Your Body Has Been Sending You the Bill: Nervous System, Marriage, and Midlife | Kayla Licari

Your Body Has Been Sending You the Bill: Nervous System, Marriage, and Midlife | Kayla Licari

What If Every Symptom You Have Been Treating Is Actually the Same Signal? Neck pain every day. Migraines. Insomnia. Anxiety that wakes you out of a dead sleep. A sex drive that disappeared. A marriage that runs like a business partnership. And a medical career spent treating other people for the exact same symptoms she was ignoring in herself. In this episode of The Shifted Podcast, I sit down with Kayla Licari, a former physician assistant turned nervous system and relationship coach, who spent 15 years in medicine making six figures before she understood that every symptom she was treating in her patients was the same one she was living with at home. Leaving her career saved her health, her marriage, and her relationship with her three kids. She and her husband are now redefining what success looks like for their family and coaching married parents who are on the edge of divorce to move back into feeling like a deeply connected team. In this episode, we discuss: * Why chronic neck pain, migraines, insomnia, and low sex drive are often the same nervous system signal, not separate medical problems * How Kayla went from treating patients for stress-related symptoms to realizing she was living in a frozen nervous system state herself * Why women in midlife lose tolerance for things they used to push through, and why perimenopause forces authenticity whether you are ready for it or not * How nervous system dysregulation shows up in marriage, parenting, and physical health simultaneously, and why healing one heals the others * The free tools that actually regulate your nervous system: breathwork, movement, scent, music, and physical touch from someone safe About Kayla Licari: Kayla is a former physician assistant of 15 years turned nervous system and relationship coach. After experiencing chronic stress symptoms, a frozen nervous system state, and a marriage that had become more business partnership than connection, she left her six-figure medical career two years ago. She and her husband now coach married parents through Licari Solutions LLC on nervous system regulation, trauma-informed healing, and rebuilding deep connection. They offer a free couples Q&A call for parents ready to start. Reflection Prompt: If you could have one honest conversation with your partner with no fear of how it lands, what would you finally say? Write the first thing that comes up. Not the safe version. The real one. For deeper reflection, explore The Shifted Self: Evolution of Gratitude and Self-Reflection Journal on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591 [https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591] Find coaching and tools at https://www.amiraevolved.com/ [https://www.amiraevolved.com/] Follow Amira at @AmiraEvolved on Instagram and Facebook. Connect with Kayla Licari: * Instagram: @kayla.licari * Free Couples Q&A Call: https://stan.store/licaricoaching [https://stan.store/licaricoaching] * Her husband: @silvano.licari New episodes of The Shifted Podcast drop every Tuesday. If this episode described your life more accurately than you expected, send it to the woman in your circle who keeps saying "I'm fine" while her body says otherwise.

You Can Build an Entire Life and Still Go Missing Inside It | Angel Dionne

What Happens When the Woman Everyone Leans On Disappears From Her Own Life? She was captain of the cheerleading team. Voted miss congeniality her senior year. The bubbly one. The one everyone came to. And behind all of it, she was comparing herself to everyone around her, talking to herself in ways she would never talk to another woman, and had no idea who she actually was underneath the performance. In this episode of The Shifted Podcast, I sit down with Angel Dionne, self-love coach, speaker, and founder of Love Thine Self and Love Talk Media, for a conversation about what it actually costs to lose yourself and what it takes to come back. This is not the soft version of self-love. No affirmations taped to the bathroom mirror. We are talking about what happens when you have been putting everyone else first for so long that you cannot answer a basic question about what you actually want. In this episode, we discuss: * How women lose themselves gradually through roles, responsibilities, and the conditioning to always be last on their own list * The telltale signs that you are disappearing: what your environment, your appearance, and your inner dialogue are trying to tell you * Why self-love is not a feeling but a refusal to betray yourself, and what that looks like in daily practice * How Angel went from writing "do not compare yourself" on her mirror to building a nonprofit that reaches girls before the world teaches them to shrink * The difference between knowing you are enough and actually believing it, and the daily tools that bridge that gap About Angel Dionne: Angel is a self-love coach, speaker, and founder of Love Thine Self, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and Love Talk Media. She helps women reconnect with themselves after years of people-pleasing, comparison, and putting everyone else first. Her nonprofit works with girls before the patterns set in. She offers one-on-one coaching, speaks on self-love and emotional clarity, and hosts conversations through Love Talk Media. Reflection Prompt: Where in your life are you the last name on your own list? Pick one place and ask yourself what it would actually cost to move yourself up a single spot. Then write down five things you love about yourself. Not five things you are good at. Five things you love. For deeper reflection, explore The Shifted Self: Evolution of Gratitude and Self-Reflection Journal on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591 [https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591] Find coaching and tools at https://www.amiraevolved.com/ [https://www.amiraevolved.com/] Follow Amira at @AmiraEvolved on Instagram and Facebook. Connect with Angel Dionne: * Website: angeldionne.com [http://angeldionne.com] * Instagram: @angboo_ and @lovetalkmedia New episodes of The Shifted Podcast drop every Tuesday. If this episode made you pause, send it to the woman in your life who takes care of everyone but herself. She needs to hear this.

