Tag: healing humanity

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

162 – Dr. LaNail Plummer – Creating Safe Space for Intersectional Marginalized Communities

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“Healers have to be so close to the wound…in order to actually heal it.” ~Dr. LaNail Plummer

Dr. LaNail Plummer, founder and CEO of Onyx Therapy Group, has designed her life around healing her communities. The build process hasn’t been easy. As a Black, bisexual woman, she’s navigated multiple structural impediments. But the racism, homophobia, and religious rigidity that forced her to the margins unwittingly pushed her into her power: to create safe spaces for folks in the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s impossible to speak with a DC-based practitioner – especially one whose professional focus and personal identity align with marginalized folks – and not ask about their welfare as it relates to the insurrection on January 6th. Once again, LaNail’s deep desire to be in community with her people took over. Amid the assault, she offered vital transparent support – something I continually advocate for on both sides of the therapy relationship.

“We’re just going to live this experience together,” she told her clients. “I am not going to 100% be your expert in this moment. What we’re going to do is have a shared human experience, and we are going to both learn and heal and process together.”

***

Dr. LaNail R. Plummer is the CEO & Founder of Onyx Therapy Group – a DC-based mental health organization dedicated to providing mental health services for individuals and organizations in marginalized groups such as Black and Brown communities and the LGBTQ+.

As a leading professional in the mental health field, Dr. LaNail R. Plummer is committed to improving the lifestyles of others through the aspects of mental health and character development. A United States Military Veteran and the CEO of Onyx Therapy Group — an organization she founded in 2013 — Dr. Plummer has over 15 years of experience working with a multitude of clients and specializing in the care of young women; the Black community; and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Grounded in the values of integrity and awareness, Dr. Plummer believes that emotional, spiritual, and cultural healing is attainable for all.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

Friday, September 17, 2021 – Body Language by Joanna Taubeneck, LCPC, R-DMT, GL-CMA, E-RYT Friday, November 19, 2021 – Queering our Conversations by Benji Marton, LCSW

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

161 – Alexa Silvaggio – Chocolate, Pleasure, and Loving Your Whole Self

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“It doesn’t matter what your purpose is; it could be a doctor or a dog mom. Doesn’t matter. But you’re not gonna do it wholeheartedly if you’re obsessing about the size of your thighs.” ~Alexa Silvaggio

Chocolate and ketamine.

Yes, that would be a fantastic title for a double album! Instead, they’re the ingredients for a vibe-altering conversation with wellness entrepreneur and chocolatier Alexa Silvaggio. As CEO of Savage Chocolates, she helps people cultivate an experience of pleasure and presence through chocolate.

Alexa believes in pleasure done well, pleasure done mindfully. “I don’t have any interest in consuming something that leaves me feeling worse than when I started,” she says. That goes as much for people and experiences as it does food.

Alexa’s affinity for pleasure – so often treated as a dirty word and frivolous pursuit in Western culture – was born out of the years she spent restricting herself into an eating disorder. Alexa began internalizing both the conspicuous and covert messages about body shape and size at a young age, essentially disappearing in an attempt to become more valuable. The loop of self-hatred played in Alexa’s head nonstop throughout college until her sister finally helped her hit stop.

There’s a spiritual quality with which Alexa talks about starvation – of the body, of the soul. Likewise, the practices and methods she’s leaned on along her healing journey.

Y’all, I had such a soul-satisfying visit with Alexa that we didn’t even get to the healer/wounded healer questions! And I don’t even care because, instead, we unraveled several threads at once, including my decision to begin ketamine treatments, the death of Alexa’s beloved mother, and the myriad paths that reconnect us to our source.

Listeners, use promo code PAUSEBREATHESAVOR25 for 25% off Savage Chocolate!

***

Alexa Silvaggio is a wellness entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. She is a yoga instructor, writer, podcast host, retreat leader, and CEO of Savage Chocolates, a mindfulness chocolate brand. She encourages you to cultivate a more loving relationship with your body and self through all she teaches. She would love to connect with you!

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

Friday, May 7, 2021 – Trauma from the Individual to the Collective by Rayell Grayson, LCPC, CADC and Sarah Buino, LCSW, RDDP, CADC, CDWF Friday, September 17, 2021 – Body Language by Joanna Taubeneck, LCPC, R-DMT, GL-CMA, E-RYT Friday, November 19, 2021 – Queering our Conversations by Benji Marton, LCSW

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

160 – Dr. Funnies – Mental Health One Meme at a Time

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“A lot of the things that we have gone through have taught us a lot of lessons — have made us stronger in certain ways.” ~Dr. Funnies

Heads up: This episode with Dr. Funnies features some conversation around still-birth. If such discussions trigger you in any way, please take care should you choose to listen.

From professional gaslighting and personal tragedy to hilarious memes and triumph of the spirit, this episode covers the entire spectrum of human emotion. If you’ve listened to Conversations With A Wounded Healer for any length of time (say, one episode), you know my love for Instagram is next-level. It’s where I socialize with listeners and where I meet all of my new best friends, including today’s guest, Dr. Funnies.

