Conversations With a Wounded Healer

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189 - Kerri Kelly - Confronting the Myths of Whiteness and Wellness

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

06/01/22 • 58 min

My guest Kerri Kelly landed on the perfect summation for this episode: “It’s gonna be juicy y’all!” And it is, since our discussion centers on whiteness. Ha––leave it to whiteness to center itself here, there, everywhere. In this instance, however, whiteness and the cacophony of capitalism that almost always accompanies it, is drowned out by Kerri’s challenging, meaningful call-in. And she keeps that volume turned way up.

In her new book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, Kerri confronts the toxic systems (founded on whiteness) that have commodified wellness and prohibit everyone (including white folks) from enjoying genuine well-being.

What qualifies her to make such a case? Well, Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that’s democratizing well-being for all and a yoga instructor with 20+ years of experience. She’s well-known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems and mobilizing people to act. She’s dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice, traits she’s inherited from a long line of first-responder ancestors.

Now that I see the lie of white supremacy everywhere (Perfectionism! Productivity! Individualism!), I recognize how thoroughly indoctrinated I am in the system and the harm caused by my own mistake. That repeated realization is tiresome, by design. White supremacy is engineered to keep us severed from self-discovery and the will to continually question and call out. This is challenging, lifetime work.

GUEST BIO

Kerri Kelly is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing well-being for all. A descendant of generations of firemen and first responders, Kerri has dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice. She’s been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems and mobilizing people to act.

A community organizer, wellness activist and author of the forthcoming book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, Kerri is recognized across communities for her inspired work to bridge transformational practice with social justice. She’s been instrumental in translating the practices of wellbeing into social and political action, working in collaboration with community organizers, spiritual leaders and policymakers to transform our systems from the inside out. Her leadership has inspired a movement that is actively organizing around issues of racial and economic justice, healthcare as a human right, civic engagement and more.

Kerri is a powerful facilitator and TED speaker and is the host of the prominent podcast, CTZN. You can learn more about her work at kerrikelly.co and ctznwell.org.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: https://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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Wounded Healers Virtual Group: https://tinyurl.com/woundedhealersvg-2

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2 Listeners

1 Comment

180 - Heidi Savell - Polyamory Coach - Leaving the False Safety of Monogamy

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

01/26/22 • 42 min

Oh, nothing, just me and Heidi Savell, LCSW, my new fave polyamory coach, replacing capitalism with divine feminine energy, repairing acute attachment wounds, and returning agency to anyone frustrated by the limits of monogamous relationships. OK, before we go any further into this convo, let me emphatically state that neither Heidi nor I have anything against monogamy. Furthermore, monogamists still on board with our discussion will learn a lot about emotional intimacy from polyamorous folks, like navigating jealousy and setting clear boundaries. Win-win-win!

So how did we arrive at this current wave of poly-popularity? Heidi says we owe much of the spotlight to the pandemic. Two years into various stages of lockdown and social separation have exposed myriad societal issues, not least of which is the unrealistic assumption that a single partner can (or is willing to) fulfill all our needs.

It’s helpful to have a professional guide, especially in the early stages of your polyamory growth. Heidi’s own journey prompted her to create the coaching practice she wishes she had access to as a poly newbie. With her help, fledgling polyamorists gain the skills necessary to build meaningful connections and address old wounds in the process.

Could widespread post-pandemic polyamory be the antidote to patriarchal power-hoarding and capitalism’s doctrine of scarcity? Sign me up for polyamory’s brand of emotional abundance!

Poly-curious? Sign up for Heidi’s “Managing Jealousy” free mini-course and newsletter at She Loves Radically.

GUEST BIO

Heidi Savell, LCSW, is a polyamory relationship coach and therapist. She believes that polyamory can be an empowering and satisfying relationship model, and is passionate about helping folks find ways to thrive in these relationships.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: http://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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www.headheartbiztherapy.com/podcast

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217 - Christine Leone - Refusing to Bypass What is Broken

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

06/28/23 • 55 min

Christine Leone, LCSW, has experience shining a light on realities folks would rather leave in the dark. As a child, she and her family left liberal NYC for Portland, OR, the little-big city advertised as a cultural and political utopia. In actuality, life in that PNW paradise was anything but.

