Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson

Kimberly Ann Johnson interviews Stephen Jenkinson, author and death worker, about their ongoing event series Reckoning. They discuss the role of witness in their work, politics of feelings, and their relationship to matrimony. They reflect on the difference between recording and live events and the unique impact it has on their relationships to the oral tradition.

In this episode, Kimberly and Keli discuss the future of women's health. During this recorded live event from Kimberly's living room, we learn about the extensive health benefits of vaginal steaming and how the shortcomings in gynecological training reflect contemporary cultural politics around women's bodies. They discuss how to bridge the knowledge gaps found in western medicine's approach to gynecological health when it comes to menstrual cycles, birth, postpartum, and menopause. They discuss their role in pushing the science forward with their collaborative vaginal steam study. They go in depth about healthy periods, uterine cleanses, the fertility industry, and the importance of new language that evolves Women's health. This conversation helps us understand how tending to gynecological care holistically is a way to tend to our own bodies, to tend to future generations, and to build mother culture. Bio Keli Garza has a Masters degree in International Development graduating cum laude with a focus in nonprofit management and human rights. Keli is the owner of Steamy Chick and the founder of the Peristeam Hydrotherapy Institute. Through her company she raises awareness on the benefits of vaginal steaming, makes supplies accessible, conducts research and trains practitioners. Keli is the author of the Vaginal Steam World Map, Pelvic Steam Testimonial Database, Fourth Trimester Vaginal Steam Study and Steamy Chick blog. Some of her notable work includes executive producing the Hot & Steamy Podcast, creating the annual #steamyaugust Vaginal Steam Awareness Month and an upcoming documentary film with the working title STEAM. With over 20 years experience in the nonprofit field, Keli also serves as the founder and president of the Bahia Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to artistic, cultural, physical, educational and financial community wellness as well as the founder of the Good Gynecology Project. What She Shares: –Steaming impact on postpartum, infertility, and for all cycles –Centering cycles and uterus for overall health –Inadequate medical care for women –Creating mother culture What You'll Hear: –Need for physiological care postpartum –Using better language to create stronger mother culture –Vaginal Steam documentary –Gaps in women's health –Training practitioners for vaginal steaming –History of vaginal steaming in U.S. –Significant blood pressure levels lowered after steaming –Steaming for preeclampsia, birth injuries, and postpartum care –Lack of conversations around postpartum recovery –Disconnect between possibilities of postpartum issues and medical solutions –Fertility in relation to overall health –Destigmatizing steaming –Morality and ideology versus physiology –Infertility industry –Tending to postpartum care before crisis –No structural space for cycles in work, education, and healthcare –No definition for miscarriage recovery or infertility –Women's physiology as cyclical not just deviant men –Menstrual leave policies for workplace –Period is a uterine cleanse –Cramps are uterus contracting to clear out residue –Healthy periods begin and end with fresh red blood –Lack of consideration in health of uterus during IVF –Using periods for postpartum practice –Female brain and female nervous system –Understanding phases and cycles post menopause –Importance of endocrine system for overall health –Viewing the body as a whole not separate parts –Purposes of the uterus other than reproduction –Reproductive system as health –Centering, understanding, and defining the uterus and care –Other applications for steaming after assault and infection –Facilitator steaming training –Building mother culture - Menstrual health as a vital sign - Definition of Postpartum Recovery - Uterus is more than a Reproductive Organ - Physiological Feminism (different from choice feminism) - Female systems are more sensitive and resilient than male systems - Stop normalizing pain with s*x the first time (instead of "it's gonna hurt" "it shouldn't hurt.") - Build MotherCulture Resources Website: www.steamychick.com IG: @steamychick www.fourthtrimestervaginalsteamstudy.com

