The Shadows We Cast

In this season two finale of 'The Shadows We Cast', Jenn St. John sits down with Zainib Abdullah, MSW, RSW, somatic trauma psychotherapist, founder of Wellnest, and advocate for collective healing and care, for a conversation about trauma, embodiment, and what it means to come home to ourselves. Born in Iraq and immigrating to Canada as a child, Zainib shares how her own experiences of m...

Kelly Campbell's life changed forever when her best friend Emma was killed in a car accident in 2007. What followed was years of unprocessed grief, trauma, and pushing forward—building a successful career while quietly struggling beneath the surface. In this episode of The Shadows We Cast , Jenn sits down with leadership and legacy coach Kelly Campbell for an honest conversation about grief,...

In this episode of The Shadows We Cast , I sit down with Nikki Glahn , Founder and Executive Director of Barrie Families Unite , a grassroots organization dedicated to ensuring individuals and families have access to essential needs with dignity, compassion, and respect. What began as a local Facebook group during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a powerful community-driven...

In this episode of 'The Shadows We Cast', Jenn sits down with David Granirer — counselor, stand-up comic, and founder of Stand Up For Mental Health™ — to explore what it means to live for decades without language for what you’re carrying, and how laughter, storytelling, and connection can become unexpected pathways toward healing. David shares his experience living with bipolar disorder,...

Misty Pratt, author of All In Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health , joins Jennifer St John for a layered conversation about women’s mental health, systemic bias, emotional inheritance, and the stories that become embedded in our bodies, relationships, and nervous systems over time. Together, they explore how women’s distress has historically been misunderstood, medicalized, and d...

In this episode, Jenn St John sits down with psychotherapist and trauma expert Jenifer Freedy  for a deeply grounding conversation about nervous systems, survival patterns, and what it really means to regulate. Together, they explore how chronic stress, trauma, and emotionally unsafe environments shape the way we move through the world long after the original danger has passed. Jenifer shares powe...

In this episode, I sit down with Caitlin Morrison, Executive Director of the Matthew Perry House, to talk about the experience of loving someone through the illness of addiction — and what it means to carry that experience forward after loss. There’s a version of this story we don’t talk about very often. The one where someone you love spends years struggling, finally finds their way to recovery…...

In this episode of The Shadows We Cast , I sit down with Tychon Carter for a conversation about identity, self-trust, and what it really means to come back to yourself. Tychon shares his experience of growing up feeling misunderstood — navigating early messages around masculinity, emotional expression, and what it meant to be “right” or “wrong.” We talk about the identity shift that comes in early...

Amanda Patrick joins me for a conversation about inheritance—what we’re given, what we absorb, and what we eventually have to decide to do with it. In this episode, Inheritance , Amanda shares the story of her childhood—marked by poverty, neglect, and profound loss—and the long, complex path of what it means to carry that forward into adulthood. At just 13 years old, Amanda experienced a tragic ev...

In this episode of The Shadows We Cast , I sit down with Christina Orfanakos, MSW, RSW—Registered Social Worker and founder of Grace North Therapy —for a conversation about attachment, survival patterns, and what it really means to begin feeling safe again. Some patterns don’t start with us. They start in the environments we learned to survive in. We talk about the ways early experiences—especiall...

Season 2 opens with a powerful conversation about connection, regulation, and breaking cycles. In this episode of The Shadows We Cast , Jennifer St. John sits down with clinical psychologist, bestselling author, and renowned speaker Dr. Jody Carrington . Known for her bold, honest, and deeply human approach to mental health, Dr. Jody’s work focuses on one essential truth: we are wired for connecti...

Some endings arrive slowly. Ours did not. In this final episode of Season 1, my sisters and I share the most personal part of our story—the goodbye. After years of surviving our mom’s untreated mental illness and addiction, and then finding our way back to her during her recovery, we were finally in a good place. A healthy place. A place where laughter came easy and trust was being rebuilt. And th...

