Today, we’re wrapping up Season Five with the world-renowned Dr. Bradley Nelson. We’re also wrapping up the Overcoming Child Sexual Abuse podcast series with this podcast episode. I hope these five seasons have brought you insights and practices from leading practitioners that have been helpful on your journey and will continue to be a resource to you and your loved ones.

Moving forward, I feel it’s time for a transition to focus on bringing happiness and good things into our lives today, which is key to overcoming anything from our past, our present, and our futures. So stay tuned, and look out for that new podcast series.

But back to today - Dr. Bradley Nelson is the developer of some of the most advanced forms of energy medicine on the planet.

As a holistic Chiropractic Physician and Medical Intuitive, Dr. Nelson is one of the foremost experts in the fields of Bioenergetic Medicine and Energy Psychology. He is the founder and CEO of Discover Healing, the author of two best-selling energy healing books, The Emotion Code and The Body Code, and the creator of three advanced energy healing Certification Courses — certifying practitioners in the Emotion Code, the Body Code, and the Belief Code. These energy healing methods developed by Dr. Nelson are now used by more than 12,000 practitioners in more than 80 countries across the globe.

Tony Robbins, a great fan of Dr. Brad’s shares, “…I’m excited by the understandings the Emotion Code brings so that the pathway to personal growth, expanded identity, and an extraordinary quality of life is truly possible for anyone that desires to be free of the past and become more.”

Dr. Brad is also an acclaimed and popular speaker on the international seminar circuit and now travels to many countries around the globe, teaching seminars on the Emotion Code, Body Code, and Belief Code. He has been a guest on over 1,000 radio and television shows, documentaries, and live appearances, and has presented his very timely message to millions around the world.

Dr. Brad’s mission in life is to empower people worldwide with these energy healing modalities so we can free ourselves from past hurts, improve our ability to love unconditionally, take control of our health, and live a fulfilling life on our own terms.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, we’re joined once more by Dr. Lindsay Gibson, clinical psychologist and author of numerous books, who you’ll remember from Season Two when we spoke about overcoming the impacts of damaging parents – or as Lindsay names them, “Emotionally Immature Parents.” Since that last podcast, Lindsay has released another book just last year, to offer even more help with how to deal with Emotionally Immature People (EIPs) in general.

I love the title of Lindsay’s new book, Disentangling from Emotionally Immature People: Avoid Emotional Traps, Stand Up for Your Self, and Transform Your Relationships as an Adult Child of Emotionally Immature Parents! The word disentangling, in particular, seems apt because I think we all often feel entangled, bound up and wound up as a result of relationships that have harmed us, and continue to harm us.

If you grew up with an emotionally immature, unavailable, or selfish parent, your emotional needs as a child were likely not met or were dismissed—and you likely have lingering feelings of anger, loneliness, betrayal, and abandonment in adulthood.

And now, in adulthood, we continue to be confronted by people with similar “emotionally immature” characteristics—and they can be damaging to us. They tend to be me-first people, with little regard for others. They may not respect you as an individual—which can be isolating, hurtful, and lonely. Emotionally Immature People are often unpredictable, volatile, and difficult to handle.

As adult children of emotionally immature parents, we may be especially vulnerable to EIPs. But we are not powerless! Lindsay’s latest book helps us to avoid common traps, build confidence, and stand strong in our selves, without guilt, shame, or fear so we don’t become entangled with Emotionally Immature People in our adulthoods.

In this podcast, we’re going to deep dive into disentangling from Emotionally Immature People so we can transform even our most challenging relationships into happy and healthy ones.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, we’re joined by acclaimed author, facilitator and teacher, Heather Plett, who first joined us in Season Three when we spoke about Heather’s book, The Art of Holding Space. In this podcast, we talk about Heather’s recently released book, Where Tenderness Lives: On Healing, Liberation, and Holding Space for Oneself, which is described as “A journey of self-exploration, forgiveness, and individual and collective healing.”


Where Tenderness Lives is an exploration of what it means to unravel what we’ve learned from our families, societies, religions, and cultures so we can heal and create purposeful and joyful lives. Heather reveals:

· How trauma can shape our lives and our personalities;

· How treating ourselves with tenderness can lead to our healing, and can invite others into healing; and

· How learning to hold space for ourselves is one of the most important and valuable pursuits on our journeys beyond trauma.


