16: Healing Doesn’t Have to Take a Lifetime with Barb Varcl Smith
Release Date: 04/22/2025
S2:E4 The Mind-Body Connection | What Research Is Revealing with Dr. Ann Van De Winckel
Pay Attention
One clear goal of this podcast is to build the bridge between science, contemplative practice, and lived experience. We have real and significant pieces to take us from struggle to peace, and from chaos to clarity. We feel them in the body. We sense them in the mind. We practice them in daily life. And now, research is beginning to explain how and why they work. In this episode, Holly is joined by Ann Van de Winckel, PhD, Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Minnesota Medical School and Director of the Brain–Body–Mind Lab,...
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S2:E3 When The Mind Goes Quiet, The Body Remembers with Maira Holzmann
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In the last two episodes of Pay Attention, we explored why doing more isn’t the answer—and why deeply ingrained habits can’t be changed through intellectual insight or thinking alone. So what does create real change? In this episode, Holly McNeill is joined by somatic psychotherapist Maira Holzmann for a grounded conversation about what happens when awareness moves beyond thought and includes the body. Together, they explore how trauma lives in the nervous system, and how insight and clarity can be supported on the path to healing through body-based approaches. The conversation looks at...
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S2:E2 You Can't Outthink Your Habitual Thoughts with Amy Kemp
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Coming out of last week’s conversation with Dr. Patel on Less Is More and the power of doing less for our physical health, this episode of Pay Attention turns toward the mental and emotional habits that quietly shape our lives. Holly sits down with Amy Kemp, author of I See You, to explore why working harder eventually stops working—and how many of our most celebrated traits are actually survival mechanisms formed long before we were conscious of them. Together, they examine how thought habits are formed, why the brain resists change even when something no longer serves us, and how...
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S2:E1 Less Is More In The New Year - Compassionate Care & Healing
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As the New Year begins, many of us feel pressure to fix, improve, or overhaul our lives. In this episode of Pay Attention, Holly McNeill is joined by osteopathic physician Dr. Neal Patel for a grounded, compassionate conversation about what healing can look like when we slow down and do less—not more. Together, they explore the connection between stress, mental health, and the body, and how unresolved emotional patterns often show up as physical pain, inflammation, or chronic illness. Dr. Patel shares his holistic, patient-centered philosophy—emphasizing fewer pills, fewer procedures,...
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42: Creating The New Year with Intentional Attention
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The Mindfulness Architect, Holly McNeill, reflects on New Year’s resolutions—and why intention alone is rarely enough to create real change. Rather than offering another checklist or goal-setting framework, this episode invites listeners to pause and examine what they are actually paying attention to—day by day, moment by moment—and how that attention shapes identity, choices, and the direction of their lives. As the year comes to a close, Holly explores the relationship between intention and attention, sharing how her own intention to find something better opened her to seeing new...
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41: The Gift of the Human Journey
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On this Christmas Eve, I invite you to pause. In a season that can feel joyful for some and heavy for others, this episode is a quiet reflection on the gift of the human journey — with all of its beauty, struggle, tenderness, and possibility. There is a natural flow to life, and much of our suffering comes from the habits, beliefs, and patterns we’ve unknowingly created in an effort to protect ourselves. Part of this human journey is gently learning to recognize and unwind that conditioning. The P.E.R.L.O.V.E. framework emerged from lived experience and years of exploration across...
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40: Trusting The Intuition Within with Dr. Lenka Schulze
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This week, the Mindfulness Architect, Holly McNeill is joined by Dr. Lenka Schulze, an Intuologist, Author, Educator and Spiritual Guide. Her lifelong experience, ongoing research, and ample knowledge in the area of intuition and consciousness, create a solid platform from which she invites others to view and to see life from the soul’s point of view. She is very passionate to share her unique perspective to subtle energies, vibrations and frequencies and bring them down to earth in a palatable way for people to not only comprehend easily but to take this information to apply easily into...
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39: Why Our Inner Stories Shape Us with Rita Ernst
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This week, the Mindfulness Architect, Holly McNeill is joined by Rita Ernst, the Amazon best-selling author of Show Up Positive (2022) and Culture Impact: Strategies to Create World-Changing Workplaces (2023). Forbes, MSNBC, and over 30 podcasts worldwide have featured Rita as a culture and change management expert. TAP-In Magazine named her the Top Influential Leader of 2022. She owns Ignite Your Extraordinary, which won the Most Positive Management Consultancy of 2023 and 2024 and the Excellence Award for Workplace Wellbeing Support 2024. She holds an advanced degree in Organizational...
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38: Happiness Is A Habit - Tiny Changes, Big Shifts with Michele Phillips
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On this episode, the Mindfulness Architect, Holly McNeill is joined by Michele Phillips, President of Key Performance — a powerhouse in elevating happiness, excellence, and human potential in the workplace. With more than 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, Michele blends neuroscience, habit formation, and positive psychology into a refreshingly practical formula for personal and professional success. Michele’s impact spans the globe, partnering with elite organizations like TAG Heuer, Pfizer, Verizon, Schott, Nomura, Barclays, The PGA, and The New York State Bridge Authority. Through...
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37: To The Alienated, Estranged & Separated During The Holidays
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This special Thanksgiving episode is a pause — a gentle breath — for anyone who feels alienated, estranged, or separated during the holidays. In one of the most personal episodes she’s ever shared, Holly opens her heart and tells the story of her long, painful journey through parental alienation, estrangement, and years of fighting to stay connected to her children. She speaks directly to anyone navigating complicated family dynamics: parents missing their kids, adult children distant from a parent, and anyone carrying the ache of disconnection during the holiday season. And though Holly...
info_outlineWhat if you could heal in months what took someone else decades? This episode is for you. In this installment of Pay Attention, host Holly McNeill sits down with Barb Varcl Smith—Trauma Therapist, international speaker, podcaster, mentor, and educator—joining from Scotland. Barb specializes in Complex PTSD, PTSD, and the coping mechanisms that support healing. She shares her powerful journey into the field of trauma recovery, which began over 30 years ago as a deeply personal quest to understand her own mind and heal from debilitating PTSD.
Through exploring non-traditional modalities like Reiki, Tarot, the Osho Method, and the energetic properties of crystals, wood, and plants, Barb carved a unique path to recovery. Now, she’s dedicated to helping others fast-track their healing journeys—so they don’t have to spend decades doing it alone. Her book, Parenting with Purpose: Breaking the Trauma Cycle to Raise Happy, Confident Children, a step-by-step guide for parents seeking self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and a nurturing approach to raising children will release soon.
Feeling inspired? Make sure to connect with Barb and tell her you heard her on Pay Attention!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barb-smith-varclova/?originalSubdomain=uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbsvarclova/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@traumaresponsereprogramming
Website: https://your-steps.co.uk