Dr. Funnies is the brilliant brain behind Mental Health Funnies, the Instagram account she started in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown here in the US. Regardless of which side of the therapist/client relationship you occupy, the memes at Mental Health Funnies will make you snort out loud.

Dr. Funnies has a knack for distilling everyday absurdities into a single frame while displaying complete empathy for her audience as well as herself. Dr. Funnies’s journey from stellar student at a historically Black college to roadblocked post-grad intern to autonomous practitioner is harrowing at times, made so by the racism and white supremacy embedded in the very marrow of this country. A true wounded healer, she knew that one day, her experiences would serve to help others. Whether one-on-one with clients or by the thousands through her memes, Dr. Funnies is absolutely right about that.

***

Dr. Funnies. I am a mental health therapist trying my best to help heal others! I have been in the field for over 17yrs. I believe laughter can sometimes be the best medicine!

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

159 – Brian Thompson – Socially Responsible Investing as a Healing Art

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“It has to be your flag […]. So, being able to do that internal work and say, ‘Oh, what is it that I want to be? What is it that I want to look like? And how do I want to present myself?’ and letting that be okay, keeping your flag the one that’s flying rather than trying to be somebody else, no matter what it is.” ~Brian Thompson

In the right hands, financial planning is a healing art. Wait, don’t tune out! I go cross-eyed, too, thinking about indexes and funds and allocations! Just hang with me a sec. I promise you’ll fall in love with my amazing guest Brian Thompson, tax attorney, certified financial planner™, registered life planner™, Forbes features writer, and podcaster. He’s also a super friend and my Al-Anon pal.

Brian occupies many intersections and all of them inform his approach to socially responsible investing (or ESG). You’ll leave here wiser and psyched about putting your values before your returns.

I anticipate some whining. ‘But Sarah, if I put my values before my returns, I won’t have anything to live on!’

Y’all, that’s just capitalism’s vice-like grip. It’s time to integrate conversations about what we want to do with our money into our healing practices.

And I’m over here just trying to imagine a world where all financial planners show up the way Brian does. What a wonderful world that would be.

***

Brian E. Thompson. As both a tax attorney and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Brian provides comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. Entrepreneurs hold a special place in his heart. He spent a decade defending them against the IRS as a tax attorney and has become one himself as an advisor.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

158 – Nellie D – Wicca, Buddhism, and Healing Ancestral Wounds

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“I recognize within myself that there were huge cycles that needed to be broken. And, with having two girls, it was so important for me for those cycles to be broken.” ~Nellie D.

This show, like life itself, is an exercise in connect-the-dots. From listeners linked around the globe (shout out, Saudi Arabia!), to friends met over on IG, to acquaintances made through other guests, we Wounded Healers vibe on levels that run deep.

Today’s guest is no exception. I met Nellie D. through Jim Martin of Unusual Buddha. She’s a self-described Mother extraordinaire and lifelong learner whose spiritual journey has led her about as far from her traditional evangelical Christian upbringing as one can venture: to a point where Buddhism and Wiccan philosophy intersect. Now let’s get witchy!

I say that with complete respect and admiration. Of her hybrid Wiccan practice, Nellie says it’s all about education and healing.

As the mother of two daughters, she knows firsthand the “unlearning” that women require to maintain healthy mental wellbeing. In healing her wounds, Nellie’s healing her daughters’ futures as well as her ancestral past, tattooing over the scars and making them beautiful. “It is a connection with the energies around you and exploring those energies,” explains Nellie, “and also honoring those energies.”

Witches truly are our better angels.

Nellie D is a Mother extraordinaire with an Earth-loving flair, always seeking new adventures, and excited for lifelong learning!

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

157 – Celeste Meyer – Intersectionality in Therapy and Living an Embodied Life

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“I really thought, like, if people have the choice to choose what they pay, they’re going to undervalue me, and I was so sure that everybody would pick the lower fees. I’m making more money than I’ve ever made!” ~ Celeste Meyer

Celeste Meyer has created something folks on this planet need to see more examples of – a pretty yummy, juicy life for herself and those with whom she’s in alliance. From friends to clients to partners, this fat-bodied, South Asian queer woman has molded her professional and personal spaces into shapes that defy confinement. She rejects the rigidity of white supremacy’s boxes – and she’s doing very well outside of them, thankyouverymuch.

Predominately centered on BIPOC, queer, trans, and fat clients, Celeste’s practice is where intersectionality – and the wounds so often heaped on top of those instances of confluence – is given its proper due. You’ll recognize the phrase liberation-focused therapy from previous episodes. At a macro level, it’s a framework that offers empowerment and healing in aid of communities most neglected by mainstream mental health services.

We even had time to unpack the healer and wounded healer questions – diving into issues of appropriation, the divine feminine, the seasonality of life, the Farmers Almanac (true story!). Celeste said it best: “I get to have cycles within me of blooming and conserving energy, being, you know, blossoming and ready to connect with all the plants around me – or being the one with one little leaf. I get to be all of them!”

***

Celeste Meyer is a self-identified Brown Fat Femme who lives, loves, and works on unceded Muskoke/Creek territory known as Atlanta, Georgia. In her private practice, she predominantly sees BIPOC, queer, trans, and fat clients as they heal from trauma and focus on liberation through connection and somatic-based therapy.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

156 – Shiralee Patel, PT, DPT – Mobility is Health

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“It’s just so important to know that we’re so interdependent, and we thrive through the ability to connect, and that’s the bigger picture.” ~ Shiralee Patel

I’m honored and a little bit giddy to be the first podcast on which Shiralee Patel, PT, DPT, has ever appeared. I mean E-V-E-R! So crazy to me because this wise woman isn’t “just” a physical therapist; she’s my PT.

Shiralee is a skilled professional whose niche in craniosacral therapy and visceral mobilization encompasses more than “just” adjustments or realignments. She’s an expert in these feeling arts – light touches and manipulations informed by the body’s systems. When providers like her pause and tune in to what the body has to say, they hear the infinite wisdom of organs and emotions; they then translate that information to support better overall health and wellbeing.

Her work aims to bridge Western and Eastern healing philosophies, bringing both into balance. She does this through touch, palpating organs, and identifying where in the body certain feelings or experiences have settled. Then, she applies techniques to help release those emotions, thus liberating the affected organ or muscle from pain or inflammation.

Does Shiralee consider herself a healer? Let’s just say you must listen in to hear her beautifully enlightened answer. For now, I’ll let it slip that she believes in the curative spark residing within each of us. “I like to kind of connect with [that].”

***

Shiralee Patel, DPT, is a physical therapist who works with both adults and children specializing in craniosacral therapy and visceral mobilization. She is passionate about utilizing a holistic approach to determining the underlying factors that cause dysfunction and imbalance.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

Bonus – Stop Psychoanalyzing Mass Shooters, Stop Asian Hate

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“Aren’t you tired of endlessly reading about white men who can’t help but murder people of color in our communities? Aren’t you tired of being made to feel helpless because of apparent untreatable mental illness problems that apparently lead to mass violence?” ~Sarah Suzuki

I recorded this on March 23rd, 2021. March 22nd, there was a shooting in Boulder, Colorado, and on March 16th, there was a shooting in Atlanta, Georgia.

I woke up today and cried because this is ridiculous. And I don’t even know what to say about it, but luckily I have brilliant friends who say brilliant things.

My friend and former podcast guest, Sarah Suzuki has written an article called Stop Psychoanalyzing Mass Shooters: How in-depth psychological profiles perpetuate white supremacy.

So I wanted to read this to you on the show.

***

Sarah Suzuki is the founder of Chicago Compass Counseling, a group practice dedicated to serving the family system through inclusive, evidence-based behavior change counseling. She offers a self-paced online training for therapists on Psychotherapy and Cannabis. As a speaker, Sarah enjoys presenting ideas that ignite and inspire. She grounds her approach to both counseling in an antiracist analysis, sharing a vision of a multicultural and transformed society. In 2018, her talk on facing fear went viral – with over 2 million views and counting. Sarah has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) since 2010 and participated in the certification process in 2017. To date, she has worked with more than 50 organizations across the country as a trainer and consultant.

Sarah was featured waaay back on episode 19.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

Friday, May 7, 2021 – Trauma from the Individual to the Collective by Rayell Grayson, LCPC, CADC and Sarah Buino, LCSW, RDDP, CADC, CDWF

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook:

Instagram:

Twitter:

155 – Dr. Sonali Deepika – Sensuality as a Gateway to Better Health

All Network Episodes, Conversations With A Wounded Healer

“As we can release things that we’re holding, we get to be more of ourselves and more of our own energy and more of our own essence and power. ” ~Dr. Sonali Deepika

Of all the excellent words spoken in this conversation between Dr. Sonali Deepika and I, the one that stands out is pretty simple: shift.

As in shift the male-dominated, white-centric, evidence-based paradigm that currently governs our Western approach to physical and mental wellbeing. OK, our discussion isn’t nearly as heavy as all that sounds, thanks to Sonali’s grounded nature and conviction in an alternate way forward, a luscious, magical path that reconnects people to their sacred ground.

Tired of the Western focus on verifiable symptoms and rigid diagnosis codes, Sonali ditched her psychiatry practice several years ago to search for a more holistic way to apply her knowledge and curiosity. The journey led her to her ancestral home of Sri Lanka and the pursuit of sensuality as a gateway to better health.

Sonali’s affinity for this transformational work comes from a deeply personal tragedy that she and her family suffered. Luckily for her clients, Sonali’s journey continues. She’s creating new offerings for her sensuality coaching practice. This field melds her solid Western experience with an intuitive, feminine philosophy, helping people reclaim agency in their own healing and return to a more sacred flow.

***

Dr. Sonali Deepika is a lifelong learner who after practicing psychiatry for many years decided to pursue her passion for holistic healing in support of the embodiment of the soul’s purpose. She discovered this work while living across the globe and found the greatest journey to be that of truly coming home to her body. Her heart-centered calling is to guide others on this luscious, magical path to connect to their sacred ground.

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

HEY THERAPISTS…

Details & Registration: http://tinyurl.com/hhconvos

Promo Code for $20 off: podcast

***

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

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

Website:

Facebook: