TRANSFORMED with Britta Bushnell

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Latest Episodes:

S2 Teaser Episode: Holidays, Rituals & Celebrations Dec 20, 2021

A very special and personal conversation around rituals & celebrations with my Mom - Paula Rochelle. This Season 2 teaser episode is a special release we wanted to share before the Holidays. We hope this episode inspires you to create simple, easy and personal traditions with your own family, in your very unique way.

Have a wonderful, warm, and ritualized Holiday season.

See you in 2022 for Season 2 of TRANSFORMED.

10. The Vaginapractor & Me with Kimberly Ann Johnson Jun 30, 2020

“The body just keeps talking louder and louder because it’s trying to get us to listen to a more fundamental message.” - Kimberly Ann Johnson

We're wrapping up the first season of TRANSFORMED with Kimberly Ann Johnson aka MAGAMAMA. Her book, The Fourth Trimester, should be required reading for most birthing women. Her courses guide participants to an embodied understanding of the nervous system and how this body wisdom matters for those of us pursuing a well-lived life. In this episode, Kimberly shares personal stories as well as deep wisdom, starting with her experience and knowledge of the postpartum period and taking us through parenting teenagers, big life changes, and fundamental nervous system know-how.

In this episode, Kimberly and I discuss:

Kimberly’s personal postpartum journey
Depression after birth
Understanding the nervous system as Life 101
Moving away from your parents as an adult
Jaguar parenting
Parenting as an unequal relationship
Writing her new book

Read more about Kimberly and her work: About MAGAMAMA

Some of Kimberly’s offerings:

The Fourth Trimester https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Trimester-Postpartum-Balancing-Restoring/dp/1611804000/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+fourth+trimester&qid=1593449665&sr=8-2
The Fourth Trimester Cards https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Trimester-Cards-Support-Inspiration/dp/1611807646/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-p13n1_0?cv_ct_cx=the+fourth+trimester+cards&dchild=1&keywords=the+fourth+trimester+cards&pd_rd_i=1611807646&pd_rd_r=10ba9be6-e375-49ad-8163-807723ec89af&pd_rd_w=AIQsm&pd_rd_wg=ipKox&pf_rd_p=1da5beeb-8f71-435c-b5c5-3279a6171294&pf_rd_r=Z3VTKMKMS6XC7BR888S8&psc=1&qid=1593449697&sr=1-1-70f7c15d-07d8-466a-b325-4be35d7258cc
Activate Your Inner Jaguar (online course) https://www.magamama.com/jaguar
Tending the Collective Nervous System https://www.magamama.com/collective

9. Two Black Midwives Build a Birth Center with Allegra Hill & Kimberly Durdin Jun 23, 2020

“Systemic racism is attached to every aspect of our society.” - Kimberly Durdin

Allegra Hill & Kimberly Durdin are two black midwives who have embarked on the journey of starting their own birth center. In this episode, they share what called each of them to midwifery as well as what inspired them to the arduous task of starting a birth center. They help us understand the need for Black owned and operated birthing centers and the racial inequities faced by BIPOC birthing people, especially Black birthing parents and babies. Systemic racism impacts every industry. We have an open discussion about how it affects the birth world.

Today's wisdom comes from:

Kimberly Durdin IBCLC, Doula & Senior Student Midwife

Allegra Hill LM, CPM, Doula/Monitrice & IBCLC

Read all about my guests on their website.

Topics we discuss on this episode:

Their personal journeys to becoming midwives
The difference between midwifery care and working with an OB
Starting a birth center in South LA
The transformative process of opening a birth center
Roadblocks and racism as a birth professional

Episode Resources:
Kindred Space LA www.kindredspacela.com
Follow Kindred Space on Instagram @kindredspacela
Support Kindred Space LA through Venmo: @ProjectMotherPath (note: Kindred Space LA)
Donate to Kindred Space LA through GoFundMe.com

Episode Mentions:
Heather Schwarz https://www.montereybirthcenter.com/our-story
Shafia Monroe https://shafiamonroe.com/
Sara Howard https://www.horizonmidwifery.com/
Tioma Allison https://tiomamidwife.wordpress.com/about/
Juliana Fehr, CNM, PhD, FACNM https://www.su.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/juliana-fehr-phd-cnm-rn/
Aleks Evanguelidi LM http://www.aleksevanguelidi.com/
Nikki Helms San Diego Birth Center GoFundMe

Episode Credits:
Produced by Aleksa Mara
Edited by Veronica Gruba
Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

8. Menopause through the Lens of Mythology with Dr. Christine Downing Jun 16, 2020

Today I share a conversation about the soul journey of menopause with the remarkable Dr. Christine Downing. Christine is a powerhouse in the academic fields of mythology and religion, but also she’s a powerhouse in life! She was a beloved professor of mine during grad school and served as the chair of my dissertation committee. Dr. Downing is 88-years-old and full of vitality, wisdom, and perspective about all phases women traverse in a lifetime.

