The Alchemy of Pain

“Regardless of whether people deserve forgiveness, I deserve peace.” A sixth-grade dropout, Mr. Jay lived on the streets, escaping a childhood environment filled with drugs, alcohol, and sexual abuse. You will be inspired by his story of rising up to believe in himself; to believe in a greater plan for his life. He now serves others as a Betrayal Trauma Practitioner and Intrapersonal Relationship...

"I'm a good person. How did I end up here?" This question provoked a life change for Terry Sidford after a con-man boyfriend stole much of what she held dear. After losing it all, she realized the one thing no one could take from her was her soul. Serving as a life coach for others and inspired by their courage, she wrote a book sharing their stories. When an audience member asked he...

It's the phone call every parent dreads. "Come to the hospital. It's your son...and it's bad." The heartwrenching loss of Mary Ciammetti's son, Christian, in 2015 could have been avoided had his friends known the signs of alcohol poisoning and how to respond. This was a young man who, before college, had not been a drinker. His high school career had been filled with foot...

"What you don't deal with will deal with you." This is just one of the gems from a man who speaks in sound bites of wisdom, born from his own journey to wholeness. A pivotal moment in Simon T. Bailey's life was when his ex-wife said, "Everyone else gets the best of you. We get the rest of you. I don't want the leftovers anymore." Jolting him from a "success equ...

"You are your best medicine. You just have to find it." A national merit scholar with several degrees, Courtney Starheart found herself at death's door, and it awakened her to her life's purpose. "E. coli bacteria was eating my body from the inside out; my internal organs were melting, and I had children to care for," she shares in this eye-opening interview. Her illnes...

Violence. Abuse. Neglect. Alcoholism. Dysfunction. Though several painful instances could have been cited in this interview, the one pain that changed him forever was not having the nurturing care of a mother. Jim Toole's upbringing forced him into life, and he became a survivalist. Thrown out of school at age 17, he joined the Navy and through this experience was introduced to the 12-step pro...

A doctor advised a Thai massage for the pain in Jeff McAdam's neck and back. He instinctively felt it was something more, but his busy life as a TV news reporter, spouse, and dad of two little ones made just getting a massage the easier choice. Unable to ignore it any longer, two years later he drove himself to the ER, bringing his laptop to get work done while he waited for a quick diagnosis...

“She was all joy. Animals and kids loved her.” Paul Isenberg describes the first great love of his life, Nicole, who is the angel heroine of this interview. Pregnant with their second child, she dismissed the lack of weight gain and other signals as simply byproducts of cold weather and other circumstances. Until she couldn’t breathe. The mass found was Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma and a battle for h...

Is there a deep place inside of you longing for more? Making the leap to a different life takes courage, and Lauren Chava Rose shares her personal story through the lens of her training as a psychotherapist in her book, The Heart Word: How I Lost It All and Found Myself. "I didn't fit in with my family," she shares...but it was a long journey to emancipation/estrangement. Though all...

"If you like an underdog story, I'm your man." An active adult in his 40s, Trent Brock thought the limp he'd developed was from a sports injury. Three doctors assured him he'd torn glute muscles. One nurse couldn't shake the feeling there was something more and ordered an X-ray. Advanced pelvic cancer was the shocking diagnosis, which was later followed by lung cancer and...

Have you ever felt like you're not enough? As if you are in a fog and there's no escaping the chaos? Catia Vas lived in a state of overwhelm, despite having a good life. "Just keep going" and resisting the signals only caused them to persist. It was when she realized her own unrest was affecting her children and that addressing the chaos was an inside job, that her life began to...

At age 14, he asked his father, "How do I build something great in this life?" That's quite a big question for a young teenager! But the answer led Danny Goldberg on an entrepreneurial path and remarkable success at a young age. "But what IS success?" The question nagged at him. After his father's death, Danny devoted himself to ensuring his mother was well provided for...

Vulnerability. Brenda uses that word over and over again in this candid confessional. A lot has happened since Episode 0 and, as is her practice, Brenda wanted to share what she's learned in the last few months. This one's for all the givers...who have a hard time receiving.