In this episode, Kimberly and Katie discuss the roles of student, teacher, mentor, elder, and friend. They discuss their experiences in each of those roles but how many conflate them. In an age of constant information, many want to consume, but few commit themselves to the devoted path of long-term learning. They also discuss different teaching styles, finding elders versus mentors, and their experiences of being teachers and students. Katie highlights the value of being in circle with others as a commitment to learning and growth. Bio Katie Dove is a somatic therapist, intuitive guide, healer, and mystic with over two decades of experience working with individuals and groups. She is a keeper of ancient wisdom, exploring new paths for the preservation of human nature through connection to mother nature. Her methods weave a mixture of experiences she has collected over time, modalities she has personally cultivated, and extensive studies in transpersonal psychology and craniosacral therapy. With exploration in voice, touch, sound and movement, she guides her clients and students to investigate habits, freedom of choice, expressiveness, and the wealth of sensory information within and around them. Her upcoming course "Inhabit the Heart" is a four week journey into deep relationship with self and soul. What She Shares: –Roles of student, teacher, mentor, and elder –Path of deep inquiry and devotion –Reciprocity between teacher and student –Learning and embodying versus consuming –Important of circle and communal spaces What You'll Hear: –What it means to be a student –Katie's relationships with teachers and students –Teachers versus mentors –Worth in long-term relationships with teachers and mentors –Being curious and humble to receive teachings –Path of deep inquiry –Understanding real devotion and repetition –Experiencing similar teachings with different transmissions –Maturing beyond teacher pedestals and accepting human limitations –Valuing different ways of wisdom teachings –Story-tellers as original teachers –Awareness of different teaching styles –Valuing shared wisdom and intuitive knowledge of teachers –Embodying as internalizing information –Greatest teachers embody their teachings –Consuming information versus embodied knowing and wisdom –Repeating classes and exploring foundational aspects of the heart and embodiment –Fundamental difference between therapist role and teacher role –Safe spaces blocking real learning and growth –Remaining in long-term practices and observation spaces –Public role of apprenticeship and as a learner –Reaching mastery through devotion of a certain path –Reciprocity of learning between student and mentor –Learning through relationship of mentorship and eldering –Differences between friendship and mentorship –Being a good student before being a good elder –Defining what you're about and what you're not as a student and teacher –Elderhood finds you –Work itself as a teacher, mentors and elder just reflecting lessons –Circles and communities that are teaching and holding us –Hours spent in devotion in circle –Learning versus consuming –Valuing elders who have longer life experience –Calling in right students and right teachers –Knowing what seat you're taking in which circle –INHABIT THE HEART: A 4 week journey into Deep Relationship with Self and Soul Resources Website: https://www.katiedove.love/

In this episode, Kimberly and Jamie discuss his book "Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind." Jamie gives an anthropological perspective of human history across millennia to trace how we ended up today with economic, climate, technological, mental health, and other crises. He discusses how all of our social media and culture wars are missing the mark on the actual crises to our planet, and if we don't address it, it will destroy us all. His solution for processing this grief is by making intentional choices toward hope, and moving from hyper-individualism of our times to supportive, intergenerational communities. Bio Jamie Wheal is the author of "Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind" and the global bestseller "Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work" and the founder of the Flow Genome Project, an international organization dedicated to the research and training of human performance. His work and ideas have been covered in The New York Times, Financial Times, Wired, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc., and TED. He has spoken at Stanford University, MIT, the Harvard Club, Imperial College, Singularity University, the U.S. Naval War College and Special Operations Command, Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, the Bohemian Club, and the United Nations. He lives high in the Rocky Mountains in an off-grid cabin with his partner, Julie; two children, Lucas and Emma; and their golden retrievers, Aslan and Calliope. When not writing, he can be found mountain biking, kitesurfing, and backcountry skiing. What He Shares: –Increase of fossil fuels and global population –Finding radical, authentic hope –Antidotes and strategies for building community through crises What You'll Hear: –Finding meaning in global crises –Rapture ideologies –"The Great Fact" of increase of human population –Environmental impact of human population increase –Crisis is population increase with eroding resources –Global impact increasing food insecurity, housing shortages, and migration –Migration increasing political tensions and culture wars –Finding authentic, radical hope during global crises –Grief as central to finding mature, radical, useful hope –Deep responsibility and service to others –Human experience of privilege and responsibility –Building resilient communities and cultures on behalf of hope –Finding transcendent courage to move forward to progress –Breaking away from hyper-individualism –Returning to rituals of initiation –Authentic resurfacing of traditions of lineage without appropriation –Ways to dispel and dispense micro-PTSD –Highest cultural unrest as release valve during quarantine –Having tools on a regular basis to help us level-set nervous systems and defrag –Addressing conflict, reparation, and restitution with elders –Accessing awe and tapping into experiences of meta-physical –Inter-generational awareness –Gratitude on behalf of ancestors and service on behalf of descendents –Deep, rooted presence –Taking risks to find community –Camp Omega for more Resources Website: https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/ IG: @flowgenome

Summary In this episode, Kimberly and Ash, one of Kimberly's business strategists, discuss all things related to women in business and entrepreneurship. Ash acknowledges the historical gaps in financial literacy and opportunities for business that women have only in recent decades begun to access. They discuss common challenges for women in business, such as over-personalization and under-selling, as well as advantages such as creating strong strategies for collaboration and equity in ways that are sustainable to us as individuals and to our families. Ash offers wise advice for creating and expanding businesses as women and for women audiences. She offers Ignite, a 9-week online program for women looking for expertise in creating and expanding their businesses. Bio Ash Robinson, a returning podcast guest, is a woman, daughter, and mother of two. As an entrepreneur for most of her career, she spent most of her time creating and building, not consulting. She bootstrapped two of her own startups; raised over $12M in funding; had a successful exit to a public company right before the 2008 recession and has been consulting through bon·fire since 2013. Her passion and research in neuroscience, cognition, behavior change, and culture inform both the tools and approach used in bon·fire. She believes we have to build the world we want to belong to. The Ignite program for women interested in creating and/or expanding current businesses begins at the end of March. Find out more about it through the link below. What She Shares: –Gaps in womens' opportunities for finance and business –Challenges of women in business –Handling over-giving, access, and pricing –Collaboration, intuition, and partnership –Ignite program for women in business starts end of March What You'll Hear: –Honoring the gaps women have had in financial education and business –Under-resourcing ourselves as women entrepreneurs –Over-personalizing business failures –Over-complicating client needs –Lacking clarity on business strategy and plan –Distinguishing between needing personal or business resources –Factoring in childcare for women in professional work –How to know when to hire an assistant –Focusing on business structure issues over personal –Service and/or product market-fit –Articulating your service in easy language –Power of our stories as women –Pricing issues hardest in business –Formula for pricing –Most women entrepreneurs are under-priced –Creating more wealth to create more opportunities for under-serviced populations –Inner capacities and outer structures –Interrogating inner-world beliefs around making money –Over-giving models in tensions with access –Feeling depleted with over-serving is unsustainable –Scholarships and trade as ten percent of business –Moving to strategy instead of overwhelm –Cost basis impacted by inflation –Unique skills women have in business and market –Collaboration, intuition, and partnership –Running businesses supportive of our families not depleting –Building capacity for women in places they haven't had it –IGNITE: A series of frameworks to create, organize, and harness businesses –IGNITE: 9 week program beginning end of March Resources Website: http://bon-fire.co/ignite

In this episode, Kimberly announces the opening of the first ever MotherCircle Facilitator training. She is interviewed by Jessica Connolly, a circle facilitator working with Kimberly to bring this 8 year long vision into the world. Kimberly shares about how the current structures do not support the deep longing we have to mother and be mothered in real community, and how concentric circles of mothers supporting mothers in this way creates a pathway of wisdom and support that impacts generations The MotherCircle Facilitator training equips women to create, strengthen and lead circles of mothers in their in person or online communities. Participants will learn the facilitation skills to lead groups in circle, as well as receive certification and a comprehensive 8 week curriculum to use for paid or unpaid offerings. We begin May 3rd. The 9 week MotherCircle Facilitator training is now open for enrollment at a one time founders rate until March 12th. Who the MotherCircle Facilitator training is for: Birthworkers- Midwives, birth and postpartum doulas, OBGYNs, Lactation consultants L&D nurses Childbirth educators Prenatal and postpartum yoga teachers Women's circle leaders Somatic therapists Mothers who want to build community and gather around meaningful topics and motherhood wisdom Mothers who want to create a paid Mother Circle offering as a stand alone business or within their current business At the end of this training, you will: Have greater confidence to lead groups both in person and online Have training in the facilitation skills you'll need to hold a group environment while tending to the individuals within it Understand the components of ceremony and know how to facilitate a ceremonial experience Understand the difference between teaching and facilitation Know how to contain a group when things get off track Know the foundational principles of the arc of the motherhood journey Receive an 8 week holistic mother centric curriculum that you can use personally or professionally Be ready and have a plan to lead your first MotherCircle Go to www.mothercircle.com to become part of the MotherCircle Facilitatorfounding community!

