Sink and Swim

What would a PT with 35 years behind her tell you about the career you're in right now? Julie Laracy is 62, recently semi-retired, and busier than she's ever been. In this episode, she looks back on a physical therapy career that took her through pediatrics, wound care, school-based PT, nursing homes, outpatient private practice, her own in-home Parkinson's practice, and an acute ca...

If you went to physical therapy school between 2000 and 2020, you were trained under Vision 2020 — a genuinely good vision that also quietly taught you that you'd never be enough as you are. In this Notes from a Fart Walk episode, recorded raw on an actual dog walk, Julie names the chip on the shoulder that almost every PT is carrying: the reason you keep collecting certifications, the reason...

Julie West — who goes by Julie Earthy — holds two master's degrees in international environmental science, published peer-reviewed work on aquatic ecosystems in semi-arid countries, and did field work that took her from Burkina Faso to Vienna. She also spent those years watching herself and half her cohort get flattened by depression. She was leading demonstrations in Copenhagen. She was hype...

You know how to treat a patient with an overuse injury. It’s time to take your own medicine and apply that to your career. You would never tell a runner with six months of knee pain to keep foam rolling, keep scrolling Facebook groups, and keep stacking new interventions until something sticks. You'd look at her form, her shoes, her training plan, her sleep, her whole life. You'd land on...

Dr. Kari Lindegren is a physical therapist, educator, and swimmer who has spent her career working with youth athletes — specifically adolescent girls navigating pelvic health concerns. In this episode, she and Julie trace the through-line from Kari's childhood as the quiet, high-achieving "perfect student" who came fully alive only at the pool, through a series of cross-country mov...

Charmaine Horn spent eight years as a psychiatric inpatient nurse before she did something a lot of us have done — Googled her way out of a spiral and accidentally found her life's work. What followed was a series of full-commitment pivots: personal trainer, certified life coach, weight loss coach, Qigong teacher, somatic coach, nervous system educator. Each one felt right until it didn'...

You're in the middle of something — a career pivot, a business transition, a relationship shift — and someone asks a perfectly innocent question like "How's life?" or "How's work going?" Your throat clenches. You either say too much or nothing at all, and walk away feeling like you lied either way. This solo episode introduces one of Julie's most-used client...

Mbong Henry is a physical therapist specializing in sporty pelvises, a health coach, mom of three, and — as of her 40s — a competitive Olympic weightlifter. But this episode is really about something underneath all of that: what it looks like to build a life and a business around what actually feels good, not what you're supposed to want. Mbong walks us through leaving the hospital system aft...

You did everything right. The credentials, the business, the team, the referrals. And now you're sitting in the parking lot before work, not tired, not late — just unable to make yourself go in. In this solo episode, Julie tells the story of Marjorie — a composite of the clients she's walked alongside who hit this exact wall. PT, business owner, fully booked, deeply respected. And quietl...

Ashley Martinez is a women's health pelvic floor PT, integrative nutrition health coach, single mom, and highly sensitive person who spent years leading with her credentials — until life made that impossible. In this episode, Ashley shares her story publicly for the first time: the deployment, the divorce, the infidelities on both sides, the church that excommunicated her, the family that dem...

On April 1st, 2026, I opened a patient portal and read the words that officially closed an 11-year chapter of cancer surveillance. No fanfare. No one else in the room. Just me, the screen, and a quiet exhale that had been building for over a decade. But this episode isn't really about a scan result. It's a story I've never told publicly — the plot twist that added an extra year to m...

Dr. Jessica Drummond has spent two decades training clinicians and coaches in women's health. She built the only women's health coach certification program in the world. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, she started going to the French bakery just because she felt like it. That tension — between what we've built and what we actually want — is at the heart of this conversat...

You see the LinkedIn announcement from a colleague. You see them celebrate pivoting from Point A to Point B. But you don't don't see what happened in the middle of the pivot for it to actually happen.  In this episode, Julie breaks down the four stages of a healthcare career pivot — and why the messy, invisible middle is actually where the real transformation lives. This isn't a how...

