The Growth Lounge

You have loved God your whole life. And quietly, privately, maybe even a little guiltily, you have also been drawn to the numbers. To the patterns. To the things that made you feel seen in ways you could not quite explain. And you kept that part hidden. Not because you were backsliding. Not because you were weak in your faith. But because someone told you that you had to choose. God or curiosity....

Is wanting more for yourself selfish... or is it sacred? In this episode, I unpack the hidden belief that keeps faith-driven women shrinking in the name of humility, and reveals what scripture actually says about desire, calling, and abundant life after the nest empties. If you've ever felt the pull toward "more" and immediately felt guilty for it, this one is for you. In this episod...

In this episode, I get honest about a topic we don't talk about enough: how victim identity becomes a survival strategy, and how it quietly keeps us from the life we actually want. This is not about blame. This is about power, and how to take yours back. There is a version of you that has been waiting a long time to read this. She's tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. The kind t...

In this episode, I'm asking you a question I want you to sit with: Who you are? Because that story might be the most powerful thing running your results right now, more than any diet or plan ever could. I'm breaking down why your brain isn't actually trying to help you reach your goals, it's trying to keep you consistent with the identity you've built your life around. And if t...

What if your emotional eating isn't a problem to fix, but a message to understand? In this episode, I get honest about something the wellness world never wants to admit: emotional eating works. That's why you haven't stopped. And that's exactly why shame, willpower, and "just be more disciplined" have never been able to touch it for long. This one is for the woman who has tried everything, knows b...

This is not another weight loss episode telling you to try harder, eat cleaner, or start over Monday. Because maybe the reason you keep reaching for the food is not because you are undisciplined. Maybe food has become the place you go when something inside of you feels overwhelmed, unseen, pressured, or unsafe. In this episode of The Growth Lounge , I am sharing a raw piece of my own weight loss j...

Who told you that you weren’t good enough? Who told you that you were bad, too much, not enough, too far gone, or incapable of becoming who God created you to be? In this episode of The Growth Lounge, I’m unpacking the quiet agreements many of us make with lies spoken over us, experiences that shaped us, and shame that was never meant to name us. I’m sharing a deeply personal reflection from a mom...

In this episode of The Growth Lounge , I’m digging into something I believe so many women are feeling but not always saying out loud: You are not actually afraid of change. You are afraid of what that change might disrupt. Maybe it looks like hesitation. Maybe it sounds like “I just need more clarity,” “I’m going to pray about it,” or “I’ll start when things settle down.”But underneath that is oft...

In this episode, Jessica gets real about the difference between surface-level self-help and true root healing. She shares how affirmations, routines, journaling, boundaries, and mindset tools helped take the lid off… but they did not heal what was underneath. This conversation goes deeper into what actually keeps women stuck in the same patterns year after year, even when they are doing “all the r...

In this episode of The Growth Lounge , I’m talking about what it really looks like to let God into the hidden parts of us. Not just the polished places. Not just the parts we let everyone else see. The real parts. The scared parts. The over-functioning parts. The parts that still believe hiding is what keeps us safe. I share how hiding does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like product...

Today’s episode is personal. This is not a conversation from the finish line. It is from the middle. In this episode, I’m sharing about the thing behind the thing. For a long time, I thought my weight was the issue. The hold-up. The reason I did not feel fully free, fully confident, or fully at peace in my own skin. But what I’ve been uncovering is this: It was never just about the weight. It was...

We need to talk about the part of the story most people leave out. Not the before. Not the after. The middle. The messy, stretching, humbling, holy in-between where you are trying, learning, healing, praying, wondering, and sometimes wanting to quit because it feels like everybody else got their breakthrough faster than you. In this solo episode, Jessica shares why more women need to tell the trut...

What do you do when marriage feels stretched, the day is stressful, and real life is happening in real time? In this episode of The Growth Lounge , Jessica and Chad bring you into a real, honest, lightly humorous conversation from the middle of one of those kinds of days. They talk about why they intentionally take two months away each year, what that time means for their marriage, and how they us...

