The Empress Lioness Podcast

When Family Keeps You in Survival Mode: Loving from a Distance and Coming Back to Yourself

This episode features a profound conversation on family trauma, parental betrayal, and finding your voice after abuse. Guests Gina Giampietro share her personal stories of navigating , domestic violence, and the journey to self-trust and healing. This powerful conversation explores the journey of healing from emotional and physical abuse, the importance of self-trust, and reclaiming sovereignty. Guests share personal stories, insights on recognizing invisible abuse, and strategies for self-love and boundary setting.

When Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does: Coercive Control, Invisible Abuse, and Coming Back to Yourself with Christine Dillard

In this episode of The Empress Lioness Podcast, Karen R. F. Mitchell sits down with Christine Dillard for a real and necessary conversation about coercive control, invisible abuse, identity erosion, and the long road back to self-trust. Christine shares what it was like to appear accomplished, composed, and successful on the outside while slowly disappearing inside a relationship built on control, gaslighting, financial abuse, and the quiet unraveling of her identity. This conversation is for the woman who keeps asking, “Is it really that bad?” The woman whose body knows something is wrong before her mind has language for it. The woman who has been taught to doubt her memory, her instincts, her emotions, and her reality. Together, Karen and Christine explore the kind of abuse that does not always leave visible marks — the control that feels like love at first, the confusion that keeps a woman trapped, and the survival mode that makes her perform strength while breaking in silence. Christine also shares the truth behind her healing: that freedom did not require performing recovery, forcing forgiveness, or becoming someone new. It required remembering the woman who was always there beneath the erosion. This episode brings reality to the front. Because sometimes the first step toward freedom is not leaving. Sometimes it is finally believing your body when it says, “Something is not right here.”

How to Reclaim Authenticity

In today's episode of the Empress Lioness podcast, we’re exploring how many women have been conditioned to fit into molds created by family, society, and workplaces. We often lose sight of who we truly are beneath the expectations we carry. Dr. Norma Hollis, the Godmother of Authenticity, shares her journey of self-discovery and the importance of living authentically. She emphasizes that we often become versions of ourselves crafted by others, leading to an inner conflict. It's time to ask yourself: Whose life are you really living? Let's break free from the masquerade and reconnect with our true selves.

Finding Your Voice: A Journey to Authenticity

In this episode of the Empress Lioness podcast, host Karen Mitchell engages in a profound conversation with Kacie Gordon, founder of It All Media. They explore themes of visibility, authenticity, and the journey of self-discovery for women. Kacie shares her personal experiences of motherhood, identity, and the emotional costs of societal expectations. The discussion emphasizes the importance of community, vulnerability, and the transformative power of embracing one's true self. Listeners are encouraged to take small, meaningful steps towards visibility and authenticity in their own lives.

When One Sentence Made Her Shrink: Self-Reflection, Storytelling, and Coming Back to Yourself

In this episode of *The Empress Lioness Podcast*, Karen R. F. Mitchell sits down with Bobbi Chegwyn for a grounded and deeply reflective conversation about childhood wounds, self-silencing, emotional language, and the woman she had to become before the books were ever written. Bobbi is the author behind the *Radical Ray* series, but this conversation begins before the books. It begins with the younger girl who was told to “stop showing off.” The girl who did not have the language to explain what changed inside her. The girl who learned to shrink, adjust, and question whether being fully herself was safe. Together, Karen and Bobbi explore what happens when one sentence becomes a life pattern. They discuss the quiet ways women learn to dim themselves, the discomfort of being seen, the panic that can follow showing up fully, and the moment Bobbi began returning to the younger version of herself who had been waiting to be reclaimed. This episode is not just about children’s books. It is about the emotional work behind the story. The self-reflection required to heal. The courage it takes to name what shaped you. And the sacred responsibility of helping children find words for what so many adults had to heal later. This conversation is for the woman who remembers the sentence that changed her. The woman who became smaller without realizing it. The woman who is ready to ask, “Who was I before I learned to hide?” And the woman who is finally ready to come back to herself.