The Hoffman Podcast

Jen Davis, beloved Hoffman Process teacher and coach, sits down with Drew to share her journey from a heartbreaking loss to celebrating a whole new life and a brand new love. Jen did the Process in 2016 at White Sulphur Springs. What brought her to the Process was the shocking divorce she was going through due to her soon-to-be-ex husband’s heartbreaking infidelity. Jen was in great pain. Sh...

Attorney, Junior (Elbert) Smith , generously shares his journey to, and at, the Hoffman Process . In doing so, he gives us a view into how patterns and trauma affect how we see ourselves and how we journey through the world. Content Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of trauma. Please use your discretion. Junior shares his life story beginning with his parents’ journey to a...

Technology and finance executive, Carsten Sorensen, had a powerful transformation during his Process in 2014. Over the next five years, Carsten worked diligently to transform his core negative patterns. Using his Process tools and doing the deep work, Carsten was able to profoundly shift his life. The Hoffman Process was recommended to Carsten by his therapist, Rick Hanson. Rick said this was a wa...

Entrepreneur and Mediator, Sisi Maw Takaki, completed the Hoffman Process in February 2019. As a child of parents who immigrated to the US for a better life, Sisi shares with Sharon how the sacrifice her parents made for her affected her and the patterns it created in her. As Sisi shares, we can both adopt and rebel against our parents’ patterns. For Sisi,  rebellion was how she reacted to h...

Amy Thompson is a beloved Hoffman Teacher and Coach. In today’s episode, she shares her story of recovery, losing her father, the grief she experienced from his loss, and her experience going through cancer treatment while training to become a Hoffman Process teacher. And, really, Amy shares so much more. Listen in as Amy shares about learning she was accepted into the Hoffman teacher traini...

As a young boy, award-winning artist Darieus Legg came to love the ocean. He grew up on a sailboat, eventually sailing to his new home on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi . At the age of nine, Darieus saw his first surfer magazine and the images of surfers reminded him of the dolphins that had followed along his family’s boat. He felt inspired to become a surfer. As time passed, Darieus realized he...

Certified executive coach and leadership consultant Kristen Esquivias sits down with Sharon for this intimate conversation about deep personal change, difficult times, and inner growth. Personal work offered through the Hoffman Institute invites students to step into real change in their lives.  Wholeheartedly accepting this invitation, Kristen dove into the transformation awaiting her. She has do...

Our guest today, Ezy Finkel, did the Hoffman Process in March of 2023. Ezy shares with us his intimate story of recovery from addiction with honesty, humility, and light. Ezy grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community and shares his difficulties living within this community. Eventually, he was asked to leave. Then, years later, he was asked to come back to be a source of healing there. Ezy’s st...

Chip Conley, a co-founder of Modern Elder Academy (MEA), joins us today in conversation with Drew. Chip is not a graduate of the Hoffman Process , but the work of MEA and the work of the Process both beautifully support growth and change within. ** (See below for the next community conversation with MEA and Hoffman.) Content warning: This episode mentions suicide. Please use your discretion. If yo...

Dr. Richard (Dick) Schwartz, founder of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, kicks off our new season 7. While Dick is not a graduate of the Hoffman Process , we asked him to be on the podcast because his life’s work of IFS aligns beautifully with the work of the Process.** IFS was born in the 1980s when Dick began to work with clients in his therapy practice. Dick shares his story of ho...

In our season 6 finale, we host producer, songwriter, musician, author, and keeper of the American blues music flame , Shawn Amos . Shawn came to the Hoffman Process feeling like he was living his life while “… at the whim of all of these unseen forces and past traumas, and unconscious reactions to my parents…” A couple of days into the Process, Shawn realized he had to sto...

Eighteen years ago, faced with a painful change coming in his life, Erik Larson knew it was time for change within himself. He came to the Hoffman Process . Eight days later, upon his return home, he told his two small children he had been at Better Daddy School. He told them things were going to be different. From that day forward, they were because he had changed . This was the beginning of his...

Britt Lightning , the lead guitarist for the all-female, Platinum-selling, 80’s rock band Vixen , is our guest this week on the Hoffman Podcast. Listen in as Britt regales us with stories of how the guitar and playing music came to be her life’s work. Her journey to playing guitar was supported by many, including her parents, and spotlights many synchronistic moments. In wonderfully up...

A world-renowned expert in the mind-body connection, Joan Borysenko, Ph. D., completed the Hoffman Process in 1990. This conversation with Joan and Sharon is a deep exploration into the nature of callings through the lens of Joan’s life. The callings of her Spirit first showed up early in her life. At the age of ten, Joan experienced a very difficult journey through childhood OCD. At one poi...

Nationally recognized thought leader, Bernard Franklin, completed the Hoffman Process in June 2022. As Bernard shares, he was a man who had blocked his emotions, feelings, and energy, and “all of those channels were ready to explode.”  He was shaky. He wasn’t comfortable in his own skin. And having arrived at the world’s best educational institution and at the height of his...

Natalie Lumpkin , the creative force behind Finding You, a gathering dedicated to Anti-Oppression work for Black Women, completed the Hoffman Process in early 2020. Content warning : This episode does contain a discussion of racial violence and the use of the N-word and may not be suitable for all audiences. After experiencing betrayal and doing the work to heal this betrayal, she came to the Proc...

  Sheila Ohlsson Walker, Ph. D., who graduated from the Hoffman Process in 2019, shares her sense of what purpose is and how we can come to know it. Content warning: this episode does contain references to child sexual abuse and may not be suitable for all audiences. Sheila shares how purpose can change over time, meaning we can have many purposes in our lifetime. In this warm and uplifting c...

In the Fall of 2022, Richard Raymond, British Filmmaker, graduated from the Hoffman Process . Yes, Richard is a filmmaker, but as you’ll discover listening to this conversation with Liz, Richard is a masterful storyteller, and he has stories to tell. From a very young age, films enthralled Richard. When he realized he wanted to be involved in making films, he took action. To that end, he mad...

Mary Arden, a beloved Hoffman Process teacher and coach, taught the Process for nearly 30 years. In this spirited and delightful conversation with Drew, Mary shares her experience taking the Process, teaching the Process, and working directly with Bob Hoffman . She also, lovingly, shares her experience of being with her beloved partner, Jim, while he was alive and now after his passing. Mary bridg...

B David Cisneros, professor and author, shares that the Hoffman Process , without question, was the single most impactful thing I’ve ever done for myself.” The Process put David on a “path to happiness, to joy, to finding joy.” When speaking of his childhood, David shares with Sharon that blame was a deep familial pattern. In his family, “any problem you had was someo...

Natalie Kuhn is Co-CEO and a founding teacher of The Class . Listen in as she shares about spirituality, the human body, and the incredible healing power of expression. While Natalie grew up with Catholicism and Buddhism , it was in her biology class that she realized the profound power of the spiritual nature of life. Natalie saw the power of the human body to heal as a doorway to the mystery of...

In his youth, Bobby Africa, business mentor and ultra-endurance athlete, earned his nickname “ Too Fast Africa ” racing motocross for Kawasaki. Ironically, and perfectly, it was Regina ‘s (his Process teacher) loving invitation to, “Slow it down, Bobby” that opened the door, even wider, to the healing that took place during his Process. In the first few days of his Pr...

Linda Hartka, beloved Hoffman teacher, shares her story of how doing the work of the Process healed her seemingly intractable self-loathing. As a therapist for years, Linda did many workshops and types of training to deepen her capacity and ability to hold others in their healing. And yet, her tendency to feel self-loathing didn’t budge. Through the Process, she was able to finally melt away...

Susan Beaulieu, Healing Justice Director, is Anishinaabe and an enrolled member of the Red Lake Nation. Listen in as Susan shares her powerful healing journey, including her journey at the Hoffman Process . Content warning: this episode mentions suicide. Susan has worked directly with Indigenous communities for over 17 years. For the last seven years, her focus has been helping others understand t...

Eliot Wajskol did the Process in 2022. Listen in as he shares an intergenerational story of hardship, a desire to build a better life, and the hope to one day live fully alive. Eliot’s grandparents’ and parents’ lives were filled with persecution and hardship during the holocaust beyond anything most of us will ever know. Somehow, his father and mother, and her mother, survived....