Welcome back to The Growth Lounge and part three of our Love and Marriage series. In this episode, Chad and I talk about marriage growth and reconnecting when life gets busy. Many couples experience what we call the slow fade. Not because love disappears, but because raising kids, managing schedules, and the business of everyday life slowly pulls attention away from the relationship. If you are se...

Marriage is not always beautiful. Sometimes it feels hard, heavy, and uncertain. In part two of our Love and Marriage series, Chad and I share the middle of our story. Fresh out of rehab and the Navy, unexpectedly stepping into parenthood, financially strained, and emotionally immature, we were trying to build a life while still learning who we were. We talk about broken communication, damaged tru...

In this kickoff episode of our February Love and Marriage series, I sit down with my husband of 30 years, Chad. We share our real journey from young love to legacy love. We talk about how we met, what we thought marriage would be like, what actually shaped us, and how faith, commitment, and personal growth carried us through the stretching seasons. We are honest about the rocky parts of our beginn...

In the last episode in the Women in Wellness Series, Jessica has and in-depth and eye-opening conversation with Lori Bradford , a trusted midlife wellness expert, to cut through the noise around women’s health in midlife. They dive into hormone replacement therapy, why diet and exercise alone often stop working, and how detoxification and proper gut health directly impact hormones, inflammation, e...

You are getting 2 drops this week due to some technical difficulties. We are wrapping up our Women in Wellness Series with these last 2 episodes. Be sure to tune in to all of them as each one is unique. In this episode of the Women in Wellness series, Jessica sits down with Angie Ambrosetti, a mother of seven, adoptive mom, grandmother, entrepreneur, and passionate advocate for holistic health. An...

What happens when life looks successful on the outside, but feels disconnected on the inside? In this episode, Emily Roberts shares her journey back to faith, health, marriage, and self after chasing success, money, and approval. In this episode of the Women in Wellness series, Jessica sits down with Emily Roberts for an honest conversation about what happens when life looks successful on the outs...

In this episode of Women in Wellness, I sit down with Amy Mick Welch to talk about hormone health, low testosterone in women, and what sustainable wellness actually looks like in real life. Amy shares her experience with burnout after years in corporate America and how stepping away from that environment led her to take a more thoughtful, data-driven approach to health. We discuss why hormone test...

In Episode 1/Part 2 of my conversation with Harmony, we move into one of the most tender and powerful parts of her healing journey. Harmony shares openly about her breast explant surgery and how removing her implants brought relief to many of the chronic health issues she had been living with for years. Symptoms that were once confusing, exhausting, and misunderstood finally began to make sense. W...

I couldn’t imagine a more meaningful way to launch the Women & Wellness Series for 2026 than by sitting down with Harmony. Harmony was my very first podcast guest when I launched The Growth Lounge last year, and bringing her back for this two-part conversation feels both full circle and deeply intentional. In Part 1 of this 2 part episode with Harmony, she opens up about the nuances of each ye...

This year stretched me, shaped me, and ultimately changed me. In this episode, I’m getting real about what it actually looked like to take my power back. Not through a new planner or another quick fix, but by getting radically honest, reflecting deeply, and rebuilding trust with myself and with God. When my dad passed three years ago, I did what so many of us do when we don’t know what to do with...

When safety keeps you stuck, fear becomes the wall between you and your next level. In this episode, Jessica Phillips breaks down how your amygdala tricks you into believing comfort equals safety and how that false protection can hold you back from growth. She shares real stories from women at the Rooted and Rising Retreat who faced resistance, fear, and self-doubt, and what happens when you choos...

The Becoming Series: Coming Home to the Woman God Created You to Be There’s a sacred messiness in the middle, that space between who you were and who you’re becoming. It’s uncomfortable, uncertain, and if we’re honest… sometimes it just feels funky. This week inside The Growth Lounge, we’re getting practical. Because unbecoming isn’t just spiritual - it’s somatic. It’s emotional. It’s physical. An...