Let's Be Real: Mama Journeys

Kalissa Braga is the Regional Program Coordinator for the Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies program through our nonprofit, YANA.  She has quite a birthing story with her 3 babies. She was diagnosed with PCOS as a teenager so she knew getting pregnant was going to be a struggle so they started with Clomid to get the process started and sure enough, she was able to get pregnant after the second round! S...

Jessica Jamison is a therapist and personal trainer in the eating disorder and body image space. She found herself there because of her own journey. When she couldn't get pregnant, she needed to find ways to do things differently. She specializes in women who need help finding themselves. When she finally decided to have kids, it took her over 2 years to get pregnant with her first but it took yea...

Nicole Majik was a chemist over 16 years but almost died of mercury poisoning. She has had a business for almost 17 years to help people overcome their limiteding beliefs and step into their authentic selves. She has a genetic mutation (that she didn't know she had) that doesn't allow her body to metabolise heavy metals and the exposure to them in her job created a catastrophic situation where she...

Whitney Frost is not only the Founder and CEO of The Riley Center for Hope and Healing as well as a Board member for YANA!  Her center takes all insurances including Medicaid and are on a sliding scale! Her journey has been a rough one. She had 5 losses between the 2 earth-side girls and her two pregnancies were very high risk!  She has two sassy girls, who obviously get their sassiness from their...

Christi Gmyr is a mental health counselor in upstate New York who virtually specializes in helping moms with managing and understanding all of the things it takes to be a mom. She had her own Covid baby but then had a 4 year old at home with her too during the pandemic. Mothering the 2 at a time was really challenging when she expected to have her 4 year old in preschool and having one-on-one time...

Sarah Boes is a multifaceted mama who started her own business during covid but sold it and moved into advocacy. She found out that her daughter had congenital heart disease and has 4 heart conditions! With numerous ultrasounds, she thought she was going to have a healthy, happy baby. She also found out that she had OCD and her baby became her obsession. Her daughter will have to have numerous hea...

  Dr. Bragg is a doctor in Norfolk, Virginia who treats people with non-surgical solutions for orthopedic and spinal problems. She is a pain management physician who does comprehensive pain management with as little pain meds as possible. She isn't completely against opioids but has treated over 20,000 people. She has been working with pain management since 1995!  She wrote a book after taking car...

Margot Bisnow spent 20 years working for the government and then her oldest son started a company and she decided she wanted to get involved!  She joined his young entrepreneurs and most of them had people who believed in them. Most of the time, that person was their mom. Her book is called Raising an Entrepreneur and she interviewed 70 entrepreneurs and their moms to learn about how the support o...

Susan Caso is a mom of 3 and a therapist who works with teens and adults for many years.  She lives in Boulder, Colorado and is also an author of a book called the The Parent-Teen Connection.  She gave birth in Denver but had such an interesting experience where the nurses took her baby to the nursery anytime she fell asleep.  She wanted that baby near her! Her biggest challenge was having her thi...

Cheryl Chiasson is a mom of 3 boys with quite the story.  They took in a young man who had a TON of trauma and took him in. With her first two babies, she said she struggled with PPD and intrusive thoughts. She struggled and had no idea what she was struggling with because no one talked about it. Her biggest supporters were both men.  First, her husband and second, her father in law (crazy that it...

Kimberly Vines lives in North Carolina with her three littles (just moved there 2 weeks ago) and is excited to start their new adventure on the east coast. She and her husband lived in an RV for a few years to climb rocks and travel around Colorado. She loves trying new recipes and exploring the outdoors. She was 30 with her first baby and although they were living it up and rock climbing and bein...

Kristin Goodwin is an amazing badass! She was a pilot as a Brigadier General and served over 30 years in the Air Force. As a woman, graduating from the Air Force Academy and doing flight school at 21, she decided she needed to think ahead to the family she wanted to have. At the age of 25, she wasn't living her authentic life and came to terms with being gay and what that meant to be in the milita...

