Less Stress Podcast

Licia Sky is co-founder and Global Ambassador of the Trauma Research Foundation. She is a Boston-based somatic educator, writer, artist, singer-songwriter, and bodyworker who works with traumatized individuals and trains mental health professionals to use mindful meditation in movement, theater exercises, writing, and voice as tools for attunement, healing, and connection. In the course of over 25...

In this episode, I sit down with meditation teacher, somatic educator, and nature mystic Annette Knopf for a conversation that felt like coming home. We talk about the feminine voice in spiritual healing, our relationships with nature and each other, grief, trauma, and the quiet beauty woven through life. Annette’s presence brings a softening, a depth, and a sense of belonging — the same qualities...

In this episode, Gabriele, Dan Siegel, and I explore change on a quantum level—how we think, respond, and show up in personal, collective, and social realms. A central theme is the importance of relational sense—our ability to connect deeply with ourselves, others, and the natural world. This connection is essential for navigating challenges with resilience and fostering meaningful change, especia...

In this episode one of my long time dreams came true. Thanks to Surya Ashtanga studio in Vilnius for organizing a 3 day workshop with Eddie Stern, we had a chance to record a podcast with Eddie Stern in person. Walking the streets of central Vilnius and talking about common humanity felt to simple and so secure, like practicing Yoga sequence in my living room via zoom. This conversation with Eddie...

In this short episode, I'm sharing my own poem on grief and heartbreak, and its delicacies. I invite you to meditate on these things, and perhaps even invite your inner intimate lover. More about LESS STRESS: https://thelessstress.com/

In this episode we contemplated how psychology and spirituality can interconnect and compliment one another on our healing path. Join us in this conversation with psychologist, philosopher Gunnar Gjermundsen. Support us on Patreon @lessstress. Thank you! For any inquiries contact us at contact@thelessstress.com https://thelessstress.com

In this podcast episode we bravely delve into unpacking two foundational things in brave leadership: courage and vulnerability. Join us for this conversation with Jannecke Bugge, the co-founder of Brave Leadership in Norway. Support us on Patreon @lessstress. Your support can do wonders! For any inquiries: contact@lessstress.com www.lessstress.com

In this podcast episode, we delve into the concept of interconnectedness and its implications for personal and collective growth. Join us as Gabriele engages in an insightful conversation with Sahana Sriskandarajah, a clinical psychologist who has ventured beyond traditional perspectives on psychology. S Support us on Patreon @lessstress. Your contribution can do wonders!

In this episode we talked to Eleanor Johnson and River Flows. Eleanor Johnson is a British researcher, writer and artist based in Oslo. She is founder of two companies: Flower Consults and Love Stories. Eleanor on IG: @flowerseleanorflowers Godriver, aka River Flows. 28yrs old from Tanzania, who grew up in Norway. She is a full time corporate lady, self-employed dance instructor & choreographe...

Boundaries are a tough topic, especially when it comes to any relationship. We often crave acceptance and recognition by dismissing our authenticity for that. We think if we're are more available, always present and positive, that's the only way to be liked. As Gabor Mate says, this society praises those that self-betray or dismiss those close to them. The society normalized hyperavailabil...

#15 Trauma as a response to an injury/stressor can affect all of us. At the level of the body and its physiology, different people may have similar symptoms, primarily resulting from increased production of hormones (such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, endorphins or cortisol), which are activated unconditionally in a life-threatening situation. The overproduction of hormones – understood as a defen...

#14 episode I will start with a  description from Gerard Fromm's, PhD, book "Travelling Through Time; How Trauma Plays Itself in Families, Organizations and Society": 'Sometimes that learning has to do with trauma: the way in which what can’t be emotionally contained, thought about or spoken in one part of a system is passed along, with disorganizing, sometimes heartbreaking consequences to a...

