Find Your Voice, Change Your Life

Today, I interview Cheryl Kasper who spent years overworking and overachieving, hoping her efforts would finally make her feel seen and heard. But all those degrees and certifications still couldn't bring the acknowledgement she had sought since childhood.Growing up in a loving family, Cheryl often felt that what she had to say wasn't important. She learned to suppress her voice, while watching her mother work almost constantly shaped her beliefs about success.When the strain eventually caught up with her, Cheryl began looking more deeply at the experiences behind her choices. Along the way, a vulnerable step toward sharing her story helped change her relationship with her voice.Today, Cheryl combines psychology, subconscious work, body awareness, sound, and frequency to help women recognize patterns they may not even know are there. She helps them develop greater trust in themselves and feel free to express who they are.__________________Cheryl Kasper is a clinical psychotherapist and creator of Frequency Mapping™, a soul-led method that helps women uncover invisible patterns influencing how they respond to money, visibility, relationships, receiving, and expansion. With 30 years of experience as a trauma therapist, she combines psychology, subconscious patterning, nervous system and somatic awareness, sound, frequency, and the biofield through her Brain, Body, and Biofield approach.Cheryl works with self-aware, visionary women who have already done a great deal of healing and personal growth but still find themselves repeating patterns they understand intellectually. Her work helps them address what lies beneath those patterns so they can trust themselves, receive more, expand their capacity in wealth, relationships, and business, and feel free to be fully who they are.__________________Find Cheryl here:https://www.instagram.com/cheryl.frequencyalchemist https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.f.kasperhttps://cherylkasper.com/ https://site.cherylkasper.com/vpdSupport the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Caren Carnegie, who grew up shy and struggled to find the confidence to use her voice. As the youngest of three girls, her older sisters often spoke for her, leaving her little room to express what she was feeling and what she wanted to say.For much of her life, Caren followed what was expected of her while struggling with her relationship with herself and her body. After an injury in 2019, she began exploring movement and discovered something unexpected about the way she communicated with herself.That discovery led her to make changes in her life, listen more deeply to her body, and trust what she was experiencing. Along the way, she found the courage to share what she was learning.Today, as the founder of Transform Fitness Coaching, Caren helps others connect with themselves through movement, nature, and spiritual life coaching. She shares how listening to the wisdom of our bodies can help us find our voice and discover new ways of showing up in the world.__________________Caren Carnegie is the founder of Transform Fitness Coaching, a speaker and writer whose work explores embodiment, the wisdom of the body, and storytelling through channeling.Her work invites people to listen more deeply to what moves through and around them, and to consider how that awareness shapes the way we live, lead, and participate in the world. Caren is a fellow Torchbearer at IGNITE: The Inner Uprising, where she represents the wisdom of the body.__________________Find Caren here:https://www.instagram.com/carencarnegiefitnesshttps://www.facebook.com/carencarnegiefitnesshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/carencarnegietransform/Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Aleya Harris, an award-winning keynote speaker and former Google executive, who grew up as a natural talker but became self-conscious when people focused their attention on her. A comment from an adult relative stayed in the back of her mind for years and made her question herself whenever people were watching her speak.As a teenager, Aleya finally stood up to that same uncle and describes the moment as reclaiming her voice. Later, postpartum depression challenged her identity in a different way and gave her what she calls an “earned gift” of empathy.Today, Aleya helps leaders and speakers uncover the stories they have lived, recognize the lessons inside those experiences, and shape them into something they can say with clarity and conviction. Aleya believes that everyone has something to say, stories to tell, and a legacy to leave, and that no matter what you have been through, your experiences can become part of what you offer to others.__________________Aleya Harris is an award-winning keynote speaker, former Google executive, and Founder & CEO of The Evolution Collective. As the creator of the Story-Driven Leadership™ framework, she helps leaders, entrepreneurs, and organizations find their authentic voice, build trust, and inspire meaningful action.For more than 15 years, Aleya has empowered people to communicate with confidence, lead with purpose, and transform the stories that shape their lives, careers, and leadership.__________________Find Aleya here:Website: https://www.aleyaharris.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleyaharrisSupport the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Catherine Bell who grew up painfully shy and afraid to speak, while also having to start over again and again as her family moved every two years. Making new friends, finding her place, and speaking in front of others overwhelmed her. Even later in life, she let others speak her words for her because she worried about how she would be received.Her breakthrough came gradually. One of the clearest moments happened in a dimly lit café in New York City, when she suddenly felt called to write her book, The Awakened Company. Over time, she began to recognize that her voice could only fully come forward when she was willing to enter those vulnerable, softer places in herself.Today, Catherine brings that awareness into the way she works with people. She encourages others to become more present, listen more deeply, and notice what life may be asking them to see or express. Her work continues to center on helping people move toward greater wholeness, trust their own voice, and bring their own piece of the puzzle into the world._______________Catherine R. Bell is the Founder and CEO of the Awakened Company, where she helps leaders, teams, and organizations create healthy, thriving cultures. She is an award-winning Profit 500 founder, serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and certified Enneagram practitioner. Catherine also co-founded the mindfulness app Awakenly, has created two Enneagram audio programs with Sounds True, and teaches at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. Her