Bodyful Episode #06: Michelle Cassandra Johnson on Finding Refuge & Prioritizing Collective Care

/
Michelle Johnson Bodyful Podcast

We each have maybe a handful of teachers in our lives that fundamentally shift the way we see or experience— Michelle Cassandra Johnson has been one of those teachers for me.

Michelle is a true embodiment of grace, fire, compassion, and grit, and is a radiant example of how to to show up with skillfulness and heart in a dysfunctional world.

Her new book Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief was released just this week, and I am so excited to dive into and savor it starting next weekend when I’ve carved out some special time and space to do so.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Michelle, and that if you arent’ already familiar with her books and other offerings, that this will be the first of many times you get to experience her gifts.

“Our culture conditions us to notice what is going on from the head up and not from the throat and heart down. The only way out is through, by way of the feelings. If we are going to make social change, we need to cultivate a practice of feeling... When one connects with their feelings as yoga teaches us to do, one can connect with their heart. If one is connected with their heart, they have the opportunity to be changed and to shift their perspective. They have the opportunity to feel the pain of living in a world that is designed to break the spirit through violence, oppression, and injustice.”
— Michelle Cassandra Johnson (from Skill in Action)

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Michelle Cassandra Johnson (she/her)

Michelle is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner. She has led dismantling racism work in many settings for over two decades and has a background and two decades of practice as a clinical social worker. Michelle’s work centers on healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart. She published Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World in 2017 and her newest book, Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief was published by Shambhala Publications in 2021.

Michelle teaches workshops in yoga studios and community spaces nationwide and is on the faculty of Off the Mat, Into the World. In 2020 she created her own podcast, Finding Refuge, which explores collective grief and liberation and serves as a reminder about all the ways we can find refuge during unsettling and uncertain times and of the resilience and joy that comes from allowing ourselves to find refuge.

Links + Additional Resources:

Bodyful Episode #05: Sarah Jane Chapman on Yoga Therapy & Body Liberation

/
Sarah Jane Chapman Bodyful Podcast

Occasionally you meet someone who makes you feel good just by being in their presence, no matter what you’re doing or talking about. Sarah Jane Chapman is one of those people.

She is (in my words) a modern-day witch who lives in alignment with the earth as an extension of herself, and has worked hard to heal her relationship with her body after years of slogging through diet culture and eating disorder recovery.

Sarah Jane is a mama, a massage therapist, and a yoga teacher who teaches the kind of classes I actually want to take (which, TBH is rare 😄). And does a lot of other cool shit, which you can hear about in our conversation or read in her bio below or at her website. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

“Yoga therapy is an individualized practice created to work with someone’s specific system. I typically see clients once or twice a month to check on their practice and tweak it if necessary. If practiced regularly, I can see changes in my clients’ systems. It’s truly magic.”
— Sarah Jane Chapman

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Sarah Jane Chapman

Sarah Jane Chapman was born in Upstate New York where she would spend her days climbing trees and laying in the grass. She started practicing yoga at 14, which helped her through some of the most difficult times of her life. In 2012, she traveled to Rishikesh, India where she became certified in Hatha Yoga, and shortly thereafter moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Sarah Jane is a licensed massage therapist trained at the Mind Body Institute, and offers a plethora of body work and Reiki, as well as astrology and tarot readings. She is currently playing a lot with creating tinctures and teas from plants to facilitate health and connection with the earth, and loves spending time outside with her daughter and going on walks with her husband in their east Nashville neighborhood. You can follow her on instagram @sarahjanechap and learn more about her in-person and virtual offerings at sarahjanechapman.com.

Bodyful Episode #04: Rachel Lewis & Paula Scatoloni on Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders

/
Paula Scatoloni Rachel Lewis Bodyful Podcast

You might think that working with the body would be a central component of eating disorder recovery.

And from a standpoint of medical safety and nutrition, that has always been the case. But as far as working with the body as part of the actual biopsychological healing process? Not so much.

The field of trauma recovery has come a long way in the past 2 decades, with a great deal of research showing us that we MUST go to the body (rather than exclusively relying on traditional talk therapy) if we want to help people heal more fully from trauma. Rachel Lewis and Paula Scatoloni have been on the leading edge of applying the learnings about the neurobiology of trauma and attachment to working with eating disorders, which almost always overlap with trauma and/or attachment issues, and historically have been viewed as one of the most challenging mental health issues to work with and recover from.

Both coming from strong and varied backgrounds in somatics and psychology, Paula and Rachel co-developed the Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders model of assessing and treating eating disorders. I had the privilege of taking the level 1 Embodied Recovery for Eating Disorders in North Carolina in 2017, and I am looking forward to taking the level 2 training in 2022.

In this conversation, we talk more about what has historically been missing from eating disorder treatment, and explore some of the foundations underlying the ERED model. While this particular episode might be more intriguing for clinicians or folks in recovery from an eating disorder, I also believe there are nuggets in this conversation that will be intriguing to any listener with an interest in the body and psychology.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Rachel Lewis (MS, EDS, LPC, LMBT)

Rachel is a somatically integrative psychotherapist, dually licensed in counseling and therapeutic massage and bodywork. She is a Certified Advanced Practitioner in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and has advanced training and 25 + years of experience in diverse somatic therapies including Craniosacral Therapy, Energetic Osteopathy, Oncology massage and Aromatherapy. 

She has extensive experience as a teacher and presenter, focusing on accessing the body’s unique capacity to give voice to the subconscious and to lay the foundation for healing and maintaining psychological and physical health. In her private practice in Chapel Hill, NC, Rachel specializes in working with people exploring recovery from trauma, eating disorders, and dissociative disorders.

About Paula Scatoloni (LCSW, CEDS, SEP)

Paula is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist in Chapel Hill, NC. She has additional training in neurophysiological interventions. She is a certified provider of the Safe and Sound Protocol, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. She has worked in the field of eating disorders for over two decades providing clinical services and teaching extensively on the etiology and treatment of eating disorders through classes, workshops, professional trainings, and conferences.

Prior to developing EMBODIED RECOVERY, Paula co-developed the first intensive outpatient program for eating disorders with Dr. Anita Johnston. She served as the Eating Disorders Coordinator at Duke University Counseling Center (CAPS) for nine years where she developed campus-wide policies and managed a multidisciplinary treatment team treating eating disorders.

Links + Additional Resources:

Bodyful Episode #03: Tiya Caniel Maynard on Innerspace Adornment & Liberation Through Sexuality

/
Tiya Caniel Maynard Bodyful Podcast

Tiya Caniel Maynard is one of those people who you learn more from just by being around than by sitting in a lecture with your average university professor.

You FEEL the truth (bless that neuroception, thank you body!) and importance of what Tiya says because you know she’s earned her wisdom through the crucible of life experience, and continues to embody that truth and walk her talk just with how she consciously chooses to show up in the world.

I am gonna have to follow up with Tiya on the whole Ennegram question because, while I’m not trying to type someone else, she is bringing some BIG 7 energy to the world (very noticed and appreciated by this 7 😝) and doing ALL THE AMAZING THINGS. Be sure to check out her bio and links to many wonderful offerings below.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Tiya

Tiya Caniel Maynard is an interspace tailor, yoga teacher, author, designer, and more. She helps her clients and students learn how to adorn themselves from within by teaching them sustainable tools to facilitate their own healing. Shew loves adorning herself in beautiful garments, creating sacred living & work spaces, cooking & eating delicious foods, practicing rest as rebellion, writing, spending time in the woods, embodying liberation, exploring her sexual freedom as it relates to yoga and being a black woman, and giving & receiving love.

Links + Additional Resources: