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Content Note: This episode discusses grief in many forms, including pregnancy loss, queer and trans community loss, and intergenerational trauma. Please take care of yourself as you listen. Episode Summary: In Episode 13 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight dismantles the five-stage model of grief and replaces it with something more honest — and more useful. This episode covers what Kübler-Ross actually intended and how her framework was distorted into a checklist; what grief actually looks like in the body and why it is non-linear, cumulative, and relational; the decolonial critique of private, time-limited mourning and what Indigenous, Black, and global majority traditions have always known about grief that the Western model suppressed; ancestral and intergenerational grief and why your grief may be bigger than the visible loss; and disenfranchised grief — the losses that go unacknowledged and unsupported because the culture doesn't recognize them as real. Topics Covered: Kübler-Ross and the five stages · Continuing bonds theory · George Bonanno and grief research · Non-linear grief · Grief in the body · Grief vs. depression · Somatic grief · Decolonizing grief · Indigenous and African mourning traditions · Día de los Muertos · Closure as a colonial concept · Ancestral grief · Intergenerational trauma and epigenetics · Disenfranchised grief (Kenneth Doka) · Ambiguous loss (Pauline Boss) · Pet loss · Pregnancy loss · Queer and trans grief · Grief for identity, future, and land Clinical References: On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross · The Other Side of Sadness by George Bonanno · Continuing Bonds by Klass, Silverman, Nickman · Disenfranchised Grief by Kenneth Doka · Ambiguous Loss by Pauline Boss Companion Blog Post: 'Grief Is Not a 5-Step Checklist' BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Schedule A Free Consultation Instagram: @somaticrootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 14 — Thinking, Feeling, and Sensing

Episode Summary: In Episode 12 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight goes deep on rest as resistance — not as a wellness trend or a productivity hack, but as a political and ancestral claim rooted in Black feminist tradition. This episode credits the lineage that built this framework (Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry, Audre Lorde, womanist and abolitionist thought), names grind culture as a system of extraction with specific racial and capitalist roots, explores the clinical and somatic reasons why rest is genuinely difficult for many people, expands the definition of rest beyond sleep, and makes the case that rest is not an individual wellness practice but a collective political commitment. Topics Covered: Rest as resistance · Tricia Hersey and The Nap Ministry · Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto · Audre Lorde and self-preservation as political warfare · Womanist and abolitionist frameworks · Grind culture as system · Racial roots of productivity culture · Nervous system effects of chronic overwork · Why rest feels dangerous · Productivity identity · The unfreezing problem · Seven types of rest (Saundra Dalton-Smith) · Rest for disabled and chronically ill people · Economic precarity and access to rest · Collective rest · Community care · Structural conditions for rest Referenced Work & Resources: Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey, The Nap Ministry · Sacred Rest: Saundra Dalton-Smith Thematic Companion: Episode 11 — 'Staying Informed Without Burning Out' BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somaticrootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 13 — Grief Is Not A 5-Step Checklist

Episode Summary: In Episode 11 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight explores one of the most pressing clinical questions of the current political moment: how do you stay informed without destroying your nervous system in the process? This episode covers the physiology of news overload and why the chronic scroll activates the threat response; credits the Black feminist, Indigenous, and abolitionist lineages that have long understood rest and regulation as tools of resistance; offers practical guidance for designing a sustainable information diet without disengaging; walks through somatic practices for before, during, and after news consumption; and reframes the scale and shape of political engagement as a nervous system question, not just a logistics one. Topics Covered: Sympathetic nervous system activation · Cortisol and chronic stress · Window of tolerance · News overload research · BIPOC lineages of rest and resistance · Tricia Hersey and The Nap Ministry · Rest as resistance · Trauma organizing · Doom scrolling as hypervigilance · Information diet design · Orienting and grounding practices · Vagal nerve activation · Somatic discharge · Scale of engagement · Constructive journalism · Mutual aid and local organizing · Sustainable activism Referenced Work & Resources: Tricia Hersey - The Nap Ministry BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somaticrootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 12 — Rest As Resistance

