My Inner Knowing

What if the reason we struggle to change is not because we lack understanding, motivation, or effort?What if our brains and bodies are responding exactly as they have learned to respond — even when those responses no longer support the life we want to live?In this conversation, Theresa Hubbard, LMFT, sits down with Dr. Irena O'Brien, cognitive neuroscientist and founder of The Neuroscience School, to explore how the brain works, why the nervous system responds the way it does, and what neuroscience can teach us about meaningful change.Together, they explore the brain as a predictive system — constantly anticipating what we may need based on previous experiences. They discuss how stress influences our available energy, why the nervous system may remain activated long after a difficult experience has passed, and why understanding a pattern intellectually does not always change the body's response.One of the most meaningful parts of this conversation is their exploration of relational safety.What happens when someone feels genuinely accepted?What might the nervous system recognize about another person's internal experience before words are spoken?And how much does the therapist's or coach's own nervous system influence the experience of the person sitting with them?Irena also shares openly about her personal experiences with anxiety, complex trauma, acceptance, neurofeedback, and discovering what helps her body experience greater safety.The conversation brings to mind a quote often attributed to Anaïs Nin:“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”What might that mean when we consider courage through the lens of the nervous system?Courage is not necessarily the absence of fear. And it is not always about pushing through discomfort or demanding more from ourselves.Sometimes courage is allowing ourselves to experience something unfamiliar.Sometimes it is allowing another person to see us more fully.And sometimes courage begins when our bodies have enough capacity to pause before responding in the way they always have.Perhaps our lives expand not only because we become more courageous, but because our nervous systems begin to experience enough safety for courage to become a choice rather than a demand.Because sometimes we know exactly what we want to change.We understand the pattern.We recognize the cost.And yet, something in us continues to respond in the same familiar way.Perhaps the question is not simply, "Why can't I change?"Perhaps it is:What has my brain and body learned that I have not yet fully understood?And what might become possible when we begin working with that learning rather than fighting against it?How the predictive brain uses past experiences to anticipate and respondWhy chronic stress influences energy, recovery, and our capacity for changeHow relational safety and genuine acceptance influence therapeutic relationshipsIrena's personal experiences with anxiety, trauma, neurofeedback, and acceptanceHow curiosity, compassion, and new experiences may support meaningful changeDr. Irena O'Brien is a cognitive neuroscientist and founder of The Neuroscience School. With nearly 30 years of experience studying psychology and neuroscience, she helps coaches, therapists, and helping professionals understand the brain and apply neuroscience to human development and behavior change.She also hosts The Neuroscience of Coaching podcast.https://neuroscienceschool.comTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri.She hosts My Inner Knowing, exploring self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and learning to listen inwardly with curiosity and compassion.https://www.theresahubbard.comhttps://www.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #IrenaOBrien #Neuroscience #NervousSystemRegulation #Neuroplasticity #SelfTrust #RelationalSafety #Courage

In Part Two of this conversation, Theresa Hubbard continues her discussion with Ryan Morris, Doctor of Physical Therapy and owner of MindBody Physical Therapy and Pain Reprocessing in Mission, Kansas.This part of the conversation moves deeper into body trust, athletes, identity, somatic tracking, provider humility, and what it means to help the nervous system learn safety over time.Theresa and Ryan explore how pain can become especially complex when it becomes tied to identity — particularly for athletes, high performers, and people who have built a life around being capable, strong, disciplined, or physically reliable.For athletes, injury is rarely just about the injured body part. It can also raise questions about self-worth, belonging, performance, future, purpose, financial security, and the fear of no longer being who they once were.Together, Theresa and Ryan talk about what happens when the body becomes associated with danger, disappointment, pressure, or loss — and how healing may require more than strengthening the tissue or pushing through the movement.This episode also explores somatic tracking, curiosity, graded exposure, and the importance of approaching the body without pressure to perform. Ryan describes how people can begin noticing sensation without immediately fearing it, judging it, or trying to make it go away.The goal is not to force the body into trust.The goal is to create repeated experiences where the body can begin to learn:This sensation may be uncomfortable, but I may still be safe.This movement may feel unfamiliar, but my body may still be capable.This pain may be real, but it may not mean I am broken.Theresa and Ryan also speak honestly about the professional identities of therapists and physical therapists — how providers can become attached to certain models, explanations, or techniques, and how humility and curiosity are needed as research evolves.At the heart of this episode is a compassionate question:How do we help the body trust again after it has learned to protect?Not all at once.Not through force.But through safety, curiosity, repetition, community, and time.