Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson
Cutting-edge, pioneering conversations on holistic women's health, including sex, birth, motherhood, womanhood, intimacy and trauma with doula, certified Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and author of Call of the Wild and the Fourth Trimester, Kimberly Ann Johnson.
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Episode 216: Cultural Identity, Ancestry, & White Privileges and Poverties with Tad Hargrave
10/08/2024
Episode 216: Cultural Identity, Ancestry, & White Privileges and Poverties with Tad Hargrave
Fellow Orphan Wisdom Scholar, and founder of Marketing for Hippies, Tad Hargrave dives deep with Kimberly into his ever-evolving relationship to whiteness and ancestry. They discuss Tad’s journey into exploring his ancestral roots, language and cultural identity, as well as Kimberly and Tad’s shared rites of passage experiences doing anti-racism work. Tad shares how he initially felt disconnected from indigenous cultures, but found deep resonance exploring his own heritage, particularly his Scottish Gaelic ancestry. The two discuss the polarities of self-loathing and self-glorification amidst contemporary white activists of both the left and right, and the broader implications of whiteness and cultural identity for white individuals. They touch on the importance of considering both privileges and poverties when it comes to whiteness, and also consider the challenges and complexities faced by white people in navigating issues of privilege, guilt when trying to meaningfully engage with marginalized histories and communities. Overall, the conversation delves into the nuanced and often difficult process of reclaiming one's cultural heritage and identity as a white person, and ends on a consideration of how to creatively and meaningfully approach speaking the colonizer tongue of English. Bio: Tad Hargrave is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned to be a hippy again). He spent his late teens being schooled in a mixed bag of approaches to sales and marketing – some manipulative and some not. When that career ended, he spent a decade unlearning and unpacking what he’d been through. How had he been swept up in it? Why didn’t those approaches work as well as advertised? Were there ways of marketing that both worked better and felt better to all involved? It took him time but he began to find a better way to market. By 2006, he had become one of the first, full-time ‘conscious business’ marketing coaches (for hippies) and created a business where he could share the understanding he had come to: Marketing could feel good. You didn’t have to choose between marketing that worked (but felt awful) or marketing that felt good (but got you no clients). Since 2001, he has been touring his around Canada, the United States, Europe, and online, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organizations and businesses (without selling their souls). Instead of charging outrageous amounts, he started doing most of his events on a pay what you can basis. He is the author of sixteen books and workbooks on marketing. Tad currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the local indigenous language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy (Beaver Hill) and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan (Beaver Hill House) and his ancestors come primarily from Scotland with some from the Ukraine as well. He is now dedicated to spending the rest of his days preserving and fostering a more deeply respectful, beautiful and human culture. What you’ll hear: Tad’s intro to anti-racism and youth organizing work in the Bay Area Tad found himself pushing up against something in anti-racist/white supremacy trainings What is the role of self-loathing in anti-racism trainings? Tad found admiration toward indigenous rituals, but unlike some white peers, didn’t feel drawn to doing more work with indigenous cultures Something changed when Tad began learning his indigenous language Tad came to understand whiteness as a cover for something Whiteness is a kind of forgetting Can a white person participate in a indigenous ritual? Yes, but always as a guest and with consideration for the impact their presence might be having on that community Recognizing that whiteness was trouble, that it was a kind of poverty Tad found he no longer was so anxiously seeking approval from indigenous people and people of color, which he recognized as another form of taking The importance of finding rootedness in ancestral story Kim discusses her experience in urban education in Chicago and studying under Michael Eric Dyson Kim found she was often comparing her ancestor grief to Black peers Kim has found Canada’s links to the older world to be more apparent than the United States Unpacking whiteness is an empty box - there’s nothing there. Where do white people go for culture? Often Black culture in North America You can’t start with shame - you have to remind people who they came from Peter Levine’s idea that you don’t, in locating feelings in the body, rest in what’s good and stay comfortable; but you also don’t stay in the bad and turn to ash. For white people there is no “good” place to go connected to the term white- it’s discomfort all the time. A polarizing time - one end of the spectrum is MAGA which reinforces white supremacy/entitlement the other end is leftist positive reinforcement for self-loathing, guilt, and shame. White privilege gets conflated with cultural appropriation The belief that deep down you are bad is a non-indigenous worldview - it’s a Christian one. A rite of passage in a certain way to be so different than the rest of a room of people. There is privilege in white innocence, wide-eyed and curious about other worldviews, but it is not one that you come out the other side of without recognizing cultural poverty. There are double binds of contemporary identity politics discourse - despite the intention to advocate for another group of people, there is also anticipated criticism for participating in culture or movement that is not your own. After an event, there are lines of young people paralyzed by guilt about being white, male, or part of the settler-colonial class. There’s a lot of learning that can happen if you look back to why people left, further than just North American history. Self-loathing is a collapse onto oneself and self-glorification if a puffing up/posture on a very dark history of genocide, slavery, and racism - they aren’t opposites - they are two sides of the same coin. Dominant society has a tendency to co-opt, and possess everything that is holy. There is no movement that isn’t co-opted by a dominant society - BLM, Feminism, Indigeneity Corporations co-opt every movement without changing their practices - the enemy is that machine. Wendell Berry - live as a machine or live as a creature? Whiteness is a construct of empire. How do you make a living when you want to opt out of empire, late-stage capitalism and try and work on a more human scale? How to find or make the village? Leaving more than you had for the next generation. The origins of a conception of whiteness is privilege - but as you go further there are also poverties. At Orphan Wisdom School Tad saw something not just preserved, but practiced How do we not only preserve ancestral culture but also practice it? What does it mean to make culture in the times and places we are living? Resources Tad’s Substack: Tad’s Marketing Business: Tad on Whiteness: Tad’s IG: Martin Prechtel’s book: Stephanie Mackay’s website:
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EP 215: Never Land / Sever Land - Dirt, Place, Ancestry, & The Making of Culture From the New World with Stephen Jenkinson
10/01/2024
EP 215: Never Land / Sever Land - Dirt, Place, Ancestry, & The Making of Culture From the New World with Stephen Jenkinson
In this episode, podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson about their upcoming live audio series Never Land / Sever Land - Dirt, Place, Ancestry, and The Making of Culture From The New World. They discuss the impact of their recent trip to Ireland on their ongoing collaboration around culture making in the wake of a global pandemic. They reveal details about Stephen's work-in-progress manuscript and how it relates to orphan wisdom. They consider the implications of the “New World” in contemporary circumstances, the sticky territory of ancestry, and how dirt fits into all of this. A glimpse into a very special offering to come, this conversation gives you a preview into what happens when these two come together to consider the topics and work they’ve devoted so much of their respective writings and teachings to: how to consider (your) place when history is never far past. Bio Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is a worker, author, storyteller, musician and culture activist. In 2010, he founded Orphan Wisdom, a house for learning skills of deep living and making human culture that are mandatory in endangered, endangering times. It is a redemptive project that comes from where he comes from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time he won’t live to see. When not on the road, he makes books, succumbs to interviews, tends to labours on a small farm, mends broken handles and fences, and bends towards lifeways dictated by the seasons of the boreal borderlands. What you’ll here wonderings about: What it means for North Americans to visit their ancestral homeland The consequences of being cultural orphans Native culture and its relationship to whiteness What ancestry means to your travel plans The difference between making culture from and making culture for... Peter Behrens' book "The Law of Dream" Stephen's musings on Tobe Hooper and Stephen Spielberg's film Poltergeist Back to the land / farming fantasies Dirt and its layered wisdom Shifts in Stephen's teachings from warnings to descriptors The Unauthorized history of North America What it means to always feel like you're running Why its different to listen to this series live... What wellness has to do with all this... You can learn more and sign up for their upcoming class "Never Land / Sever Land: Dirt, Place, Ancestry, and The Makings of Culture From the New World" from October 20th-November 17th at: photo by Mattias Olsson
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EP 214: Finding Language, Sharing our Stories, and Creating New Worlds around Mothering with April Tierney
08/30/2024
EP 214: Finding Language, Sharing our Stories, and Creating New Worlds around Mothering with April Tierney
In this episode, Kimberly and April discuss her most recent book of poetry titled Matter / Mother which shares about April’s experience of traveling through the underworld of grief, hardship, and heartbreak while mothering her young child. Together, they share their desires for a culture that makes space for the depth of mothering experiences and stories through all of the different seasons of life. They also discuss how to bear the pain and responsibility of both creating a world we want our children to live in while simultaneously inhabiting the one that currently exists. Overall, their vulnerability and honest reflections from their differing seasons of mothering offers language to those deep experiences and possibility for all mothers. Bio April Tierney is a poet, activist, craftswoman, mother, and lover of stories. Her work follows threads of ecopoetics, myth, culture, and lineage. She has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and featured in Orion Magazine, Deep Times: A Journal of the Work that Reconnects, Clarion Poetry Magazine, and Real Ground Journal, among others. What She Shares: –”Matter / Mother” poetry and mothering –Mothering in the upper world while traversing the underworld –Creative process while mothering –Motherhood hardship and joys of different seasons –Creating the world we want our children to inhabit What You’ll Hear: –Latest book “Matter Mother” of poetry –Reading of “Birth Story” poem –Birth as animalistic and mythic –Decision behind black cover on book –Longing for more mothering stories from underworld journey –Writing a book during early mothering –Listening to experiences not from our own –Finding language for mothering experiences –Finding the right voices on mothering experiences –Birth culturally accepted as traumatic –Mothering in the underworld while raising children in the upperworld –Mothering as existential –Heartbreak of mothering in these times –Unable to talk about lived, ongoing way while holding children –Fantasy of modern motherhood –Modern living as kind of trauma we learn to cope with –Four forest fires in three days –Evacuating from home from forest fires –Pausing from writing and trusting the quiet places –Writing as torture until its tended to –Bringing forth for the world what is asking to come through –Books as living, breathing things –Creative portion of mothering in tension with energy and needs –Kimberly’s surprise of mothering young adulthood –Grieving and loving during mothering in all phases –Importance of sharing from different stages of mothering –Physical versus psychological demands of mothering –Noticing the glory spots of mothering –Sending children out into the world –Creating the world we want our children to live in Resources Website: https://www.apriltierney.com/ IG: @apriltierney11
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EP 213: Navigating Single Motherhood, Finding Sisterhood, and Forming Kinship with Marysia Miernowska
08/23/2024
EP 213: Navigating Single Motherhood, Finding Sisterhood, and Forming Kinship with Marysia Miernowska
In this episode, Kimberly and Marysia discuss how they’ve navigated the challenges and benefits of single motherhood. In many ways, their lives and stories run parallel: surprising pregnancies, marrying into another culture, becoming single mothers with babies, and living out single motherhood while being entrepreneurs. This honest, raw, and tender conversation offers vulnerable testimonies and nuggets of wisdom for other single mothers. They emphasize the difficulties but importance of building kinship and community, undoing internalized shame, and tending to community. Marysia’s School of the Sacred Wild is now open for enrollment with Kimberly as a guest teacher! Bio Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing. Born in Poland, she carries with her a lineage of European folk herbalism. Marysia honors plants as sentient beings, elders, healers and teachers. As a Plant Spirit Communicator, Marysia channels messages from the Earth spirits and guides students to connect with plant spirits through meditation and through their bodies, to receive guidance and learn about the constituents, energetics and properties of plants. Registration is now open for the School of the Sacred Wild and can be accessed through the link below. What She Shares: –Journeys into pregnancy –Trauma and shame around single mothering –Finding kinship and community What You’ll Hear: –Marysia’s surprising journey into motherhood –Managing cultural differences as a couple –Traumatic experience becoming a single mother with a baby –Kimberly’s pregnancy and divorce –Single motherhood sisterhood –Navigating single motherhood challenges and joys –Marysia entering single motherhood –Receiving judgment for divorcing –Physical manifestations of wounds and healing –Functional freeze reactions for survival –Finding the village as single mothers –Fairy godmothers and aunties –Bringing in chosen family for children –Cultural differences in background and local living –Anticipating the death of empty nest –Reviewing mothering choices –Grief and cultural isolation –Predictability and calm in hiring anticipatory help –Working through shame in asking for more help –Nervous systems and being trapped –How culture is physically organized disruptive to kinship –Spontaneous social interactions –Taking risks and extending our ways of gathering –Doing it imperfectly and letting go of shame –Tending to the ecosystem of families, parents, and single mothers –School of the Sacred Wild herbalism program –Creating kinship and a deep sense of belonging between human & non-human –Holding vitality of the Mother archetype and cutting back, releasing, and discerning –September 7th registration closes –10% off code for listeners –Kimberly to guest teach in School of Sacred Wild Resources Website: https://www.schoolofthesacredwild.com/ IG: @marysia_miernowska Course Link for Listeners:
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EP 212: Hormones to an Evolutionary Biologist - Menopause, Endometriosis, and Grandmothering with Natalie Dinsdale
07/15/2024
EP 212: Hormones to an Evolutionary Biologist - Menopause, Endometriosis, and Grandmothering with Natalie Dinsdale
In this episode, Natalie and Kimberly dive deep into the choose your own hormone phenomenon. They discuss an evolutionary biologist's perspective of individual vs. group think when it comes to women’s health, the connections between hormones and reproductive health issues like endometriosis and PCOS, as well as the evolutionary case for grandmothering. Bio Natalie Dinsdale, PhD is an evolutionary biologist, a researcher, an astrologer, a dancer, and a mother. She investigates how evolutionary dynamics shape features of sexuality, reproduction, and health & disease in humans. What you will hear: Carl Jung as inspiration for ideas on individual experience vs. groupthink - mass psychology The true person vs. The statistical person While individuals matter, her research is on patterns of populations changing over time Pregnancy screening for women in late 30s Trusting intuition around medical choices Endometriosis - is menstrual fluid the cause of legions? Bi-polar disorder’s connections to oxytocin Do people with PCOS have a uterine that contracts less? How does Natalie’s research relate to connective tissue, collagen, and parasympathetic responses? Oxytocin doesn’t only mean good Trade-offs in evolutionary biology - activities and functions that have to happen for evolution to occur. What is the effect of high testosterone in women and PCOS? How do females of a species obtain the resources they need to reproduce? Choose your own hormone phenomenon in menopause treatment There is good evidence that grandmothering has benefits to mothers and daughters Resources website: substack: https://natalield.substack.com/
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Episode 211: Travel, Tourism, and Home in a “Post-Pandemic” World with Chris Christou
05/31/2024
Episode 211: Travel, Tourism, and Home in a “Post-Pandemic” World with Chris Christou
In this episode, Kimberly and Chris dive deep into the impact of travel on their lives and the consequences of tourism in places they call home. As two world travelers, who have each spent a decade living abroad, Kimberly and Chris consider what they have learned about home, hospitality, and culture from places far from the lands they were raised. They discuss how the pandemic impacted travel to where Chris resides in Mexico, one of two countries that kept its borders open? How Air BnB’s, second homes, and passive income have changed the real estate landscape for future generations? They wonder what it would look like to re-imagine the set of relationships and responsibilities one has if they “belong” to their neighborhood? They ask what if we imagined both our “leisure” and our “work” as connected to the place we live? And how does the question of confinement to home, so relevant to new mothers, show up in the “post-pandemic” summer of 2024? Bio Chris Christou is a writer, educational curator, and activist. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, he moved to Oaxaca, Mexico in 2015 after a decade of delirious wanderlust. In 2016, Chris began concurrently working in and writing about the tourism industry, founding Oaxaca Profundo, a deep learning organization focused on food culture and radical hospitality. In 2021, alongside friends and strangers, he organized and launched the End of Tourism Podcast. He is the author of a book of poetry entitled the Black Braid of Memory, as well as forthcoming books on the psychedelic culture, the unauthorized history of tourism, and radical hospitality. Finally, he is a student of all things chocolate and cacao-related. What You’ll Hear Being at home in other places Are places “back to normal”? Are we “post-pandemic”? Mexico as an escape route for coping with Covid culture How is a sense of home impacted by tourism? What does it mean to be forced to stay at home and the response is to get as far away as fast as possible? Wanderlust - wanting to be everywhere and by virtue of that not wanting to be anywhere How much of tourism an unwillingness to be where one is? What does it mean to consider what the place you call home needs? And what you can offer that place? I don’t think you can be responsible to a place if you’re elsewhere The history of mobility in north American Culture How to re-neighbor Seeing places as temporary makes them disposable How the pandemic led to lots of profit-driven real estate aquisitions The impact of Air Bnbs in tourist destinations Do we make our homes for ourselves or for our parents and others we want to welcome people How do locals become second class servants or mascot for Instagram world views? Dehumanization is a two way street in the tourist industry Leaving one expensive city for a less expensive city you bring the landlords with you. The un-sustainability of second homes Hospitality is complex - learning a culture to invoke hospitality with the stranger How difficult staying at home is for a new mother? Feeling confined when trying to make home with a baby Having family in and of two cultures Travel vegans vs. living it up Resources IG - @zajorino / /
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Episode 210: Restore Your Core, Healing Journeys, and Mothering Teens with Lauren Ohayon
05/25/2024
Episode 210: Restore Your Core, Healing Journeys, and Mothering Teens with Lauren Ohayon
In this episode, Kimberly and Lauren discuss her teaching journey, which led to the restorative exercise techniques Lauren offers in the women’s health field. As a lifelong mover, Lauren went through several different yoga trainings and anatomical frameworks to arrive at a simple truth: there isn’t a right or wrong, good or bad when it comes to understanding your body’s needs. They discuss re-writing injury stories, and consider what leads women to medically intervene at different phases of life. In addition, Kimberly and Lauren talk about raising teenage girls. In this open hearted conversation, two somatic experiencing practitioners talk through their way of practicing what they teach. Bio Lauren Ohayon isan internationally recognized yoga + Pilates teacher specializing in core and pelvic floor issues. She has been teaching for the past two decades. Lauren creates online exercise programs that are challenging, unique, safe, sustainable and life-changing. In addition to yoga and Pilates, she is certified as a Restorative Exercise Specialist™, in Neurokinetic Therapy® and in Anatomy in Motion. The web site Holy Shift yoga was her first online baby and has since become this web site under her own name. Nothing has changed but the name. Learn more at What You’ll Hear Supporting women in training their bodies The intersection of Anatomy and the Nervous system The pelvic floor world Movement as soothing Injuries as a yoga teacher Needing to dig less healing wells, instead dig one deep well Set one on a path of a more mindful way of moving Re-writing the stories of our injuries Distinguishing anatomy and biomechanics Somatic nervous system approach to exercise Feldenkrais technique was a big influence Letting your body teach you What leads us to try and intervene in our bodies as women at different life phases Good filters for not entertaining the cult/“you should” mindset Diet and protein Being sensory following nature and desire for warmth Parenting teens A mother who was a very experimental/exploratory teen Consent communication and safety Restoring your core- a central support system that receives and transmits To be restorative is to not approach the body through good/bad right/wrong anatomical frameworks Accepting the body’s changes with aging Resources IG: @thelaurenohayon Website:
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Episode 209: The Journey to Becoming a Village Auntie and Girls Group Facilitator with Johannah Reimer
05/12/2024
Episode 209: The Journey to Becoming a Village Auntie and Girls Group Facilitator with Johannah Reimer
With fellow educator and Orphan Wisdom Scholar Johannah Reimer, Kimberly discusses Johannah’s long cultivated journey with Girl Groups that work on collective rites of passage. They explore the difference between weekend and longer form rites of passage processes for girls crossing the threshold to adolescence and womanhood, as well as ways to de-emphasize soul work that doesn't center "the self." Johannah emphasizes the impact she has seen guiding Girls Groups and their families into relationships that reflect boundaries, values, and connection. Johannah talks through her passionate approach to the Matricarchical archetype, as well as their shared thoughts on being a single parent. Johanna describes her upcoming 9-month Girl Group facilitator training “Pathways to Womanhood” where she shares her elemental curriculum, which has been honed over 10 years of work with girls of all ages. Links to a free workshop and the facilitator training below. Bio Johannah Reimer is a soulcentric educator, ceremonialist, teen mentor, and an artist of many trades. Trained as a Waldorf teacher, Johannah has been working with children of all ages for over 20 years and holds a particular passion for tweens/teens striving to meet their developmental needs for mentorship and initiation in a culture that has forgotten how to do so. An apprentice of visionaries: Sage Hamilton and Melissa Michaels of SOMA Source, Johannah has worked for many years as a Waldorf teacher under the guidance of her elder Sage, and as an embodied leader for international youth in movement based Rites of Passage with Golden Bridge & Golden Girls Global. What She Shares Initiatory rites for girls crossing the threshold into adolescence Village mindedness in a Culture without village norms Severance - a death happening in rites of passage Stepping into a threshold, into a new phase of being What does it mean when girls go on a quest to leave childhood behind and then return back to their parents and community? Parents also cross a threshold when their children go on such a quest. A year long process that she does with 5th graders The conflation of big experiences with rites of passage Distinguishing between a rite of passage vs. a threshold How short-term retreats are often not living up to the term rites of passage Girls Groups are designed for a longer-term structure within a collective The power of collective work vs. over-emphasis on the self Working with teens you sometimes need an iron fist and a velvet glove The power of improvisation when working with teens The power of parents letting go of control Parents fear of their own children: important to assert boundaries/values and stay connected Parents: “Stay true. Stay the course.” As a child of divorce, the challenge of being a single parent Gathering the men around the son of a single mother She describes her upcoming free class for anyone who feels the call to be a village auntie, as well as her intimate 9-month Girl Group facilitator training. The power of the Matricarchical archetype and Village Aunties. Resources
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EP 208: Wild Mothering, Elder Mothers, and Mothering the Mothers with Tami Lynn Kent
05/04/2024
EP 208: Wild Mothering, Elder Mothers, and Mothering the Mothers with Tami Lynn Kent
In this episode, Kimberly discusses wild mothering, elder mothers, and mothering from our centers with Tami Lynn Kent, returned special guest, women’s health healer, elder mother, and teacher of previous Jaguar classes. We discuss how to remain in true relationship with the feminine, unlearning how we’ve embodied patriarchy, and living and mothering from our feminine centers. She also discusses the challenges of mothering during these times, especially for mothers of teens and young adults. Ultimately, she offers deep wisdom and medicine for staying true to our centers during these fractured times. Bio Tami Lynn Kent is a women’s health physical therapist, founder of the original method of Holistic Pelvic Care™ for women, and author of “,” “,” and “.” She is passionate about the potential in our female bodies and cultivating this vibrant energy that’s meant to run through all aspects of a woman’s life. She draws upon hers daily in mothering three sons now all young adults themselves. Her previous book, “Mothering from Your Center,” is being re-released as “Wild Mothering,” which includes new elder mother wisdom. What She Shares: –Deep relationship with the feminine –Undoing internalization of patriarchy –Mothering teens during challenges –Embodied mothering during fractured times What You’ll Hear: –Walking in deep relationship with the true feminine –Boundaries around values and work –Unlearning embodied patterns of patriarchy within us –Overcompensation in business –Bodies giving out from overcompensation –Women giving up space instead of centering –Coming into truth of where energy and body are –Over-extending out of perfectionism and wanting safety –Helping children find their centers gradually –Mothering young adults with internet, pandemic, polarization, etc. –Information is not wisdom –Importance of listening to embodied wisdom and those with it –Mothering as a wild journey –Prioritizing the body and face-to-face –Embodied presence important to mothering –Weekly family facetime meetings –Going through the pandemic with males –Strain on mothers and families feels higher now –Lack of safety webs and social supports –Trends of delaying independence from youth –Determine of pandemic on isolation and young adults –Assessing nervous systems after isolating during pandemic –Embodied care versus smoothing discomfort –Creative, inspired, moving towards passion, tracking health, connection –Increase of body images issues in boys –Getting boys out of looking and more of feeling/felt sense –Fear of interacting in world –Tracking and noticing people around us is embodied mothering –Lost art of tending to home and those around us with presence –Monitoring screen time for young adults –Playing online with real peers –Encouraging children to verbalize online interactions –Rules as child-specific and season-dependent –Building trust bridges –Checking in and checking on –Creating daily embodied moments with children –Embodied mothering as the tether –Presence with children creates more presence within themselves –Stories we tell our children, stories they hear –Balancing heavy times as parents –Lack of deep containers taking toll –Energetic force pulsing through life –Reaction versus resonance –Always new medicine and new hope in true feminine –Not disassociating from deeper problems –Living in deep relationship to feminine field –Tending to our parts of the field is the mending –Using connection to mystery to do our part –Repairing a fractured web –May 11th Mini Mother’s Day Retreat! Resources Website: https://www.wildfeminine.com/ IG: @tamilynnkent
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EP 207: Finding Enjoyment and Service through Movement, Fitness, and Exercise with Ajaye of The Project PT
05/03/2024
EP 207: Finding Enjoyment and Service through Movement, Fitness, and Exercise with Ajaye of The Project PT
In this episode, Kimberly interviews Ajaye, the founder of The Project PT, a fitness center creating major social change in the community of Oxford, England. They discuss Kimberly’s experience at the gym, similarities of fitness culture in the U.S. and U.K. and how it is intimidating to many kinds of people interested in exercise. They also discuss the decrease of physical movement in schools and how that motivated The Project PT’s mission of supporting teen girls in health and fitness. They also discuss other community outreach programs that The Project PT runs as well as the importance and business model of ethical bonds and balancing service-related businesses with motherhood. Bio Ajaye is the driving force behind The Project PT, a fitness center committed to ethical business standards, social justice, and community outreach. Ajaye has over 18 years of experience in the fitness industry and is a fully qualified personal trainer, crossfit coach, Olympic weightlifting coach, and a sports therapist. The Project studio runs several social work programs in the Oxford community and continues to expand. What She Shares: –Intense gym culture and The Project PT –Diversity and inclusion in fitness spaces –Supporting youth in fitness –Community outreach –Balancing business & motherhood What You’ll Hear: –Different physical needs after motherhood –Intense gym culture –Diversity at Project PT Gym –17% in UK attend gyms, 83% do not –Forming community for Project PT –Representation and informed professional development –Limited physical movement in schools –Working with fitness and teenage girls –Skateboarding, boxing, and weight-lifting for girls –Focusing on enjoyment in fitness –Long-term goals for Project PT –Forming a blueprint for other fitness centers –Policy change needed –Working with vulnerable young people –Providing confidence and skills for young people –Crime prevention program working with police –Run social impact reports to study findings –Importance of studies and representation –Fitness, business, and motherhood of 3 children –Struggling to find balance in business and parenting –Kimberly navigating perimenopause and physical/emotional changes –Accepting limitations and being open to change –Adopting children and business thriving –Ethical Bond –Ethical Exchange supporting business bonds and shares –Offering employee shares –Collaboration and community with other businesses –Ethics platform for housing, energy efficiency, etc. Resources Website: https://www.theprojectpt.com/ IG: @theprojectpt
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EP 206: Brooklyn Book Doctor, the Book Proposal Academy, and Tending to the Voice Within with Joelle Hann
03/22/2024
EP 206: Brooklyn Book Doctor, the Book Proposal Academy, and Tending to the Voice Within with Joelle Hann
In this episode, Kimberly and Joelle discuss the joys, challenges, and complexities of writing a book and publishing. They met when Kimberly was pitching “The Fourth Trimester” and have connected ever since. Kimberly discusses her journey as an author in relation to her other work previous three books. They also discuss self-publishing, traditional publishing, how the publishing industry has changed because of social media, and the importance of book proposals. Joelle is currently enrolling for the Book Proposal Academy, a six month, robust course and mentorship program that supports new authors through the book proposal process. Register through the link below! Bio Joelle Hann is an award-winning writer whose essays and poems explore the nature of our deepest relationships, and whose articles have covered the highs and lows of yoga culture, as well as food, film, books and travel. She’s worked in-house as a Senior Development Editor at Bedford/St. Martin’s. A decade later she jumped ship to freelance as a . Since then, she’s developed and written many acclaimed books for authors in the realm of self-transformation, activism, spirituality, health, finance and business. Joelle is also a . Her has appeared in The New York Times, TimeOut New York, Poets & Writers, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and other publications. Her essays NPR, YourTango, Geist, and others. Joelle is also an award-winning poet with an MFA (poetry) and an MA (English Literature) from New York University’s top-ranked program, and in journals and anthologies including McSweeney’s, Matrix, Painted Bride Quarterly, Drunken Boat, , and more. What She Shares: –Traditional versus self-publishing –Pitching your book idea –Tending to the voice within –Book Proposal Academy with Joelle begins April 17th! What You’ll Hear: –Kimberly’s process of book writing –Experiences with various kinds of publishers –Self-publishing process –Kimberly’s upcoming book deal –Five main publishing houses and politics –Differences between first-time proposing versus fourth –Lack of confidence in initial stage of process –Small advances versus large advances –The Fourth Trimester best selling back-listed book –Publicity and marketing during proposals –Making the case for your book –Author versus writer –BookTok as powerful engine for making authors –Power of readers to make best-sellers from BookTok –Hybrid publishing on the rise –Challenges of self-publishing –University publishing –Trauma angles need hope, tools, and resilience –Shorter and easy to digest are book preferences –Literary agent burnout –Soul calling towards writing –Tending to the voice within –Following and engagement from audience –Quality and marketability –Proposal is key in not getting lost in process –Proposal is a map for book –Artistry and practical vision –Joelle’s Book Proposal Academy begins April 17th! –Runs for six months through 5 phases –Early bird sign-up begins April 3rd Resources Website: https://brooklynbookdoctor.com/bpa/ IG: @@brooklynbookdoctor
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EP 205: Apprenticing the Web - Mothering, Co-Parenting, and Love as Our Compass with Kendra Cunov
03/16/2024
EP 205: Apprenticing the Web - Mothering, Co-Parenting, and Love as Our Compass with Kendra Cunov
Summary In this episode, friends Kimberly and Kendra share their experiences and insights around mothering and the complex webs of care in non-traditional family structures. They discuss the beauty and challenges of single parenting, parenting young children while dating, forming new care structures, and navigating professional roles while mothering children of all ages. They also discuss their co-led upcoming retreat Apprenticing the Web taking place in Booneville, California this September 2024! Bio Kendra Cunov has been studying, facilitating, and practicing Authentic Relating, Embodiment Practices & Deep Intimacy Work for over fifteen years. Kendra has worked with thousands of men, women & couples in the areas of embodiment, intimacy, communication & full self-expression. She co-founded “Authentic World & Fierce Grace,” as well as “The Embodied Relationship Training Salon” (with John Wineland), and pioneered some of the most cutting edge relation work on the planet. Kendra has consulted for companies such as Genentech & been on staff for 4PC, an elite mastermind for the top 4% of coaches in the world. She works with organizations & leaders, as well as men, women & couples, who know that embodied presence, truth, connection & integrity are our truest access points to success – in business & in love. What She Shares: –Non-traditional family structures –Co-parenting with young children –Love as a guiding compass –Mothering and professions –Upcoming retreat with Kimberly and Kendra in September What You’ll Hear: –Apprenticing the Web Retreat September 2024 –Blended families, partnership, and parenting non-traditionally –Mothering and marriage traditionally and non-traditionally –Ease as a compass in hard situations –Kimberly’s pregnant in Brazil –Making partnerships for co-parenting –Feeling alone in single parenting –Mothering alone in marriage –Centering the child/children –Facilitating opportunities for children to connect with fathers –Inquiring in co-parenting –Love as an invitation to the co-parent –Dating while single parenting young children –Work changes through mothering –Love as a compass –Managing finances while single parenting –Wanting to be in the world sooner while parenting young children –Older children needing more mothering than younger –Traveling and working while mothering young children –Creating community as single parents and living abroad –Benefits of single parenting –Not wanting to be a buffer while co-parenting –Unpacking child at the center –Mothering the culture –Maiden-Mother-Crone transitions –Something to “keep up” with while mothering –Mothering through menopause –Accepting missing out in mothering –Responding to life in the moment –Cultivating capacity for discomfort and the unknown –Trusting self to respond in the moment –Being willing to fail relationally –Curiosity over shaming –Upcoming retreat in September, California! –Kendra buying land near Mt. Shasta –Stewarding the land before building Resources Website: https://kendracunov.com/ IG: @kendra_cunov Retreat Details: https://kendracunov.com/apprenticing-the-web/
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EP 204: A Council on Matrimony with Stephen Jenkinson
02/19/2024
EP 204: A Council on Matrimony with Stephen Jenkinson
With special guest host Stephen Jenkinson, Kimberly and Stephen consult with three engaged couples and an unmarried woman to wonder aloud about the institution of marriage. Stephen describes his experience, when he was asked to marry several couples, how he did his homework. What does it mean to approach matrimony as something other than a predictable, foreseen conclusion? Are weddings overly performative? Is it possible for a wedding to feel authentic? Kimberly describes what she learned from having a wedding in the working terreiros culture of Bahia, Brazil. Stephen describes why a ceremony has no audience - it only has witnesses and participants. Stephen and Kimberly contend with how contemporary couples, longing for ceremony in their matrimony, strive for integrity in their union. This episode is just the tip of iceberg. Starting February 25th, Stephen and Kimberly will start their 5-part Online Series "Forgotten Pillars: Patrimony, Matrimony, Kinship, Ancestors & Ceremony." They will dive much deeper into the lessons gleaned from working cultures of the past to inform meaningful ways for couples, families, and communities to come together for experiences that linger long past the "big day." Find out more or join us:
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EP 203: Reflections on a Wedding Ceremony
02/13/2024
EP 203: Reflections on a Wedding Ceremony
In this episode, you hear reflections on Kimberly’s wedding, just weeks out from the event in Salvador, Brazil. With guest host/podcast producer/cousin, Jackson Kroopf, you will hear Kimberly sit with all of the proceedings: from spiritual preparation to rehearsal to ceremony to celebration. What does it mean to be married in the traditions of a spouse’s culture? Who is a wedding for? What role do children play in their parent’s ceremony? How do we understand the relationship between matrimony and contemporary weddings? In this open hearted conversation, you will hear family reckon, reflect, and bask, in real time, on their expanding family.
