86. What Fibroids Taught Me About Being a Helper: A Therapist Gets Honest About Cycles, Burnout & the Body

86. What Fibroids Taught Me About Being a Helper: A Therapist Gets Honest About Cycles, Burnout & the Body

July is Fibroid Awareness Month. In July 2009, I had zero awareness — even as a trained clinician who teaches other people to pay attention to their bodies. What I had was a body I had been quietly ignoring for longer than I want to admit, and a set of symptoms I had filed away under inconvenient but manageable. In this episode, I get honest about what fibroids actually taught me, what your cycle is doing beyond the bleeding part, and why helpers specifically are wired to override the very signals their bodies send loudest. We talk about the four phases of your hormonal cycle, what each one is asking of your nervous system, the connection between your sacral energy and chronic suppression, and why the phase designed for rest keeps getting skipped by the people who need it most. This isn't a medical episode. It's a permission episode. Permission to stop treating your body's rhythm like a scheduling conflict. Permission to get curious about the message instead of just managing the symptom. Because you were never built to run at the same speed in every season. That's not a flaw. That's the whole design. This episode is for anyone who has a uterus, has had a uterus, or loves someone navigating what it means to live inside a body that bleeds. WORK WITH ME Messy Middle Blueprint (HD Reading, $97): https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/messy-middle-blueprint [https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/messy-middle-blueprint] Practice by Design (for fully licensed clinicians, $497): https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/practice-by-design-intensive [https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/practice-by-design-intensive]  LPC Supervision (Texas Associates only): https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/texas-lpc-supervision [https://heyyallitsshawna.beehiiv.com/products/texas-lpc-supervision] Ten Twenty QM (custom tees): www.tentwentyqm.com [https://www.tentwentyqm.com]

85. You Are More Than Your Job: The Burnout Risk of Shrinking Yourself

A birthday reflection turned into something bigger: what happens when you realize you’ve been living as a smaller, more explainable version of yourself. In this short podcast episode, Shawna talks about identity, burnout, being more than one thing, and why helpers lose themselves when they keep trimming off the parts that don’t fit the professional bio. If you’ve been told to pick a lane, this one is for you. Got a Question? SUBMIT IT HERE [https://form.jotform.com/healingrootswab/-podcast-qa] —————————————————————————— WORK WITH ME —————————————————————————— Practice by Design (for fully licensed clinicians, $497): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/work-with-me LPC Supervision (Texas Associates only, $400/mo): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/lpc-associate-supervision Ten Twenty QM (custom tees): www.tentwentyqm.com FREE Still Human audio series: https://healingrootswab.myflodesk.com/reset —————————————————————————— FIND ME —————————————————————————— YouTube: youtube.com/@heyyallitsshawna Website: shawnalovinlpcs.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyyallitsshawna Disclaimer: Although Shawna is a licensed counselor in the State of Texas, this podcast is not therapy and should not be used as a therapeutic intervention. Many of the practices and products mentioned are for educational and informational purposes only. Should you need support, please seek appropriate, qualified, and licensed professionals.