• Why athletes often experience pain and injury through the lens of identity• How self-worth can become connected to performance, achievement, and physical ability• Why returning to sport or movement can feel threatening after injury• How chronic pain may become tied to fear, loss, pressure, and old stories• How curiosity helps reduce fear around body sensations• How slow, intentional movement may support flexibility, recovery, and nervous system regulation• Why healthcare providers need humility as pain science continues to evolve• Why healing often requires community, collaboration, and multiple forms of supportRyan Morris is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the owner of MindBody Physical Therapy and Pain Reprocessing in Mission, Kansas.He graduated with his doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2011 and has more than a decade of clinical experience. He is certified as a Therapeutic Pain Specialist and in Pain Reprocessing Therapy.Ryan’s work is grounded in a biopsychosocial, mind-body approach that helps people understand pain through the lens of the nervous system, safety, whole-person care, and the body’s capacity to adapt.Theresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri.Her podcast explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:www.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #MyInnerKnowing #RyanMorris #PainReprocessingTherapy #ChronicPain #NeuroplasticPain #AthleteMentalHealth #BodyTrust #SomaticTracking #PainScience #NervousSystemRegulation #MindBodyHealing #SelfTrust #SomaticHealing #PainRecovery

In Part One of this conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Ryan Morris, Doctor of Physical Therapy and owner of MindBody Physical Therapy and Pain Reprocessing in Mission, Kansas, for a deeply thoughtful conversation about pain, the nervous system, and the stories our bodies learn to tell.Ryan’s work is grounded in a biopsychosocial, mind-body approach that looks at the whole person — not just the body part that hurts. He helps people understand something that can be both relieving and difficult to take in:Pain is real.Deeply real.And pain is not always proof that the body is damaged.Together, Theresa and Ryan explore what many of us were never taught about pain: how the brain predicts danger, how the nervous system tries to protect us, how medical language and imaging can sometimes increase fear, and why chronic pain may continue even after tissue has healed.This is not a conversation about dismissing pain or telling people it is “all in their head.”It is a conversation about honoring the intelligence of the body and understanding pain as part of a protective system — an alarm system that may keep sounding when the brain and body still perceive threat.Ryan explains the difference between tissue injury and neuroplastic pain, why the old idea of “pain receptors” does not fully explain what people experience, and how stress, fear, memory, trauma, identity, medical diagnoses, and past experiences can all shape the way pain shows up.Theresa and Ryan also talk about curiosity, provider language, shame, the lag between research and clinical practice, and why healing often begins when people feel believed, validated, and safe enough to relate to their bodies differently.At the heart of this episode is an invitation:What if pain is not always the body breaking?What if sometimes pain is the nervous system protecting?And what might become possible if the body could begin to learn safety again?• Why pain is real, even when it is not always a sign of tissue damage• How the nervous system functions as a protective alarm system• Why the brain can amplify pain when it perceives danger• The difference between tissue injury and neuroplastic pain• Why imaging, diagnoses, and medical language can sometimes increase fear• How chronic pain can become connected to story, identity, memory, and expectation• Why stress, trauma, weather changes, and life context can influence pain• How the body can continue protecting long after the original danger has passed• Why curiosity matters more than judgment in healing• How providers can unintentionally create more fear or more safety• Why pain reprocessing is not about denying pain, but helping the brain update its prediction• How compassion, graded movement, and safety can support healingRyan Morris is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the owner of MindBody Physical Therapy and Pain Reprocessing in Mission, Kansas.He graduated with his doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2011. Certified as a Therapeutic Pain Specialist and in Pain Reprocessing Therapy.Ryan’s work is grounded in a biopsychosocial, mind-body approach that helps people understand pain through the lens of the nervous system, safety, whole-person care, and the body’s capacity to adapt. MindBody Physical Therapy & Pain Reprocessing | Discover Pain Relief TodayTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri.Her podcast explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:www.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #MyInnerKnowing #RyanMorris #ChronicPain #PainReprocessingTherapy #NeuroplasticPain #NervousSystemRegulation #MindBodyHealing #PainScience #SomaticHealing #BodyTrust #TraumaHealing #SelfTrust #PainRecovery #MindBodyPhysicalTherapy