By reflecting on her own life with vulnerability and self-compassion, including moving through her experience of rape, the death of her son, and divorce, among other trauma and life challenges, Heather provides us with a path to self-exploration and individual and collective healing.

Heather says, “This work has changed me – in hard and oh-so-beautiful ways. In learning to let go, I found freedom. In learning to hold space, I found connection. I will spend the rest of my life in this practice. I will continue to grow and deepen my understanding, and I will continue to share that learning…”

I know this will be a revealing, personal, and profoundly powerful podcast episode and I’m so grateful to Heather for joining us.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, we’re joined by Michelle Brock.

Michelle is a master intuitive and spiritual development life coach whose latest book, Who Do You Think You Are?, provides a powerful guide to manifesting the happiness and satisfaction we desire. Michelle helps us to dive into our experiences from the past—and past lives—in order to better understand and experience our present—and especially understand pasts that may be rooted in childhood trauma and abuse. Michelle is also an intuitive counselor, a psychic medium, a master hypnotist, and has studied spirituality, shamanism, meditation, divination, astrology, and energy medicine techniques from many different world traditions.

Throughout the book, Michelle guides and prompts the reader through an interactive journey with self-reflection, compassion, and enlightenment. As a result, we can cast aside limiting notions of what defines us, heal from the ordeals of previous lives, and embrace a joyful, emotionally fulfilling existence in the here and now.


Michelle has helped thousands of people discover the stories of their previous lives—their traumas and triumphs, losses and loves—and help them step forward into their best lives. When we learn our stories from the past, we can reach unprecedented heights of self-awareness in the present.


Michelle’s work has been featured on Comedy Central's hit TV show Inside Amy Schumer and her long list of influential clients includes celebrities, CEOs, writers, artists, and academics. A personal protégé of Dr Brian L. Weiss, author of the enduring classic and New York Times bestseller Many Lives, Many Masters, Michelle brings intelligence, humor, and rare insight to her spiritual guidance.

Michelle’s new book, Who Do You Think You Are?, was launched just this April, and continues to be translated into languages around the world!

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, we're joined by the pioneering Dr. Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.

Dr. Levine is the developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma, which he has developed over the past 50 years.

In his just-released book, An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey, Dr. Levine, who has changed the way psychologists, doctors, and healers around the world understand and treat the wounds of trauma and abuse—shares his own very personal journey to heal the severe trauma he experienced as a child. Dr. Levine offers profound insights into the evolution of his innovative healing method of Somatic Experiencing. By taking us through his own journey of healing and untangling traumatic wounds of violent abuse, he illuminates incredibly powerful learning and practices that can help each of us on our paths to healing, growing and thriving.

Dr. Levine is the author of several best-selling books on trauma, including the groundbreaking, Waking the Tiger, Healing Trauma (published in over 29 languages); In An Unspoken Voice, How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness; and Trauma and Memory, Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with Traumatic Memory.

Most recently, Dr. Levine was recognized with a very special lifetime achievement award from Psychotherapy Networker, one of several that Dr. Levine has been awarded for his pioneering and relentless work.

Dr. Levine holds a doctorate in Biophysics from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in Psychology from International University. He is the Founder and President of the Ergos Institute for Somatic Education, dedicated to Community Outreach and Post-Advanced Somatic Experiencing® Training, and the Founder and Advisor for Somatic Experiencing International. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley; Mills College; Antioch University; the California Institute of Integral Studies; and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Dr. Levine leads trauma healing courses for the public worldwide and teaches specialized Master Class courses. His Somatic Experiencing trainings have been taught to over 30,000 therapists in more than 42 countries, spanning 6 continents—and continue to grow.

Dr. Levine teaches us that anyone suffering from trauma has a valuable story to tell, and that by telling our stories, we can catalyze the return of hope, dignity, and wholeness.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, Dr. Arielle Schwartz returns to join us—and we’re talking about her two most recent books that continue to help us overcome the impacts of childhood trauma in our adult lives. Dr. Schwartz is a renowned trauma expert, licensed psychologist, registered yoga teacher, and prolific author, and Dr. Schwartz joined us previously as a guest in season two.

In Dr. Schwartz’s Therapeutic Yoga for Trauma Recovery Flip Chart, released in August of last year, we’re given an array of yoga, breathing, and meditative practices to balance, energize, and calm the body, especially to help overcome the impacts of trauma on our minds and bodies.