84. Why I’m Building a T-Shirt Business Instead of Taking More Clients

You love the work. But more clinical hours stopped feeling like the answer a long time ago — and maybe you already know why, even if you haven't said it out loud yet. In this episode, Shawna maps the moment she stopped asking how do I squeeze more life out of the same setup? and started asking what it would look like to build something that supports my future without draining the capacity I'm trying to protect? That question led her to a heat press, a family business, and a completely different relationship with effort. This isn't a feel-good pivot story. It's a real conversation about the sneaky pattern that helpers fall into — solving every pressure point with more of themselves — and what it actually costs when that becomes your whole financial strategy. It's about nervous system rhythms, sustainable capacity, and giving yourself permission to become more than one thing before burnout makes the decision for you. What you'll hear in this episode: * Why "just take more clients" is a trained response, not a strategy * The real energetic difference between clinical hours and creative work * What building something physical did for Shawna's body and her week * Why protecting your longevity is not the same as taking your work less seriously * Permission to build something nobody saw coming If y'all want to know what it looks like to build a different life on purpose — in real time, not in retrospect — this is the episode. Got a Question? SUBMIT IT HERE [https://form.jotform.com/healingrootswab/-podcast-qa] —————————————————————————— WORK WITH ME —————————————————————————— Practice by Design (for fully licensed clinicians, $497): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/work-with-me LPC Supervision (Texas Associates only, $400/mo): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/lpc-associate-supervision Ten Twenty QM (custom tees): www.tentwentyqm.com FREE Still Human audio series: https://healingrootswab.myflodesk.com/reset —————————————————————————— FIND ME —————————————————————————— YouTube: youtube.com/@heyyallitsshawna Website: shawnalovinlpcs.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyyallitsshawna Disclaimer: Although Shawna is a licensed counselor in the State of Texas, this podcast is not therapy and should not be used as a therapeutic intervention. Many of the practices and products mentioned are for educational and informational purposes only. Should you need support, please seek appropriate, qualified, and licensed professionals.

83. Your Body Hates the Job You’re Good At (Your Human Design Might Explain It)

Ever feel like your job isn’t just stressful—it feels fundamentally wrong for how you’re built? In this episode, I’m talking about the clash between your work life and your actual energy style, pacing, and decision-making. Using Human Design as a grounded lens—not a personality gimmick—we’re getting into what happens when your body keeps trying to do a job that fights your natural rhythm, and why that friction can leave helpers exhausted, flat, and questioning everything. Got a Question? SUBMIT IT HERE [https://form.jotform.com/healingrootswab/-podcast-qa] —————————————————————————— WORK WITH ME —————————————————————————— Practice by Design (for fully licensed clinicians, $497): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/work-with-me LPC Supervision (Texas Associates only, $400/mo): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/lpc-associate-supervision Ten Twenty QM (custom tees): www.tentwentyqm.com FREE Still Human audio series: https://healingrootswab.myflodesk.com/reset —————————————————————————— FIND ME —————————————————————————— YouTube: youtube.com/@heyyallitsshawna Website: shawnalovinlpcs.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyyallitsshawna Disclaimer: Although Shawna is a licensed counselor in the State of Texas, this podcast is not therapy and should not be used as a therapeutic intervention. Many of the practices and products mentioned are for educational and informational purposes only. Should you need support, please seek appropriate, qualified, and licensed professionals.

82. I Thought It Was Just Burnout Again, Until This Happened at Work

Another person is leaving. Management refused a simple shift swap that would have supported the people who’ve actually been holding the work together, then later admitted they made the decision based on what would be easier to fill—not what was fair. In this episode, I’m talking about what bad leadership does to trust, morale, and the nervous system, especially when you already feel watched, undervalued, or quietly singled out. This is for anyone who has ever looked around at constant turnover and thought, maybe the problem isn’t just the job. Maybe it’s who’s running it. Got a Question? SUBMIT IT HERE [https://form.jotform.com/healingrootswab/-podcast-qa] —————————————————————————— WORK WITH ME —————————————————————————— Practice by Design (for fully licensed clinicians, $497): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/work-with-me LPC Supervision (Texas Associates only, $400/mo): https://shawnalovinlpcs.com/lpc-associate-supervision Ten Twenty QM (custom tees): www.tentwentyqm.com FREE Still Human audio series: https://healingrootswab.myflodesk.com/reset —————————————————————————— FIND ME —————————————————————————— YouTube: youtube.com/@heyyallitsshawna Website: shawnalovinlpcs.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyyallitsshawna Disclaimer: Although Shawna is a licensed counselor in the State of Texas, this podcast is not therapy and should not be used as a therapeutic intervention. Many of the practices and products mentioned are for educational and informational purposes only. Should you need support, please seek appropriate, qualified, and licensed professionals.