This week on The Shadows We Cast, my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I return for Part 3 of our story — the chapter where things began to change. After years of boundaries, heartbreak, and distance, our mom started to seek real, consistent help. It wasn’t a sudden transformation. It was slow, uneven, and at times, fragile. But it was the beginning of something new. In this conversation, we talk abou...

In this final chapter of our second sister series, my sisters Kate, Teresa, and I reflect on the slow, complicated shift —the one that happened in our mother’s final years, and the one we had to make in ourselves to survive and heal. We talk about what it was like to be adults with a mother still deep in the storm of untreated mental illness and addiction, and how we eventually found our way to fi...

In this powerful follow-up to last week’s episode, we continue our sister series exploring early adulthood after growing up with a parent facing untreated mental illness and addiction. This chapter focuses on the emotional impact of setting boundaries with our mother—while becoming parents ourselves. I’m joined by my sisters, Kate and Teresa, as we share personal stories of trauma, family estrange...

This is the first of a three-part series exploring the messy, complicated years of early adulthood—when my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I began to navigate the emotional weight of our mom’s mental illness and addiction in a new way. We weren’t estranged yet. But the tether was fraying. In this episode, we reflect on the years after leaving home—when we were starting careers, becoming parents, and...

Ever wonder what it’s like to grow up desperate to escape, but terrified to leave the ones you love behind? In this episode, we talk about those late-teen years—when our mom’s drinking and untreated mental illness had taken over, and we were all just trying to find a way out. Joined once again by my sisters Kate and Teresa, we revisit the breaking point that changed everything. This episode dives...

Survival: Sisterhood, Poverty, and the Moments That Shaped Us In this second episode of The Shadows We Cast , I sit down again with my sisters, Kate and Teresa, to pick up where we left off—navigating the turbulence of growing up with a mother struggling with undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. This chapter explores what survival really looked like for us: wearing the same pair of pants to s...

In this deeply personal first episode of The Shadows We Cast , I sit down with my two sisters, Kate and Teresa, for a raw, revealing conversation about our early years—growing up with a mother whose mental illness shaped every corner of our childhood. We talk about what poverty looked and felt like, how instability became our norm, and the adults who tried—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—to...

Some endings arrive slowly. Ours did not. In this final episode of Season 1, my sisters and I share the most personal part of our story—the goodbye. After years of surviving our mom’s untreated mental illness and addiction, and then finding our way back to her during her recovery, we were finally in a good place. A healthy place. A place where laughter came easy and trust was being rebuilt. And th...

This week on The Shadows We Cast, my sisters, Kate and Teresa, and I return for Part 3 of our story — the chapter where things began to change. After years of boundaries, heartbreak, and distance, our mom started to seek real, consistent help. It wasn’t a sudden transformation. It was slow, uneven, and at times, fragile. But it was the beginning of something new. In this conversation, we talk abou...

What if becoming a mother wasn’t just a life event — but a radical transformation of self? This week on The Shadows We Cast , Jenn sits down with Jessie Harrold — doula, coach, author, and founder of Imaginalia — to explore the complex and rarely named process of matrescence . Like adolescence, matrescence is a profound identity shift that touches every layer of our being: emotional, physical, spi...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes candid discussion of depression, burnout, and suicidal ideation. Please listen with care and prioritize your well-being. What does it mean to truly feel alive after you’ve nearly lost yourself? This week, I’m joined by Rachel Molenda — DJ, entrepreneur, and founder of Reunion , a women’s dance party movement rooted in joy, community, and remembering who you a...

What if the way you love, fight, avoid, or people-please wasn’t a personality flaw—but a survival blueprint? In this episode, I sit down with trauma-informed therapist Laura Fess , founder of VOX Mental Health , for a powerful conversation about what really happens to our nervous system when we grow up in survival mode—and how those early patterns shape our adult relationships, attachment styles,...

In this final chapter of our second sister series, my sisters Kate, Teresa, and I reflect on the slow, complicated shift —the one that happened in our mother’s final years, and the one we had to make in ourselves to survive and heal. We talk about what it was like to be adults with a mother still deep in the storm of untreated mental illness and addiction, and how we eventually found our way to fi...