She Left Corporate After 15 Years and Built It Her Way | Jennifer Hardiman on Midlife

What Does It Actually Look Like to Walk Away From Corporate and Build Something New at 50? Christmas Eve. Ten o'clock at night. Wrapping presents while emails are flying because a deal needed to close before the holiday. That was the moment Jennifer Hardiman knew she was done. In this episode of The Shifted Podcast, I sit down with Jennifer Hardiman, founder and chief event officer of Fabuluxe Events, who left a 15-year corporate career in commercial real estate and built her third career on her own terms. 2026 is her seventeenth year in business. This conversation is for every woman who has been wondering if it is too late to start something new. Jennifer walked away, downsized her house and her cars, worked two jobs for a year, and built a company that now works with high-end clients while protecting her team's weekends and her own sanity. In this episode, we discuss: * The Christmas Eve moment that made her decide corporate was over and what the first year of building her own business actually looked like * How she designed a company that caps the number of events per year so her all-female team never has to choose between work and family * What turned 50 changed about how she sees ambition, boundaries, and what success actually means in the second half of life * Why the skills you built in corporate, project management, logistics, people, transfer directly into whatever you build next * Her advice for any woman thinking about leaving: start with a plan, know what you do not want to be, and celebrate one thing you did every single day About Jennifer Hardiman: Jennifer is the founder and chief event officer of Fabuluxe Events, now in its seventeenth year. After 15 years in corporate commercial real estate, she built an intentionally capped, all-female event production company. She also offers mentorship and free 30-minute consulting sessions for women considering starting their own businesses. Reflection Prompt: What is one thing you are grateful for today? Write it down in two sentences. Do it every day this week. Jennifer has done this daily and it shifted her mindset from chaos to clarity. Try it and see what changes. For deeper reflection, explore The Shifted Self: Evolution of Gratitude and Self-Reflection Journal on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591 [https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591] Find coaching and tools at https://www.amiraevolved.com/ [https://www.amiraevolved.com/] Follow Amira at @AmiraEvolved on Instagram and Facebook. Connect with Jennifer Hardiman: * Website: fabuluxeevents.com [http://fabuluxeevents.com] * Instagram/Threads/TikTok/Facebook: @fabuluxeevents * Email: jennifer@fabuluxeevents.com [jennifer@fabuluxeevents.com] * Free 30-minute consulting session available New episodes of The Shifted Podcast drop every Tuesday. If this episode is for someone you know who keeps saying "maybe next year," send it to her now. Midlife is not the end. It is another beginning.

