Free Spirit Academy Podcast

This is one of my favorite solo episodes, and I wanted to bring it back for anyone who missed it the first time—or anyone who needs a reminder that feeling disconnected or “numb” is often a sign of a nervous system doing its best to protect you.

In this episode, I share a bit of my own story of living for years feeling flat and disconnected, why that happens, and what it can look like to slowly come back to yourself.

L...

We often hear about healing the nervous system, finding calm through breathwork, or shifting into a regulated state. But what about when those practices don’t seem to work - when they don’t bring peace, and sometimes even highlight what isn’t working in our lives?

In this episode, I talk about:

• Why calming tools can’t fix situations that aren’t right for us
• How regulation can reveal where change is needed
• What it really means to “c...

In this solo episode, I’m sharing some of my own story: like years of rigid routines, juice fasts, and trying to follow every “right” ritual to become someone who finally felt free, healed, and whole. 

But what I found was that all the "being good" didn’t actually leave me feeling at home in myself.

You'll hear me talk about:

 - How "self-improvement" can sometimes be a subtle form of self-rejection

 - Why rush...

If you’ve been listening for any length of time, you know I believe that food struggles are never just about food. 

They’re often symptoms of something deeper - like trying to feel some sense of control after trauma or long-term stress, trying to survive in a culture that profits off us hating our bodies, or simply trying to make living inside ourselves bearable.

This episode touches on:

- My 15+ year struggle with food control a...

If you’ve ever felt the lingering impact of religious trauma - especially from high-control, fear-based systems - this episode is for you. I’m sharing from my personal experience growing up in the Seventh-Day Adventist church, and exploring seven common factors that can create deep disconnection from your body, your needs, and your sense of self.

This episode touches on:
 • Why trauma isn’t just about what happened, but how it l...

Today I have something a little different for you.

Last year, I went to my 20th high school reunion. I attended a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school, and going back felt like stepping into another lifetime. If I’d thought about religious trauma before that experience, I’ve been thinking about it a lot more since.

You’ll hear me talk about that today, but what’s different is that this episode is actually from a brand new podcast I ...

Healing doesn't happen in a hurry. The hurry to be healed, integrated, enlightened, free, arrived...it's not as neat and tidy as a lot of self-help books or before-and-after photos might suggest. 

It's more like, the harder we try to fix things, the harder our nervous systems work to keep us where things are familiar. Whereas, if we can slow down with ourselves, right  in the behavior or with the part of us we ha...

THE TOP 10 MISTAKES I’VE MADE ON MY HEALING JOURNEY:

Honestly, I cringe a bit using the words "healing" OR "journey" because the internet is so oversaturated with wellness or spiritual teachers. I'm not interested in making "healing" my whole personality, but simultaneously I have always had this deep interest in why things hurt. What any kind of pain, emotional, mental, or physical, is saying. and...

I love a project. I love working towards something. I think that's pretty human. But for a long time my body was my project. I grew up in a holistic, Seventh-Day Adventist, vegetarian home. we used homeopathy and natural remedies and drank carrot juice and ate homemade bread. To this day I LOVE the taste of barley green powder because I have early memories of drinking it as something that would support my health. I wanted to k...

 So many folks I see, and this was me too, attach goodness and morality to their health. If something is wrong, they feel wrong. They will spin into stories about how they're creating their own disease or this is going to turn into something far worse. Can you make some space for the fact that not all of the contributing factors were in your hands? Your genetics,  adverse childhood experiences, your environment and day to day ...

Today I'm speaking with Holistic Health and Root Cause Practitioner Sarah Hook. Sarah and I have been connected online since our early wellness blogging days when we were certain we had it all figured out. Some years ago Sarah was bit by a tick and developed severe Lyme disease, causing her to question what she knew about wellness.

We talk about what it's like to need food restrictions after healing from an eati...

Is it possible to take on a healing diet or a supportive protocol with a history of disordered eating?

Is there a way to have a healthy, alive relationship with food that's also intentional? 

Is restriction 100% bad news in all cases?

Today I'm sharing my personal experiences with chronic illness, having a background of disordered eating from a young age. I'm excited to share this with you ...

On today's episode I'm talking a bit about the autoimmune diagnoses I got earlier this year. This is a shorty ep but includes:

...why it took me so long to see medical professionals and get tested.

...the wide range of feelings post-diagnosis.

...the pre-self-love I had to do before I had any answers.

...the promises I made myself once I had something concrete to work with.

......

Hello friends, today I'm talking to my friend Lena, an eating disorder recovery coach who also understands firsthand months of juice fasting, pure raw food diets, and even using diet to heal illness - complicated by her many years of disordered eating that didn't stop once she got into raw foods. Throughout this conversation, we make some simple connections about how and why her eating disorder developed but there could c...

After well over a year, the Free Spirit Academy Podcast is BACK!

I begin this episode with a health update of my own - and talk about the balance between maintaining a peaceful relationship with food and my body, while also supporting my body's very specific needs.

That will lead us into a conversation with colon hydrotherapist and trauma-informed coach, Theresa Piela. Theresa is exceedingly familia...

Here's what you can expect from today's episode:

...how the anxiety of our current circumstances can trigger any anxiety already living within us.

...the question of whether or not we'll ever be going back to 'normal'. 

...we'll talk about the pressure to always be growing, creating, being productive, and going to our max. 

...the idea that the universe is saying one...

HEALING ANCESTRAL TRAUMA WITH INHERITED TRAUMA RESOLUTION COACH, LISA NAGEL

In today's episode, you'll hear us talk about...

...The symptoms of inherited trauma: anxiety, secondary ptsd, depression, feeling like we can't get where we want to go, feeling trapped in repeating cycles, etc.

...Lisa's story of looking around at her family and seeing the shared patterns and emergency responses that we...

EXPLORING HUMAN POTENTIAL - GIL JACOBS UNEDITED!

Hi friends. Before some of you get TOO excited (because I'm with you in that group of niche weirdos that thinks an interview with Gil Jacobs on the internet the single most exciting ever) I DID release this interview in the first year of the podcast.

However, I was in a place at the time where I was very much catering to clients and an audience with a traditio...