What if boldness is not about being loud, forceful, or certain?What if boldness is actually the process of coming back to yourself — slowly, honestly, and with enough trust to stop living from the roles that once helped you belong?In this conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Melissa Henning-Frank, founder of Becoming Bold, host of the Embrace Your Inner Boldness podcast, creator of Becoming Bold Bootcamp and The Bold Way, and a U.S. Army veteran with a background in human resources, talent development, performance coaching, and manufacturing.Melissa describes herself as a curiosity catalyst, and her work helps individuals, leaders, and teams stop recycling the same frustrations and begin creating real traction through clarity, ownership, courage, and follow-through.Together, Theresa and Melissa explore boldness, self-trust, leadership, curiosity, survival patterns, energy leaks, ownership without shame, and what happens when we stop waiting for permission to become more fully ourselves.Melissa shares about “Kindergarten Melissa” — the curious, bold, natural leader she remembers being as a child — and “Corporate Melissa,” the more filtered, careful, conditioned version of herself shaped by Catholic school, the military, corporate systems, and the need to belong.This conversation is about the parts of us that learned to shrink, overexplain, stay quiet, say yes when we mean no, or carry what was never ours to carry.It is also about the possibility of returning.Returning to curiosity.Returning to intuition.Returning to our body.Returning to the part of us that knew something before the world told us who we were supposed to be.At the heart of this episode is Melissa’s powerful invitation:Remember who you were before the world told you who to be.Because boldness is not a performance.It is not a personality type.It is not forcing confidence.Sometimes boldness is the moment we notice the old pattern and say:I don’t do that anymore.Not with shame.Not with blame.But with ownership, courage, and the willingness to become more fully ourselves.ABOUT MELISSA HENNING-FRANKMelissa Henning-Frank is the founder of Becoming Bold, host of the Embrace Your Inner Boldness podcast, creator of Becoming Bold Bootcamp and The Bold Way, and a U.S. Army veteran.With a background in human resources, talent development, performance coaching, and manufacturing, Melissa has spent decades inside the systems that shape leadership, communication, team dynamics, and workplace culture.Through Becoming Bold, she helps individuals, leaders, and teams stop recycling the same frustrations and begin creating real traction through clarity, ownership, courage, and follow-through.Melissa describes herself as a curiosity catalyst. Her work invites people to recognize where they have been conditioned to shrink, filter, over-function, or abandon themselves — and to begin remembering who they were before the world told them who to be.https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissahenning-frank/https://embracebold.life/ABOUT THERESA HUBBARDTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri.Her podcast explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, leadership, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:www.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #MyInnerKnowing #MelissaHenningFrank #BecomingBold #SelfTrust #Boldness #Leadership #Curiosity #NervousSystemRegulation #Embodiment #WomenInLeadership #PersonalGrowth #WorkplaceCulture #TeamEffectiveness #InnerKnowing

Becoming the Person Who Can Create Such a Thing: Mike North, PhD on Shiftwave, Grief, and the Body’s IntelligenceWhat does it ask of a person to create something that may help others return to themselves? In this deeply human conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Mike North, PhD, CEO & Co-founder of Shiftwave, to explore curiosity, grief, invention, friendship, trust, the body, and the responsibility of creating something that touches people’s nervous systems. Mike shares about the child he once was — curious, free, and building forts in the woods — and the adult life that shaped him through intensity, overdrive, body signals, loss, and unexpected collaboration. He speaks about Dan, the soul brother whose death changed the arc of his life, and Alan Macy, whose goodness and scientific brilliance helped open the doorway to what would become Shiftwave. At the heart of this conversation is a powerful insight: “The thing of creating, and becoming the person that can create such a thing.” Real creation