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EP 202: Death Doulas and Green Burials with Bodhi Be
10/31/2023
EP 202: Death Doulas and Green Burials with Bodhi Be
In this episode, Kimberly and Bodhi discuss his work as a death doula at Doorway Into Light, Hawaii’s only nonprofit green funeral home and educational resource center, The Death Store. They discuss what green burials and ocean burials are and how they are more generous and sustainable to the planet than modern burial practices. They also discuss how dominant culture fears death, responds to death, and death traditions across cultures. In light of all of the ways that people, and even babies, die, Bodhi asks us to deeply reflect on the question, “What is a full life?” P.S. His nonprofit is still taking donations for those displaced by the Maui fires; find the link below to donate! Bio Bodhi is an ordained interfaith minister and teacher in the Sufi lineage of Sufi Sam and Hazrat Inayat Khan. He is the founder and executive director of Doorway Into Light, a nonprofit organization on Maui, which provides conscious and compassionate care for the dying, their families and the grieving, and has been offering community presentations and trainings since 2006 in the fields of awakened living and dying and the care of the dying. Bodhi is a bereavement counselor and educator; a hospice volunteer; a home funeral guide; a teacher and trainer of death doulas; a speaker and workshop leader and a ceremonial guide. He hosts a weekly streaming radio show, ‘Death Tracks’, on a Maui station. Bodhi guides memorials and funerals and leads grief rituals. He facilitates grief support groups for teenagers. He has trained hundreds of doctors, nurses, hospice staff, social workers, ministers, chaplains, therapists, artists and lay people in the spiritual, psychological, emotional and logistical care of the dying and the care of the dead, and for 4 years has taken dozens through a certification program to be death doulas. Bodhi has written a column called “Ask the Death Professor” for a local Maui magazine. He is a notary public, a coffin maker and a Reiki practitioner. Bodhi and his wife Leilah lead spiritual retreats in Hawaii and around the world.For many years Bodhi collaborated with Ram Dass, a neighbor and friend, who served on Doorway Into Light’s Board of Directors. Bodhi is continuing the work Ram Dass helped birth, in the fields of conscious dying in America. What He Shares: –Death doula work –Green burials and ocean burials –Running a nonprofit funeral home and resource center –What you do (literally) when someone dies –Legalities of keeping a body with you –Generational stories of death What You’ll Hear: –How he was led to death work and spiritual counseling –Working with Ram Das –Starting the death doula movement and a ministry of death –Running a non-profit funeral home –Culture pushing away death –Green burials –Hazards of embalming –Biodegradable graves –Death and burial as another practice removed from traditions –Cultural differences around death and burial –Ocean body burial –Being with bodies after death –Generational stories after death –Lingering with the body to witness death –Healthy life includes its death –Mothers of stillborns fighting for baby body –Giving families time and space with death beyond laws –Outlaw moves –Medical rules around bodies and placentas –Navigating baby and child death –What is a full life? –Entitlement around death –Death doula trainings –Facing Death, Nourishing Life course –Showing up for life and death Resources Website: https://www.doorwayintolight.org/ IG: @thedeathstoremaui
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EP 201: Informed Pregnancy and Evidence Based Birth and Bodywork with Dr. Elliot Berlin
10/27/2023
EP 201: Informed Pregnancy and Evidence Based Birth and Bodywork with Dr. Elliot Berlin
In this episode, Kimberly and Dr. Elliot Berlin discuss his informed pregnancy focused chiropractic work. He explains noticing a rise in out of hospital births post-pandemic as well as an increase in hospital restrictions and inductions in hospital births. He discusses various causes of breech positions, his chiropractic approaches to breech babies before birth, as well as the long history of cesareans and how VBACs became stigmatized in recent decades. The common thread through this whole conversation is providing education and information for pregnant people to make the best informed decisions for themselves and their birth. Bio Dr. Elliot Berlin is an award-winning pregnancy-focused chiropractor, childbirth educator, and labor doula. His innovative techniques for prenatal wellness care address tight and painful muscles and tendons utilizing specific massage techniques based on soft tissue releases. He combines this with traditional chiropractic adjustments to restore motion to restricted joints. Dr. Berlin notably works with several hundred breech babies each year, most of whom turn into the ideal pre-birth position once normal function is restored to the mother's low back and pelvis. He is also the host of Informed Pregnancy Podcast, an award winning pregnancy focused chiropractor. What He Shares: –Differences in births post-pandemic –Chiropractic approaches to breech babies –History of cesareans –Informed VBACs –Mind-Body health for fertility What You’ll Hear: –Pregnancies post-pandemic –Rise in out of hospital births –Increase in restrictions and interventions in hospitals –Guiding clients in making best choices for birth –Training for breech births –Using Webster technique to reposition breech babies –Structural reasons for breech positionings –Functional issues of mother posture –Minimizing ultrasounds –Looking at baby position at 32 weeks –Chiropractic care outside of pregnancy –Approaches to releases and maintenance –History of cesareans –Myths around VBACs –How VBAC information is portrayed –Uterine ruptures –Insurance policies and cesareans –Induction drugs causing uterine ruptures in 1980s –VBAC Facts website –Using modern technology to improve childbirth –Downsides to how interventions are applied –What led Dr. Berlin to his work –Mind-body practices leading to natural fertility after years of treatments –Informed Pregnancy podcast –Informedpregnancy.tv streaming app Resources Website: informedpregnancy.com/informedpregnancy.tv IG: @doctorberlin
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EP 200: "Birth Control" - Maternal Agency, Education, and Systems of Perinatal Care with Allison Yarrow
10/16/2023
EP 200: "Birth Control" - Maternal Agency, Education, and Systems of Perinatal Care with Allison Yarrow
In this conversation, journalist Allison Yarrow and Kimberly discuss Allison's new book “Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood.” They go in depth about the culture and systems of perinatal birth care. They explore Allison’s extensive research around the differences between home birth care and hospital birth care, and go into depth about their personal experiences with each scenario. They wonder how future generations will approach their birth, as well as the deep impact of race on varying birth experience. With all of the information out there, they ask how do you prepare for birth? Bio Allisoni Yarrow is a journalist for nearly two decades (in newsrooms like NBC News, Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and Vice), a national magazine finalist, the author of (finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award), and she has written about the shortcomings of the perinatal experience in America for the , the , , , , and . Her new book , which is out July 18 and arose out of my . With the recent news that maternal mortality has risen 40 percent to the highest level in our lifetime, this subject couldn't be more important. The book draws on extensive reporting, interviews, an original survey of 1300 birthing people and mothers, and my own personal experiences, to document how women are controlled, traumatized, injured, and even killed, because of traditionalist practices of medical professionals and hospitals during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and after. What You’ll Hear How birth procedures and techniques were not developed by science by traditions? The overriding of midwives knowledge by doctors. How has birth become such a profitable medical field? Why C-sections are so prominent despite their limited need? How does home birth care differ from hospital care? What kind of mother culture do we need around birth trauma? The pressure to educate onesellf in the perinatal experience. What role does agency play in the birth experience? What needs to change about the system of birth? How will future generations experience birth care? Our bodies perceive surgery as interruption. The importance of sex education to the birth experience. The racial dimensions of birth culture. Links www.allisonyarrow.com Instagram: @aliyarrow
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EP 199: Activate Your Inner Jaguar - Feminine Sexuality and Spirituality
10/11/2023
EP 199: Activate Your Inner Jaguar - Feminine Sexuality and Spirituality
In this episode, podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly about her upcoming course "Activate Your Inner Jaguar - Feminine Sexuality and Spirituality" that begins October 17th. Kimberly describes the nine year evolution of the course, tracing its foundations and considering the ways her ongoing somatic and spiritual work continues to serve different generations of women from maiden to crone. She opens up about her own experiences that have informed her evolving relationship to the intersection of sexuality and spirituality. She also describes what the experience of taking the class entails, particularly around issues of privacy, shame, and the concrete practices she offers class participants. You will hear about some of the class' guest lecturers including pelvic priestess and author of "Women's Anatomy of Arousal," Sheri Winston, and sex educator and writer of "Taking Back the Speculum" Pamela Samuelson. As the carrier of many womens' stories, Kimberly describes the way combining personal stories and somatic tools can address many things women are most curious about related to sex and self-actualizing an erotic practice for each participant. You can learn more or sign up for the nine-week intensive course here: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/alive/
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EP 198: Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
10/08/2023
EP 198: Take Back the Magic with Perdita Finn
In this episode, Kimberly and Perdita discuss Perdita’s latest book “Take Back the Magic,” which was inspired by the death of her father, their ambivalent relationship, and ongoing relationship to him now that he's passed. Perdita shares her experience of communicating with the dead for over thirty years and guides us in how we can do the same. They also discuss the history behind why we fear the dead and the suppression of communicating with the dead by organized religion. She shares how the dead are connected and long for the erotic and how we can return to the inner wisdom and rituals of ancestors that pre-date religion and political systems. She describes the crucial role of the this communication with dead to her key relationships with the living: as a mother, wife, and community member. Bio Perdita Finn is the co-founder, with her husband Clark Strand, of the non-denominational international fellowship The Way of the Rose, which inspired their book "The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary." For many years she supported her family writing books for children and educators like the "Time Flyers" series for Scholastic Books, "My Little Pony," and many others. She has been a ghostwriter, a book doctor, a copy editor and a writing teacher, but these days she is happy to be working primarily on her own books. She has a lively substack, "Take Back the Magic," where readers can get sneak peeks into what she's working on right now. Finn now teaches popular workshops on Collaborating with the Other Side, in which participants are empowered to activate the magic in their own lives with the help of their ancestors. She is the author of "Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World" and lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains. What She Shares: –Writing “Take Back the Magic” –Why we fear the dead –Cycles of life, death, and rebirth –How to commune with the dead –Eros and the dead What You’ll Hear: –Darkness and dark matter as origin of life –Circles of entanglement and belonging –Use of letters in “Take Back the Magic” –Relationship with father and his death –Cultural fears of the dead –Long history of suppression of speaking with dead –Understanding how dead communicate –Alchemizing experiences with past monsters –Finding safety of ancestors –Starting small with communication –Assigning worries to those on the other side –Honoring the dead –Perdita and husband’s spiritual backgrounds –Spiritual experiences through birth –Spiritual community outside of empire –History of rosary –Erotic nature of the dead –Experiencing eternal return of dead and living –Trusting the long story of your soul –Everything dies and everything is reborn –Not every prayer is answered in every lifetime –What is the prayer we would carry with us beyond this lifetime? –We are all each others’ mothers Resources Website: wayoftherose.org takebackthemagic.com IG: @perditafinn
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EP 197: Erotic Seasons - Connect to Your Sensual Flow Through the Stages of Womanhood
10/07/2023
EP 197: Erotic Seasons - Connect to Your Sensual Flow Through the Stages of Womanhood
In this episode, podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly about her upcoming free class "Erotic Seasons: Connect to Your Sensual Flow Through the Stages of Womanhood," which begins October 10th at 9:00am PST. We discuss Kimberly's inspiration for the class, and her evolving thoughts on the archetypes of the mother, maiden, virgin, crone. The class explores what it means to develop a mature sensual identity. Go on a journey through the seasons of womanhood and how those might impact your erotic energy (hint: it’s not all downhill). Shine a warm salt lamp light, not strobe lights, on some tender places that could use attention and give you clues about your unique erotic path. Discover your next proximal step to bridging the gap between your sensuality and spirituality. You can sign up for the free class at:
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EP 196: Somatic Healing for Sex-Trafficking Survivors, Intergenerational Trauma, and Plant Medicine Integration with Atira Tan
09/28/2023
EP 196: Somatic Healing for Sex-Trafficking Survivors, Intergenerational Trauma, and Plant Medicine Integration with Atira Tan
In this episode, Kimberly and Atira discuss her work as an advocate against sex-trafficking in South East Asia, how she combines art therapy and somatic practices to help survivors heal and repair, and the trauma-informed programs she offers for practitioners of plant medicine ceremonies. She describes how her own experience being an Asian woman facing compacted oppressions led her to her work. She also describes how even in some of the darkest places, she is able to see beauty and light in community and relationships. Bio Atira is a senior yoga and meditation teacher (500 E-RYT), art therapist (M.A. Expressive Art Therapy & Grad Dip. Transpersonal Art Therapy), a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), a somatic trauma specialist in sexual abuse recovery and trauma educator, TED speaker and #1 best-selling author. I’m currently completing my Ph.D. studies in Expressive Art Therapies. CEO of Art to Healing and Yoga for Freedom. She is also an Expressive Art Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Yoga Teacher, Counsellor & Coach, public speaker and author on women's health, sacred activism and leadership. You can find more about Art to Healing and her upcoming programs Somatic Plant Medicine and Integration program and a Trauma Informed Plant Medicine Facilitation program. What She Shares: –Intergenerational trauma in the body –Somatic applications for recovery from sex trafficking –Plant medicine and trauma, catharsis and integration –Upcoming program dates for facilitators What You’ll Hear: –Work supporting sex trafficked survivors –Atira’s ancestry and upbringing as an Asian woman –History of oppression of Asian female bodies –Witnessing child sex trafficking firsthand –Expressive art therapy to address complex trauma in the anti-trafficking org –Familial and religious trauma and cultural responsibility –Cervical cancer diagnosis at 26 years –Reclaiming sexual and sensual innocence -Developing a non-profit Art to Healing and train the trainer for survivors –Program in Cambodia and Nepal –Culture and place in non-profit work –First SE training for sex traffic survivors in 2019 with research –Gap in trauma-informed facilitators of ceremonies and psychedelics –Myth of catharsis and real integration –Creating app for sex trafficking for assistance, awareness, and education –Looking for tech & app development support –Upcoming Somatic Plant Medicine and Integration program –Trauma Informed Plant Medicine Facilitation program –Master classes available on differences of plant medicines –Exploring goals, resources, and intentions around using plant medicines –Staying well in midst of so much intensity and suffering Resources Website: IG: @arttohealing
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EP 195: Maui In the Fires Wake - Gathering Herbs, Making Medicine and Walking in Grief with Khadija Meghan Rashell Striegel
09/13/2023
EP 195: Maui In the Fires Wake - Gathering Herbs, Making Medicine and Walking in Grief with Khadija Meghan Rashell Striegel
Summary In this episode, Kimberly and Khadija reflect on their recent mutual aid efforts in the wake of fires in Maui. Khadija shares what she has witnessed in her community and the tremendous impact of donations that have directly reached her neighbors. They reflect on destination travel and the impact of tourism on both the land and the people of Hawaii. Khadija describes what led her to invite Kimberly and Stephen Jenkinson to Reckon on the island this coming November. They wonder together about the ethics of retreats, tourism, and what it means to be an “under-the-scene” worker. To learn more about Maui Reckoning with Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson, hosted by Khadija Striegel, . This is a gathering for the Maui ‘ohana. You can contribute to the event by making a donation . Bio Khadija is an herbalist, bonesetter and farmer born, raised, and living in Maui. She’s in graduate school studying Hawaiian language and culture. Khadija works with a non-profit caring for the native plant gardens at a Heiau, an ancient Hawaiian place of prayer. She offers Lomi Lomi body work to her community, in addition to tinctures and remedies under the title Family Traditions Maui. What You’ll Hear: There are not only stories as a result of the fires in Maui - there are still ongoing lives and lived experiences. The variety of extremes that co-exist in Maui - of destination weddings, vacations, and those walking heavy with grief. These fires aren’t an isolated incident. They are part of a broader timeline of things that have taken place on Maui. The donation effort of money and herbs and medicine are no small thing. This community is making an impact. There are still areas of the island that do not have safe water. Opening care packages with kids after a disaster. Development and tourism on the island has directly impacted the land in a way that doesn’t feed the land, water, and people. The fires are inextricably linked to this. Lahaina as a special gathering place, whose streams lack water as a direct result of hotels and vacation homes and visitor rentals Land stewardship is actually simple. An act of love. Loving something not just for ourselves. Loving something by letting it be. The parallels of tourism and addiction. The addiction of going anywhere, doing anything, wherever I want. Whose job is it to teach the culture of a place? And to what audience? There is a longing to belong for many people. Many people find it in Hawaii. But at what cost? The difficulty of land and home ownership for native Hawaiians. Retreats in Hawaii. The infrequency of native Hawaiians leading sacred nature experiences? The power of a voice that doesn’t say simply “it’s all okay” when it’s clearly not “all okay. What does it mean to be under-the-scene workers? Not behind-the-scene but under-the-scene? Reckoning in November is to offer something to the residents of Maui. Resources , with Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson, hosted by Khadija Striegel, for the Maui ‘ohana You are welcome to contribute to the event. Please send your donation via PayPal to Khadija with the note “Maui Reckoning Donation”. If you would like to send herbs and materials directly to Khadija to support the community in Maui, find Khadija’s letter and list . You can connect with Khadija via
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EP 194: Marketing + Sales with Consent, AI, Authenticity, and Humanity in Business with Rachel Allen
09/01/2023
EP 194: Marketing + Sales with Consent, AI, Authenticity, and Humanity in Business with Rachel Allen
Summary In this episode, Kimberly and Rachel discuss how Rachel discovered copywriting and turned it into a business. When many entrepreneurs feel uncomfortable with marketing and social media expectations around business, Rachel provides thoughtful solutions to authentically representing one’s own business, making meaningful professional relationships, and regulating our nervous systems while marketing. They also discuss how to use social media as a tool, using discernment when posting content, as well as the pluses and minuses of Artificial Intelligence. Last, they discuss remembering humility and humor both in social media and business, as well as our everyday lives. Bio Rachel Allen is the owner of Bolt from the Blue, a copywriting and marketing business that provides clients with services to best communicate their message to their audiences. Bolt from the Blue also offers a variety of trainings and workshops for professionals. Check out all that they provide in the link below. What She Shares: –Marketing and consent –AI’s capabilities and limits –Bringing authenticity into sales –Remembering humanity and relationship in marketing –Genuine social media content –Building our world on and offline What You’ll Hear: –How Rachel began copywriting –Body and mind in conflict –Marketing and consent –Reframing predator/prey mentality in marketing –AI and human creativity –AI cannot create –Using AI for ideation and brainstorming –No intellectual property rights over AI generated writing –Current market trends in online business –Thinking of clients as real human beings –All copy is sales copy –Bringing authenticity into sales –Sales as generative not conversion therapy –Relationship physics and marketing –Quality over quantity in marketing everytime –Being genuinely interested in relationships with people –Referrals over endless content posting –Being comfortable with ourselves as individuals before others –Find ways you’re comfortable connecting with people –Understanding own nervous system state and moving from there –Posting content that feels good to you –Mistaking transparency for authenticity –Sharing “minimum viable truths” in posting content –Figuring out your genuine “YES” –Remembering our social media algorithms as silos –Buy in with novelty and stay in with empathy –Hormones, marketing and empathy –Feeling connected and really good, closing the hormonal loops –Being responsible for consequences and outcome –Building in live interactions amongst digital work –Grounding in relationships in real time –Staying humble and using humor –Finding humanity and building world we want Resources Website: https://www.boltfromthebluecopywriting.com/ IG: @backfromthebluecopywriting
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EP 193: Intimacy with Plants, Aligning with Life’s Seasons, and Balancing Motherhood + Business with Marysia Miernowska
08/28/2023
EP 193: Intimacy with Plants, Aligning with Life’s Seasons, and Balancing Motherhood + Business with Marysia Miernowska
Summary In this episode, Kimberly and Marysia discuss the origins of School of the Sacred Wild, plants as medicine, and entrepreneurship. Marysia shares about how her family and heritage influenced her journey to plants, how plants provide somatic, restorative experiences, and how she navigates single-parenting and running a business. Registration is now open for a new course at the School of the Sacred Wild starting September 12th. Bio Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing. Born in Poland, she carries with her a lineage of European folk herbalism. Marysia honors plants as sentient beings, elders, healers and teachers. As a Plant Spirit Communicator, Marysia channels messages from the Earth spirits and guides students to connect with plant spirits through meditation and through their bodies, to receive guidance and learn about the constituents, energetics and properties of plants. Registration is now open for the School of the Sacred Wild and can be accessed through the link below. What She Shares: –School of the Sacred Wild –Somatic experiences with plants –Benefits of motherhood and entrepreneurship –Aligning life seasons with cycles of nature What You’ll Hear: –Embodying love and vastness –Creating container of safety and new culture of no judgment –Inviting in ancient plants –Plants offer flavor of love –Interacting somatically with plants –Creating intimacy with the natural world –New learning experience engaging with plants –Origin of School of Sacred Wild –Grandparents in Warsaw during WWII –Grew up in Poland during 1980s –Raised with responsibility to fight for justice –Symbols of Black Madonna and Isis –Mother as cosmic fertile void –Power issues in alternative medicine communities –Finding wild weeds from childhood in Vermont –Depleted by modern living –Restored with plant medicine –Learning to do business and being self-employed –Making earth medicine accessible to all people –Working with abundant, wild, and free plants –Making courses accessible, sliding scale, and scholarships –Single-parenting and business –Having fire from mothering to channel into business –Balancing motherhood with business –Aligning with the currents of nature and our bodies –Mother archetype is time of production and hard work –Working hard in summer to have a nourishing bounty in fall –Turning to plants and earth for healing support –Prayer to change culture –Learning through body’s challenges around needs –Digging and uprooting ancestral patterns of martyrdom –Wild plants encourage wildness in ourselves –Registration now open for School of the Sacred Wild Resources Website: https://www.schoolofthesacredwild.com/ IG: @marysia_miernowska
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EP 192: Yoga + Abuse, The Fierceness of Crones, and Yoga Practices for Intuition with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli
08/25/2023
EP 192: Yoga + Abuse, The Fierceness of Crones, and Yoga Practices for Intuition with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli
Summary In this episode, Kimberly and Uma discuss the controversial updated edition of her book “Yoni Shakti” which Kimberly has used all throughout her writing and classes. Uma describes the legal battle she faced from the yoga industry when she wrote about all kinds of abuses happening in certain yoga schools. They discuss how yoga technologies which stabilize and help us understand our nervous systems have been co-opted by commercialization, creating much harm for practitioners, and taking away our intuition. They share how perimenopausal and menopausal women have a role to play in speaking out against systems of oppression and abuse as well as how intergenerational circles can enable all of us to make change against failing systems and create liberation for all. Bio Uma Dinsmore-Tuli PhD is a yoga therapist, yoga teacher trainer and retreat leader with special expertise in women's health, including birth, pre-and post-natal yoga, and yoga for positive menstrual health and fertility. She works internationally, sharing yoga retreats, trainings and empowerments that support the natural arising of prana shakti: the power of life. She trains specialist teachers in Total Yoga Nidra and Yoni Shakti Well Woman Yoga Therapy for menstrual and menopausal health, pregnancy, birth, and postnatal recovery. She is co-founder of the and has developed , , and Nidra Shakti: radical creative and intuitive approaches to sharing yoga nidra. You can follow Uma’s writings and offerings on her website linked below. What She Shares: –The cancel campaign against “Yoni Shakti” –Revealing abuses in the yoga industrial complex –Discernment, intuition, and nervous system technologies –Power of crones speaking truth –Yoga for liberation What You’ll Hear: –Cancel campaign against “Yoni Shakti” –Revealing multiple abuses and investigations in yoga schools –Censoring of yoga school abuses in first edition –Uma sued for “defamation” of a guru already in investigation –”Yoni Shakti” back in print –Toxicity of the Yoga Industrial Complex –Turning to yoga after sexual boundary ruptures –Yoga technologies and nervous system repairs –Politicizing and patriarchal overtaking of yoga –Powerful birth initiations –Discipline and discernment versus control –Entering ethical arrangements with trust, agreement, and discernment –Cultivating intuition and understanding nervous systems –Eradicating individual intuition through prioritizing certain knowledge –Moving beyond legality and consent as baselines for human interaction –Educating potential yogis on abuses of power –Yoga schools and structures not fit for purpose anymore –Deciphering stressful events through perimenopause –Navigating climacteric menopause –Uncontrollable rage speaking on behalf of those without voices –Role of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women to speak up –Intergenerational groups of women –Fierceness and integrity of crones –Commercialized and colonized yoga trying to have maidens forever –What are you willing to risk? Resources Website: https://umadinsmoretuli.com/ IG: @umadinsmoretuli
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EP 191: Soul Work and Source Regulation Through the Fluid Nervous System with Katie Dove
07/10/2023
EP 191: Soul Work and Source Regulation Through the Fluid Nervous System with Katie Dove
In this episode, Katie and Kimberly discuss their evolving relationship to trauma and spiritual work. After serving clients one-on-one for over 20 years, they consider the importance of community and creativity to healing. In the wake of so many people sharing their trauma stories online, they consider the tools we need for spiritual fortification to find resolution. They introduce Katie’s upcoming 4-week course “Source Regulation: Connect to Source Energy through Your Fluid Nervous System,” which begins July 12th. Bio Katie Dove is a somatic therapist, intuitive guide, healer, and mystic with over two decades of experience working with individuals and groups. She is a keeper of ancient wisdom, exploring new paths for the preservation of human nature through connection to mother nature. Her methods weave a mixture of experiences she has collected over time, modalities she has personally cultivated, and extensive studies in transpersonal psychology and craniosacral therapy. With exploration in voice, touch, sound and movement, she guides her clients and students to investigate habits, freedom of choice, expressiveness, and the wealth of sensory information within and around them. Her upcoming course “Inhabit the Heart” is a four week journey into deep relationship with self and soul. What You’ll Hear —Combining Trauma and the Spiritual Path —Healing and Trauma Re-negotiation —From Trauma Therapist to Resilience Coach to a Release of All Titles —Beyond Individual Repair: —Repairing the Continuum of Self, Soul And Source —Sharing your trauma on Social Media and then what? —The value of short, sweet, simple ceremonies —Seeing people who have experienced trauma in their wholeness —How sexual boundary rupture differs from other kinds of trauma —The conflation of worth and virginity —The connection between rupture and creation —Psyche vs. Soul —The value of Source Regulation and Regeneration through the fluid system —The power of spiritual assistance and fortification in trauma repair Website IG: @divineportals
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EP 190: Rethinking Ethical Sex in the Age of Consent with Christine Emba
07/08/2023
EP 190: Rethinking Ethical Sex in the Age of Consent with Christine Emba
