive psychology. Shout-outs to the transformative process of therapy and the courage it takes to seek help. A Symbolic Reflection The Japanese art of Kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with gold, serves as metaphor for healing: your flaws and brokenness can become strengths and sources of beauty. Don’t Forget Shop the merch store for some WTCHH swag! Stay tuned for exciting announcements and new episodes in the new year. If this episode resonated with you, please share your thoughts and stories with us - we love hearing from you! For questions or more info, reach out to the hosts, and remember: When the call hits home, Jennifer and Ashlee are here for you. Thank you for tuning in! Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review "When The Call Hits Home" on your favorite podcast platforms! Follow Us: - Facebook: When The Call Hits Home Podcast - Instagram: @whenthecallhitshome - Whenthecallhitshome.com --- This podcast does not contain medical / health advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis or treatment and should not be relied on as health or personal advice. The information contained in this podcast is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Training Velocity LLC and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the Podcast or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the podcast for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, COURSE OF TREATMENT, DIAGNOSIS OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT YOU OBTAIN THROUGH THIS PODCAST. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.
What if the places we have been hurt most, our relationships, can also become the places where we grow? In this episode, we explore relational healing as a powerful driver of post-traumatic growth. Together, we unpack why safe connection can feel threatening after complex trauma, how protective patterns like fight, freeze, and fawn are intelligent adaptations (not personal failures), and why "capacity" is less about willpower and more about what your nervous system can hold in real time. You will hear how micro-moments of self attunement can reduce hypervigilance, build trust from the inside out, and turn insight into embodied change. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, co-hosts Elisabeth Kristof (founder of BrainBased.com and the Neurosomatic Intelligence Coaching Certification) and Jennifer Wallace (Neurosomatic Psychedelic Preparation and Integration Guide) are joined by Piper Rose, a Neurosomatic Relationship Coach, founder of Shadowplay Coaching, and Director of Operations and Continuing Education at NSI. Piper shares an honest, grounded look at how co-regulation, repair, and "the burden of love" can become a training ground for deeper intimacy, resilience, and self compassion. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: Why healing is relational, not just individual 03:30 Meet Piper Rose and what "Neurosomatic Relationship Coaching" means 08:20 Trauma, attachment wounding, and protective F responses in relationships 16:10 Reframing patterns as adaptations, not defects, and finding the "gifts" inside them 22:40 Neuroscience of connection: co-regulation, threat prediction, and updating the model 31:30 Why safe relationships can trigger fear, emotional flashbacks, and vulnerability 41:10 Self attunement, needs, and practicing repair in micro-moments 49:20 Community, nature, and animals as lower-risk pathways to relational practice 56:30 Closing reflections: building trust, capacity, and support beyond one relationship Key Takeaways: Relational patterns like fight, freeze, and fawn are often strategic survival adaptations, not signs you are "broken." Safe connection can feel dangerous when your nervous system is trained to predict harm in intimacy. "Capacity" is not just skill or knowledge. It is whether your body can access those skills under pressure. Self attunement, like responding to thirst, overwhelm, or startle, builds a foundation for secure internal attachment and clearer boundaries. You do not have to do relational healing alone. Support teams, community, nature, and animals can provide safe enough co-regulation while you build trust. Resources Mentioned: Free live 90-minute workshop: Neurosomatic.com/Integration NSI Community: Neurosomatic.com BrainBased: BrainBased.com Sacred Synapse: an educational YouTube channel founded by Jennifer Wallace that explores nervous system regulation, applied neuroscience, consciousness, and psychedelic preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Cozolino, L. J. (2014). The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company Call to Action: Subscribe on your favorite audio platform or join us on YouTube!
In this episode, I sit down with Stephen Grayhm and Matt Dallas to unpack the real story behind Sheepdog. This is not just a film. It is a lived journey that took fourteen years to bring into the world and required confronting pain, resistance, and personal history at every step.We talk openly about trauma in the veteran experience, not as something to escape, but as the very force that forges clarity, purpose, and depth. Watching these men walk this path mirrored many moments in my own life. It became clear that what we label as trauma often carries the exact information needed for growth, leadership, and service.We explore the challenges of making a film that tells the truth, the internal battles that surfaced along the way, and what it means to keep going when the outcome is uncertain. This conversation is about resilience, responsibility, and discovering that there is life beyond the wound.This episode is for veterans, builders, and anyone who has been shaped by hardship and is ready to understand what that experience was preparing them for.Thank you and I Love you.
