Emotional Badass

Emotional Badass

Hosted by psychotherapist Nikki Eisenhauer, M.Ed. LPC, LCDC. This show provides essential emotional education on Mental Health, HSP (Highly Sensitive People), Narcissists & Manipulative personalities, healing from Trauma and PTSD, calming your nervous system, inner child work, and setting healthy boundaries. Emotional Badasses are survivors, thrivers, seekers, and healers! Expand and awaken to your higher purpose, be more present and authentic, find strength in spirituality, quiet the monkey mind of modern society with meditation, and connect deeply with yourself and safe others. We let go of what doesn't serve us to heal old wounds, find our voice guilt-free, and learn to be the hero in our own story. Embrace guerrilla self care, and laugh with lightness on the self development path. Nikki Eisenhauer is an International Life Coach, Licensed Professional Counselor, Yoga and Meditation Teacher. This show is designed to mindfully be the emotional education so many of us crave; Emotional Badass is where we learn to love ourselves without apology. Emotional Badass is where Moxie Meets Mindful.

Episodes

Stage Fright, Self Worth, and the Power of Showing Up

August 3, 2025 • 79 mins
Happy 400th Episode!!! I sit down with Chris to talk about the fascinating connection between stage fright and sensitivity. So many of us carry this primal fear of being watched, and it can trigger deep nervous system responses that we don’t always understand. Chris shares his journey from doing magic tricks in kindergarten to performing on stage thousands of times, and how setting boundaries with fear helped him let go of performa...
Mark as Played

How to Repair After a Fight - Part 2

July 27, 2025 • 33 mins
Continuing with part two of How to Repair after a fight, we discover that apologies are actually the easy part - the true work lies in learning co-regulation and validation without falling into shame or defensive patterns. Mental health work means accepting that sometimes repair happens on different timelines, and that's okay. I'm walking through the exact steps for offering connection after conflict, including why "right fighting"...
Mark as Played

How to Repair After a Fight - Part 1

July 20, 2025 • 48 mins
Fights happen. But for HSPs and survivors of dysfunctional families, repairing after conflict can feel terrifying. In this episode, I teach what I wish someone had taught me decades ago—how to repair conflict with emotional strength, regulate your nervous system, and stop shame from taking over. Mental health isn’t about being perfect. It’s about learning the skills we were never taught. I’ll help you understand the difference betw...
Mark as Played

Complex Emotions After Cutting Off Family: How Dreams Help You Process

July 13, 2025 • 28 mins
Going no contact with family isn’t a straight line—and sometimes it shows up in your dreams. We talk about the complex grief of family estrangement, the truth about recurring dreams, and what your subconscious might be trying to process. Reframing our nightmares can help you build trust with your inner child. We’ll explore the deeper meaning of these dreams, the struggle of detaching, and how to bring your power back—even in your s...
Mark as Played

The Italian Yankee and the Southern Belle: Lessons in Love and Family Dysfunction

July 6, 2025 • 64 mins
Relationships and family dysfunction are two complex yet vital pieces of the mental health puzzle that come together when my husband Chris joins me on the mic today, sharing our perspectives as an Italian Yankee married to a Southern belle. We unpack the realities of dating as Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), share our personal online dating journeys—complete with quirky stories—and highlight how cultural differences shape our subco...
Mark as Played

What My Grandpa's WWII Survival Story Taught Me About Codependency and Resilience

June 29, 2025 • 23 mins
If you’ve ever felt behind in life or overwhelmed by pressure to be further along, I hope this episode gives you space to pause and really honor how far you’ve come. I reflect on the unexpected gift of this podcast becoming a record of my own growth and share a deeply personal story about my grandfather’s survival during WWII. His decision to float alone in shark-infested waters, instead of clinging to others in panic, taught me ev...
Mark as Played

Avoidant, Anxious, or Secure? What are attachment styles and how does our past shape them?

June 22, 2025 • 54 mins
Many people misunderstand their attachment style, overidentify with labels, or confuse trauma responses with personality traits. Today we break down secure and insecure attachment, discuss how anxious and avoidant dynamics form, and look at how emotional abuse and trauma erode self-trust. Many highly sensitive people (HSPs) often internalize critical voices and lose their sense of emotional safety. With radical honesty, self-awaren...
Mark as Played

Sean Combs AKA Diddy on Trial - How to recognize bedroom fun vs abuse - PART 2

June 15, 2025 • 20 mins
Are you seeing yourself or someone you know in the Sean Combs AKA Diddy trial footage and wondering if you're in a similar toxic dynamic? In this raw episode, we look at the abuse Cassie allegedly endured as a lens to examine coercion, emotional abuse, and how power gets weaponized. Recovery from manipulative abuse often starts when high-profile cases like this one help us recognize the patterns in our own relationships. Abuse surv...
Mark as Played

Sean Combs AKA Diddy on Trial - How to recognize bedroom fun vs abuse - PART 1

June 8, 2025 • 31 mins
What if the alleged stories coming out of the Diddy Sean Combs trial feel more familiar than shocking? What can the trial teach us about recognizing psychological abuse in our own relationships? When domination hides behind fame and money, abuse can seem like something that only happens to the rich and powerful. But the truth is, coercion, manipulation, trauma, and control are far more common than we admit. In this episode, I speak...
Mark as Played

