It's Okay to Want: Trauma, Embodiment, and Reclaiming Desire with Laura Khoudari
What if healing isn't about fixing yourself?
What if it's about learning how to listen?
In this deeply thoughtful conversation, I sit down with trauma-informed wellness expert, author, and educator Laura Khoudari to explore the intersection of trauma, strength training, embodiment, self-trust, and desire.
Laura shares her personal journey from experiencing PTSD to developing a trauma-informed approach to strength training that helps people reconnect with their bodies, build nervous system capacity, and cultivate a deeper relationship with themselves.
As our conversation unfolds, we move beyond exercise and into something much bigger:
✨ How we learn to feel our feelings without becoming overwhelmed
✨ Why nervous system regulation is a practice, not a destination
✨ The role of boundaries, agency, and self-trust in healing
✨ What strength training can teach us about staying present under stress
✨ How eating disorder recovery opened the door to exploring desire
✨ Why so many of us know what we don't want—but struggle to identify what we do want
✨ The powerful shift from controlling the body to being in relationship with it
One of my favorite moments in the conversation is Laura's insight that healing often begins with something deceptively simple:
"It's okay to want."
Whether we're talking about food, relationships, movement, creativity, or life itself, learning to reconnect with our desires may be one of the most profound acts of healing available to us.
This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inward, and explore what becomes possible when we learn the language of our own bodies.
About Laura Khoudari
Laura Khoudari is a trauma-informed wellness educator, writer, and author of Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time. Her work explores the intersection of trauma, embodiment, strength training, eating disorder recovery, desire, and self-relationship.
Connect with Laura
Website: laurakhoudari.com [https://www.laurakhoudari.com/]
Substack: The Desk and Stove [https://laurakhoudari.substack.com/]
Book: Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time [https://www.laurakhoudari.com/lht#order]
Share what resonated for you [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2202958/fan_mail/new]
Thank you for listening to the Spiritually Curious Therapist Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share, and leave a review - it helps us grow and reach more listeners!
You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com [https://www.therachihealing.com/]
www.journeywithkindredsouls.com [https://journeywithkindredsouls.com/]
Follow me on Socials:
TikTok @spiritcurioustherapist
Instagram @therachihealing
Facebook @TheraChi Healing [https://www.facebook.com/therachihealing]
Stay up to date on our offerings by joining our newsletter here [https://www.therachihealing.com/newsletter]
https://journeywithkindredsouls.com/
Are you interested in learning more about Reiki Assisted Psychotherapy?
Join our facebook group at
www.facebook.com/groups/psychotherapeuticreikiforclinicians
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/psychotherapeuticreikiforclinicians]
Are you a mental health professional with a spiritual edge and have something to share? Complete this form to apply to be on the podcast [https://journeywithkindredsouls.hbportal.co/public/696ba478866c180021d1823f]