Episode Summary: In Episode 10 of The Inked Therapist — and the final episode of the first solo arc — Del Knight breaks down what neurodivergent-affirming therapy actually requires. This episode covers the neurotypical defaults baked into standard clinical training, the history of harm caused by ABA and social skills training, the critical difference between accommodating and affirming neurodivergence, what genuinely affirming therapy looks like in a real session, and the specific clinical terrain of masking and late diagnosis. Closes with a reflection on the full five-episode arc. Topics Covered: Neurotypical defaults in clinical training · Alexithymia · Executive function and therapy homework · ABA legacy and harm · Social skills training as suppression · The double empathy problem (Damian Milton) · Deficit model vs. difference model · Affirming vs. accommodating · Interoception and neurodivergence · Sensory experience in session · Masking and autistic burnout · Late diagnosis and retrospective re-interpretation · ADHD and autism in queer/trans communities · Diagnostic gaps for women, AFAB people, and BIPOC folks Referenced Work: The Double Empathy Problem — Damian Milton (2012) BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somaticrootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 11 — Staying Informed Without Burning Out

Episode Summary: In the second episode of The Inked Therapist's trauma arc, Del Knight goes beyond the language of trauma-informed care to examine what the framework actually requires — and what it's been diluted into by the wellness industry, corporate HR departments, and providers who adopted the vocabulary without building the structure. Drawing on SAMHSA's Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Care, this episode gives listeners a concrete framework for evaluating whether the care they're receiving is genuine, what they're allowed to expect and ask for, and what to do when a provider claims trauma-informed care but doesn't demonstrate it. Topics Covered: Origins of trauma-informed care · Judith Herman's foundational work · SAMHSA's Six Principles (safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, empowerment, cultural responsiveness) · Co-optation by wellness and corporate sectors · Language vs. structural commitment · What genuine trauma-informed therapy looks like in session · Client rights · Rupture and repair · Leaving therapeutic relationships that aren't working · Cultural responsiveness as clinical requirement Framework Cited: SAMHSA's Six Principles of Trauma-Informed Care — samhsa.gov Referenced Works: Trauma and Recovery — Judith Herman BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somarootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 10 — 'What Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapy Actually Looks Like'

Episode Summary: In Episode 8 of The Inked Therapist — and the first episode of a two-part trauma arc — Del Knight, CCTP-II, breaks down one of the most persistent and harmful misunderstandings in the therapy world: that trauma requires a dramatic, identifiable event. This episode draws the distinction between single-incident and complex/developmental trauma, explains why complex trauma is so hard to name (including for the people living inside it), and addresses directly the minimization trap — the 'nothing that bad happened to me' calculation that keeps so many people from taking their own experience seriously. Topics Covered: Defining trauma as nervous system response · Single-incident / Type I trauma · C-PTSD / Complex trauma · Developmental and relational trauma · Attachment disruption · Emotional neglect · Fight/flight/freeze/fawn · Pete Walker’s C-PTSD framework · Judith Herman · Bessel van der Kolk · Peter Levine · Resmaa Menakem / Cultural Somatics · Racialized and historical trauma · Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart / historical trauma in Indigenous communities · Joy DeGruy / Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome · Prentis Hemphill / healing justice and embodiment · Minority stress and social trauma · Neurodivergent trauma histories · Comparative suffering · The minimization trap Referenced Works: Trauma and Recovery — Judith Herman | The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk | In an Unspoken Voice — Peter Levine | Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving — Pete Walker | My Grandmother’s Hands — Resmaa Menakem | Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome — Joy DeGruy | What It Takes to Heal — Prentis Hemphill BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somarootstherapy Next Episode: Episode 9 — 'What Trauma-Informed Actually Means (And What It's Being Used to Sell You)' — Trauma arc, Part 2 of 2

Episode Summary: In Episode 7 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight — Certified Body Trust Specialist, Center for Body Trust (2024) — introduces the body trust framework and why it's different from body positivity, intuitive eating, or any other self-improvement program dressed in liberation language. This episode names the systems — diet culture, medical fatphobia, wellness culture — that taught most of us not to trust our bodies, walks through the core threads of the Center for Body Trust approach, and gets specific about what body trust actually looks like in a life, in a therapy room, and in a culture that profits from the war. Topics Covered: Body trust vs. body positivity · Center for Body Trust framework · Body sovereignty · Diet culture · Medical fatphobia · Wellness culture co-optation · Body trust for trans and neurodivergent people · Interoception · Grief and body trust · Health as not a moral obligation · Collective vs. individual healing Framework credit: Center for Body Trust — Hilary Kinavey & Dana Sturtevant BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-timeLinks: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get StartedInstagram: @somaticrootstherapy Next episode: Episode 8 — 'Not All Trauma Looks the Same: Single-Incident vs. Complex Trauma'