is not just output. It is transformation. The thing being created asks something of the creator. And if the creator says yes, they do not remain the same person.Together, Theresa and Mike explore Shiftwave not simply as a technology, but as part of a much larger question: What helps the body remember what safety, regulation and capacity feel like? This episode is about more than nervous-system technology. It is about the human journey behind creation — and what becomes possible when grief, science, integrity, play, friendship, and care converge in service of helping people come back to themselves. WHAT YOU’LL HEAR IN THIS EPISODE • Mike’s early curiosity, creativity, and the freedom ofbuilding as a child • How overdrive, intensity, and body signals shaped hisadult life • The role of friendship, grief, and Dan’s death in changing thedirection of Mike’s work • How Alan Macy’s brilliance and goodness became partof Shiftwave’s origin story • Why meaningful creation asks something of theperson creating it • How Shiftwave emerged from science, experimentation, care, and nervous system inquiry • Why the body’s intelligence matters in healing,recovery, and regulation • What it means to create something that may helppeople return to themselves • The responsibility of building technology thatinteracts with the nervous system • How grief, play, curiosity, and integritycan become part of service ABOUT MIKE NORTH Mike North, PhD, is the CEO & Co-Founder of Shiftwave - engineer, scientist, researcher, artist. His work brings togetherscience, technology, nervous system regulation, human performance, recovery, and a deep curiosity about what helps the body return to greater capacity, safety, and resilience. In this conversation, Mike shares not only the story of Shiftwave, but the personal journey, relationships, losses, and collaborations that helped shape the person capable of creating it. www.shiftwave.co ABOUT THERESA HUBBARD Theresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and FamilyTherapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri. She is the host of the My Inner Knowing podcast, where she explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honestyand compassion. Learn more: www.theresahubbard.com www.kcnpi.comwww.shiftwave.co/kcnpi #MikeNorth #Shiftwave #NervousSystemRegulation#MyInnerKnowing #TheresaHubbard #BodyIntelligence #GriefAndHealing#SomaticHealing #SelfTrust #Neuroplasticity #TraumaHealing #Embodiment#Recovery #HumanPerformance #Innovation

What if the patterns we keep repeating are not proof that we are failing — but signs that something deeper is still trying to protect us?In this conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Judy Kane, founder of Aligned Consciousness, to explore subconscious beliefs, self-trust, resistance, and the quiet inner patterns that shape our lives before we even realize they are there.Judy has been helping people change subconscious beliefs using PSYCH-K® since 2011. Her work often supports people navigating anxiety, stress, self-sabotage, relationships, success, and the places where they feel stuck despite their best conscious effort.What makes Judy’s approach especially interesting is the way she brings a systems mind to transformational work. Before moving into subconscious belief change, much of her professional life was spent as an IT manager. She describes her work with clarity and practicality: identify what is not working, understand the pattern, and then use a process that supports change at the subconscious level.Together, Theresa and Judy explore why logic and conscious effort are not always enough to change the patterns we most want to shift. They talk about how beliefs are formed, how expectations shape us, how early messages can quietly become identity, and why so many people blame themselves for patterns that began long before they had the ability to choose them.This episode is about learning to stop fighting ourselves and begin listening more deeply to the inner systems that have been trying, in their own way, to keep us safe.Because sometimes the question is not: Why can’t I just change?Sometimes the deeper question is: What belief, protection, or old learning is still running beneath the surface?And what might become possible if that part of us could finally receive a different signal?WHAT YOU’LL HEAR IN THIS EPISODE• Judy’s journey from IT management to subconscious belief change work• What PSYCH-K® is and how Judy uses it with clients• Why subconscious beliefs can shape behavior before we consciously recognize them• How early expectations, family messages, and identity labels can affect what we believe is possible• Why logic and effort are not always enough to create lasting change• How beliefs can show up as patterns in money, relationships, success, self-worth, and receiving• Why people may over-give, over-return, or put their own priorities last• How Judy approaches subconscious change as a collaborative process• Why resistance can offer useful information rather than proof that something is wrongABOUT JUDY KANEJudy Kane is the founder of Aligned Consciousness. She partners with people to identify and change subconscious beliefs that may be creating patterns in their lives that no longer support who they are or what they consciously want.Her work often centers around anxiety, self-sabotaging behavior, stress, success, relationships, and the places where people feel stuck despite their best effort.Before becoming a PSYCH-K® facilitator, Judy spent much of her professional life as an IT manager, a background that shaped her clear, practical, systems-oriented approach to change. Since 2011, she has been helping people create supportive subconscious beliefs that align with their conscious goals.ABOUT THERESA HUBBARDTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri. She is the host of the My Inner Knowing podcast, where she explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more: www.