In our #13 episode we sat with Gabriele and had a complex, enriching conversation with peace psychologist Ufra Mir, looking at holistic ways to build and work on peace not only as a concept, but an embodied way of being, thinking and relating. Ufra Mir is the first and only peace-psychologist from Kashmir, having earned her degree from USA and UK. She has introduced her peace-education, peace-psyc...

Shortly, trauma is an overwhelming experience that is difficult to process in the moment of its happening. The outcome is usually stress, absence, numbing. According to trauma expert Thomas Hübl, when we have many nervous systems that have trauma in their unconscious, we are all part of systemic collective trauma experience. As Kosha says, "it's one process, the individual, ancestral, collective t...

Meet us here in a conversation with a psychotherapist and somatic therapist Lana Korotkova. With Lana I connected in that in-between space, we spoke the language of interdisciplinarity with ease and embodiment. I guess that holistic expression that comes from her is what made us to sense each other so well from the beginning.  She says: 'I have a strong feeling that I am both a psychologist a...

In this episode i talked to my somatic therapy and the discipline of authentic movement teacher Cornelia Schmitz. To me our conversation feels as a present pulsation of a living cell - true, unrushed, authentic, unusual, rhythmic and nurturing. We felt rather than talked, yet both sensing, feeling and thinking can be found in this reflective episode. From Cornelia I'm learning active listening of...

In this episode I talked to my lecturer Dr. Campbell Edinborough , from the time I was studying theatre in UK. Through his somatic practices used in movement and Stanislavski method  lectures, Campbell is somebody who allowed me to experience the body in space, but from the inside, through that inner awareness that expands to the outer space. That was that moment when I intuitively felt drawn...

Conversation include brain-body connection and vagus nerve, stress and fear, Polyvagal theory, spirituality and how far has the research evolved in trying to understand body-brain relationship and what does still remain unknown. Dr. Rajbhandari is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Rajbhandari obtained her Ph...

"I felt those children need to breath, dance and move, to get those painful experiences out of their bodies". With Rebekah we talked about truly embodied life experiences, having quite a beautiful friendship history beyond this conversation. We discussed Rebekah's book and what resources it required to write it, the power of the body moving and how crucial is to connect mind-body system to integra...

‘Creativity is the expression of your essence, the innate lifeforce’. In this episode the ‘Less Stress Podcast’ co-founders together with an art psychotherapist and healer Freya Cecily Mann are exploring foundations of creativity, its flow as well as blockages and their origins. We also are looking at different conditionings, influencing art creation process from suffering/pain space vs integrated...

"The way you memorized your experiences in life, they way you chose to recollect them again and again in life, those memories and ego will play a major role in the way you think and the way you decide in the present moment. So the way I think now has the influence on the way I identify to myself, consciously or unconsciously. How far I am witnessing and how much I am participating in the present?"...

"I noticed a lot of distrust of science in yoga community, likewise I noticed a lot of distrust of yoga in science community. Skepticism is healthy, but an open mind is necessary, so I think there is a strong limitation on the amount of dialogue between those two groups. Science is amazing and yoga is amazing and there's no reason they can't both be amazing." In one hour conversation we tried to c...

In episode 3 Živilė talked with her Yoga teacher and mentor Yogacharya Rakesh.  Yogacharya translated from Sanskrit language means the master or teacher of Yoga.   Rakesh together with Yogacharya Arvind is a founder of Samyak Yoga Teacher Training Institute in Mysore, India. He was introduced to Yoga and guided by Dr Ramachandra Bhatt, the chief Acharya of Veda Vijnana Gurukulam, Vice-Chancellor o...

In this episode, together with Line Efraidsen we explored what "Inner Ecology" means to us.

Our first podcast about trauma, embodiment, body practices, neuroscience, yoga and art that will be exploring links and dialogues between other disciplines and professions to help us all to connect our human system holistically. We will talk to scientists, artists, yoga professionals, movement therapists and other body-based practitioners that would help us to integrate traumas, rewire the pathway...