Episode summary: In Episode 6 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight demystifies one of the biggest barriers to starting therapy: not knowing what's about to happen. This episode walks through every stage of a first session — what gets asked, what doesn't, what the therapist is actually doing, what clients are allowed to expect, and what to make of how you feel after. Includes a direct note to anyone who has been dismissed or harmed by the mental health system before. Topics covered: What a first session is · The intake process · What you don't have to bring · Somatic presence in session · Client rights and agency · The therapeutic fit question · Emotional processing after session · How to know if therapy is working BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Instagram: @somarootstherapy Next episode: Episode 7 — 'Your Body Is Not a Problem to Solve: An Introduction to Body Trust'

Episode summary: Del Knight takes four words — 'it could be worse' — and spends an hour unpacking what they're actually doing to your nervous system. What pain minimization is, where it comes from, why comparative suffering is a logically broken system, and what it actually means to let pain be what it is. Funny at the start, real in the middle, liberatory by the end. Topics covered: Pain minimization · Nervous system dismissal · Somatic storage · Survival adaptation · Minority stress · Comparative suffering · Permission to feel · Liberation-rooted healing BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Companion Reel: 'It Could Be Worse' — @somaticrootstherapy on Instagram Next episode: Episode 6 — 'What Actually Happens in a First Therapy Session'

Episode summary: In the final episode of The Inked Therapist's nervous system arc, Del Knight gets specific about what trans-affirming therapy actually means — not the sticker in the window, but the real thing. Five concrete clinical practices, a deep dive into somatic work with trans clients, a direct address to trans and nonbinary listeners about what they're allowed to expect, and an honest note to clinicians about what this work actually requires. Topics covered: Willing vs. affirming · Minority stress · Gender euphoria · Anti-gatekeeping · WPATH-informed care · Somatic work with trans clients · Political neutrality in therapy · Trans flourishing BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Next episode: Episode 5 — 'It Could Be Worse' (outside the nervous system arc)

In Episode 3, Del Knight answers the question that Episodes 1 and 2 were building toward: what does healing actually look like in practice? The answer — slow, titrated, body-centered, at the client's pace — is unpacked across four clinical pillars, a direct address to the people this approach is built for, and a personal account of why Soma Roots Therapy was built the way it was. Topics covered: Productivity logic and healing · Titration · Integration · Autonomy in therapy · Complex trauma · Nervous system pacing · Soma Roots practice philosophy · Anti-hustle healing BuyMeACoffee Link: Support the Soma Roots Therapy Access Fund — monthly or one-time Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Next episode: Episode 4 — 'What Makes Therapy Actually Trans-Affirming'

Episode summary: In Episode 2 of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight goes deeper on the nervous system arc — unpacking what 'adapted' actually means, why the story of dysfunction causes additional harm, why insight alone doesn't shift nervous system patterns, and what the foundational shift from combat to curiosity actually makes possible in healing. Topics covered: Nervous system adaptation · Dysfunction language and its costs · Prediction machine model · Individualizing systemic harm · Neuroplasticity · Why 'just relax' doesn't work · Somatic healing frame · Curiosity as a clinical starting point Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Next episode: Episode 3 — 'Slow Therapy for Exhausted Humans'

Episode summary: In the first full episode of The Inked Therapist, Del Knight breaks down chronic vigilance — what it is, how it develops, who carries it, and what healing actually looks like. If you've never been able to fully relax even when everything is technically fine, this one is for you. Topics covered: Chronic vigilance / hypervigilance · Nervous system adaptation · Minority stress · Window of tolerance (intro) · Somatic approach to healing · Titration Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Blog companion post · Reach Out & Get Started Next episode: 'Your Nervous System Isn't Broken — It Adapted' (Episode 2)

The Inked Therapist is back. New chapter. Same unapologetic voice. In this pilot episode, Del Knight, PsyD, LPC, LMHC (they/them) — licensed psychotherapist, and cofounder of Soma Roots Therapy — introduces the show, the practice, and the specific kind of person this podcast was made for. Not a general wellness podcast. Not a clinical lecture series. A show for people who have been told, in one way or another, that the way they experience the world is the problem — and who are starting to suspect that maybe the world's framework was just the wrong one. This episode covers who Del is and why they're making this show, what Soma Roots Therapy is and what it's built around, what "slow, embodied, and rooted in liberation" actually means in clinical practice, and who this podcast is talking to directly — queer and trans people, neurodivergent people, trauma survivors, people whose bodies have been pathologized, people who have tried therapy and found it wasn't quite built for them. If you've ever left a therapy session feeling like you performed something rather than healed something — this one is for you. If you've ever been told your nervous system is broken, your body is a problem, or your identity is a clinical complication — this one is for you. If you are exhausted by healing frameworks that ask you to optimize and hustle your way to wellness — this one is definitely for you. Welcome. The door is open. Links: Soma Roots Therapy Website · Reach Out & Get Started