Why Highly Sensitive People Feel Different

June 1, 2025 • 12 mins
Why do HSPs feel like they're fighting an uphill battle in a world that's lost its conscientiousness? After working with HSPs for nearly two decades, I've learned we're the people who value conscientiousness in society - that's our gift, not a weakness. Through therapy and self-awareness, sensitivity transforms from burden into extraordinary beauty. The sunrise that makes you cry with joy, the stranger's child who warms your heart ...
Mark as Played

Types of Grief You Carry Without Realizing & How to Survive Each One

May 25, 2025 • 43 mins
Feeling swallowed by grief’s endless waves? I unpack anticipatory loss, disenfranchised pain, and the ripple-effect grief few name, guiding highly sensitive people toward emotional boundaries, mental health balance, and steady peace. We explore why numbness can protect, how self-permission heals, and which daily practices anchor life when everything changes. Let every layer of loss be felt, honored, and released. 30 DAYS TO PEACE...
Mark as Played

Empathy Has a Price: Balancing Compassion with Self-Protection

May 18, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, we explore how empathy can become costly when not balanced with healthy discernment. Childhood trauma often creates "red flag erasers" that prioritize relationships over personal wellbeing. Learn how to maintain your compassionate nature while developing the wisdom to protect yourself from one-sided connections. BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI:⁠⁠ https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries⁠⁠ 30 DAYS TO PEACE:⁠⁠ ht...
Mark as Played

Reflecting & The Truth About Student Loans They Never Told Us

May 11, 2025 • 51 mins
Is your inner critic louder than your inner nurturer when you think about past money mistakes? I’ve wrestled with reflection that felt like punishment instead of growth. This conversation on student loan debt, financial shame, and reclaiming self-authority explores how we begin to shift toward healing. Mental Health isn’t separate from money. And when we face our past with compassion, we start living with more financial clarity and...
Mark as Played

The Soulful Bucket List That Healed Me and Changed Everything

May 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Many Highly Sensitive People live in constant survival mode, feeling burnt out, anxious, and disconnected from joy. In this episode, we offer a soulful alternative: a bucket list of simple, healing experiences that shift us from surviving to truly living. I share powerful practices like witnessing a sunrise in stillness, writing to your younger self, dancing barefoot, and forgiving without needing closure. These small yet meaningfu...
Mark as Played

Call in Show: Why Energy Vampires ALWAYS Find You (And How To Stop It)

April 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Why do certain people always seem to find and drain you? Mental health problems often worsen for Highly Sensitive People when they continually attract energy vampires. If you've experienced trauma, you might feel like you have a target on your back for manipulative, self-serving people. Workshops & Programs: BOUNDARIES INTENSIVE WITH NIKKI: https://EmotionalBadass.com/boundaries 30 DAYS TO PEACE: https://bit.ly/peace-program ...
Mark as Played

The Positive Side Effects of Healing That No One Talks About

April 20, 2025 • 11 mins
Have you ever wondered what unexpected benefits might emerge from your healing journey? As we work through our pain and trauma, most of us focus solely on reducing symptoms and finding emotional stability. But what if I told you that mental health work creates ripple effects that transform every area of your life? I've witnessed this phenomenon countless times—both in my personal experience and with clients. The positive side effec...
Mark as Played

Narcissists Count on You Making THESE Emotional Mistakes

April 13, 2025 • 31 mins
Healing from narcissistic abuse involves recognizing and stopping harmful patterns like self-blame, excessive politeness, emotional avoidance, and denial. Highly Sensitive People often sabotage their recovery by prioritizing others' comfort, minimizing the abuse, or ignoring their gut instincts. To truly heal, it's essential to name abuse clearly, trust intuition, establish healthy boundaries, and choose authenticity over appearanc...
Mark as Played

Am I emotionally constipated? 7 Signs you can't ignore

April 6, 2025 • 9 mins
Ever find yourself apologizing just for having feelings? Congrats, you're officially emotionally constipated—yes, that's a thing. It happens when you stuff your emotions deep down until they burst out at the worst possible moment (hello anxiety, meet embarrassment). This delightful cycle is extra fun if you're an HSP, by the way. Here's an idea: stop shoving your sensitivity into a corner like it’s misbehaving. Feelings need regula...
Mark as Played

How Betrayal Changed My View on Loyalty Forever

April 1, 2025 • 36 mins
Does your loyalty ever feel like a never-ending burden? For Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), loyalty is deeply emotional, intensifying after betrayal. Through my journey, I realized loyalty without limits harms Mental Health and fuels resentment. It’s essential to balance giving with receiving, using clear boundaries to preserve emotional energy. Learn how reshaping your approach to loyalty transforms pain into empowerment. ♥ PATTE...
Mark as Played

CALL IN: How to Accept Your Family’s Limitations and Still Set Boundaries as an HSP

March 23, 2025 • 21 mins
Highly sensitive people must accept that low empathy and low maturity family members may never offer the understanding or support they crave, and instead prioritize emotional boundaries and self-protection. In this episode we explore: Understanding Emotional Boundaries for HSPs in Dysfunctional Family Systems How Low Empathy and Low Maturity Impact Family Relationships Breaking Cycles of People-Pleasing to Model Healthy Boundar...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    24/7 News: The Latest

    24/7 News: The Latest

    The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

    The Bobby Bones Show

    The Bobby Bones Show

    Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.