Libsyn Directory

378: Summer Series: Healing Your Abandonment Wound with Susan Anderson

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

Release Date: 08/03/2023

509: How the Body Stores Trauma, Stress, and Emotional Blocks | Harmony Slater

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Harmony Slater for a soulful conversation about the body, the breath, energetic healing, and the hidden patterns that can keep us out of alignment with who we really are. We talk about how the body holds emotional experiences, why so many of us feel disconnected from ourselves, and how healing happens when we slow down enough to listen to what our body has been trying to tell us all along. Harmony shares her personal journey through yoga, mysticism, energy work, and healing from autoimmune symptoms and chronic fatigue. We also explore the mind-body connection,...

508: How to Trust Your Intuition and Soul Path | Anniston Riekstins

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Anniston Riekstins for a powerful conversation about what it really means to remember who you are and live from that truth. We talk about the massive awakening happening right now, why so many people are questioning the lives they’ve built, and what it looks like to reconnect with your heart, your intuition, and your soul’s deeper purpose. Anniston shares her perspective on what’s unfolding collectively in 2026, how numerology can help us understand the patterns and timing in our lives, and why so many people are being called to stop living from the mind...

507: Sadness, Anger, Fear: What Do We Do With Our Emotions?

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Liz Burkholder for a real, unscripted conversation about emotions, what they’re here to teach us, and how to move through them in a healthy way. We talk about anger, grief, sadness, fear, anxiety, and what happens when we keep pushing our emotions down instead of allowing them to move through us. Liz and I also explore what it means to truly hold space for ourselves and for other people, why so many of us were never taught how to feel our emotions, and how emotional repression can show up in the body, in relationships, and in everyday life. This is a...

506: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Do Not Do | Amy Morin

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

Today, I’m joined by therapist, bestselling author, and speaker Amy Morin for a deeply honest conversation about what it really means to become mentally strong. Amy shares how her understanding of mental strength was shaped not only by her work as a therapist, but by walking through profound grief, unexpected loss, and the kind of life experiences that can completely change you. We talk about the difference between grief and self-pity, why people-pleasing drains us, how boundaries support mental strength, and what to do with the inner critic that keeps trying to run the show. Amy also...

505: How Small Changes Create Real Transformation | Eric Zimmer

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Eric Zimmer for a grounded and honest conversation about what real change actually looks like and why lasting transformation usually doesn’t happen all at once. Eric shares his powerful recovery story, what finally helped him create lasting change, and why the smallest daily choices often matter more than the big breakthrough moments we tend to chase. We talk about how to work with the parts of ourselves we’d rather avoid, what to do when we shut down, shrink, or feel overwhelmed, and why true growth comes from learning how to relate to ourselves...

504: When a Physicist Met God: Seeing Reality Through the Heart | Dr. David Clements

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. David Clements for a deep, mind-expanding conversation about consciousness, intuition, and what happens when we learn to perceive life through the heart, not just the mind. David has an extraordinary background, with advanced degrees in mathematics and theoretical physics (including work in string theory), and he shares the awakening that shifted everything for him. We talk about remote viewing, out-of-body experiences, and why David believes human beings have far more perceptual capacity than most of us have been taught to access. We also explore his...

503: Healing Family Trauma and Relationships | Michelle Wootten

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by Adult Chair® Certified Coach for a practical, real-life conversation about the “how-to” of healing and staying grounded when life gets messy. We talk about generational trauma, setting boundaries with toxic family members, navigating grief when relationships change, and using the Adult Chair tools to strengthen communication in marriage. Michelle shares her personal story of hitting a breaking point, how her body signaled it was time to stop, and what helped her begin healing from the inside out. You’ll also hear honest insights about going no-contact...

502: The Consciousness of Cancer: Healing From Within | Dr. Liz Burkholder

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I’m joined by my dear friend Dr. Liz Burkholder, a holistic nurse practitioner and the founder of . Liz opens up about her cancer diagnosis and shares the very conscious, guided approach she’s taken, rooted in deep inner work, intuition, and mind-body healing. We explore what Liz calls “the consciousness of cancer,” how the body can hold repressed emotions, and why healing requires both practical support and emotional release. Liz also shares jaw-dropping updates from her imaging, including lesions disappearing and a primary lesion shrinking significantly, even without...

