From Medicated to Meditated: Spiritual Awakening, Grief, and Healing Through Energy
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
Release Date: 05/28/2025
Breaking Free From a Narcissistic Partner: Financial Protection, Parenting, and Exit Strategy with Camille Zhuk
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
What does it really take to leave a narcissistic relationship—without losing your finances, your children, or yourself? In this powerful episode of Surviving Roots, I sit down with Camille Zhuk, founder of The Breaking Free Project, a strategic support platform designed to help individuals—especially parents—safely exit narcissistic relationships. With a background in business and finance and specialized training in narcissistic abuse recovery, coercive control, domestic violence advocacy, and behavioral profiling, Camille offers something rare: clear, logical strategy paired with deep...
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The Mental Load of Motherhood and Why Asking for Help Changes Everything with Diana Arango
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
Motherhood isn’t just hard — it’s heavy. And one of the biggest invisible weights? Feeding everyone… every single day. In this episode of Surviving Roots, Cari Fund sits down with Diana Arango, co-founder + CEO of Chefpost, a platform connecting busy families with vetted personal chefs on demand. Diana shares the real story behind Chefpost: how her own burnout as a working mom sparked a mission to help families reclaim time, presence, and connection at home. In this conversation, we cover: The mental load of meal planning (and why it’s exhausting) Why “balance” is a myth —...
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Reinvention After Loss: Confidence, Healing, and Finding Love Again at 40
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
At twenty, she found her father after a fatal accident. At forty, she lost her husband to cancer. And somehow—she found herself again. In this deeply human conversation, lifestyle and beauty creator Rachael Potash shares how she turned unimaginable loss into a story of reinvention, healing, and hope. Now a mom of two and a bonus mom to four, she’s helping women over 40 feel seen, confident, and hopeful again through fashion, beauty, and honest storytelling. Rachael opens up about: 💔 Losing her husband at 40 and rebuilding her life from scratch 💫 Navigating motherhood, grief, and a...
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The Golden Child Effect: Breaking Free from Roles That Keep You Small
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
What happens when the “good daughter” wakes up to the truth? In this week’s Surviving Roots episode, Cari Fund sits down with Lauren Smallcomb — certified mind-body practitioner, trauma survivor, and author of Golden Child: My Descent to Scapegoat and Rise to Freedom. Lauren shares her journey from being the adored “golden child” in a rigid, religious family to becoming the scapegoat when faith, politics, and identity collided. Together, Cari and Lauren explore what it means to break free from high-control systems, redefine forgiveness, and rebuild a life rooted in freedom, grief,...
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The Cost of Self-Abandonment: Why Boundaries Heal More Than They Hurt
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
What if setting boundaries isn’t about pushing people away — but about finally choosing yourself? In this powerful and deeply relatable conversation, Harvard-trained clinical psychologist Dr. Sabrina Romanoff joins Surviving Roots host Cari Fund to unpack the hidden patterns that shape our relationships — from friendship breakups and people-pleasing to the repetition of childhood wounds in our adult lives. Together they explore: Why boundaries are acts of preservation, not rejection. How self-abandonment begins in childhood — and how to stop repeating it. The psychology behind...
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The Messy Side of Awakening with Michelle Garside
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
In this raw and soul-stirring episode of Surviving Roots, Cari Fund sits down with Michelle Garside—co-founder of Soul Camp Creative, a sacred strategy house helping purpose-driven people and organizations tell their most authentic stories. Michelle has spent her career creating transformative spaces like Soul Camp, The Enchantment Experience, and The Connecticut Women’s Club. But beneath all that success is a story of radical truth-telling, recovery, and what it really means to belong. Together, Cari and Michelle dive deep into the loneliness that hides beneath high achievement, the...
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From Divorce to Book Deals: Asha Elias on Reinvention, Writing, and Motherhood
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
Writer, mother, and reluctant socialite Asha Elias joins Cari to talk about reinvention, resilience, and the real story behind her rapid rise as a novelist. From launching Pink Glass Houses to celebrating the release of The Namaste Club, Asha opens up about writing, grief, raising two kids post-divorce, and how dating a younger man has taught her about love and softness in relationships. Asha has contributed to Cosmopolitan magazine and is a regular columnist for Miami New Times. She lives in Miami Beach. This conversation is honest, inspiring, hilarious, and packed with reminders that you can...
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Outsource the Overwhelm: Peacock Parenting, Delegation & Redefining Time with Proxy
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
What if parenthood came with a delegation plan, a support team, and a mission statement? In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Christine Landis—former CEO turned intentional parenting strategist and founder of Peacock Parent—to unpack how executive-level planning, outsourcing, and mindset shifts can radically reduce burnout and bring joy back to motherhood. We explore: The hidden mental load modern parents carry How to apply “time is money” thinking to family life Why delegating isn’t selfish—it’s self-preservation How Christine’s new membership platform Proxy...
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From Grief to Awakening: How ‘My Drumbeats’ Became Her Healing Anthem
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
In this soulful episode of Surviving Roots, host Cari Fund welcomes Haitian-born artist and yoga teacher Anick Vorbe, author of the spiritual memoir My Drumbeats. Together, they explore how grief can become a sacred portal of awakening. Anick shares her healing journey through the sudden loss of her brother, her experiences with ayahuasca, and how writing this book became a way to reconnect with her voice, her culture, and her purpose. We discuss plant medicine, raising conscious children, and what it means to write for the collective. This conversation is a heart-opening...
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Tracy Campoli on Aging Fiercely, Building a Body You Love, and Ditching Toxic Wellness Trends
Surviving Roots: A Crash Course in Turning Pain into Potential
This week on Surviving Roots, wellness expert and digital fitness mentor Tracy Campoli joins us for an empowering conversation about redefining strength, beauty, and health — especially for women over 40. With over 300,000 YouTube subscribers and a thriving program called Total Body Transformation, Tracy shares her real-life journey from insecure dancer to thriving entrepreneur, wife, and mom. We explore what movement really means, the myths she’s ditching (yes, even cold plunges), and how confidence gets better with age — not worse. Tracy opens up about motherhood, hormones, body...
info_outlineThis week on Surviving Roots, I sit down with spiritual healer and author Lauren Courtney to explore what it really looks like to heal from the inside out. Lauren shares her journey from being a medicated teen in New York to becoming a Miami-based energy healer, sound therapist, and author of Glow Up Your Chakras.
Together, we unpack the truth about healing highs, spiritual awakenings, reconnecting with your authentic self, and how grief can crack you open to your life’s purpose. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re truly healing or just performing a new version of self-improvement — this episode is for you.
We discuss:
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Chakras, trauma, and self-remembrance
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The dark side of awakening (and what comes after the “healing high”)
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Why you don’t need crystals, ayahuasca, or a guru to start healing
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Moving from chaos to clarity — one choice at a time
Tune in and walk away with inspiration, insight, and the reminder that your power lives in your truth.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube + more.
Connect with Cari Fund on Instagram: @cari.fund
Connect with Lauren on Instagram: @iamlaurencourtney
Download my free bold self-growth guide at www.cari.fund