Christine and her family discovered that the city’s progressive patina obscured a very different––and dangerous––reality. “Under the guise of liberalism, there's definite, blatant racism,” she says, adding, “but I've discovered also that that's kind of everywhere.” Christine argues that it’s the less blatant, passive-aggressive racism embedded in well-meaning care systems that takes a more insidious toll.

GUEST BIO

Christine Leone has been a social worker and therapist since 2008. She was born in New York City, lived in Portland, OR, and has been settled in the Chicago area for over 20 years. For the last several years, she has been focused on creating a sense of home after divorce and seeking balance between self-care and community care while providing healing spaces for others. She currently lives with her eight-year-old son and partner of five years.

Let’s be friends! You can find me in the following places...

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NEW: Check out our cute new merch items!https://tinyurl.com/CWHmerch

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179 - Moin Subhani - Unlearning, Rewiring, and Reclaiming Our Power with Gestalt Method

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

01/12/22 • 49 min

Moin Subhani is a Toronto-based psychotherapist who practices the Gestalt method. Moin likens the modality to emotional intelligence 101, an awareness of intra- and interpersonal truths. That inward/outward journey is one Moin knows well. ”Growing up in this society, especially as a Brown person, queer, it was hard for me to sit comfortably in my skin and love myself.”

His corporate career made the task doubly difficult. In a setting where the aggressive male stereotype is at best tolerated and at worst celebrated, any show of displeasure or vocalized anger by a person of color is generally deemed a threat to rigid roles and accepted strategies for overpowering challenges to the reigning authority.

Y’all know that when anger is shoved down, it corrupts from the inside out. The emotion continues to simmer until it boils over, often in the gut of subsequent generations––and isn’t that what we’re experiencing now as the world is made to examine past injustices in order to create a more equitable future for all?

Moin feels that Gestalt fosters a more thorough unlearning and rewiring process. In an age of accelerated global reckoning, where our anger is regularly misunderstood or aggressively disregarded, there’s promise in reclaiming our anger as power with rather than power over.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The Astrology Podcast

Astral Realms Crystal Oracle Deck

Gestalt Institute of Toronto

NARM - NeuroAffective Relational Model

GUEST BIO

Moin Subhani is a Registered Psychotherapist. As a therapist, Moin is compassionate, creative and playful. He completed his psychotherapy training at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto and is a life-long student of Eastern Spirituality.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: http://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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Know the Numbers/Navigate the Feelings: A Financial Literacy Workshop for Therapists

1 Listener

225 - Lama Rod Owens - Heartbreak and Liberation on the Tantric Path

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

10/18/23 • 57 min

My guest procurement process is pretty standard: a social follow or professional acquaintance morphs into an invite and eventual recording session. For this episode, however, I gotta thank the gods of analog alignment. They placed me in my favorite wellness collective at a personal low point. Here, I encountered a flier announcing a special event featuring Lama Rod Owens. The topic? Tantric Buddhism.

Lama Rod is a Black Buddhist Southern queen, international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist studies from Harvard Divinity School, and author. And if your only reference point for Tantric anything is based on the mid-90s sexploits of a certain English musician and his wife, this ain’t that. Instead, Lama Rod is distilling liberation to its most profound, heartbreaking, and, yes, pleasurable essence.

GUEST BIO

Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, his teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers with over 11 years of experience, Lama Rod activates the intersections of his identity to create a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive. His new book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors is available for pre-order now!

SUPPORT FOR THERAPISTS

Tuesday, October 17, 6-8pm CST on Zoom

Does the word ‘finance’ make you want to run and hide? We get it! As therapists, we didn’t learn this stuff in school! Join Aggie Chydzinski and Sarah Buino for a live, interactive online workshop designed specifically for therapist business owners. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your financial knowledge and improve your practice. 100% of ticket price donations go to Sista Afya Community Care.

Reserve your spot: https://tinyurl.com/therapistfinance

Be Your Own Boss Private Practice Workshop

Thursday, November 9, 2023 9:00am - 4:00pm, and Friday, November 10, 2023, from 9:00am to 4:00pm

DePaul University Loop Campus - DePaul Center 1 E. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604

So you want to be your own boss? Many therapists feel pulled by the allure of private practice but have no idea where to begin. Some hang their shingle and wait for the phone to ring only to sit twiddling their thumbs, asking, “Where are the clients?” Facilitated by Sarah Buino, you’ll learn the business 101s including insurance, business structure, and basic financials. You’ll also have the opportunity to create your brand and begin a marketing plan. Cost: 12 CEUs / $199 Nonmember / $159 NASW Member.

Let’s be friends! You can find me in the following places...

Website:www.headheartbiztherapy.com/podcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeadHeartBizTherapy/

Instagram: @headheartbiztherapy

NEW: Our Bookshop.org page! https://bookshop.org/shop/HeadHeartBizTherapy

NEW: Check out our cute new merch items!https://tinyurl.com/CWHmerch

1 Listener

194 - Charles Small - Debunking Misconceptions About CBT And Other Evidence-Based Practices (Plus there’s singing!)

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

08/10/22 • 69 min

I do not like CBT. Don't worry; I won't break into a salty Dr. Seuss-esque rhyme deriding cognitive behavioral therapy (although I could). But then Charles Small, LCSW, would kindly call me and my objections to CBT in rather than out.

I know this because that's how he's handled my grumbling in the past. He's one of those rare souls who can debate without derision, urging folks (like me) to hit pause long enough to trust his professional experience, reconsider the reams of evidence, and assess their (my) personal resistance through a more transparent lens. And you know what? Sometimes* I get it wrong about CBT.

Alright! Let's get ready to rumble! But not really. Our conversation isn't a CBT vs. NARM cage match. In fact (and I would only say this to you because we're friends), there are points along the healing trajectory where these two modalities intersect. "Where our actual locus of control is, for the most part, is in our behaviors,” says Charles.

This mindfulness component is just one example. Another is CBT's non-judgemental approach. "It's not that there's this moral right or wrong. Instead, if I'm gonna choose the sort of person I wanna be in the world, what do my behaviors have to look like?"

*I still hate CBT, though.

GUEST BIO

Charles Small, LCSW, is a social worker providing therapy for adults at Cognitive Behavioral Associates of Chicago. Prior to private group practice, Charles worked with veterans of the US Armed Services at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and the Road Home Program at Rush, where he provided evidence-based psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, and Moral Injury. Charles is also a lecturer at Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago, offering courses on Social Work with Veterans and Evidence-based Therapies for treating PTSD.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: https://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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200 - Sarah Wolfman - Unlocking Bone-Deep Wisdom and Reclaiming Agency With Somatic Work

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

11/02/22 • 54 min

Happy anniversary! You and I have gone through a lot over the last five years. Progress! Stagnation! Rage! Exhilaration! And, would you believe, 200 conversations with wounded healers? A line-up of humans so generous of spirit that their insights echo throughout my body long after the recording session ends.

There’s something to this idea of embodied wisdom, the way we physically understand what our minds can’t (or refuse to) comprehend. Somatic Experience Practitioner Sarah Wolfman (one of my first guests ever) calls it the power of our bones. So what do these old bones know now? Sarah returns to help me sift through the transformative lessons of the last five years.

GUEST BIO

Sarah Wolfman is passionate about embodiment as a tool for transformation. By attuning to the body's natural rhythms and sensations, her clients master their nervous system's ups and downs, creating space for empowerment, resilience, and vitality. Sarah specializes in transforming trauma and chronic pain through Somatic Experience Practice, functional & dynamic movement, somatic touch, cranial-sacral techniques, and mindfulness.

NEW: Virtual community for group practice owners

Starting in January 2023, I offer a new support/working collective for group therapy practice owners who want to lead from the heart while building a thriving, ethical business. Join us at Wounded Healers as Leaders.

CONNECT: Support for mental health workers

If you work in the mental health field and are looking for support from like-minded people, check out our third installment of the Wounded Healers Virtual Group. It’s a juicy, sweet, and really cool place to connect.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: https://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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www.transtexas.org/resources

1 Listener

184 - Val Jencks - Embodying the Longevity of Wisdom

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

03/23/22 • 49 min

What a time to be alive, huh? I say so with tongue firmly planted in my cheek because when crisis cycles like the one we’re currently in arise, instinct often overrides my ability to analyze. I rush for the deep end with an overwhelming need to do everything, even as I realize I’ve stretched myself too thin to do anything.

Raise your hand if you’ve been there; done that. Val Jencks, MS, LMFT, LCPC, gets it. In addition to spending nearly three decades mentoring new therapists and working with couples and families at her Chicago-based group practice, this self-described “serial volunteer” has also dedicated her life to advocating for people impacted by trauma, mental illness, and addiction. Oh, and btw, she’s a stand-up legend who co-founded Laughing Matters In Chicago, a nonprofit that produces comedy events supporting young performers in recovery. But wait, there’s more. Val’s 2015 TEDx Talk “How to Rewrite History” is a message for anyone who has witnessed or survived youth abuse.

But the beauty of Val’s wisdom isn’t in how she keeps all the balls in the air. Instead, those times when she’s let the balls fall (because yeah, life) provide the most insight. Multiple crises have taught Val the importance of establishing a new orbit, mindful that her wellbeing (not to mention that of her family, colleagues, and clients) hangs in the balance.

However, taking care of oneself is easier said than done, especially for entrepreneurs in the healing space. When crisis crashes into capitalism, a flood of self-serving propaganda follows, pressuring individuals to practice resilience amid the storm.

Post-traumatic growth doesn’t come quickly; it reveals itself by inches or less. “I just am much more comfortable with myself. I'm less judgmental of myself.” And less compelled to dive in head-first without checking her own vitals.

Special Note: For those interested in providing tangible support to LGBTQIA+ communities under threat in Texas and Florida, the following is a small list of vetted resources:

Resources for Texas Trans Kids

www.txtranskids.org

www.transequality.org/additional-help

www.transhealthconsulting.com/mentalhealth

Resources to Oppose Florida Don’t Say Gay Bill

Take Action via Equality Florida - http://eqfl.org/act

Florida Coalition for Trans Liberation - www.fc4tl.org

Safe School South Florida - http://safeschoolssouthflorida.org

SAVE LGBTQ - www.save.lgbt

GET CONNECTED

Voicemail for 200th episode: https://speak-to.us/convoswithawoundedhealer

Waiting List for Wounded Healers Virtual Group: https://tinyurl.com/WoundedHealerWaitlist

GUEST BIO

Val Jencks, MS, LMFT, LCPC, has spent nearly three decades working with couples and families in her Chicago practice, Prairie Family Therapy. Often described as a “serial volunteer,” she has a strong penchant for championing the underserved, with decades of advocacy for people impacted by trauma, mental illness and addiction. She also co-founded “Laughing Matters in Chicago,” a nonprofit dedicated to producing comedy events that support young performers in recovery. Her 2015 TEDx talk “How to Rewrite History” is a message for anyone who has witnessed or survived youth abuse.

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: http://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

***

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1 Listener

182 - Rayell Grayson - Holding Space for Emotional Evolution with Head/Heart Therapy

Conversations With a Wounded Healer

02/23/22 • 54 min

This one has all the hallmarks of those "very special episodes" from TV days gone by. Awesome guest? Check. Witty banter? Check. A lesson on the power of vulnerability? Check. We're talking *chef's kiss* from start to finish, not least because I get to publicly gush over my friend Rayell Grayson, LCPC, CADC.

Knowing Rayell brings me so much joy on the daily. I'm proud to be in her orbit and utterly amazed by her as a counselor, speaker, manager, and human. She's committed her life to holding space for and centering those who identify as BIPOC. Rayell is also Executive Director at Head/Heart Therapy––but not for long. Trumpets, please, as I introduce folks to the next owner of the practice!

Say what?!?!

I said it. I mean it. I'm doing it! And when you meet Rayell, you'll understand why she's the logical choice to guide Head/Heart Therapy into the future. Had I not brought her on once the pandemic hit in 2020, I genuinely don't think I would've survived.

Here's to the promise of continued emotional evolution for both Rayell and Head/Heart Therapy. Let's bear witness to the future of anti-racist, anti-oppressive, liberatory therapy together.

GUEST BIO

Rayell Grayson LCPC, CADC, is a licensed clinical professional counselor, certified addictions counselor, and the Executive Director of Head/Heart Therapy. She holds a Master’s of Arts degree in clinical counseling psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Rayell specializes in: substance abuse/addiction, complex PTSD, trauma/racial trauma, cultural/racial identity development, life adjustments/transitions, stress management, mood disorders, anxiety, relational complications, domestic and sexual violence, low self-esteem/self-worth struggles, women’s issues, and health/wellness concerns. Rayell is currently holding space and centering her work around those who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

For full show notes, resources, and links to connect with our guest, visit: http://www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast

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Conversations with a Wounded Healer is a proud member of @mhnrnetwork.

Let’s be friends! You can find me in the following places...

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