In this episode, Christine and I discuss:

Mythology & the menopausal transition
Why it’s important for men to understand menopause
The value of taking trips at the brink of life changes
When to acknowledge the finality of things
Recognizing your limits
The importance of mourning
Female friendships as medicine
How there’s always a way in which we’re not quite ready for change

“It’s scary to let go of who you’ve been. To feel like you didn’t choose to be where you are. ” - Christine Downing

More about Christine:

Christine is a core faculty member in the Mythological Studies Department at Pacifica University. She has made extensive scholarly contributions to the fields of Religious Studies, Mythology, and Gender Studies. She is Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies from San Diego State University where she taught for almost twenty years. In 1974, Dr. Downing became the president of the American Academy of Religion, making her the first woman to do so. She has also taught concurrently at the San Diego campus of the California School of Professional Psychology, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She lectures frequently to Jungian groups both here and abroad. Christine Downing has forged a career in the academy and in the evolution of feminist thought through the unique blending of rigorous scholarly work with the personal voice of biographical writing and self reflection.

Dr. Downing is the author of numerous scholarly essays and important books in the field such as:

7. A White Woman's Mess: My Ongoing Process with Unpacking Racism - Special Episode Jun 09, 2020

This episode is different. I don’t have a guest to talk with, it’s just me sharing my thoughts about racism. This episode is mostly for white folks or at least non-black people. Anyone is welcome to listen, but in this episode, I am a white woman speaking to other white people about racism. There are experts on the lived experience of being Black in the U.S. (pretty much all Black people living in the U.S.) and there are white people who specialize in talking to other white people about racism. I’m not either of these. I’m an imperfect white woman learning and growing along the messy path of becoming anti-racist and that’s exactly what I want to share with you in this episode.

“What we need to do is understand that internalized racism exists in each of us, it’s been cooked into the tissue of my being from the reality of living in a country BUILT on racism—and as a white woman, it’s my job to unpack what’s been put there while I may have been sleeping.”

Topics we cover include:

The killing of Black people
What my mom has to say about unpacking racism
My own racism
Being imperfect and messing up
What I did at a midwifery conference
Shame and fear around racism
Public commitments to doing more unlearning and relearning

Episode Resources:

Favorite Chart of Resources for Anti-Racism Work.

Want to buy your books from Black owned bookstores? Here’s a list.

Books mentioned:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Movie:

13th Streaming on Netflix

Course on race and the nervous system with Sabia Wade and Kimberly Johnson

A Lifetime in Quarantine

Episode Credits:

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

6. Changing Your Life through Story with Lewis Mehl-Madrona May 26, 2020

In this episode I speak with author and physician Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona about how he brings storytelling and narrative into his healing processes. A teacher in many respects, Lewis believes that telling a story (or “sharing a case-study” in doctor talk), is the most effective way to teach.

This conversation is helpful in shifting the way you look at your life and the stories you tell yourself that not only affect your neurological and mental health, but your physical health as well. What are the biological consequences of the stories that we tell ourselves? Can we rewrite our stories to better our lives?

“We are the swarm of stories that surround our physical body.” - Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Topics we cover include:
Indiginous knowledge
Narrative medicine
The Power of Talking Circles
Imagery & Narrative in Healing
Issues of Psychology during Birthing
Epigenetics vs. genetics in disease
About our guest:
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate professor of family medicine at the University of New England. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He has also written Narrative Medicine, Healing the Mind through the Power of Story: the Promise of Narrative Psychiatry, and, his most recent book with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story.

Lewis currently teaches with the family medicine residency at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) in Bangor, where he does inpatient medicine, outpatient precepting, and obstetrics. He works in consultation-liaison psychiatry at EMMC and also at Acadia Hospital. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Coyote Institute for Studies of Change and Transformation. Lewis has been studying traditional healing and healers since his early days and has written about their work and the process of healing. His goal is to bring the wisdom of indigenous peoples about healing back into mainstream medicine and to transform medicine and psychology through this wisdom coupled with more European derived narrative traditions.

Read more about Lewis Mehl-Madrona on his website.

