Advertise on podcast: Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson

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: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/forgotten-pillars/

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.

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  

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  

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 90s Bitch (finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award), and she has written about the shortcomings of the perinatal experience in America for the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Vox, Harper's Bazaar, and Insider. Her new book Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood, which is out July 18 and arose out of my TED Talk. 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  

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/

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   

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: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/erotic-seasons/        

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: https://www.arttohealing.org/ IG: @arttohealing  

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, go here. This is a gathering for the Maui ‘ohana. You can contribute to the event by making a donation here. 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   Maui Reckoning, 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 here 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 here.    You can connect with Khadija via khadija@familytraditionsmaui.com   

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   

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