In this episode, Kimerbly and Juna discuss our relationship to anger, especially as people pleasers. While we are often conditioned to resist or dismiss anger, Juna describes anger as being an ally for our ultimate healing and the charge for our life force energy. Juna explains her relationship to anger which often made her uncomfortable as she spent much of her life pleasing people at the expense of her own mind, body, and vitality. She learned how anger can show us parts of ourselves that need tended to as well as move us deeper into connection with others. Her upcoming course on anger and people pleasing begins March 5th! Bio Juna Mustad is a friend and recurring podcast guest. Juna is an iIntuitive counselor, somatic experience practitioner, life and relationship coach, and support team member for Kimberly of all things somatic. For 13 years, Juna has been offering intuitive coaching sessions for individuals and groups. Her upcoming course, "The People Pleasers' Guide to Anger" is a six-week online course for cultivating a healthier relationship with anger, boundaries, and your innate power. What She Shares: –Juna's relationship to anger and people pleasing –Destigmatizing anger and fight responses –People pleasing as survival –Reconnecting to our bodies' desire through anger –"The People Pleaser's Guide to Anger" online course What You'll Hear: –Jana's TedTalk on anger and people pleasing –Anger as an ally for healing –Anger as a pesky, creative spark and connecting with life force –Visceral fight responses leading to transformation –People pleasing same as fawning –Internal Family Systems and multiple selves –Distancing core self from other selves in fawning –People pleasing and gender/racial dynamics –Effects of people pleasing like illness, distortions, addiction, etc. –Destigmatizing fight responses and anger –Using play, humor, and safety in accessing anger –Multitudes of responses to anger –Using play to release charge –Destigmatizing people pleasing as a coping skill –People pleasing as a survival tactic –When people pleasing becomes dominant way of being –Creating capacity for relating better –Primal power and instinct is outside of people pleasing –Leaving ourselves to create connection through others –Leaving a psycho-abusive relationship –Anger needs action –Reconnecting to body and desire –Speaking to our anger instead of from our anger –Holding others' anger with our own –Fight response as our inner protector –Dismissing anger blocks flow of life force energy –People pleasing to make others feel safe over ourselves –Cultural differences around confrontation –Adolescence and people pleasing/social nervous systems –Six-week online course beginning March 5th Resources Website: https://www.junamustad.com/ IG: @juna.mustad

In this episode, Kimberly and Racha discuss Gather Grounded Midwifery, a midwifery practice and birth home created by Racha. They also discuss Racha's generational influence to midwifery care, how she ended up in Virginia as a California native, and how the pandemic impacted midwives in particular. They also discuss the rich and complicated history of Black midwifery and how it tends to entire communities. The link to contribute to Gather Grounded Midwifery to help this Black owned birthing home provide the resources and services can be found below! Bio Racha Tahani Lawler Queen is a Black homebirth mama, wife, and midwife of 20 years. She is the CEO and owner of Gather Grounded Midwifery, a Black-owned and operated birthing home and center in the Musqueam Territory / Richmond, Virginia. Opening this Spring 2023, Gather Grounded Midwifery is a safe and welcoming place where Black, Brown, Indigenous, and queer families are prioritized. The birthing home features two birthing suites, where our very own can receive pregnancy, birth and postpartum care in a unique retreat space, nestled in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Gather Grounded Midwifery has a goal to provide families with a sacred place to receive prenatal care, labor amongst 100-year-old pine trees, birth in and out of water, and receive postpartum care that's in alignment with their individual, Ancestral and spiritual practices. We will also support and partner with Black businesses that prioritize the healing and protection of Black birthers and families. Find the GoFundMe link below to contribute to this important space. What She Shares: –Impact of pandemic on midwives and home births –How and why Racha relocated to Richmond, Virginia from LA to create a birthing home –Black midwifery history and community care –The impact of a birthing home on a community What You'll Hear: –How Racha from CA ended up in Richmond, Virginia –Midwifery services and birthing home in Virginia for Black and Brown families –Taking a break from birth work to grow –Racist real estate practices while finding birth home –Impact of pandemic on midwives –Background in environmental health and safety and disaster preparedness –Hospital turning away home-birth transfers during pandemic –Advocating for community midwives –EMTs refusing to service –Midwives and birth workers quitting after pandemic-induced trauma –Black Farm Studio House in LA county, non-profit –Non-profit relocated to Richmond –Importance of midwifery in community care –Making midwife ancestors and grandmothers proud –Eradication of Black midwifery in previous centuries –Midwives regaining acknowledgement as intimate healthcare profession –Legacy of great, great grandmother was town midwife –Providing safe care in homes during pandemic –Midwifery as more than prenatal visits –Providing care during so many unknowns –Wider possibilities for midwives in Virginia –Birthing home honors Black midwives elder for rest and care –Prioritizing Black and Brown birth –Birth home will be opening by March –GoFundMe: "Support a Black-owned Operating Birthing Home" –Crowd-funding for $50,000 for an operating home Resources Website: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-a-black-owned-operated-birthing-home IG: @gathergroundedmidwifery

