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In this conversation with Deb Benfield, we unravel the beliefs we’ve inherited about beauty, worth, and aging. We talk about adequate nourishment, menopause, ageism and the hierarchies that tell us some bodies are more worthy than others. We also touch on the growing use of GLP-1 medications. This is a soft rebellion — a call to dismantle fear, reclaim autonomy, and remember that our bodies were never the problem. SHOW NOTES: Deb Benfield, M.Ed., RDN, LDN, RYT, is a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist with 40 years of experience. She specializes in helping people heal their relationship with food, movement, and their bodies through a lens of body liberation, intuitive eating, and anti-ageism. Her forthcoming book, Unapologetic Aging: How to Mend and Nourish Your Relationship with Your Body (December 2025), explores how we can cultivate a partnership with our bodies in midlife and beyond. Deb’s work sits at the intersection of nutrition therapy and body-image healing, while pushing back against diet culture and ageism, offering a radically compassionate alternative to diet and wellness culture. Learn more at https://www.debrabenfield.com, on Instagram @agingbodyliberation or on Substack Unapologetic Aging Informed Consent: https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-1-1.pdf Minnesota Starvation Experiment Sonya Renee Taylor: https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/ Tracy McMillan Cottom: Collection of Essays called “Thick” You can find Lisa on Instagram @illuminatedrecoverypodcast Or by email: [email protected]

Katie LaCelle is a leadership and IFS coach. She combines her training as an IFS coach with Somatic Experiencing and joins me today to talk about the deep healing work. Her definition of the difference between PTSD and CPTSD is so brilliant. And we talk about all the trauma work including interoception and exteroception, non violent communication and simple slowing down in general. She also considers herself an HSP: highly sensitive person and explains how that shows up in our world. While we talk about how this work shows up in our lives, really, so much of it, comes back to rebuilding our own sense of self trust.  Show notes:  Kay Gardener: IFS & SE Book: Laziness does not exist Connect with Katie LaCelle: Katies website: https://www.cressanallc.com/ On Instagram: @cressanallc You can find Lisa on Instagram @illuminatedrecoverypodcast and via email: [email protected]

Description: Tom O’Reilly is an IFS coach, somatic embodiment coach and enneagram coach. He joins me today to talk about a bit of his background, including what led him to getting an ADHD diagnosis and bravely shares what it was like before and after his diagnosis. He really does a deep dive into some of the struggles of living with ADHD including masking and executive functioning and shares his experience with different medications. He also shares his interpretation of IFS and how he works with clients as an IFS coach for couples. And we wrap it up talking about the Enneagram! It’s a full episode of valuable information. Show notes: website: https://charityoreilly.com/about-tom/ On Instagram: @6ish_andiknowit and @parts.of.us.coaching Tom and Charity are co-authoring a new book about ADHD called: "How to Understand and Deal With ADHD" which will be released in the summer of 2026. You can find Lisa on Instagram @illuminatedrecoverypodcast Or by email: [email protected]

Jess Frost courageously shares her story about her childhood and its impact on her adult life. She shares about struggles with alcohol and codependency but her real story is in her recovery. She talks about how self compassion and shame resilience are the foundation of her work and how we can retrain our nervous system and help us protect our peace. Jess inspires others with her raw and authentic story and shares so much valuable information from along the way.  Show notes:  Find Jess on Instagram @iamjessfrost On linked in: Jess frost Facebook: Jess frost empowerment  Her podcast: Have You Got Space For This: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/have-you-got-space-for-this/id1779892423 Website:  https://www.the3espace.com/

Hannah Husband joins me today to talk about body liberation. Hannah helps people reclaim their body autonomy. They are a coach who works with folks who have been harmed by mainstream fitness offerings. They help clients explore their relationship with movement and tune into their body’s unique language of sensation.  You can find Hannah on Instagram @hannahusband And on their website: www.hannahusband.com  Mentioned in the show:  The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control  You can find Lisa on Instagram @illuminatedrecoverypodcast Or by email: [email protected]

Melissa Guttman joins me to deconstruct the complexities of estrangement. She shares her insight  on narcissistic abuse and being the adult child of emotionally immature parents. She also explains family dynamics  and the role they play. And also how we can heal from toxic relationships.  Melissa is a therapist and also an HSP, highly sensitive person, which we also talk about in this episode! Connect with Melissa: ifswitch.com [email protected] On Instagram and Tik Tock: @fallengoldenchild Find Lisa @illuminatedrecoverypodcast on Instagram  Show Notes: April Snow and her work on HSP’s (highly sensitive people) Tara Brock’s work: RAINCartman drama triangle: persecutor, victim and rescuerJennifer Fried: DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse, Victim and Offender) Nedra Tawwab Whitney Goodman Patrick Teahan Brene Brown Maya Anglou Lindsay Gibson Sharon Martin’s book: Cutting Ties with Your Parents

Join me as Jess Fry dives deep into the complexities and nuances of Intuitive Eating. She also talks about how shame can show up in our lives and how it affects our relationship with our bodies. Jess highlights how our deeply rooted belief systems are connected to our worthiness, self trust and intuition. This episode is part 2 of our first conversation, Episode 11 Connect with Jess Fry: https://www.letsembodyconfidence.com/therapist-ephrata-pa On Instagram: @embodyconfidencecoaching  https://www.tiktok.com/@embodyconfidencecoaching Connect with Lisa on Instagram: @illuminatedrecoverypodcast