501: Your “Heart Wall” May Be Fueling Anxiety, Numbness, & Disconnection | Dr. Bradley Nelson

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Bradley Nelson, creator of The Emotion Code and The Body Code, to talk about his newer work, The Heart Code and the powerful concept of the “heart wall.” We explore how trapped emotions form, how they can impact the body and mind (including anxiety, depression, disconnection, and low self-worth), and what it can look like to clear them so you can feel more love, joy, and belonging in your life. Dr. Brad also walks me through a real, live heart wall clearing, so you can hear what the process sounds like in real time. In this episode, you’ll...

500: 500 Episodes In: Hard Truths and Breakthroughs That Changed Me

The Michelle Chalfant Show — Life from the Adult Chair

Today’s episode is a special one as we celebrate the 500th episode of the show and over 11 million downloads worldwide. I’m joined by Jess Giacobbe from my team, who turns the microphone around and asks me the questions listeners have always wanted to ask about my journey, my work, and what I’ve learned along the way. We talk about how this podcast began, the real behind-the-scenes moments that challenged me, the times I almost quit, and how learning to trust my intuition changed everything. I also share what “downloads” actually feel like, how triggers reveal unconscious beliefs,...

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Rejection is one of the greatest fears we have as humans. Even simple rejections like not making the team or being chosen for a job – things we know aren’t personal – still sting deeply. Why does rejection seem to hit at the core of who we are?

Susan Anderson began asking this question when she went through a personal experience of abandonment. The love of her life left her suddenly for another woman, and although she was a practicing psychotherapist with immense knowledge of the human mind, she still found herself in emotional crisis and doubting herself and her worthiness.

As she dug more into this topic, she discovered that we as humans have a primal abandonment wound – a universal experience that begins when we are born and go from deep union and connection with our mother to a feeling of being separate. This creates deep shame and causes us to search for belonging and worthiness throughout our lives.

And this is why rejection hurts so much: it triggers this deep fear that we might not belong and we might not be worthy.

In this fascinating and important episode, Susan shares her discoveries on the topic of abandonment, why we experience it the ways we do and how a whole host of other issues in our lives can stem from this wound. We discussed why healing abandonment trauma looks different from healing other traumas, the five stages of healing and the tools (all of which are part of The Adult Chair® model) that can heal it.

Listen to discover:

The hidden shame we all have and the root of it
The different defenses we put up against shame
How to raise our awareness to our abandonment wounds
Why healing from abandonment looks different from other forms of trauma healing
Steps to healing abandonment wounding
How working with abandonment wounding can help with people pleasing, codependency and self-sabotage
5 stages of processing abandonment hurt

The primal wound of abandonment is also an opportunity for primal healing. When we learn to love and accept ourselves as worthy and recognize how deeply connected we truly are, we not only heal our abandonment wound, but we can change almost anything in our lives.

"The loneliness is sort of a secondary feeling. The primary is the primal fear and the shame of maybe never being worthy of keeping someone." - Susan Anderson

"The personality itself is a defense against the shame." - Susan Anderson

"When we look at a relationship that ends, it is a retraumatization of what we experienced as a child." - Michelle Chalfant

"The history that leads to a strong reaction in adulthood to abandonment could be very subtle." - Susan Anderson

"You have to take this step, and you go through it...The pain is there, but you go through it, and you get to the other side." - Michelle Chalfant

"Your adult self can now develop an intense, loving, reassuring relationship with your inner child." - Susan Anderson

"It turns this awful emotional crisis that's so painful into an opportunity for something that's probably long overdue, which is self-love." - Susan Anderson

"Doing these steps, you will become an even better, stronger, more self-loving person on the other side of it...even stronger than you were prior to this abandonment wound." - Michelle Chalfant

"The kind of self-love that we're developing is deeper, more mature self-love...the kind of love you give yourself because you respect yourself so much." - Susan Anderson

"We have to stop looking outside of self and turn our attention inward. That's where healing, that's where love, that's where hope, that's where peace, that's where all the things are that we're looking for outside of ourselves." - Michelle Chalfant

"When the adult gets strong and is in command, it limits all of this self-sabotage." - Susan Anderson

LINKS & RESOURCES

Susan Anderson Website

https://www.abandonment.net/

https://abandonmentrecovery.com

"The Journey from Abandonment to Healing" (Susan Anderson book)

https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Abandonment-Healing-Surviving-Recovering/dp/0425273539

Green Chef

https://www.greenchef.com/adult50

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