In this episode, Christine and Kimberly discuss contemporary relationships to consent and ask what is ethical sex? They consider the complexities of sex positivity, navigating sexual conversations with your children, as well as coming to terms with what we want and what we owe each other. Bio Christine Emba is the author of “Rethinking Sex: A Provocation,” as well as an opinion columnist for the Washington Post focusing on "ideas and society.” What you’ll hear: –In a sex positive culture why are people still having bad, unwanted sex? –Where is our sexual culture in this moment? –Is consent a high enough bar? –Are your politics making your sex better? –The value of “willing the good onto the other –How has our sexual and romantic culture changed over time? –Developing trust with someone. –What do you want from a sexual encounter? –Parenting in the age of cell phones, accessible cannabis, and internet porn –The value of boundaries in parenting –The way we talk about parenting girls –The crisis of masculinity with a lack of rites and role models –The pitfalls of gentle parenting –The intersection of dating apps and corporate interests –The value of making healthy, moral judgements –The pendulum swing of normalized kink –What we want and what we owe each other
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EP 189: Nurtured Parenting, Co-Regulation, and Infant Sleep with Greer Kirshenbaum
06/19/2023
EP 189: Nurtured Parenting, Co-Regulation, and Infant Sleep with Greer Kirshenbaum
In this episode, Kimberly and Greer discuss her upcoming book “The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting.” Greer discusses combining her work as a doula, neuroscientist, and sleep specialist after completing research on infant sleep. She proposes “nurtured parenting” as a revolution that tends to the complex emotions and stressors of both parents and infants. With tending to these needs and co-regulation, parents can help babies develop better stress responses in their brains. Bio Greer Kirshenbaum PhD is an Author, Neuroscientist, Doula, Infant and Family Sleep Specialist and Mother. She trained at the University of Toronto, Columbia University, New York University and Yale University. Greer has combined her academic training with her experience as a doula and mother to lead The Nurture Revolution. A movement to nurture our babies’ brains to revolutionize mental health and impact larger systems in our world. Greer wants families and perinatal practitioners to understand how early caregiving experience can boost mental wellness and diminish depression, anxiety, and addiction in adulthood by shaping babies’ brains through simple intuitive enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth and infancy. Her book is called The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting. See the link to her website below. What She Shares: –Connecting doula work, parenting, and neuroscience –Nurtured parenting tending to infant and parental emotions –Developing brain growth in babies –Demystifying infant sleep and high needs’ babies –Emotional co-regulation during infancy What You’ll Hear: –How infanthood led her to doula and neuroscience –Fascinated by early life experience and neuroscience –Wanting to take research into the public –Attachment parenting as good foundation for nurtured parenting –Nurtured parenting tuning to both parent and infant emotional needs –Nurtured presence and empathy for parent and baby –Emotional co-regulation at center of parenting practices –Uniqueness of infant brain –Baby borrows parent’s brain in places their brain hasn’t developed –Stress responses and systems in parent brain –Baby detects parent responses through their senses –Increasing oxytocin and lowering stress response in baby’s brain –Co-regulation in first 3 years builds areas of brain to handle stress –Major life moments and stress responses –Becoming parent changes brain chemistry similar to infancy –Brain areas become tuned to be more aware and empathetic of babies –Brain shifts during perimenopause –Being near babies also changes brain areas –Cultural changes causing less experience with babies pre-parenting –Issues with attachment parenting –Demystifying infant sleep –Understanding what is biologically normal for babies –Cultural expectations are off for infant sleep needs –Babies develop sleep on their own and can be supported –Infant sleep like a river and physiological process –Night-waking, sleeping nearby, closeness –Circadian rhythm, sleep pressure, stress, daily movement –Babies don’t need sleep training or sleeping alone –Sleep in same bed or room for 6 mo to 1 year –Babies need to sense safety of parents –Optimal circadian input –Opportunities for light, movement, and sensory input –Time in nature and green space helpful for sleep –Normal features of infant sleep –Stress reactivity and sensitivity is genetic and experiential –”High needs” infant sleep –Intergenerational experiences and epigenetics –Experiences in ancestry, pregnancy, and birth contribute to temperament –Identifying needs for intense crying –Emotional contagion and mirroring –Addressing parental burnout –Infant emotions and physiological responses –Anticipating infant stressors and verbalization –Parenting with empathy and compassion to grow brain Resources Website: IG: @nurture_neuroscience_parenting
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EP 188: The Biology of Safety, Rejecting Quick Fixes and Tending to Cultural Wounds with Sophie Strand
06/06/2023
EP 188: The Biology of Safety, Rejecting Quick Fixes and Tending to Cultural Wounds with Sophie Strand
In this episode, Kimberly and Sophie explore the nuances of being public entrepreneurs and authors. They wonder aloud together about the various roles of knowledge, expertise, and experience and discuss issues such as psychedelics for women, the complexities of social media, the need for eldership, disability and sickness as an altered state, as well as healing practices outside of a hyper-fixated and individualistic framework. The common threads connecting their questions center around identities as facilitators and writers, the need for connection to community and lineages, and managing the challenges of social media and identity politics in a hyper-individualistic culture. Ultimately, they land on the beauty that comes from maturation, wisdom, and growth over time that cannot be done by a quick-fix nor in isolation. Bio Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her first book of essays “The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transpecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine” was published last year in 2022 from Inner Traditions. Her books of poetry include “Love Song to a Blue God,” “Those Other Flowers to Come” and “The Approach.” Her poems and essays have been published by Art PAPERS, The Dark Mountain Project, Poetry.org, Unearthed, Braided Way, Creatrix, Your Impossible Voice, The Doris, Persephone’s Daughters, and Entropy. She has recently finished a work of historical fiction, “The Madonna Secret,” that offers an eco-feminist revision of the gospels, and will be released this summer. She is currently researching her next epic, a mythopoetic exploration of ecology and queerness in the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde. What She Shares: –Cultural band-aids for deeper wounds –Public and private identities –Demonizing and idolizing figures –Impact of social media and identity politics –Elderhood, wisdom, and changing perspectives What You’ll Hear: –Problematizing psychedelics –Gendered experiences with psychedelics –Harder for women to recover after psychedelics –Cultural band-aids on wounds –Sophie addresses disabled writer label –Publishing editorial choices and confinement –Public identities and social media –Collective energy demonizing or idolizing figures –Navigating social media pressures and intuition as entrepreneurs –Is the medicine of these times insignificance? –Story of Joan of Arc –No saviors, no heroes –Creating money and wanting to be insignificant –Tensions between community, authority, and parasocial diffusion –Bodily impact of social media –Problematizing gatekeeping of knowledge and lived experiences –Risk-averseness and obsession with safety –Safety as limited capacity to survive –Hyperfixation and hyper-individualism of healing –Impact of identity politics on youth –Maturity, wisdom, and changing perspectives –Discerning between privacy, secrecy, and transparency –Using discretion when writing memoir –Difference between rot and fermentation Resources Website: https://sophiestrand.com/ IG: @cosmogyny
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EP 187: Reckon and Wonder - Witness, Matrimony, and the Making of Oral Culture with Stephen Jenkinson
05/11/2023
EP 187: Reckon and Wonder - Witness, Matrimony, and the Making of Oral Culture with Stephen Jenkinson
In this episode, guest host and podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly and Stephen Jenkinson about their ongoing event series Reckoning: Birth and Death Among Us. They discuss the role of witness in their work as birth and death workers, the politics of feelings in a culture where pop psychology has become a religion, and dive deeply into their relationship to matrimony. In anticipation of their final event this summer, “Reckon and Wonder: Grief, Elderhood and Spirit Work,” taking place this June 29th-July 2nd, 2023 at the Orphan Wisdom school in Ontario, they reflect on the difference between recording and live events and the unique impact that their convergence has revealed in their respective relationships to the oral tradition. What You’ll Here Reflections on witness from retired birth and death workers The value of disillusionment The power of loneliness The proliferation of self pathologizing The complex politics of feelings The religion of western psychology Adolescents grabbing for pop psychology labels The respect in not offering solutions The eagerness to escape from pain while grieving Is love dead? Blessing not as approval but the emergence of something new Marriage as both celebration and loss Matrimony between cultures An only child and single parent inviting in a new husband Building an escape route as you enter a union The no-go zone of contemporary western marriage 15 minute weddings, 15 minute funerals, 15 minute births The cultural casualties of uniformity Being healthy enough to tend to home and neighbor Bio Stephen Jenkinson is a cultural worker, teacher, author, musician and ceremonialist. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010 with his wife Nathalie Roy. He has Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Since co-founding the with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical / tent show revival / storytelling ceremony across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. They released their album in 2017 and at the end of 2020, they released two new records; and . Stephen is the author of , the award-winning , , , , and . Most recently, Stephen published Reckoning (2022) with Kimberly Ann Johnson. Links
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