Episode Resources:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coyotehealing/
The Coyote Trilogy: Coyote Wisdom, Coyote Healing, Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Narrative Medicine: The Use of History & Story in the Healing Process by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Episode Credits:
Produced by Aleksa Mara
Edited by Veronica Gruba
Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

5. Holding Space for our Broken Parts: A Childhood with Type 1 Diabetes May 19, 2020

In this episode, you get to enjoy an intimate conversation between mother and son about living with type one diabetes. Kaden was diagnosed at the young age of 2-years-old and thanks his early diagnosis for being his greatest teacher through his 18 years of navigating life with a chronic disease.

This episode breeds empathy for all children living with disease, can be helpful for parents navigating a child with disease, and inspire anyone to hold space for their broken parts, no matter what they may be.

Kaden and I discuss:

Navigating feelings of being broken
Not feeling the way the outer world expects
Building empathy through acknowledging personal
Holding space for big feelings
Being there for yourself while helping others
The role of fear in transformation
“What if I don’t wake up…”
Lessons from living with a chronic disease
Growing through adversity

“Some peoples vulnerabilities and insecurities are more out in the world than mine, and some are buried and hidden. Having diabetes taught me how to be open and vulnerable about my broken parts at a really early stage in life, and have compassion for others knowing for a fact that their insecurities exist, too.” - Kaden Kessel, 20 years old

More about our featured guest:

Kaden Kessel was diagnosed with type one diabetes just before his third birthday. As long as he can remember, diabetes has been a part of his life. Kaden made a pledge to himself early in his journey that he would not let diabetes prevent him from doing anything that really mattered to him. He has followed his passions relentlessly and with purpose. He has served as a JDRF Children’s Congress Delegate speaking to congressional members about the needs of the type one community at the age of seven, spoke to diabetes medical equipment maker Medtronic, and served as Walk Youth Ambassador to the One Walk in Los Angeles. Now, at age twenty, Kaden recently finished his sophomore year at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and continues to follow his dreams while living with type one diabetes.

Kaden is passionate about foreign policy, specifically in the Middle East and is eager to work in public service with the goal to help others.

To become involved with the fight to end Type One Diabetes, or for more support while living with diabetes, visit www.jdrf.org

Episode Credits:

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

4. Transformation as a Revolution with Seane Corn May 12, 2020

“I can’t know the light unless I know the shadow. And, I certainly can’t know patience and compassion without also understanding resistance or even judgment. And the more that I can normalize the human experience. That’s when I can develop empathy and empathy is what will change this world.”

- Seane Corn

Seane Corn is an internationally acclaimed yoga teacher and public speaker known for her social activism, impassioned style of teaching, and raw, honest, and inspired self-expression. Her first book Revolution of the Soul was published in Fall 2019.

In this episode, Seane and I have a raw conversation about:

Vulnerability in the creative process and its role in great change
The discovery of ritual & prayer as a conduit for transformation
The accountability that comes with privilege
Spirituality as an art
Soul contracts and becoming a grandparent.

At the end of the episode, Seane leads us through a powerful prayer.

We’ve come a long way from when I hired her at YogaWorks 26 years ago!

More about Seane: Over her 25-year teaching career, Seane has created many instructional DVDs, including her groundbreaking series The Yoga of Awakening with Sounds True. Featured on over 40 magazine covers and countless media outlets, Seane has chosen to use her platform to bring awareness to global issues including social justice, sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS awareness, generational poverty, and animal rights. In 2005, she was named “National Yoga Ambassador” for YouthAIDS, and in 2013 received both the Global Green International Environmental Leadership Award and the Humanitarian Award by the Smithsonian Institute. Since 2007, she has been training leaders of activism through her co-founded organization Off the Mat, Into the World®. Seane also co-founded the Global Seva Challenge, which has raised over $3.5 million by activating communities of yoga and wellness in fund and awareness-raising efforts.

Episode Resources:

Off the Mat Into the World

Download a free yoga practice with Seane.

Purchase Seane Corn’s book, Revolution of the Soul.

Join Seane’s Instagram Live class: Sundays at 9:00 AM @seanecorn

Episode Credits:

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

3. The Sacred Mystery of Birth and Death with Amy Wright Glenn May 05, 2020

Loss is something that happens all the time in our lives, in various ways and to different degrees. On the third episode of TRANSFORMED, join Amy Wright Glenn and I as we sit down and have an open discussion of the parallels between birth and death; both necessary parts of life, both guaranteed to awaken us to our senses.