In this episode of HRtbeat, the Highlands Ranch podcast, Jake Freedle welcomes back Nikki Brooker, founder of the nonprofit YANA, (You Are Not Alone), for an inspiring update on her organization's work in providing vital support to new moms. YANA's program, Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies, now operates in three hospitals, offering comprehensive, year-long support to mothers, including personal outre...

Bracha Goetz is an author of 42 children's books that help children's souls to shine as well as a memoir called Nourish the Soul. She has 6 grown kids and 36 grandchildren with two more on the way. Bracha was 24 when she started having kids and he's now 44 years old!  She went to Harvard and medical school but went to Israel for the summer and didn't come back to medical school. She met her husban...

As a mama of 4 and grandma of 8, Susan May has been in the "mothering business" for quite awhile. She was a substitute teacher for over 20 years and she is also a writer and has published many novels including harlequin novels and a nonfiction about her son and his heart transplant. Her author name is Susan Carlisle. Her oldest just turned 40 and they share a birthday! She has been married for 42...

Meera Ishaya is an Ishaya monk and a mom!  After becoming extremely depressed, leaving her the feeling that she didn't want to be alive anymore, and that turned into a whole new world for her. She thinks that trying to prove that she was a good mom, the most depressed she became. Being a monk has opened up a whole new world. She has published numerous books but her first is about coming back to be...

Erin Barry is a divorced mom of three adult kiddos with a combined family and now a mom of 6 with a new baby granddaughter. She is a life coach working to help people find their real, authentic selves. She lives in Minnesota and is a soccer referee and enjoys doing that with her daughter. She was 27 when she had her first and has enjoyed watching them all become adults. Her biggest challenge as a...

Juliana Mackin is a mom of three working in PR firms and managing technology groups but has decided to open her own businesses. Her mama journey started later in life because her husband is 5 years younger but the positives of being an older mom is that she has more financial stability to work in a career first. She feels like she knows more about herself as well and that has been a huge positive....

Suzanne Jamieson lives in Santa Monica, California and is a mom of a 9 and 12 year old. She went to school to be a performer and after being a mom, decided that chasing the audition wasn't in the cards. She couldn't find a lullaby album for her baby so she created her own! Her new album is called Love Is and is available wherever you stream music. The idea behind this album was the silo-ing of our...

Vanessa lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as a single mom of a 9 year old. She was a therapist who decided to add spiritualism into that realm. Her website is thepsychgym.com. She is a believer of spiritual grounding in therapy and transformed her practice into intuitive counseling.  She experienced unexplained fertility issues and had to learn how to NOT expect a typical mama journey. She une...

Kyle is a strong willed parenting coach. He works with families with strong willed kids because he was a parent of SIX of those kinds of kids. He was co-parenting with his wife of 30 years but she died unexpectedly in 2021 and then he was left to parent alone. For their 30th wedding anniversary, they took a trip and that was when they decided as a couple that they needed to do more. They needed to...

She lives in northern Virginia as a poetry and creative writing coach, writer and teacher. She turned her cathartic activity (writing) into her purpose. She has a non-traditional motherhood journey. In 2019 her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and knowing she was going to lose one of the most important people in her life, she realized that we may or may not have "all the time in the world...

Kimberly Grustas is the inventor and owner of a skin care line that focuses on all natural skin care for all females but mostly girls to ensure they have all natural skin care, especially through puberty. Her business is called Good For You Girls. She has been creating these products since 2008 to make sure things are made and are GOOD for the consumer. Her brand is very specific  in their ingredi...

Jessica has quite an amazing mama journey with the release of her new book called Breath Taking,  A Memoir of Families, Dreams and Broken Genes.  She left the corporate world to write her story and tell her family's story. Her journey to motherhood was long and twisty and not at all what she thought it would be. After dating her husband for 10 years, they were finally married and thought they woul...

As a single mama of 4 kids, 2 girls and 2 boys and is the reigning Ms. Colorado Americana. She also is a Geotechnical Engineer!  She is also training to be in the WINTER OLYMPICS!!!  She is a Skeleton athlete (head-first flying down the ice). She had to really train hard and the email to welcome her to the olympic team, WENT TO HER SPAM account!!!!  Here is your lesson for the day…check your spam!...