upcoming 2026 book with Hay House explores the Enneagram and creativity._______________Find Catherine here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellcatherine/https://x.com/AwakenedCompanyhttps://www.facebook.com/awakenedcompanyhttps://www.instagram.com/theawakenedcompany/https://www.youtube.com/@AwakenedCompanyhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-awakened-company/https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3868695/https://awakenedcompany.com/Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Kayla Middleton who spent much of her life speaking up for other people while finding it much harder to speak up for herself. Growing up in the UK, she was outgoing, expressive, and often seen as the responsible “good girl,” yet years of bullying and expectations shaped how she saw herself.As she moved into adulthood, Kayla found herself settling for a life that felt limited. She believed struggle was simply part of growing up and that the “good life” was meant for other people.In our conversation, Kayla shares the turning point that challenged that belief and helped her realize she could choose differently. What began as a practical decision to change her circumstances became a deeper shift in how she saw herself, her voice, and what was possible for her.Now, Kayla no longer believes she has to settle for the bare minimum. She has learned to stand up for herself, trust her own choices, and give herself permission to build life on her own terms.__________________Kayla Middleton is an Identity and Mindset Coach for women in service-based businesses. She helps women stop being their own ceiling in business by identifying the beliefs, patterns, and behaviors that are keeping them stuck.Through one-to-one coaching, her membership, and other resources, Kayla helps women understand what is happening beneath the strategies they are already trying to follow. Her work focuses on helping them shift their identity and mindset so they can show up differently, make decisions with more confidence, and move their business forward.Having coached hundreds of women, Kayla is passionate about helping business owners get out of their own way so they can create not only the business they want, but the life they want that business to support.__________________Find Kayla here:https://instagram.com/kaylamiddleton.co/ https://facebook.com/kayla.middleton.coaching/ https://kaylamiddleton.co.uk/5-signs-opt-inSupport the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Riana Malia, who grew up through repeated family breakups, broken promises, and the belief that she had to earn love. The instability left her feeling unsettled, too much in some ways and not enough in others, while also teaching her to become deeply resourceful.Those early beliefs followed Riana through marriage, motherhood, financial hardship, betrayal, and relationships where she tried to manage outcomes and become who others needed her to be. Although she went to therapy, read the books, and talked about her experiences, the anger, sadness, and old story continued to shape her life.Her breakthrough came when she realized that repeatedly telling the same story was keeping her inside it. She learned to stand on her story instead, let go of the belief that she had to beg people to love her, and become the same person in every room. That shift helped her break the cycle of broken promises and create a different life.Today, Riana uses what she has learned to help women stop repeating the relationship patterns that no longer serve them. She helps them get clear about who they are, what they want, and the life and love they want to create.__________________Riana Malia is a Board-Certified Neurosomatic Practitioner, Identity Architect, and private authority for women who have built extraordinary lives and refuse to settle for ordinary love. Her methodology blends neurological rewiring, subconscious reprogramming, and nervous system recoding to address what therapy, retreats, and self-help have not been able to reach.Riana is the creator of the Clear to Create™ Method, which helps women clear old patterns, create aligned beliefs and habits, and claim a new identity. She is also the founder and host of the Brilliance Brunch™, an invitation-only gathering for high-achieving women in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the creator of the Extraordinary Love Index™ (ELI™), an assessment that reveals what may be standing between a woman and extraordinary love.__________________Find Riana here:Website: https://rianamalia.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rianamalia/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rianamalia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rianamalia/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RianaMalia/ Substack: https://substack.com/@rianamalia Freebie: https://quiz.rianamalia.com/Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Beth Erlander, a grief expert and therapist who spent years believing she had to stop being a caregiver before she could truly support other caregivers. Although she had helped people through grief for more than 26 years, Beth hesitated to focus on this work because she was still living it herself. In our conversation, she didn't think she was ready, and she wasn't sure she had enough distance from her own experience to guide others through theirs. She shares what helped her stop waiting, why she finally became comfortable with not having all the answers, and how her own experience gave her a deeper understanding of the people she felt called to serve. We also explore why grief is more than death loss, how it can show up in life's transitions, and what it means to give grief a voice.Today, Beth helps those who unexpectedly find themselves caring for a spouse or partner navigate the emotional realities of caregiving. Through her professional experience and her own journey, she is creating programs that help caregivers feel seen, understood, and supported while navigating a grief that often goes unrecognized.__________________Beth Erlander, LPC, grief expert and seasoned therapist with over 26 years of experience. She works with grief and loss issues from any kind of sudden life transition. Yet the main focus of her work is serving those who find themselves thrust into the role of being the caregiver for their spouse or partner.Her memoir, Life Upside Down: The Fall That Transformed Our Lives, Lifting Me Through Grief Love and Quadriplegia speaks to the journey of being her partner’s caregiver for the past 13 years.Beth is a Creative Grief Support Practitioner, Art Therapist and EMDR practitioner. She is currently training in Somatic Experiencing, Peter Levine’s work where she is gathering more tools to equip grievers to navigate the overwhelming experience of grief in the body.Beth runs an online program called The Wheel of Grief, which gives grievers a map to navigate the wild terrain of loss. She co-leads grief rituals and ceremonies, both online and in person. She is also a Cowry Shell Diviner taught to her by the late and great Elder Malidoma Somé.