BUY THE BOOK NOW BY CLICKING HERE! ---- In this episode, Adi Shakti celebrates Post-Traumatic Growth Through the SoulWork Lens hitting #1 Bestseller status on Amazon — and shares the deeper spiritual, leadership, and strategic layers behind the project. Adi explores why some people collapse after trauma while others alchemize hardship into wisdom, authority, and impact — and how SoulWork bridges somatic healing, nervous system regulation, and meaning-making into post-traumatic growth. She also walks through: The evolution from trauma-focused healing to collective responsibility How the book emerged from a live training and monthly membership model Why self-publishing was the aligned choice The exact strategy behind Kindle presales, categories, and launch timing How writing a book can become a long-term brand asset and authority amplifier This episode is both a spiritual transmission and a practical masterclass for anyone called to turn their lived experience into leadership, legacy, and service.
Post-traumatic growth gets talked about like a mindset shift, but real change often starts somewhere else: the nervous system. In this episode, we explore why being around happy people can feel threatening, why "find the silver lining" pressure can lead to bypassing, and why growth is not the same as rushing to meaning. We also unpack the other trap: getting stuck in a healing loop that keeps re-entering the pain without creating new patterns. If you have ever felt ashamed for not "moving on" fast enough, this conversation offers a different map. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, co-hosts Elisabeth Kristof (founder of BrainBased.com) and Jennifer Wallace (Neurosomatic Psychedelic Preparation and Integration Guide) are joined by Matt Bush (Next Level Neuro, lead educator at NSI). Together, they break down what post-traumatic growth is (and is not), why connection and co-regulation are essential to healing, and how safety, repetition, and nervous system capacity create the conditions for authentic transformation. Timestamps: 00:00 Why "silver lining" pressure can trigger bypassing, and why happy environments can feel unsafe 06:30 What post-traumatic growth is (and what it is not), including the "toxic positivity" trap 14:30 Why trauma isolates, and why relational healing and co-regulation matter for recovery 23:30 Social bonding as a survival strategy: oxytocin, group rhythms, and threat reduction 34:30 Discernment in community: how to titrate connection and track nervous system outputs 45:00 Neuroplasticity and integration: why insight alone rarely rewires survival patterns 56:00 Practical integration for practitioners: frameworks, tools, and daily repetition for change Key Takeaways: Post-traumatic growth is not about forcing gratitude or meaning. It often emerges after safety and capacity return to the body. Trauma can make connection feel dangerous, even when connection is what the nervous system needs to heal. "Good advice" can still be harmful when it is delivered before the nervous system is ready, especially around forgiveness and resilience. Healing can get stuck in two loops: performative "I am fine" masking, or compulsive re-processing that repeats intensity without building new patterns. Tracking outputs (sleep, digestion, pain, mood stability, compulsions) can reveal whether a practice is supporting regulation or creating more dysregulation. Resources Mentioned: RewireTrial.com: Free two-week access to live neurosomatic intelligence classes and an on-demand library of nervous system practices BrainBased.com: Elisabeth's online community for applied neurology and somatic tools for behavior change, resilience, and stress processing NSI Certification: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/nsi-certification/ Sacred Synapse: an educational YouTube channel founded by Jennifer Wallace that explores nervous system regulation, applied neuroscience, consciousness, and psychedelic preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. Subscribe on your favorite audio platform or join us on YouTube!