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #JudyKane #AlignedConsciousness #SubconsciousBeliefs #PSYCHK #SelfTrust #BeliefChange #EmotionalHealing #PersonalGrowth #AnxietySupport #SelfSabotage #NervousSystemRegulation #InnerKnowing #MindBodyHealing

In the final week of When Being Strong Becomes Too Much, Theresa Hubbard, LMFT, invites listeners into a guided experience on carrying themselves forward with more gentleness, care, choice, and return.Many of us did not learn to be strong because we set out to become strong.We learned because something in our lives required it.Something needed to be held together.Someone needed something from us.Things felt uncertain enough that something in us stepped forward — and stayed there.Over time, that way of being can become so familiar that it no longer feels like something we do. It begins to feel like who we are. A readiness. A steadiness. A way of scanning, preparing, staying available, and carrying more than the present moment may require.This closing meditation is not about becoming a different person. It is not about letting go of strength or trying to arrive somewhere new. It is a gentle space to notice what your body may now recognize after this series:the awareness of effort,the signal of fatigue,the possibility of rest,the openness to support,and the option to carry strength with more choice.Through breath, body awareness, contact, silence, and compassionate self-inquiry, Theresa invites you to sit beside the part of you that learned to be strong — not to ask more from it, but to honor how long it has been working.This episode is about the possibility that your strength does not have to work alone.It can include care.It can include pause.It can include support.It can include return.And as you move forward, you may not need to remember everything perfectly. Your body may already be beginning to recognize another way.One breath.One pause.One moment of noticing.One small signal that says:I do not have to carry everything alone.• Why many people learned strength because life required it, not because they chose it• How strength can become so familiar that it begins to feel like identity• Why the body may stay ready, steady, scanning, or available even when nothing is being asked• How to honor the part of you that learned to hold things together• Why your body changes through experience, repetition, sensation, and return — not understanding alone• How effort, fatigue, rest, support, and choice can become signals the body begins to recognize• Why strength does not need to be abandoned in order to include care• How a small pause can create more space between automatic readiness and intentional response• Why your body may begin to notice bracing, anticipating, or holding sooner than before• How to carry yourself forward with gentleness rather than pressureTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri.This series is part of my ongoing exploration of nervous system regulation, embodiment, neurofeedback, and the ways the body learns to recognize safety, support, rest, strength, choice, and return.Most recently, my thinking in this area has also been influenced by the work being done by Shiftwave around nervous system regulation, particularly the research and writing of Mike North, PhD, and the larger work of the Shiftwave team.This episode is not a paid sponsorship. I mention Shiftwave as one of the current influences helping shape my understanding of body-up regulation, recovery, and the body’s capacity to return.Learn more:http://www.myinnerknowing.comhttp://www.theresahubbard.comhttp://www.kcnpi.comhttp://shiftwave.co/kcnpi#WhenBeingStrongBecomesTooMuch #Strength #Gentleness #NervousSystemRegulation #SomaticHealing #GuidedMeditation #BodyAwareness #TraumaHealing #BurnoutRecovery #SelfTrust #EmotionalHealing #MindBodyHealing #TheresaHubbard #MyInnerKnowing #Embodiment #Shiftwave

