Stop Walking on Eggshells: Judy Herman’s Guide to Getting Real (and Getting Free)

What happens when the therapist becomes her own best client? Meet Judy Herman (https://www.judycounselor.com/), psychotherapist, author, and retreat facilitator who turned decades of personal pain into a roadmap for emotional freedom. After surviving a 30-year marriage filled with toxicity and raising four kids, Judy didn’t just heal—she rewrote the rules for how women reclaim their power.

In this deeply honest and surprisingly uplifting conversation, Judy shares how her second husband’s psychotic break sparked her groundbreaking book Beyond Messy Relationships, and how she helps women stop walking on emotional eggshells. Her framework—AIR (Awareness, Intention, Risk)—guides women to breathe life back into themselves after years of self-abandonment.

She gets real about toxic loyalty (staying too long for all the wrong reasons), why we fall for partners who mirror our childhood wounds, and how true growth requires the courage to dance in discomfort—literally and figuratively. Judy’s work blends psychology, storytelling, and soul work, helping women move from survival mode to deep self-trust.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why we unconsciously pick partners who challenge us to heal our past
• The emotional power of “10 years of therapy in one weekend” retreats
• The trap of toxic loyalty—and how to finally break free
• How self-worth starts with awareness, not perfection
• Why her retreats in places like Ecuador transform lives

Whether you’ve been through a breakup, a burnout, or a breakthrough, this episode will remind you that transformation starts with self-awareness—and that sometimes, healing means getting a little messy first.

Here's the "Heart-centered Check-In Quiz" we talk about in the episode. https://www.judycounselor.com/communicationquiz-lp/

Judy knows how to dance right in the middle of life’s hardest conversations and situations. She is a psychotherapist, author/speaker, and retreat leader who empowers heart-centered professional women. She guides clients to rise above toxic loyalty and ditch the eggshells. She’s not afraid of dancing in the discomfort. In fact, it's all part of her A.I.R. acronym. Awareness, Intentions, and Risks of Growth. That's where our vibrantly authentic life begins.