In this episode, Kimberly and Esi discuss how to lean into discomfort during difficult conversations. Esi explains her background growing up in a Black middle-class family in Los Angeles, how she came to her current work and offerings, and her four years of somatic experiencing school. During that program, Esi learned how to stay in her body as a Black woman with mostly white individuals, especially surrounding discussions of race and racism. Through the years, she learned the importance of non-shaming, curiosity, and having truthful conversations through difficult topics and uncomfortable experiences. She offers a nuanced perspective and radical medicine in a time when most are quick to cancel or dismiss. Her Human Slop course begins February 19th. Bio Esi Wildcat is a Somatic Practitioner and Ceremonialist, an Ordained Priestess of Isis, a Shakta initiate and yogini in the lineage of Sri Vidya, certified holistic health practitioner, and interdisciplinary healing artist with over 20 years of expertise. As a bridge builder to the New Earth, she is making waves in the cultural somatic realm and is injecting the social justice sphere with much needed humanness and nuance. Esi seeks to highlight the extraordinary in the ordinary – and how the power of presence in our lives can transform not only how we relate to ourselves, but the world around us. Her upcoming offering, Human Slop: A Radical Aliveness Worldworking Dojo, starts February 19th. What She Shares: –Esi's upbringing and call to her work –Somatic experiencing school and feminine chaos –Avoiding cultural scripts and bypassing –Radical aliveness and magic of being human –Human Slop circle coming February 19th What You'll Hear: –Cultivating awe and wonder everyday –Deep connection to unseen world –Attended Radical Aliveness Institute –Learning to be with the feminine (chaos) –Mentor's nuanced perspective on systems of oppression –Subversive work recognizing beauty –Sanitization and carefulness of somatic experiencing programs –Decision to not be trauma-informed as a practitioner –Working towards real racial integration in community –Being in reality of tensions –Accessing and thriving from own life force and vitality –Deconditioning from being the "good girl" –Pain and tensions around race and difference –Systemic influence in personal contexts –Telling truth of socialization around race and class –Spiritual bypassing versus holding multiplicities –Addressing rage, anger, and collapse –Subversiveness in being alive and feeling instead of running away –Learning to stay and increasing capacity for conflict and disappointment –Remembering to human and holding grief –Living in a traumatized culture and a loss of soul –Ripples for culture making and the magic of being human –Human Slop: A Radical Aliveness Worldworking Dojo –Upcoming program starts February 19th Resources Website: https://wildholyhuman.com/ IG: @wildholyhuman

In this episode, Kimberly and Dr. Molly discuss psychedelics, biohacking, and frontiers for the future of modern medicine. Dr. Molly's background in medicine and innovation has led her to advocate for the supportive use of psychedelics, understanding biohacking for female biology, and the importance of bonding hormones and building safety and connection in western medicine. They discuss the benefits and risks of psychedelics, who should and shouldn't use psychedelics, problems with male-centered psychedelic circles, as well as the male-centered biohacking world. They also discuss the importance of understanding sexuality and hormones, from an evolutionary perspective as well as in regular medicinal care. Dr. Molly offers a vision of an evolving and innovative healthcare system which centers non-traditional medicines, safety, connection, and the female experience. Bio Dr. Molly Maloof is on the frontier of personalized medicine, medical technology, health optimization, and scientifically-based wellness endeavors. Since 2012, she has also worked as an advisor or consultant to more than 40 companies in the digital health, consumer health, and biotechnology industries needing help with clinical strategy, product development, clinical research and scientific marketing. Dr. Molly challenges healthcare practitioners as well as industry influencers to re-think health and healthcare in order to reduce costs, improve patient outcomes, and improve the human condition. Her upcoming book "The Spark Factor" comes out January 31st and is available for pre-sale purchase. What She Shares: –Risks and benefits of psychedelics - Biohacking for women –Frontiers for modern medicine to expand –Safety, connection, and love as fundamental for health What You'll Hear: –Dream of being a doctor as a child –Works in tech and medicine –Creating a new system of building health in the body –Boom of psychedelics during 2020 mental health crisis –Healing sexual trauma with psychedelics –Transforming trauma to bliss and empowerment –On ketamine and ayahuasca –Not discounting modern medicine for evidence-based results –Understanding dominant nervous system structures and connective tissue –Male-centered culture, power-dynamics, and containers in psychedelic circles –Neurobiological impact of experiences like birth and sex –Psychedelic experiences without psychedelics –Moving towards innovation but preventing harm –Development of oxytocin in evolution for connection –Oxytocin as bonding hormone –Lack of emotional intelligence knowledge and hormones in modern medicine –Sex drive is fundamental to human biology driving towards connection –Importance of safety when experiencing large amounts of oxytocin –Needing safety, trust, and love in every aspect of modern medicine –Upcoming book as treatise on mitochondrial health –Metabolism, energy, and mitochondria creating charge –Gathering electrons through food and environment –Exercise as best anti-aging practice –Different kinds of stress and hormesis –Understanding why women biohacking need to be careful and discerning –New book breaks down biohacking, personalizing nutrition, and exercise for women Resources Website: drmolly.co IG: @drmolly.co