What if what you are really chasing is not money — but the freedom you believe money will bring?In this conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Elizabeth Ralph, founder of The Spiritual Investor, host of The Spiritual Investor Podcast, and a former financial executive and energy trader whose work brings together spirituality, modern finance, wealth building, and self-trust.Elizabeth helps spiritually conscious investors and entrepreneurs move beyond old money paradigms and begin building wealth in a way that includes both practical financial tools and energetic alignment. Her background is not only conceptual or spiritual — she spent years inside the world of finance and trading before creating a different kind of conversation around money, investing, freedom, and financial sovereignty.Together, Theresa and Elizabeth explore the places where money can become tangled with fear, safety, logic, timing, identity, over-responsibility, and old stories.They talk about why so many people are not only chasing money, but the freedom, safety, time, choice, and permission they believe money will create. They explore the difference between wanting and needing, the role of money neutrality, and what happens when people begin to relate to money as part of a larger system — one that includes investing, income, debt, confidence, energy, and choice.This conversation also moves beyond money into vulnerability, relationships, safety in the body, collaboration, creativity, and the courage to stop waiting.At the heart of this episode is the invitation to see money not as a separate topic “out there,” but as one more place where we can learn to trust ourselves.Because financial freedom is not only about having more.It is also about becoming more honest about what we want, what we fear, what we are ready to stop repeating, and what kind of life we are willing to claim.• Elizabeth’s journey from financial trading to creating The Spiritual Investor• Why many people are seeking freedom more than money itself• How our definitions of freedom may be changing• Why money can become connected to safety, time, identity, and responsibility• The difference between wanting from alignment and needing from lack• Why old money stories can keep people repeating the same patterns• How Elizabeth thinks about money neutrality and energetic calibration• Why investing, income, debt, and money management can be understood as one system• How vulnerability, safety, and money are more connected than they may first appear• Why Theresa connects financial freedom with body-based safety and self-trust• How collaboration, creativity, and AI may be changing what is possible• Why Elizabeth encourages people not to stay in waiting energyElizabeth Ralph is the founder of The Spiritual Investor, host of The Spiritual Investor Podcast, and a former financial executive and energy trader.After years in finance and trading, Elizabeth created The Spiritual Investor to help people build wealth in a way that integrates practical investing principles, energetic alignment, spiritual consciousness, and financial freedom.Her work supports people in moving beyond old money paradigms, expanding their relationship with wealth, and learning to engage money as part of a larger process of freedom, identity, and self-trust.Theresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri. She is the host of the My Inner Knowing podcast, where she explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:www.myinnerknowing.comwww.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#TheresaHubbard #ElizabethRalph #TheSpiritualInvestor #MoneyAndFreedom #FinancialFreedom #SpiritualInvestor #WealthBuilding #SelfTrust #NervousSystemRegulation #EnergeticAlignment #WomenAndMoney #PersonalGrowth

Today I’m joined by Dr. Kimberly O’Brien, a clinician, researcher, author, former athlete, and founder of Unlimited Resilience — a mental health practice designed for athletes by athletes.Kim works with high school and college athletes, teams, parents, and organizations across the country on mental health, mental skills, resilience, leadership, and suicide prevention. She is also the co-author of *Mentality Wins: The Athlete’s Playbook for Thriving in Sport and Life*, which offers athletes practical tools for building focus, confidence, resilience, and sustainable success — not only in sport, but in life.What I appreciate deeply about Kim’s work is that she understands athletes as whole people.Not simply bodies that perform.Not simply competitors who win or lose.Not simply disciplined people who should be able to push through.But human beings with pressure, longing, fear, identity, relationships, pain, purpose, and the need to belong to themselves even while belonging to a team.In this conversation, Kim and I explore the parts of athletic life that often remain unseen: depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, grief, identity loss, leadership pressure, family dynamics, and the belief that struggle has to be hidden in order to be respected.Kim shares honestly about her own experience as an athlete, including playing hockey at Harvard, becoming a captain, wrestling with inadequacy and pressure, and eventually finding her way into social work, suicide prevention, and athlete mental health.We talk about what happens when performance becomes tied to identity, why athletes may feel pressure to appear strong even when they are suffering, and how healing often begins when someone is given permission to tell the truth about what they are carrying.This episode is also about presence — the kind of presence that does not rush to fix, rescue, or advise, but can sit with someone in their hardest moments and allow them to be fully human.Because athletes do not only need tools to perform better.They need spaces where they can stop pretending they are okay.They need people who understand that toughness and tenderness can coexist.And they need permission to know that their worth is not measured only by what they