Many high-achieving and active women in perimenopause and teen athletes in puberty pride themselves on discipline, resilience, and doing everything “right.” But what if the very habits that helped you succeed are quietly draining your energy, disrupting your hormones, and disconnecting you from your body? In this episode, Julie sits down with Dr. Katherine Hill (Stanford-trained physician) and Meg...

Welcome to the second-ever Notes from a Fart Walk — your monthly, come-as-you-are digest for ambitious women who are tired of urgency, polarization, and performative “fix yourself” wisdom. In this episode, Julie sinks into real-time, unpolished truth: the “recovering good girl” moment at a big event when her body was pleading to leave… and the shame spiral that followed when she looked around and...

If you’re a highly sensitive being, neurodivergent, or introverted… and you find big, stimulating events hard but don’t want to avoid “peopling” altogether, this episode is for you. If you've ever left a conference, alumni weekend, wedding, or “inspiring” networking event feeling like you need 72 hours alone in a dark room… and you then start wondering what’s wrong with you because everyone e...

You’ve started talking about coaching. Maybe you’ve taken a certification.  Maybe you’ve signed a few clients.  Maybe you’re posting about it online.  Maybe you’re still seeing patients “for now.” And yet — you don’t feel fully in. In this episode, Julie unpacks the real reason so many ambitious women in healthcare struggle to move completely into the coaching lane — even when they know they’re ca...

This is the first interview of Sink & Swim 2026, and Julie kicks off Season 2 with Dr. Brianne Grogan (“Dr. Bri”)—a pelvic health PT known for a massive YouTube presence who just made a wildly brave move: she stopped creating for that channel (December 2025), not because she stopped caring, but because she outgrew the role. Together, they talk in real time—not from a polished “I’ve arrived” pl...

Welcome to the very first Notes from a Fart Walk —a monthly digest episode inside Sink & Swim where nothing has to be polished, optimized, or resolved to be worth sharing. This episode is an invitation to metabolize life in real time . Not with hot takes, diagnoses, or “here’s what you should do”—but with honesty, humor, and a body-led pace that lets things stay half-formed. Julie shares why “...

Season 1 Wrapped … and now it’s time for Season✌️ Cheers to the beautiful souls who breathed life into this baby. Head to your fave pod player to catch up on Szn 1 now — because Szn 2 comes in hot in February! If this episode speaks to you, hit subscribe , leave a review , and share it with a friend 👉 Looking for more of where this came from?  Sink deeper with coaching support from Julie and Book...

When you’ve built a life that looks successful on paper but still feels like a tight corset, reinvention can feel like both rebellion and relief.  In this candid, laughter-filled, deeply honest conversation, Julie sits down with her longtime friend and fellow former PT, TaVona Boggs — Master Certified Coach, fractional CRO, and host of Breaking Protocol — to explore what happens when your identity...

When bestselling author and publishing mentor Elizabeth Lyons joins Julie for a conversation about trusting your voice , what unfolds is a deeply human, hilarious, and refreshingly honest look at the creative process—from loosening the “Conformity Corset” to navigating self-doubt, self-trust, and sourdough starters. Together they explore what it really takes to write (and live) in your own voice—w...

Nervous System Regulation is having its moment, and we love that for it.  But what if regulation isn’t about staying calm, but about reclaiming flexibility, boundaries, and embodied strength as a sensitive high-achiever? In this episode, Julie reconnects with longtime friend and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner Audrey Burke to explore what real nervous-system “regulation” is (hint: it’s flexibil...

In this heartfelt and powerful episode of Sink and Swim , Julie sits down with one of her oldest friends and PT school classmates, Dr. Kate Mihevc Edwards—a renowned running medicine specialist, clinic founder, author, and entrepreneur. Kate shares the life-altering moment when her body forced her to stop mid-run, igniting a years-long journey through misdiagnoses, identity loss, and ultimately th...

This one’s a sacred pause. If you’ve been feeling restless, unclear, or unmoored—this one’s for you. It’s a slow-down episode meant to meet you right where you are.  Before we dive into logistics or client stories, I invite you to grab your tea, go for a walk, or settle in with a journal and let this be a moment to exhale. In this episode, I reflect on the tension of being in the “valley of becomi...