NeuroHeir℠ Podcast: Somatic, Nervous System and Generational Healing Tools for Parents, Therapists, and Cycle Breakers

What if the thing you’re struggling with isn’t actually the problem but a signal from your nervous system that something deeper needs your attention? In this powerful conversation, Leanna sits down with chef, author, speaker, and coach Amber Caudle to explore the connection between food, body image, nervous system regulation, people-pleasing, overworking, and emotional survival patterns. Amber sha...

What if healing isn’t just about working through what’s hard but also learning to actually notice what’s good? In this 50th episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna invites you into the 50 Tiny Joys Experiment: a simple practice for noticing the small moments of joy that can easily get overlooked when your nervous system is used to scanning for what’s wrong, what needs fixing, or what might need y...

Have you ever found yourself reacting to something and wondering, Why does this feel so much bigger than the moment?   Maybe your partner says something that suddenly feels deeply personal, someone is disappointed in you, or you feel criticized and before you know it, your body is in full protection mode. In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna explores why old patterns can show up in pre...

What if healing isn’t about becoming a perfectly regulated, securely attached version of yourself who never gets triggered again? What if it’s actually about building more capacity for the moments when life activates you—and learning that you can choose what comes next? In this episode, we’re breaking down the idea that you have to “finish healing” before you can start living, parenting differentl...

What if creating secure attachment with our children isn’t about getting parenting “right” but about becoming more aware, repairing when we get it wrong, and learning to respond differently? In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna explores attachment and parenting through the lens of the nervous system and generational healing. She shares how our children’s big emotions, independence, dis...

What if your attachment style isn’t a personality label but a protective strategy your nervous system learned to use? In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna explores the connection between attachment patterns, nervous system activation, and the ways we respond when connection feels uncertain. Building on last week’s conversation with her husband, David, she dives deeper into what may be...

What happens when two people bring completely different nervous system patterns into a relationship? In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna is joined by her husband, David, for an honest conversation about the patterns they've brought into nearly 27 years of marriage and what they've learned about changing them. They unpack their anxious and avoidant attachment styles, how stre...

What if one of the most powerful healing tools has been with you all along? Breathing is something we do every moment of every day, yet most of us never realize just how profoundly it can influence our nervous system, emotional healing, and capacity for connection.  In this episode, Leanna sits down with Megan Ashton, founder of Unity Breathwork, to explore how conscious connected breathwork can h...

What if the habits you’ve spent years trying to fix aren’t actually the problem? In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, Leanna sits down with somatic healing practitioner, author, and creator of the Freedom Framework, Lori Montry, for a powerful conversation about nervous system safety, survival patterns, and why lasting change requires more than mindset and willpower. Lori shares her journey f...

What if your scars aren't proof that you're broken but evidence that your body has been trying to protect you all along? After losing my father to melanoma, I share the deeply personal story of my own unexpected healing journey following a skin procedure that left me with a painful scar. What began as a frustrating medical experience became one of the most powerful metaphors I have ever...

Sometimes, what hurts us today isn’t only about today. In this deeply personal episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, I share a vulnerable experience that left me feeling cracked open and how, just days later, a Level 3 Brainspotting training led me into a profound encounter with my own nervous system. What unfolded wasn’t about uncovering a specific memory or finding the perfect explanation. It was ab...

What if healing isn't about choosing between grief or joy but learning to hold both? In this deeply personal episode, Leanna reflects on returning from the funeral of a close friend's 16-year-old daughter and shares how one simple word and has become one of the most powerful lessons in her own healing journey. Drawing from her experiences with loss, the ongoing healing of her relationshi...

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed by your to-do list, stuck in anxiety, or unsure how to calm your body when life feels like too much? In this episode, Leanna welcomes back evidence-based EFT practitioner Mitch to explore one of the most accessible nervous system regulation tools available: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), also known as tapping. If you've ever been curious about ta...

What if the symptoms you're trying to "fix" are actually your nervous system's best attempt to protect you? In this powerful conversation, Leanna sits down with Australian counselor, facilitator, and evidence-based EFT trainer Mitch Gainey to explore the profound connection between trauma, the nervous system, and the body's innate capacity to heal. Together, they unpack wh...

What if the patterns you've spent years trying to change aren't flaws in your personality but predictions made by your nervous system? In this thought-provoking episode, Leanna explores a controversial paper that has sparked widespread discussion in the trauma and nervous system world: The Body Does Not Keep the Score . While the title may sound contradictory to everything we've lea...

Why is it so hard to say no, disappoint someone, or put your own needs first? In this episode of the NeuroHeir Podcast, we're continuing our exploration of the nervous system's survival responses by diving into the often-overlooked appease response—sometimes called the fawn response. While fight, flight, and freeze tend to be easier to recognize, appeasement is often praised and rewarded...

What if the reason you feel stuck, numb, disconnected, or unable to move forward isn't laziness at all? In this episode of The NeuroHeir Podcast , we're continuing our Nervous System Through Movies series by exploring the freeze response through the lens of Disney's Frozen . While Elsa's story is often viewed as one of hiding her powers, it also offers a powerful picture of wha...

Have you ever felt like you can’t slow down? Like your brain is always making lists, your body feels restless, and even when you sit down to rest… you still feel "on"? In this episode of NeuroHeir , we’re diving into the flight nervous system response and uncovering what happens when your body learns survival through constant movement. Because flight isn’t always running away physically—...

In this episode of NeuroHeir , we begin a new series exploring the four major nervous system survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, and appeasement. Using a powerful scene from Inside Out , Leanna breaks down what actually happens in the body before reactions like anger, snapping, yelling, or overwhelm ever show up on the outside. If you've ever felt like you go from zero to sixty in seco...

In this deeply personal episode of the NeuroHier Podcast, Leanna reflects on an old photo of herself holding her youngest son and realizes something powerful: who she is today is exactly who that younger version of herself needed most. What unfolds is an honest conversation about anxiety, panic attacks, emotional eating, nervous system overwhelm, and the years spent believing something was “wrong”...

In this episode, we’re going deeper into something that often gets overlooked in healing work: what happens after awareness. Because noticing your patterns… naming your triggers… even understanding where they came from — that’s only part of the process. The real shift happens in how you relate to yourself in those moments. Leanna explores how unresolved stress cycles and younger “parts” of you can...

Healing often begins with noticing what hurt—what felt unsafe, what was missing, and what we had to do to survive. But what if that’s not the full story? In this episode, we explore a powerful shift in the healing journey: learning to recognize not only what needs to be released, but also what is worth carrying forward. Because not everything you inherited is harmful—some of it is strength, resili...

What happens when you do the brave thing—open up, lean into vulnerability, and show up more honestly… but instead of feeling closer, you feel more disconnected? In this deeply personal episode, Leanna explores the confusing and often unspoken experience of feeling distant from God, yourself, or others especially in moments when you expected to feel more connected. Through her own story of grief af...

Last week, we explored vulnerability—what it really means and why it can feel so uncomfortable. But today, we’re going deeper into what actually makes vulnerability possible in the first place: courage. Not the kind of courage that pushes through or overrides your body… but a more compassionate, nervous-system-informed version. Because if being seen once felt unsafe, your body isn’t going to magic...

Vulnerability is often talked about as something we should do but rarely do we pause to ask why it feels so hard in the first place.  In this episode, we’re exploring vulnerability through a nervous system and generational lens, breaking down why opening up, taking risks, or being seen can feel unsafe… even when we deeply crave connection. Inspired by Brené Brown’s work on the myths of vulnerabili...