Beyond Trauma

In this episode with Michelle Casandra Johnson, we cover the importance of the grieving process and having practices that support it. We discuss how our practices have shifted since Covid-19 and the things we hope will not go back. Michelle talks about working with our ancestors and learning from their traumas and resistance as well as her special connection to her honey bees. Michelle wrote the foreward for my forthcoming book, The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga out with Shambhala Publications in May 2023. It was wonderful to connect with her here. Michelle C. Johnson is an author, yoga teacher, social justice activist, intuitive healer, and Dismantling Racism trainer. She approaches her life and work from a place of empowerment, embodiment, and integration. As a dismantling racism trainer, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups, including the ACLU-WA, Duke University, Google, This American Life, Auburn Seminary, Kripalu, Mercedes, Spotify, Lululemon, and many others. Michelle published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017; the second edition of Skill in Action, published by Shambhala Publication, comes out November 2nd, 2021. She teaches workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide. Michelle’s latest book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief, published by Shambhala Publications, came out in July 2021. Her upcoming book, We Heal Together: Rituals and Practices for Building Community and Connection, published my Shambhala Publications, is available for pre-order now and comes out in April 2023. Whether in an anti-oppression training, yoga space, individual or group intuitive healing session, the heart, healing, and wholeness are at the center of how Michelle approaches all of her work in the world. Michelle's Website & Instagram ----------------------------------------- Your support is deeply appreciated! Find me, Lara, on my Website / Instagram You can support this podcast with any level of donation here. Opening and Closing music: Other People's Photographs courtesy of Daniel Zaitchik. Follow Daniel on Spotify.

I discovered Katarina "Kato" Wittich in Gwyneth Paltrow's documentary series “Sex, Love and Goop” episode five, where she guides a client through a Family Constellation session which allows them to understand and process family trauma. It was and remains one of the most powerful moments of television I've ever witnessed, so I was deeply honored when Kato agreed to be in conversation. In doing my research for this interview, I learned much about Kato's dedication to healing through practices that demand deep acceptance and reverence for the interwoven body-mind system. In this conversation, we discuss the Rosen and Family System techniques, the importance of touch, and how ancestral trauma informs our lives. We talk about the need to feel all our feelings and how critical it is to have someone that can allow us to be with those vibrations no matter how strong or seemingly negative. It was a meeting of spirits being in shared space with Katarina. I hope you will benefit from our musings. Katarina Wittich, known as ‘Kato’, is a certified Rosen Method Practitioner, Conscious Dance facilitator, Yuen Practitioner, and facilitator for the group transformational modality called Family Constellations. She has had the great privilege to spend the last 25 years using her practices to help other humans voyage past the limitations that come from survival patterns created by trauma, toward wholeness and resilient self love.  Rosen Method is a form of somatic therapy which uses touch as well as verbal interaction in order to contact the contractions in our bodies which we have created in order get through trauma when we do not have enough support to remain open and flexible. In accessing these contractions in the body, we also access all the unconscious patterns that have been necessary to move through the world, but may no longer be useful, and instead now holding us back from living fully. Family Constellations work directly with the unconscious inheritance of survival patterns created to handle trauma by our ancestors. Often we are more susceptible to the difficult things that happen in our lives because of the epigenetic and family culture patterns once needed for survival of the family system, but now hindering us without our knowledge. Constellations are mysterious and incredibly powerful because they function through the group practice of resonance, in which perfect strangers with no knowledge of the client’s issues or family system, will easily and accurately be able to represent the client's family members and ancestors, unveiling what was hidden and allowing flow back into the system.  Kato's Family Constellations work is currently featured in Episode Five of Gwyneth Paltrow's documentary series “Sex, Love and Goop”, available on Netflix. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to facilitate in the first mainstream television exposure for this profound and life changing work, in which you can witness the impossible wonder of our interconnectedness, unlimited by time or physicality. For more information on Kato’s practices go to her website - RosenConstellations.com In the rest of her life, she is a screenwriter, director, painter, dancer and general lover of all things creative, embodied and human. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your support is deeply appreciated! Find me, Lara, on my Website / Instagram You can support this podcast with any level of donation here. Order The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga: How to Create Safer Spaces for All Opening and Closing music: Other People's Photographs courtesy of Daniel Zaitchik. Follow Daniel on Spotify.