Podcast Guest and Bio:

Amy Wright Glenn earned her MA in Religion and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught for eleven years in The Religion and Philosophy Department at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey earning the Dunbar Abston Jr. Chair for Teaching Excellence. Amy is a Kripalu Yoga teacher, (CD)DONA birth doula, hospital chaplain, Birthing Mama® Prenatal Yoga and Wellness Teacher Trainer and a regular contributor to PhillyVoice wherein she writes on mindfulness, spirituality, parenting, ethics, birthing, and dying.

Amy is the founder of the Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death and the author of Birth, Breath, and Death: Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula and Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go.

“Being present with someone’s birth or death brings a sense of sacredness and mystery” - Amy Wright Glenn

To Connect with Amy and her work:

www.birthbreathanddeath.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/birthbreathanddeath/

https://www.instagram.com/amy_wright_glenn/

https://www.facebook.com/AmyWrightGlenn

https://www.facebook.com/birthbreathanddeath

Episode Resources:

Companioning Center for Loss and LIfe Transitions -- Dr. Wolfelt

Holding Space -- Heather Plett

Clinical Pastoral Education

Laura Markham -- Aha! Parenting

Donate and/or participate in Amy’s response to this global pandemic: Holding Space + COVID-19

TRANSFORMED the podcast is

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

2. Facing the Unknown Wilderness of Great Change with Jean Shinoda Bolen Apr 28, 2020

“You are in the wilderness when you have left who you were and there is no turning back.” - Jean Shinoda Bolen

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, speaker, activist and author of 13 books including Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman.

In this podcast, I sat down with Jean to discuss freedom of choice, breaking through society’s expectations, and the unique journey of discovering your wants and desires. Paving your own road is not a simple task. Defining your own happiness requires leaving some things that are familiar to you, behind.

More about Jean: Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and an internationally known author and speaker. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California Medical Center and a past board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, the International Transpersonal Association, and the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. She is the author of thirteen books in over one hundred foreign editions. She is a NGO Permanent Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from the Women’s World Summit Foundation (Geneva), also represents Pathways To Peace, The Millionth Circle, Earthchild Institute, Women’s Perspective, and the International Public Policy Institute. She is in three acclaimed documentaries: the Academy-Award winning anti-nuclear proliferation film “Women – For America, For the World,” the Canadian Film Board’s “Goddess Remembered,” and “Femme: Women Healing the World.

Episode Resources:

Goddesses in Everywoman - Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness as a Soul Journey by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Artemis - The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Gods in Everyman - Archetypes That Shape Men’s Lives by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Crossing to Avalon: A Woman’s Midlife Quest for Sacred Feminine by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Learn more about Dr. Bolen: https://www.jeanbolen.com/

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

1. Transformation & Resilience in Times of Stress with Nkem Ndefo Apr 21, 2020

“One of the most powerful things we can do as parents is to "settle" our own stress. To be as calm as possible in the moment at hand.” - Nkem Ndefo

In this podcast episode, Nkem reflects on transformation, pregnancy, birth, parenting, stress, epigenetics, and self-care. With an emphasis on stress and stress relief, we discuss ways to prepare for a big life change, even when it’s too fast. Even when there’s trauma involved.

Nkem is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit. She is a skilled practitioner, dynamic speaker, and valued strategist. She is known for her unique ability to connect with people of all types by holding powerful healing spaces, weaving complex concepts into accessible narratives, and creating synergistic and collaborative learning communities that nourish people’s innate capacity for healing, wellness, and connection. As a clinician, Nkem has worked in settings ranging from large volume hospitals to mobile community clinics. She founded and operated a full scope midwifery and homebirth practice from 2000-2007. And she has maintained a small holistic private practice in Los Angeles since 2007

To learn more about Nkem and her work with individuals, businesses and nonprofits, visit her website:https://lumostransforms.com/about/

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

A Note from Dr. Britta Bushnell Apr 20, 2020

Britta introduces herself and shares her feelings and musings on the state of the world, and why it's time to finally release her podcast that focuses on all the different aspects of change and transformation.

Introducing TRANSFORMED with Britta Bushnell Sep 13, 2019

We all experience life-changing events, but rarely do we talk about the places that profoundly change us and help us become who we are today. On this podcast, childbirth and relationship specialist and author Dr. Britta Bushnell pulls back the curtain shrouding life-altering events to take a deep look into the growing and expanding experiences of life that often open us up to who we must become. Subscribe to listen to the conversations Britta and her guests share about these profound threshold moments. Join the exploration and expand your capacity to hold space for the transformative rites of passage life gifts us all on the journey of being human.

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