In her just-released book, Applied Polyvagal Theory in Yoga: Therapeutic Practices for Emotional Health, Dr. Schwartz takes us into a deeper dive to understand the interrelationships between mind, emotions, physiology, and behavior, and introduces us to practices that aid in rewiring our nervous systems including vagal toning, conscious breathing, mindful movement, and meditation—all of which combine to cultivate a felt sense of ease and safety; enhance our capacity to handle challenges; and recover from stress and anxiety quickly and efficiently.

When I learned of Dr. Schwartz’s new books, I couldn’t wait to work through them and to invite Dr. Schwartz to talk with us once more because I knew we would gain great new learning and new practices to help us on our continuing journeys.

And so I’m so incredibly grateful that Dr. Schwartz has taken the time amidst her consuming schedule to join us today.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today, Dr. Meg Jay returns and we’re talking about her new book that has just been released, The Twentysomething Treatment. Dr. Jay’s new book focuses on essential skills that we need to handle uncertainties—around work, love, friendship, mental health, and more. While Dr. Jay’s book and specialization focus on the "Twentysomething" age group, we share how mastering these skills is so essential for all of us to handle uncertainties through and beyond the twenty-something decade.

Throughout Dr. Jay’s book, she takes us through an array of “How To” ways to manage through uncertainties with specific skills, and advocates for “skills over pills” to deal with life’s struggles. Meg puts forward that medication is sometimes, but not always, the best medicine, and argues that most 20 somethings don’t have disorders that must be treated: they have problems that can be solved… and reading Meg’s work, you can’t help but feel that might be said for many of us across our decades.

The one big thing that struck me as I was reading Dr. Jay’s book was whether childhood trauma "blocks" some of the skill development that can and should take place during our twenty-something years. I reflected that it took me well beyond my twenty-something years to move through the "How to” skills that Dr. Jay provides. And I wonder whether many of you listening might feel the same way—finding yourself still moving through and trying to master the "how to" skills that we may have missed because we were so immersed in survival mode—and that now, we’re still catching up, if you like, on "lost years."

And so in this podcast, we’ll talk about all of this and deep dive into Dr. Jay’s “how to” ways to move through life’s struggles and uncertainties.

Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of education at the University of Virginia. She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology, and in gender studies, from University of California, Berkeley. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Psychology Today, and on NPR, the BBC and TED. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages; and her new book, The Twentysomething Treatment, is available now online and in book stores.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org

Today we’re joined by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, M.D.,Ph.D.

​Dr. Perry's book, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, has been translated into 26 languages and has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over 100 weeks after becoming #1 on the list in April of 2021, and has sold over one million copies.

In bold on Amazon is the statement, “This book is going to change the way you see your life.” And for all of us who have read the book, I think we would all agree. In What Happened To You?, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Perry provide a groundbreaking and profoundly powerful shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

In the opening of the book, Oprah shares, “Through my work with Dr. Perry, my eyes have been opened to the fact that although I experienced abuse and trauma as a child, my brain found ways to adapt. This is where hope lives for all of us—in the unique adaptability of our miraculous brains.” …Oprah continues, “As Dr. Perry explains in this book, understanding how the brain reacts to stress or early trauma helps clarify how what has happened to us in the past shapes who we are, how we behave, and why we do the things we do. Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.

Dr. Perry is the Principal of the Neurosequential Network, and serves on the Board of Directors of multiple organizations including Prevent Child Abuse America.

Dr. Perry has been extensively featured across major media outlets including 60 Minutes, National Public Radio, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS News, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah's Super Soul. AND his work has been featured in documentaries produced by Dateline NBC, 20/20, the BBC, Nightline, CBC, PBS, as well as dozen international documentaries. Many print media have highlighted the clinical and research activities of Dr. Perry including a Pulitzer-prize winning series in the Chicago Tribune, The Sun Magazine, US News and World Report, Time, Newsweek, Forbes ASAP, Washington Post, the New York Times and Rolling Stone.

I’m so thrilled and grateful that Dr. Perry is joining us today to talk about “What Happened to You?” and all of his profoundly powerful work to help us all on our journeys to understand and overcome our childhood trauma.

For more resources, visit www.OvercomingChildSexualAbuse.com and www.End1in4.org