Awakening Worth in Childless Women

It's not easy for women to love themselves through loss. We're so accustomed to caring for others and shoving our own needs aside that when it comes time for us to support ourselves, we don't feel worthy.
On this episode, Becky Barber, co-creator of the Try Self-Love Podcast, shares her story of 6 pregnancy losses and how having living children doesn't heal the grief that came with her losses. We discuss:

• the shame and guilt that come with pregnancy loss, infertility and childlessness
• how detaching from hope doesn't make it any easier
• how to love yourself through any loss including the loss of an identity, such as "mother" for childless women

Becky is a life and relationship coach who helps women to learn to love and respect themselves despite a damaged relationship with someone they love. Through spirituality, healthy boundary-setting and a continual practice of self-love, Becky was able to break free of her own toxic relationship with her mother and now helps others to do the same.
Beckyalso has a free gift for listeners: Finding a Therapist Who Gets It
You can find a link in the show notes at: sherijohnson.ca/61
Is your own self-worth holding you back from embracing your childless life?
Take the Worthiness Quiz

Katie Maynard is a licensed psychotherapist who has had her own experience with infertility and now childlessness. She's a therapist who "gets it" when it comes to the unique grief and challenges we face as childless women. What a gift as a client when seeking help, to speak with someone who understands.
In our conversation, Katie shares with us:

• the empowerment that is available to us as childless or childfree women
• the most common issues presented in her clinical practice (e.g. how to make the decision to stop trying)
• the benefits of finding a therapist who understands and how to find one

offers a triad of services: working with individual clients, supporting the clinical growth of other therapists, and creating change in the mental health community around the lack of training and competence with childless clients.
Katie also has a free gift for listeners: Finding a Therapist Who Gets It
You can find a link in the show notes at: sherijohnson.ca/60
Is your own self-worth holding you back from embracing your childless life?
Take the Worthiness Quiz

Jobi Tyson is one of those women who knows how to rise. She has a heartbreaking story of infertility that ultimately ended with a hysterectomy. But she soon found healing and empowerment by owning her voice.
She started the Tutum Journal and witnessed women beginning by sharing their stories anonymously to now fully stepping into the spotlight without shame.
On this episode, Jobi shares her own story with me plus:

• how she found healing
• how she got started with Tutum Global, a safe space for childless women to share their struggles
• some of the top stories she's come across while editing the Tutum Journal

Show notes at: sherijohnson.ca/59
Is your own self-worth holding you back from embracing your childless life?
Take the Worthiness Quiz

Many childless women feel a deep inner shame and mistrust of their bodies and are unable to show themselves compassion as a result. There's a disconnect between the mind, body and spirit.
Sarah Jane Smith used her embodiment practices to re-establish that trust with her own body after many years of infertility and ultimately a hysterectomy. She had to have compassion for herself as she re-established what she could do with her body and how she identified with it.
In this episode, you'll discover:

• how to reverse the desire to push for performance and how that relates to fertility and the desire to be a mother
• how to use movement to reconnect with your body and allow it to show you what it needs
• why it's so important to meet yourself with kindness and compassion

For Sarah Jane's free gift: How to Re-Establish Trust With Your Body, visit the show notes for this episode at: sherijohnson.ca/58
Is your own self-worth holding you back from embracing your childless life?
Take the Worthiness Quiz

There is so much systemic prejudice towards childless women ingrained in our society today that stem from ancient patriarchal and pronatalist views and government policy. Most of us don't even realize the extent. I didn't realize it and received a bit of an awakening right on the show.
Jody Day, the "mother" of the childless woman movement, joined me on this episode to share her story and why she started Gateway Women. Her own need for community and support led to a network for childless women, a book, two Tedx talks and countless other accomplishments in the childless space.
Have a listen as we discuss:

• the disenfranchised grief we feel as women who are childless by circumstance
• the level of shame we pick up from our pronatalist society
• why the patriarchal template for life and career doesn't work for women

Show notes: sherijohnson.ca/67/
Take the Worthiness Quiz and find out whether your own self-worth is holding you back from embracing your childless life!