__________________Find BETH here:Book: https://crowflowpublications.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betherlander_grief2joy/Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview sisters and business partners Amy and Nancy Harrington, who both grew up shy and spent years navigating environments that made it hard to be heard, until they decided to leave their high-powered Hollywood careers and build something that could give other women the voice they had to fight for themselves.Amy rose to vice president at Warner Brothers at 27, often the youngest and only woman in the room, quietly doing the work while men took the credit. Nancy built a solitary graphic design business for nearly two decades to avoid the very rooms that made her shrink.Together, they built The Passionistas Project Sisterhood, a global community that gives women from marginalized backgrounds the space, support, and platform to finally be heard.__________________Sisters and business partners, Amy and Nancy Harrington are the co-founders of The Passionistas Project Sisterhood, a global community for passion-driven women, especially from marginalized backgrounds, to find support, purpose, and empowerment. After leaving high-powered careers in Hollywood, where Amy worked on major films like Harry Potter and The Matrix, and Nancy created Academy Award campaigns, they now use their platform to uplift others. Through their Power of Passionistas Women's Summit podcast, number one international bestselling anthology book, Awakening Your Power, writing mentorship program, and online global community, they give a voice to women who often don't feel seen and heard.__________________Find Amy and Nancy here:Website: https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/Community: https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/membershipFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePassionistasProjectLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-passionistas-project/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepassionistasproject/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PCPassionistasFree Download: https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/30-days-journalSupport the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Lizzie Siegel, who came into this world deeply connected to her gifts but spent years learning to suppress them, until a series of accidents, illnesses, and a relationship where she felt completely invisible forced her to stop abandoning herself and come back to her voice.Raised with a heightened sensitivity that others around her often misunderstood, Lizzie spent nearly two decades as an international school teacher before her body began breaking down from years of ignoring her inner voice. Autoimmune diseases, a spinal injury, and a recommended hip replacement were the signals she could no longer dismiss.Through energy healing, sound work, and a journey across more than 70 countries, she found her way back to the voice she had always had, and built a practice around helping others remember theirs.__________________Lizzie Siegel is a Resource and Reality Architect, Subconscious Freedom Coach, and global gridworker who has traveled to over 70 countries activating the Earth's energetic grids, sacred sites, and collective consciousness. She works at the intersection of voice, frequency, and remembrance, using sound, light language, and intuitive transmission to awaken what she calls Divine Source Codes within the human system.With a rare clairaudient gift, Lizzie hears beyond words, reading the energetic field of what is spoken, suppressed, and ready to be liberated. Her presence alone becomes a catalyst for transformation, dissolving deep rooted patterns of fear, trauma, and limitation, and recalibrating individuals at the level of identity, nervous system, and soul.She doesn't just help people find their voice. She helps them remember who they were before they ever learned to silence it.__________________Find Lizzie here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizziesiegel/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilybity Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzienamasteplantbased/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heartshomewithlizzie/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heartshomewithlizzie Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2y8L6exu2GxJeBQSEUSX5K?si=0a10cdc09bec41c4 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hearts-home-podcast/id1648081724Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.

Today, I interview Fabio da Silva Fernandes, who has always known his voice mattered but faced moments throughout his life that tested that conviction, from a humiliating childhood experience on stage to navigating corporate spaces where he felt he did not belong, to a pandemic burnout that forced him to completely change direction.Raised with a deep sensitivity and awareness, Fabio spent more than 20 years in the fintech industry before recognizing that the life he had built no longer aligned with who he was. In 2021, he took a month off, listened to himself, and made the decision to start over.Since leaving corporate, he has built a practice centered on helping others do the same, working with individuals and organizations as a speaker, writer, and consultant focused on resilience, mindful leadership, and authentic expression.Fabio da Silva Fernandes runs a holistic wellness practice focused on resiliency, mindfulness, and Reiki. His passion is helping others cultivate greater resilience as a speaker, writer, and consultant. After more than 20 years in the fintech industry, Fabio left the corporate world to found Resting Bell Wellness Inc., now known by the name of his podcast, The Stumbling Spirit. He works primarily with corporate and nonprofit organizations to elevate mindful leadership, build trust, and enhance team collaboration.Find Fabio here:Website: http://thestumblingspirit.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabiofernandes27/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestumblingspirit/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thestumblingspirit.bsky.social About the ShowFind Your Voice, Change Your Life is hosted by Dr. Doreen Downing, psychologist and speaking confidence coach. Each episode features guests who lost their voice, or never felt they had one, and found their way back to it. New episodes on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.Support the showI’m Dr. Doreen Downing and I help people find their voice so they can speak without fear. Get the Free 7-Step Guide to Fearless Speaking https://www.doreen7steps.com​.