Amy B. Scher had a debilitating case of Lyme Disease that resulted in her being bedridden in her twenties. She tried every available solution from intravenous antibiotics to flying all the way to India. Though some of the medicines she tried helped, in the end, she only became completely healthy and relapse-free when she began looking at her traumas, thoughts, and beliefs and neutralizing them. In this conversation, Amy describes her core healing practices which she has taught countless others via workshops, private sessions, her YouTube, and books. Many of these practices I have personally tried and incorporated into my daily protocol to stop stress from building in my system and causing negative health outcomes. As Amy details, if you can catch and deal with the "little" stuff, you can heal a lot. Amy B. Scher is an expert in mind-body healing and helping people release blocks to become their happiest, healthiest, and most creative selves. She’s the award-winning and bestselling author of four books which are translated into 20 languages and endorsed by notable authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray Love), Sanjiv Chopra, MD, Harvard Medical School and (Brotherhood with Deepak Chopra), and more. Her work has been featured in Oprah Daily, CNN, CBS, Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Good Morning America, and more. She lives in New York City with her beautiful wife and bad cat. Amy can be found online at AmyBScher.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your support is deeply appreciated! Find me, Lara, on my Website / Instagram You can support this podcast with any level of donation here. Order The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga: How to Create Safer Spaces for All Opening and Closing music: Other People's Photographs courtesy of Daniel Zaitchik. Follow Daniel on Spotify.

Timothy Lewis walked into my yoga studio, Land Yoga on one New Year's Eve and never turned back. He became a regular and dedicated yoga practitioner, got his yoga teacher certification, and then did his Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher Training with Three and a Half Acres Yoga where he now teaches classes for trauma survivors. Timothy is a born scientist, full of a curiosity which he allows to take him on the journey of life. He is featured in my book, The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga which is out TOMORROW. Make any level donation to Three and a Half Acres Yoga and receive an invite to our special private book event on Saturday, May 13th where you will have the opportunity to meet Timothy and many others who were involved in this project. Purchase the book today (May 1st) for the final day to receive your online BONUSES. Timothy Lewis is a Jay Shetty certified mindfulness coach and educator at heart with over 20 years of dynamic experience honoring unique individuality and nurturing innate curiosity. An avid researcher of epigenetics, human psychology, and the new human biology, he allows a love for learning and growth to fuel his zest for life. Timothy is a 200-h RYT with training in the foundations of Yin and trauma-sensitive yoga. Timothy teaches an Everyday Mindfulness & Meditation course, works with individuals and groups looking to explore how mindfulness can neutralize the effects of stress and modern living, and offers embodied movement classes including yoga and capoeira. Timothy enjoys training and teaching, traveling, and exploring the contrast of being deeply drawn to nature while embracing the hustle and bustle of New York City. Learn more about Timothy and his offerings here. Also, Timothy shares short practices and insights on Timothy Lewis (@mindfulnesswithtimothy) • Instagram photos and videos, and LinkedIn. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your support is deeply appreciated! Find me, Lara, on my Website / Instagram You can support this podcast with any level of donation here. Pre-order The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga: How to Create Safer Spaces for All Opening and Closing music: Other People's Photographs courtesy of Daniel Zaitchik. Follow Daniel on Spotify.

Not everyone can talk about neuroscience and make it make sense, but Rotem Brayer certainly can. During our time together he showed me why EMDR has become his number one go-to modality for helping his clients process trauma. In this episode, Rotem explains the neuroscience behind this practice and how it can help with trauma and sleep disorders. We also discuss the other elements that need to be in the room to make EMDR most impactful. Finally, Rotem also breaks down the reasons he feels we are seeing such a crisis in mental health and what we can do about it. I learned so much from this conversation and I know you will too. Rotem Brayer, MEd, LPC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, certified EMDR therapist, EMDR consultant, and an advanced EMDR trainer. He is the founder of The EMDR Learning Community (https://emdr-learning.com/), a community that brings EMDR therapists together and provides education on EMDR therapy and the integration of this modality with other treatment approaches. As the co-founder of EMDR Denver, a practice that helps clients heal with an “EMDR first” approach, Rotem spends his time consulting on cases, coaching EMDR therapists, and helping his clients heal from the effects of trauma and attachment wounds. Website - Instagram -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your support is deeply appreciated! Find me, Lara, on my Website / Instagram You can support this podcast with any level of donation here. Pre-order The Essential Guide to Trauma Sensitive Yoga: How to Create Safer Spaces for All Opening and Closing music: Other People's Photographs courtesy of Daniel Zaitchik. Follow Daniel on Spotify.