No Shrinking Violets Podcast for Women
No Shrinking Violets is all about what it truly means for women to take up their space in the world – mind, body and spirit. Mary Rothwell, licensed therapist and certified integrative mental health practitioner, has seen women “stay small” and fit into the space in life that they have been conditioned to believe they deserve. Drawing on 35 years in the mental health field and from her perspective as a woman who was often told to "stay in your lane," Mary discusses how early experiences, society and sometimes our own limiting beliefs can convince us that living inside guardrails is the best -- or only -- option. She'll explore how to recognize our unique essential nature and how to use that to empower a new narrative.Through topics that span psychology, friendships, nature and even gut-brain health, Mary creates a space that is inspiring and authentic - where she celebrates the intuition and power of women who want to chart their own course and program their own GPS. Mary's topics will include sleep and supplements and nutrition and how to live like a plant. (Yes, you read that right - the example of plants is often the most insightful path to knowing what we truly need to feel fulfilled). She’ll talk about setting boundaries, communicating, and relationships, and explore mental health and wellness: trauma and resilience, how our food impacts our mood and the power of simple daily habits. And so much more! As a gardener, Mary knows that violets have been misjudged for centuries and are actually one of the most resilient and ecologically important plants in her native garden. Like violets, women are often underestimated, and they can even mistake their unique gifts for weaknesses. Join Mary to explore all the ways the vibrant and strong violet is an example for finding fulfillment in our own lives.
Episodes
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The coping skills that made you impressive might be the same ones keeping you lonely. We sit down with Ingeborg Mooiweer, a therapist and executive coach, to talk honestly about what it’s like to grow up with a narcissistic mother and how that kind of childhood trauma can rewrite your identity, your self-trust, and your relationships. When love is inconsistent and anger turns into silence ...
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Life can feel like a pile on: headlines you can’t control, stress that follows you home, and the constant sense that you’re reacting instead of choosing. I’m sharing a simple reframe that helps me get my footing fast: life happens through you, not to you. That idea doesn’t erase real pain or serious mental health challenges, but it does hand you something you can use righ...
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Someone can look like they’re thriving and still be drowning. That’s the thread we keep pulling in this replay with Angie Hawkins, an inner glow coach and the author of *Running in Slippers*, recorded for National Suicide Prevention Month. Angie shares how emotionally neglectful childhood dynamics shaped a lifelong belief that she didn’t deserve love, and how that belief fueled...
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Secrets don’t just live in our past, they live in our nervous system, our self-talk, and sometimes even our symptoms. To honor September’s themes of self-care, recovery, suicide prevention, and self-improvement, we’re resharing one of the most requested conversations we’ve ever had: our replay with Julie Heaton, author, transformational mentor, certified health and wellne...
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You can love someone and still feel worn down by the same predictable disappointment. When a relationship keeps giving you the same outcome, hope can start to feel like a trap, especially when you’re doing all the emotional work and waiting for the other person to meet you there.
I’m revisiting a mini episode that listeners kept coming back to because it names a pattern many o...
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Your body isn’t betraying you. A lot of what feels like “random” fatigue, heavy periods, mood swings, migraines, or midlife weight changes starts to make sense once you understand how hormones actually work together. We sit down with women’s health educator, author, and longtime coach Tierra Duncan to talk about hormone literacy and why so many of us reach adulthood knowi...
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Stuck can look like a hundred different things, but it usually feels the same: spinning, second-guessing, and waiting for clarity that never arrives. I share a simple tool I use when life feels mired, a 1 to 10 rating scale that turns a vague problem into something you can actually move. No complicated worksheets, no perfection, just an honest number and one practical next step.
We ...
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Someone can tell you they love you while quietly teaching you to doubt your own mind. That is the part we wanted to name out loud, without buzzwords and without blame.
I sit down with artist, author, and speaker Carine Van Hee to unpack how toxic relationships and emotional abuse actually work in real life. Carine shares the moment her mother’s death in 2023 exposed a pattern she co...
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Your mind can turn one bad moment into a whole worldview, and it usually starts with two words: always and never. Today I’m sharing a simple way to interrupt that spiral by looking for “exceptions,” the real-life moments that prove the harsh story in your head is not true 100% of the time. It’s a small shift, but it can change how you experience anxiety, depression, disap...
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You can be confident, competent, and deeply self-aware and still find yourself saying yes when you mean no, smoothing things over, and quietly disappearing in your own life. That contradiction is exactly what Mary Rothwell explores with Ludovica Colella, a CBT-trained psychotherapist and confidence coach who specializes in people pleasing, fawning, and self-abandonment for high-functioning women...
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Your body is carrying more than you think, and a puppy can prove it. After seven weeks of raising Alfie and trying to decode his signals, I noticed something that changed how I look at stress: the full-body “doggy shake.” Yes, dogs shake to dry off, but they also shake after a stressful moment as a way to reset their nervous system. Once I learned that, I started seeing it everywhere...
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Emotional regulation isn’t “stay calm and never fall apart.” It’s being able to feel anger, grief, joy, fear, and everything in between while staying connected to your body and in control of what you do next. That single shift changes how we understand burnout, anxiety, and the shame so many high-achieving women carry when they can’t “just handle it.”
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One anonymous one-star rating on Amazon threw me off for days and the weird part is how fast it made me forget the real, thoughtful reviews from people who actually read the book. That moment turned into a sharp lesson about negativity bias, visibility, and why “non-feedback” can feel louder than the truth.
I walk through the difference between constructive criticism and facel...
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If you’ve ever watched a less qualified coworker get promoted while you quietly held everything together, you’re not imagining it and you’re not alone. We dig into the real reason high-performing women get overlooked even when they’re delivering results: what career coach Rosie Zelinskis calls the articulation gap, the space between the impact you create and what leadersh...
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Your brain loves to leap ahead and ask the scariest question possible: “If I’m struggling right now, what does that mean about the future?” I’m sharing a small but powerful reset that helps me cut through anxiety fast: zoom in on the challenge directly in front of you and stop borrowing trouble from tomorrow. The idea comes from a column by Heidi Stevens, and it lands bec...
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Getting fired can feel like public failure, private grief, and a full-body identity crisis all at once. I know that kind of rupture, and that’s why this conversation lands so deeply. In this episode, Merry Korn, founder of Pearl Interactive Network, talks about how a career collapse can become the moment you finally stop shrinking and start building a life that fits who you are. We don&rsq...
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We sit with the messy truth of tough love and why letting natural consequences happen can be the most loving path to resilience. We also face parenting guilt head-on and separate what we can influence from what is shaped by DNA, boundaries, and our kids’ own choices.
• defining tough love as guidance with limits
• why natural consequences teach faster than nagging
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Survival can make you brilliant at coping and it can also quietly steal your identity. We sit down with writer and trauma educator Lisa Lacy to talk about the gap between looking “high-functioning” and actually feeling well, especially for women conditioned to be good, productive, and pleasing even when they’re drowning inside. Lisa shares how repeated near-death medical crises...
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City life can be brutally loud, and sometimes the stress isn’t a personality flaw, it’s a nervous system response to an environment that never powers down. After a weekend at BookFest and a bunch of conversations with readers, we keep coming back to one practical question: how do you access the benefits of nature when you don’t live next to a forest or have time for big adventu...
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Hustle culture has a nasty way of sounding like wisdom until you’re exhausted, snapping at everyone you love, and wondering why you can’t “just be consistent.” We sit with that tension head-on and ask a better question: what if the problem isn’t your ambition, but the model you’re trying to run it on?
I’m joined by Renee Fieck, a feminine leadersh...
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