Betrayal. Most of us endure this painful experience at least once in our lives. Sonya Louise faced several betrayals, simultaneously, and these experiences rendered her helpless. Not even trusting herself, she lived a nomadic life for two years, seeking answers. Seeking clarity. Hoping to rediscover purpose. In this candid interview, Sonya shares the experience of "shaking her fist at God&quo...

She's an award-winning principal of one of the top schools in the nation. Her @Momnificent posts answer burning questions and calm the concerns of moms everywhere. But a few short years ago, Karin Jakubowski was stuck. Seeing another person's success sucker-punched her fragile self-esteem. By comparison, she was lacking, and it devastated her. Actually, the jealousy was a gift that reveale...

At an early morning workout, his gym "wife" said, "You look terrible." Thanks to the quick actions of the gym staff, 49-year-old Kevin Connor's life was saved. The classic widowmaker; a sudden stroke that came out of nowhere upended his life and rendered him hospital-bound for twelve days. How did it "fine-tune" his life? Less tolerance for negativity; and more em...

"These are the blood test results of a cadaver." Those words shook Mubo Ojo to the core. After two years of dismissing clear signals of kidney failure, she had no choice but to agree to a blood transfusion and dialysis. In her mind, dialysis meant death. "Who would be there for my children?" she cried. But then she realized if she didn't go forward with the treatment she dr...

After forty-five years of marriage, Walter Hayes anticipated embarking on a new chapter with his wife. Their beautiful family was grown and a picture-perfect home on the lake would set the scene for happy retirement years. Their dream was shattered in an instant. An RN, his wife knew that a stage four ovarian cancer diagnosis was dire. She fought bravely, with aggressive chemotherapy and surgeries...

People who meet Stephanie Olschner can't help but notice the light she brings to every room she enters. Rumi said, "The wound is the place where the light enters you." Stephanie faced a tsunami of wounds and what she calls, "Rip your heart out kind of pain." First, the loss of her beloved grandmother. Next, a pregnancy ended in heartbreak; her child was stillborn at nine mo...

Kevin Keyes was a true adventurer. As a kid, he raced cars, bicycles, and motorcycles; his zest for life was irrepressible. The pain that changed him forever? A life-altering accident on a road trip to Montana at age 19. At first, it was just another close encounter with danger and another near-miss from his adventurous life. It took years for him to connect the dots between that traumatic event a...

When other daughters her age were planning weddings with their mothers, Brenna Crable was buying a tombstone for hers. And she was MAD. She felt ripped off and wrestled with the pain; at first, trying to numb it with alcohol. It didn't take long to realize, "This wasn't working." Feeling the feelings, surrendering to the reality that the happy ending she hoped for would never be,...

She woke from a deep sleep and literally couldn't breathe. The onset of panic attacks began when her husband was deployed and she was left to be both mom and dad to her children. Would he be okay? Was she doing enough to make sure her children could make it through the 22 months without him? Fear and anxiety gripped Lauren Fonville...and it was this pain that ultimately led to her purpose. Now...

Dealing with a lifelong, chronically painful illness wrought with infections and surgeries could have been what Cam Ayala chose to discuss. He could have focused on being villainized in the editing room of The Bachelorette Season 15, where he was portrayed as manipulative for sharing with candor his chronic condition and future implications... ...implications which came true. Cam Ayala made the de...

What’s the one pain that changed you forever? Deborah Marini could have chosen either one of the TWO house fires that destroyed her belongings and triggered a spiral into depression. But her response was quick and assured: It was her father’s death that changed her forever. We all know our aging parents will eventually transition; this is the cycle of life. But the constructs that make us “us” are...

Who the heck does a podcast on pain? Someone who's been through it...and come out the other side better. Brenda Viola shares her hellish 2021 - 23 as the basis for this series. Her desire is to share the stories of pain that changed people forever for the BETTER. No, we don't get to choose what life hands us. But we do get to choose how we respond. The goal of this series is to encourage o...