In this episode, we explore Internal Family Systems and meditation with Tess Felder. Tess was a long time student, and friend, of Ralph De La Rosa and shares how we can apply the practices of meditation and IFS to ourselves which help us navigate our relationships in a more grounded way. She explains how all of our parts need our attention and to be heard and how meditation allows us the space we need to see them all through a compassionate lens.  Show notes: Dick Schwartz founder of IFS: Internal Family Systems Ralph De La Rosa books: The Monkey Is The Messenger, Don’t Tell Me To Relax, Outshining Trauma. Dr. Rick Hanson: H.E.A.L method  Lodro Rinzler: https://www.lodrorinzler.com/  

I am talking to four of the six women who created and run Sober Mom Collective which is an online space for moms working at staying sober. They give us all the details of this magical community and then, they each share their own sober story. Leah shares her story about the pressure of ‘mommy wine culture’ and the importance of having a village of women/moms to support her in sobriety. Lainy opens up about black-out drinking and how you don’t have to hit rock bottom to quit drinking, you don’t need a reason, you can just stop. Then she found her people with other moms going through the same thing.  Kathryn’s story starts from childhood where she saw sobriety as deprivation. Then her intense, binge drinking became part of her identity until she started noticing little cues about non drinkers which eventually led her to removing alcohol from her life.  Jen was a party girl, working in a field that was alcohol fueled and couldn’t find an off switch to her drinking, until she found her way, first through AA and eventually through an online moms group.  SHOW NOTES:  The team of six women who run this organization are: Leah Fulton Eng, Lainy Wernecke, Kathryn Sabella, Jen Ciccotto, Heather Taylor and Mary Schiavoni   You can find more about Sober Mom Collective here: SMC: IG: @sobermomcollective Website: sobermomcollective.com  And about each of them here:  Leah Fulton Eng: @holisticcoachleah on Instagram Lainy Warnecke @wild_lainy on Instagram Kathryn Sabella:  @kathryn.authentic.af on Instagram Jen Ciccotto: @bklyn_bookworm Heather Taylor @balancedbymom on Instagram  Mentions: Recovery Happy Hour PodcastScary Mommy Blog Sober Curious by Ruby Warrington  Book club guests: Laura Cathcart Robbins and Jessica Guerrieri. 

I’m talking to Jacqui Stilling, she’s a therapist in Maryland and the founder of The Both/And Way.  Jacqui talks about how she integrates mindfulness and meditation with IFS and the Enneagram. She talks about how we all have a feeling meter and a pause button and how the power of the pause is the foundation of her recovery journey.  She hosts amazing retreats which you can find out about on her website: www.thebothandway.com And she’s on Instagram: @thebothandway Some mentions worth noting: Internal Family Systems Enneagram teachers: Beatrice Chestnut and Araneo Paes.  The Buddhist Enneagram by Sue River

In today’s solo episode, Lisa shares her story about her experiences with therapy. She illuminates the importance of therapy as well as different modalities, including IFS: internal family systems, which transformed her relationship to herself.  Show notes: CBT: cognitive behavioral therapy. DBT: dialectical behavioral therapy. EMDR: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.  IFS: internal family systems 

I’m talking with Jess Fry, Therapist and Body Image Coach, LPC, ADHD-CCSP, CSTS, about the deeper issues of body image. We dive into the complexity of our internalized beliefs and try to unpack the layers. We navigate through the unlearning of how shame shows up in inner world. And we touch on how politics is deeply connected to body image work. After our conversation, we realized we have so much more to talk about so we plan to do a part 2, stay tuned! https://www.letsembodyconfidence.com/therapist-ephrata-pa On Instagram: @embodyconfidencecoaching  https://www.tiktok.com/@embodyconfidencecoaching

I'm talking with trauma therapist, Charity O'Reilly about a different way to do therapy. She offers week long, individual therapy intensives that incorporate IFS (Internal Family Systems) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Charity shares her experience as a therapist, with the rape crisis center as well as her book "You Will Get Through This". Then we dive into the importance of rest during recovery. And we wrap up chatting about her chickens! Show notes: https://charityoreilly.com/Charity’s online course https://www.teawithatraumatherapist.com/On Instagram @teawithatraumatherapistany victim of sexual crime, including unreported child abuse and sexual assault, can reach out to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) https://rainn.org to be connected with their local resource. Sexual crime does not need to be reported for someone to be eligible for free therapy.Co-author of “You Will Get Through This”

This is part two of our series with Julie Norman about Body Stuff. Today we are diving deeper into diet culture and illuminating some common myths that we’ve all heard and believed to be true. We talk about the definition of diet, why diets don’t work and what’s really the root cause of why we diet. We get into the how wellness culture has placed a moral value on food and eating. And we even touch on the marketing aspect of diet culture and where that leads us.  As always we have a lot of resources for people wanting more information.  Julie offers a free, monthly group online, called Body Peace Sisterhood (for women and non binary folks). You can find that on her website: https://julienormanyoga.com/ We mentioned Hillary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant and their Body Trust program which you can learn more about here: https://centerforbodytrust.com/ Dr. Amy Porto is a RD and I always recommend following her content on IG: @dr.amyporto  Shana Minei who has a new book called: Live Nourished and is also amazing to follow on IG @thenutritiontea Chrissy King and her book: The Body Liberation Project also on IG @iamchrissyking

This is another bonus episode, on how the election has impacted Julie Norman. Julie shares her story about her reproductive choices and how the election has activated her complex PTSD and how she is managing her recovery during this dark time. We detoured from our planned series to share this, but will resume the body stuff in the next episode.  Resources: Julie Norman, Body Empowerment Coach, BS, E-RYT, CHC juilienormanyoga.com and on IG @bodykarmahealing  National Resource Center on Domestic Violence: nrcdv.org Planned Parenthood: plannedparenthood.org