can achieve.ABOUT DR. KIMBERLY O’BRIENDr. Kimberly O’Brien is a clinician, researcher, author, former athlete, and founder of Unlimited Resilience, a mental health practice designed for athletes by athletes.She works with high school and college athletes, individuals, teams, parents, and organizations on mental health, mental skills, resilience, leadership, and suicide prevention.Kim is also the co-author of *Mentality Wins: The Athlete’s Playbook for Thriving in Sport and Life*, a book created to help athletes build focus, confidence, resilience, and sustainable success in both sport and life.Her work is grounded in a deep respect for athletes as whole people — people who deserve support not only in how they perform, but in how they live, struggle, grow, connect, and heal.ABOUT THERESA HUBBARDTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri. She is the host of the My Inner Knowing podcast, where she explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:[www.myinnerknowing.com](http://www.myinnerknowing.com)[www.theresahubbard.com](http://www.theresahubbard.com)[www.kcnpi.com](http://www.kcnpi.com)#MyInnerKnowing #TheresaHubbard #KimberlyOBrien #AthleteMentalHealth #MentalityWins #UnlimitedResilience #SportsPsychology #MentalHealthForAthletes #StudentAthletes #SuicidePrevention #Resilience #SelfTrust #NervousSystemRegulation #AthletesBetterTogether #WholePersonHealing

What if growing older is not the same as getting old?In this conversation, Theresa Hubbard sits down with Ellen Kocher and Dominique Ben Dhaou, co-creators of Wake Up, Shake Up, Thrive, for a thoughtful and energizing conversation about aging, reinvention, wellbeing, purpose, and the courage to keep becoming.Ellen and Dominique are based in Geneva, Switzerland, and bring together decades of experience in health, wellbeing, corporate leadership, coaching, and personal reinvention. Their work invites people — especially those in midlife and beyond — to rethink what the next chapter of life can look like.This episode explores the difference between simply moving through time and actively choosing how we want to live the years ahead.Together, Theresa, Ellen, and Dominique talk about the moments that wake us up, the beliefs that quietly shape our choices, and the importance of caring for ourselves not as an act of selfishness, but as a form of responsibility.They explore what it means to return to yourself later in life, how our mindset about aging can influence how we age, and why life after 50 can be a powerful season of clarity, choice, vitality, and new possibility.At the heart of this conversation is a simple but powerful invitation:Don’t get old waiting.Waiting to listen to yourself.Waiting to care for your body.Waiting to change direction.Waiting to ask what you truly want.Waiting to become the person your life is still inviting you to become.This episode is for anyone standing at a threshold — personally, professionally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually — and wondering whether it is too late to choose something different.Ellen and Dominique’s answer is clear:It is never too late.WHAT YOU’LL HEAR IN THIS EPISODE• Why aging can be approached as a journey rather than a decline• The difference between growing older and getting old• How midlife can become a time of reinvention, clarity, and renewed purpose• Why taking care of yourself can be a strategic responsibility, not selfishness• How health, emotional wellbeing, brain health, purpose, and financial wellbeing all shape the decades ahead• Why mindset matters so much in how we experience aging• How old beliefs about money, work, responsibility, and success can limit what feels possible• Why life transitions can become invitations to return to yourself• How Ellen and Dominique created Wake Up, Shake Up, Thrive• Why their message is: “Don’t get old waiting”ABOUT ELLEN KOCHER AND DOMINIQUE BEN DHAOUEllen Kocher and Dominique Ben Dhaou are the co-creators of Wake Up, Shake Up, Thrive and the authors of Wake Up, Shake Up, Thrive: How to Lift Up Your Life in Your 50s and Beyond.Their work supports individuals and organizations in rethinking aging, wellbeing, work, purpose, vitality, and life design in midlife and beyond.Together, they bring a holistic approach to the second half of life, integrating physical health, emotional wellbeing, intellectual growth, spiritual alignment, financial wellbeing, career reinvention, and personal purpose.Their message is both practical and deeply human: life after 50 is not the beginning of decline. It can be the beginning of a more conscious, aligned, and intentional chapter.ABOUT THERESA HUBBARDTheresa Hubbard, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Kansas City Neuroplasticity Institute in Liberty, Missouri. She is the host of the My Inner Knowing podcast, where she explores self-trust, nervous system regulation, relationships, trauma healing, embodiment, and the process of learning to listen inwardly with more honesty and compassion.Learn more:www.myinnerknowing.comwww.theresahubbard.comwww.kcnpi.com#MyInnerKnowing #TheresaHubbard #WakeUpShakeUpThrive #AgingWell #MidlifeReinvention #LifeAfter50 #WomenOver50 #HealthyAging #Wellbeing #SelfTrust #Purpose #PersonalGrowth #RetirementPlanning #MindsetMatters #DontGetOldWaiting