17 Rehabs, 2 Divorces, and the Unconventional Path to Sobriety | Cheryl McIntosh on Recovery

What Do You Do When Every Conventional Path to Healing Has Failed You? Seventeen rehabs. Two divorces. Childhood trauma. Suicide attempts. A branding agency that looked polished on the outside while everything was falling apart underneath. And a woman who kept going back because she had not yet found the formula that worked for her body, her brain, and her history. In this episode of The Shifted Podcast, I sit down with Cheryl McIntosh, photographer, writer, artist, and founder of Quanta Collective, who is now over two years sober and turning her story into a memoir called Resilient. This conversation is about what recovery actually looks like when the standard playbook does not work. Cheryl's formula was not rehab. It was psilocybin, AA, art, and community. An unconventional combination that finally did what seventeen attempts at the conventional path could not. In this episode, we discuss: * Why treatment fails and what people fundamentally misunderstand about chronic relapse, including the underlying diagnoses that make recovery harder * How psilocybin rewired Cheryl's brain and removed the cravings that decades of traditional treatment never touched * What it means to write your story as a sober adult and see your childhood, your parents, and your relationships with completely different eyes * Why high-functioning women feel like they have not earned the right to fall apart, and why that belief keeps them stuck * The vision that turned eight relationships into eight spiritual pillars and became the framework for her memoir About Cheryl McIntosh: Cheryl is a photographer, writer, and artist based in Bend, Oregon, and the founder of Quanta Collective. After leaving home at 13, surviving domestic violence, and navigating seventeen rehabs, she is now over two years sober. Her debut memoir Resilient tells her recovery story through the lens of eight relationships that both destroyed and saved her. The book is expected in 2027. Reflection Prompt: Where in your life are you holding up a version of yourself that is costing you? And what part of your healing have you been waiting for permission to do differently? For deeper reflection, explore The Shifted Self: Evolution of Gratitude and Self-Reflection Journal on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591 [https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591] Find coaching and tools at https://www.amiraevolved.com/ [https://www.amiraevolved.com/] Follow Amira at @AmiraEvolved on Instagram and Facebook. Connect with Cheryl McIntosh: * Instagram: @greatthingsaredone * Blog: quantacollectiv.com [http://quantacollectiv.com] * Book updates: greatthingsaredone.com [http://greatthingsaredone.com] New episodes of The Shifted Podcast drop every Tuesday. If you know a woman who is quietly carrying something heavy and wondering if it is too late to put it down, send her this episode.

Surviving a Narcissistic Divorce: Legal Strategy and Self-Trust | Wendy Cooper

Five years of divorce litigation. Police investigations. Child services complaints. A smear campaign. And all of it orchestrated by the man she had built a life with. Wendy Cooper is an attorney, writer, and self-described unintentional narc expert who earned that title through a five-year legal battle against a partner with pathological personality traits. After discovering a double life that included two simultaneous affairs and a calculated financial strategy, Wendy found herself fighting for her assets, her son, and her sanity in a legal system that was not designed to handle the person she was up against. In this episode of The Shifted Podcast, Wendy gives women the language, the legal perspective, and the practical guidance for navigating psychological abuse and narcissistic divorce that most therapists and attorneys do not provide. In this episode, we discuss: * How gaslighting and psychological abuse erode your reality slowly enough that you do not recognize it until you are out * Why love bombing is one of the earliest and most overlooked red flags in relationships * What most divorce attorneys get wrong about narcissistic personalities and why mediation gives manipulators more power * How Wendy rebuilt her self-trust after years of having her perceptions systematically undermined * The role of EMDR therapy in processing complex trauma and why she had to feel the pain she had spent a lifetime running from About Wendy Cooper: Wendy is an attorney, writer, and narcissistic abuse consultant living in the south of France. After navigating a five-year divorce involving psychological abuse, police investigations, and child services complaints, she now offers consultation for women navigating the legal and psychological dynamics of narcissistic relationships. Her memoir, Rebelle, is being prepared for publication. Reflection Prompt: What situations or relationships in your life have you questioning your own perceptions right now? Where do you need to trust your instincts more, even when nobody around you is validating what you sense? Write the first thing that comes up. For deeper reflection, explore The Shifted Self: Evolution of Gratitude and Self-Reflection Journal on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591 [https://www.amazon.com/Shifted-Self-Evolution-Gratitude-Self-Reflection/dp/B0F8NV1591] Find coaching and tools at https://www.amiraevolved.com/ [https://www.amiraevolved.com/] Follow Amira at @AmiraEvolved on Instagram and Facebook. Connect with Wendy Cooper: * Instagram: @rebelle_2929 New episodes of The Shifted Podcast drop every other Tuesday. If this episode gave you language for something you have been living but could not name, share it with someone who needs it. That is how the show grows and how women find each other.