Can life after trauma hold something more than pain? How can you discover new purpose and growth after suffering?Nothing Is Wasted Coaching Director, Teresa Glantz, has walked her own path of trauma and healing—and has transformed her pain into a calling to help others heal through teaching about trauma and post-traumatic growth. She is passionate about showing others that while pain and trauma may happen to us, they do not have to define us, and that beauty can emerge even from the most difficult parts of our stories. Through the Biblical Trauma Care Specialist course offered at Nothing Is Wasted, Teresa is on a mission to help others understand the role trauma inevitably plays in our lives and how we can move toward post-traumatic growth.In this episode, Davey and Teresa step into a time of year when many are seeking personal growth by exploring how to make healing part of a new year, what post-traumatic growth truly is, and the different stages of trauma.If you are looking ahead and wondering whether anything good can come from your pain, this episode offers a reminder that growth can be found in the aftermath of trauma. Website: nothingiswasted.com/coaching nothingiswasted.com/btcs www.teresaglantz.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/teresaglantzcoachingStories matter. They inspire, uplift, and remind us we're not alone in our pain. Hope in the Valley: 42 Days of Healing Through the Psalms After Loss, Grief, and Tragedy is a new devotional featuring real stories from the Nothing Is Wasted community—offering strength, comfort, and hope in life's hardest moments. Order your copy today at: www.nothingiswasted.com/hopeinthevalley Wondering where to get started on your journey towards healing? Join Davey on our next FREE, live Zoom call and find out how you can begin to take back your story and how Nothing is Wasted can help. Sign up today at: www.nothingiswasted.com/starthere Looking for help in navigating the valley of pain and trauma? Our Nothing is Wasted coaches can help: www.nothingiswasted.com/coaching Want a pathway through your pain? The Pain to Purpose Course can lead you through all you've been through: www.nothingiswasted.com/paintoppurpose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to Season 2 of the Orthobullets Podcast.Today's show is CoinFlips, where expert speakers discuss grey zone decisions in orthopedic surgery. This episode will feature doctors Alexander Nedopil, John Mercuri, Joseph Greene, & Michael Ransone. They will discuss the case titled "Severe Post-traumatic Varus Knee in 61M."Follow Orthobullets on Social Media:FacebookInstagramTwitterLinkedInYouTube
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, emotional distress, or a mental health crisis, call or text 988, or chat via 988lifeline.org. Support is available 24/7. You are not alone, and help is available.Pre-Order The Forever Strong PLAYBOOK and receive exclusive bonuses: https://drgabriellelyon.com/playbook/Want ad-free episodes, exclusives and access to community Q&As? Subscribe to Forever Strong Insider: https://foreverstrong.supercast.comDr. Gabrielle Lyon sits down with renowned medical correspondent and OB/GYN, Dr. Jen Ashton, for a profoundly personal and candid conversation about navigating life's most intense tragedies while maintaining a public career.Dr. Ashton bravely opens up about the devastating suicide of her first husband, a world-class surgeon, 18 days after their divorce was finalized. She shares the raw reality of being in clinical shock and how the immense tragedy became an unexpected catalyst for post-traumatic growth.Dr. Ashton, who holds a Master's degree in Nutritional Sciences, also brings her medical expertise to current health debates:The Power of Fitness: Learn how resistance training became Dr. Ashton's lifeline to snap her out of emotional numbness and shock.The Hormone Misinformation Crisis: They discuss the flawed data and flawed media that led to 20 years of women being under-treated for menopause after the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).GLP-1 Myths: Dr. Ashton breaks down the top myths surrounding GLP-1 medications, the difference between absolute vs. relative risk, and the non-weight related benefits that are just beginning to emerge.The Problem with Extremes: They address the societal tendency to seek out quick-fix solutions in health, menopause, and obesity care, arguing that the true sweet spot is in a nuanced, moderate position.Finding Love Again: Dr. Ashton shares the unexpected miracle of finding profound love with her current husband, legendary sports executive and TV producer, Tom Werner.About Jen Ashton: Retiring stiff paper gowns and unrelatable medical advice, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a Board-certified Ob-Gyn, author, and TV medical correspondent, breaks the barrier between doctor and patient. Affectionately referred to as your all-in-one ‘BFF'/Ob-Gyn, Dr. Jennifer Ashton marries an unparalleled medical background with an accessible‘girl's-girl' attitude. Though Dr. Ashton can easily speak to the latest beauty and fashion trends, this Ivy League graduate means business when it comes to women's health.Thank you to our sponsors: Timeline - Get 20% off your order at https://timeline.com/LYON OneSkin - Get 15% off with the code DRLYON – https://www.oneskin.coFind Jen Ashton at: Book: Life After Suicide - https://a.co/d/0HvOeSHIG:
Send us a textA culture that actually protects first responders doesn't happen by accident—it's built on day-one expectations, family inclusion, and leaders who tell the truth even when the news is hard. We sit down with Doug Wyman to map what real organizational wellness looks like and why “Inside the Box” has become a powerful framework for shifting identity, policy, and practice in policing.We start where most programs fail: leaving wellness to HR or EAP and forgetting families. Doug explains how to onboard spouses and partners with the same care we give new hires, and why a 10–15 minute decompression ritual at the door can prevent years of resentment at home. From there, we dig into the mentorship pipeline—how great FTOs set career goals, normalize therapy, and keep officers engaged long after field training. As rank rises, the view widens; without peer networks and rank-specific training, command staff unintentionally import narrow worldviews into complex events like suicide, deepening stigma and pain.The episode unpacks procedural justice for the inside of the house—dignity, voice, clear motives, and follow-through—to counter “administration betrayal.” We name the Man Box and the Cop Box, exploring how rigid ideals make therapy, medication, or simple human tenderness feel like violations. Doug shows how emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and the Four Agreements become everyday tools that change culture one conversation at a time. And we get practical: field officers should carry the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, because at 3 a.m. on a bridge you need the right questions, not another search tab.If you lead, supervise, dispatch, or love a first responder, this conversation offers a blueprint you can use tomorrow—family education, mentorship, internal fairness, and tools that save lives. Listen, share with your team, and tell us what belongs outside the box. If this resonated, subscribe, leave a review, and pass it to a colleague who needs a better way forward.Go to Doug's LinkedIn website at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-wyman-6b80852a/details/featured/The Class Inside the Box - Focuses on Organizational Wellness and Post Traumatic growth and is for first line supervisors and command staff. Support the showYouTube Channel For The Podcast
Send us a textThe story begins where many first responder lives converge: relentless calls, court dates, and a small department that never truly sleeps. Then the personal hits. Former New Hampshire police chief Doug Wyman opens up about parenting through a son's addiction at the height of the opioid crisis, supporting a younger child through identity shifts, and the morning that changed everything—when his wife died by suicide with his duty weapon. What follows is a rare, unguarded look at procedure meeting grief, and how systems can protect evidence while still protecting people.We walk through what real support looks like after the casseroles stop—peer teams that actually call, clergy who listen more than they preach, and a therapist with true cultural competency. Doug explains why a mind body spirit triangle isn't fluff; it's the backbone of resilience for first responders and families. Spirituality here is practical, not preachy—whether you find it in church, Stoicism, or a clear atheist ethic. Acceptance becomes the turning point. It's not agreement. It's the doorway to choose constructive over destructive, to convert pain into purpose, and to build post-traumatic growth one small habit at a time.We also dig into the cognitive traps that keep people stuck on if and the simple language checks that interrupt self-blame. From there, the focus widens to culture. Strong wellness programs don't live in binders; they live in people. Informal leaders—the ones who can get fifteen colleagues to show up on a Saturday—are the engine. When departments design with those influencers, recruitment and retention rise, and the holdouts become a minority. If you want a team to thrive, build a house you're proud to invite others into.If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a teammate who needs it, and leave a review so more first responders and families can find these tools. And if you or someone you love is in crisis, call 988 right now. You're not alone.Go to Doug's LinkedIn website at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-wyman-6b80852a/details/featured/The Class Inside the Box - Focuses on Organizational Wellness and Post Traumatic growth and is for first line supervisors and command staff. Freed.ai: We'll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showYouTube Channel For The Podcast
In this episode of SuperPsyched, host Dr. Adam Dorsay delves into the realities of resilience and post-traumatic growth with Dr. H'Sien Hayward, a psychologist who shares her incredible personal journey. Dr. Hayward recounts her experiences growing up on a self-sustained homestead, the life-changing accident just before her 17th birthday, and her inspiring academic and professional achievements. The discussion explores profound topics, such as the hedonic treadmill, the importance of finding meaning and purpose, and the nuanced differences between trauma and growth. Enjoy an engaging and intellectually stimulating conversation on how creating meaning after loss can lead to profound personal and collective growth.00:00 Welcome to SuperPsyched00:28 The Myth of 'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger'01:25 Introducing Dr. H'Sien Hayward02:43 H'Sien's Early Life and Accident06:50 The Road to Recovery and Resilience10:53 Delayed Grief and Healing20:07 The Hedonic Treadmill and Finding Meaning27:27 Key Findings from Happiness Research27:46 Hedonic Adaptation and Set Points28:34 Exceptions to Hedonic Adaptation29:19 Cosmetic Surgery and Sustained Happiness31:17 Effort and Sustainable Happiness31:36 Positive Psychology Interventions39:54 The Role of Play and Resilience40:16 The Importance of Meaning Over Money44:09 The Power of Humor and Levity46:24 Final Thoughts and ReflectionsHelpful Links:Dr. H'Sien HaywardDr. H'Sien Hayward LinkedIn
Show Featured Sponsor: The Precision Holsters Vanquish! Learn more: Precision Holsters and use code “seekAWS” for a discount. On today's episode of the American Warrior Show, Rich Brown is joined by Michael “Mac” McNamara, founder of Post-Traumatic Winning and ALL MARINE RADIO. Mac's story spans finance, combat, leadership, and a lifelong mission to help others thrive after trauma. About Michael McNamara: Began his career at Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles, first as a bookkeeper and later as an account executive. Enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, later commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in December 1983. Served in multiple assignments, including: 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion Marine Detachment, USS Ranger CV-61 The Basic School 3rd Light Armored Infantry Battalion Left active duty in 1994 after more than a decade of service. Post-Service Career & Return to Duty: Became Director of Sports for Special Olympics North Dakota in 1998. Launched his broadcasting career in 2000 as host of MacTalk, earning the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award (2007) for Small Market Personality of the Year. Returned to active duty in 2004, promoted to Major, and deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, with the 1st Marine Division. Mobilized again in 2006 for duty in Fallujah, Iraq, with the 5th Marine Regiment, while simultaneously serving on the Grand Forks City Council. Deployed once more in 2010 with the 1st Marine Regiment to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, serving until his retirement in 2015. Post-Traumatic Winning & Advocacy: Founded The Post-Traumatic Winning Company, LLC and launched ALL MARINE RADIO, an online platform promoting mental fitness and reducing veteran suicide. Began presenting Post-Traumatic Winning in 2019, first at Camp Lejeune, NC. The presentation has since reached audiences across the U.S., Japan, Hawaii, Alaska, and Europe, impacting organizations of over 10,000 members with measurable results in combating destructive behaviors and suicide. Launched the Post-Traumatic Winning Weekly Seminar series in January 2021, expanding the program's reach and dialogue. Published his first book in March 2025, From Trauma to Joy: Life-Changing Lessons That Fellow U.S. Marines Taught Me After Traumatic Events Occurred in My Life — designed to share these universal lessons with a wider audience. In This Episode: How trauma can become a source of growth, not defeat. The creation and impact of Post-Traumatic Winning. Lessons learned from leading Marines and civilians through crisis. Building mental fitness and resilience in the face of adversity.
Morgan Housel, global expert on personal finance, shares powerful lessons on Warren Buffett's hidden struggles, Elon Musk's sacrifices, money trauma and financial habits, how to invest wisely, and the psychology behind saving, spending, and success. Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund, former columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and a speaker on investing, saving, spending, and financial independence. He is also the bestselling author of books, such as: ‘The Psychology of Money' and ‘The Art of Spending Money'. He explains: ◼️ Why more money rarely solves unhappiness ◼️ How envy and social comparison drive overspending ◼️ Why extreme wealth often comes at the cost of health and relationships ◼️ How inflated definitions of “wealth” fuel endless consumerism ◼️ Why true happiness comes from family, friends, and health - not luxury (00:00) Intro (02:33) The Importance of Spending Money (04:43) Why Will This Podcast Make My Life Better? (07:54) Is There Something Wrong With Chasing Status? (10:26) What's the Evolutionary Basis for This Stuff? (15:43) There's Always a Trade-Off (17:55) Saving Addiction (19:41) Can Money Make You Happy? (25:08) Are We All Stuck in a Status Game? (29:14) Is the "Freedom" Culture Actually Making People Unhappy? (31:12) Your Favorite Form of Saving Is Spending (33:17) Jealousy of Other People's Wealth (35:17) The Spectrum of Financial Independence (38:57) How Do People Achieve Financial Independence? (41:32) How Does Dopamine Factor Into All of This? (49:07) We're Wired to Want More (54:51) People Retiring Early Tend to Wish They Hadn't (55:52) Passive Income Myths (58:06) Ads (59:07) Do I Need to Know About Economics for This? (1:05:01) What's Going On in the World? (1:08:55) How Wealth Inequality Is Dividing People (1:10:50) The Charlie Kirk Shooting (1:19:04) Is There a Way Back From This Divide? (1:23:39) What Should We Be Doing to Help? (1:25:28) Are You Optimistic About the Western Economy? (1:27:23) Favorite Chapter From the Book (1:32:34) Ads (1:34:42) Why You Should Try New Things (1:37:29) Are You Chasing a Lifestyle That's Not Right for You? (1:40:48) Does Jack Think Steven Is Happy? (1:49:37) Should We Feel Guilty About the Lack of Contentment? (1:52:49) The Relationship Between Money and Kids (1:55:42) The Exact Formula for Spending (2:02:05) Humble Bubble (2:04:07) Do You Have Major Regrets in Life? Follow Morgan: Instagram - https://bit.ly/3KllnvJ X - https://bit.ly/4pJf4lT You can purchase Morgan's book, ‘The Art of Spending Money', here: https://amzn.to/46F9JTO The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Linkedin Jobs - https://www.linkedin.com/doac Vanta - https://vanta.com/steven Replit - http://replit.com with code STEVEN