Bodyful Episode #20: Shea Rose on Fully Embodying Your Voice

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By Valerie Martin

Shea Rose (she/her) is one of those rare humans who is both incredibly multifaceted and genuinely DEEP in all of those facets— like a shimmering emerald that catches the light from every direction.

She is a musician, an activist, an educator, a healer— and she brings such richness into all of these capacities after having journeyed her own path from trauma to healing in ways deepened all aspects of her voice: inner voice, physical voice, and written voice.

In this conversation, Shea and I explore the power of the voice, how we can start to find our voice when it feels suppressed or small, and how we can use movement and sound to access our fullest and truest self expression.

If you’re a musician or creative of some kind, you’ll especially resonate with this one (no pun intended 🤓) but even folks who don’t strongly identify as creative will still find so much value and depth in Shea’s wisdom.

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 Shea Rose (she/her)

Shea Rose is a multipassionate musician, activist, healer, and curator. Her music is influenced by soul, hip-hop, rock, and folk, and speaks to identity, self-acceptance, and transformation. She was a recipient of the prestigious Abe Olman Scholarship from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has won a Boston Music Award and a SESAC National Performance Activity Award, and was a featured songwriter and performer on two Grammy Award-winning jazz albums.

Shea partners with local, national, and international organizations and has worked with over 30 community groups, charitable and nonprofit organizations in Boston and worldwide. Her collaborations include live and in-studio performances, event curation, and workshop facilitation.

Shea served as an AmeriCorps State and National program volunteer for three years and is the recipient of the Berklee College of Music, Walter W. Harp Liberal Arts Music and Society Award for her demonstration of outstanding achievement in research, civic engagement, and performance relating to music and society.

Shea also offers holistic healing and empowerment services including Embodied Voice coaching. Her work is rooted in an Afrocentric worldview, which values song as a functional tool for engaging in daily life and expression of the full range of our emotional and spiritual experiences. She also integrates yoga philosophy, asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breath control), and yogic sound into her healing work.

You can find out more about Shea and her offerings at shearose.com and on Instagram @shearose.

Links + Additional Resources:

Bodyful Episode #19: Laura Khoudari on Healing Trauma through Movement, One Rep at a Time

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By Valerie Martin

Each year, there are just a few books that make it onto my all-time favorites roster, and this year, one of those is called Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time.

I highlighted damn-near half the book because there was so much that resonated personally and professionally. A few chapters in, I knew I wanted to try to get the author Laura Khoudari on the podcast.

Fortunately for me, she quickly responded and was down for it— after all, Bodyful is kind of a perfect fit for all the topics she wrote about in the book! And as a fellow Health at Every Size-aligned practitioner, Laura approaches fitness and training from a weight-neutral perspective (which, I don’t have to tell you, is unfortunately a rare thing in that industry).

This was such a rich conversation, and I can’t wait for y’all to hear it. Whether you’re a trauma survivor, work with trauma, love fitness, are repelled by working out— you’ll gain something from listening to this one.

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 Laura Khoudari

A trauma practitioner, and certified personal trainer, Laura Khoudari is passionate about giving people the tools they need to heal from trauma and cultivate mental health and wellness. She is the author of the book Lifing Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time. Her work has been widely recognized by the trauma and fitness community, and she has been featured on Buzzfeed, UpWorthy, Outside Online, Medium, Tonic, Nike, and Girls Gone Strong. She lives in New York City with her family and two cats.

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Bodyful Episode #17: Ben J. Munday on Breaking Through Barriers via the Body

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By Valerie Martin

The word “somatic” is very on-trend right now (…unless you’re the APA and you’ve surreptitiously withdrawn continuing education credits for all somatic-focused trainings because you’re a bunch of rigid, evidence-based-yet-evidence-denying buttheads)… oh, did I say that?

I digress. The science** is clear that somatic (AKA body-focused) approaches are effective for treating trauma, anxiety, depression, and more— and, outside of mental health issues, that working directly with the body (as opposed to just the mind) is beneficial for increasing a sense of confidence/self-efficacy and decreasing the buildup of daily stress that can lead to burnout. Among other benefits too abundant to list in this one paragraph!

The guest for this episode is Ben Munday, who went from growing up in a very masculine environment to being surrounded by powerful women in the fashion industry. When he decided he wanted to make a career shift to focus on coaching women in business, he experienced in his coach training how powerful working directly with the body could be, and knew he wanted to make somatic work core to both his own lifestyle and his approach with clients.

As you’ll hear quickly in our conversation, Ben is a smart, kind, and grounded person— and it was a pleasure talking with him about topics we’re both passionate about.

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.

If you love the episode and decide to schedule a free consultation call with Ben, make sure to tell him Bodyful podcast sent you and he will give you a discount if you decide to book!

**It’s hard to point to just one research study or even literature review on this, because there are many different somatic modalities that all have to be studied independently; however, Bessel van der Kolk did an excellent job synthesizing a lot of the research (and decades of clinical work) in his continuously chart-topping book, The Body Keeps the Score.

About Ben J. Munday

Ben is a body-oriented coach supporting women in conscious impact businesses. He guides his clients to reconnect with the wisdom of the body to build confidence and trust, increase career fulfillment, tackle bold transitions and a variety of leadership and team challenges.

Heralding originally from the English countryside in a physical world of boys and men, through a career in the fashion industry Ben saw first-hand the experience of women working in corporate environments and the very real struggle within the masculine structures of hierarchy. He is passionate about raising up the empowerment of women and believes that many of the challenges we face as a global community need a new introduction of the feminine energy to rebalance our society for future prosperity for all.  

His work is rooted in body-oriented approaches blending movement, postural alignment and inner somatic exercises to bring ‘ah-ha’ moments through the body during sessions. Ben brings his personal interests of yoga, bodywork, running, travel, public speaking, conscious dance and meditation into his offerings to enrich his work.

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

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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.

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

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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

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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.

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