What Led Her Here

Advocacy in Action: One woman’s story of thriving with disabilities

Disability Consultant & Counsellor, Tara Geraghty-Ellis, had a difficult start after being born with Spina bifida and Hydrocephalus. She was initially given only a 10% chance of survival, but beat the odds and defied doctors’ expectations. Later, as the only child with a disability in her school, she endured bullying and harassment from students and teachers. Over time, Tara worked through her trauma, acknowledging and accepting her emotions, and made the conscious choice to be a happy, successful person. Tara embraces all of the experiences that have shaped her life and is now on a mission to bring people together and advocate for those with disabilities, so they can live to their fullest potential. Tara’s hope is that people with disabilities will be seen, not just as their diagnosis, but as whole human beings with hopes and dreams.

 

Connect with Tara:

Website www.visableandempoweredbook.com

Schedule a chat https://calendly.com/taraelliscoaching/meeting

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Tara Geraghty-Ellis

A Life Re-Imagined: Lessons of healing, resilience and embracing authenticity

Debra Lee May is a Resiliency & Re-invention Mentor whose defining experience started with her transition from corporate America to being a stay-at-home mom to her two daughters. This significant life change challenged her sense of control, brought up trauma from her chaotic childhood and plunged Debra into depths that negatively impacted her relationships. She lost who she was and was trying to live according to other people’s expectations. Eventually, after gaining awareness and beginning her own personal development journey, Debra had an awakening that not only changed her, but those around her. She began to heal, trust herself and connect with others. Debra came to realize she shared this experience with many other women, which has led her to inspire and serve women in her work today. Debra reminds us that being real and vulnerable is what draws people to us and that there’s always better things on the other side of our difficult life experiences.

 

Connect with Debra:

www.debraleemay.com

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Debra Lee May

The Power of Pleasure: One woman’s journey to empowerment through sexuality

Sacred sexual healer, Daniella Hines, had the picture-perfect life. All the boxes of what one “should” have were ticked…yet she was miserable. She didn’t know who she was and was living a life that wasn’t meant for her. After ending her marriage, Daniella decided to live in a less fearful way and began her journey to discover herself and her sexuality. She embraced the power of choice, curiousity and self-love, which brought her to an empowered place of shame-free pleasure and freedom. Along the way, she learned about the wisdom held in her body and began to trust her intuition. Daniella acknowledges that it has not always been an easy path, but both misery and joy require effort, and we all have the power to choose which one we allow to stay.  

 

Connect with Daniella:

http://daniellahines.com/

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Daniella Hines

Beyond Boudoir: Witnessing women’s inner transformations from behind the camera

From behind her camera, boudoir photographer, Daysy Teixeira, has been witness to many women’s transformations…from nervous and, at times, insecure to confident and empowered. Women who step into her studio are also committing to step outside their comfort zone in a big way. Daysy is passionate about creating a safe space of trust and acceptance for all women. In this space, they share a uniquely intimate experience that goes beyond beautiful pictures. The self-love that her subjects take away from the photo shoots follows these women well after the session is over. In this candid conversation, Daysy discusses her own journey to self-love and her struggle with body image, which was fraught by a lack of representation in media. She reminds us to be gentle with ourselves as we move toward accepting ourselves exactly as we are.

 

Connect with Daysy:

Website https://boudoirbydaysy.com/

Instagram http://www.instagram.com/boudoirbydaysy

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/boudoirbydaysy

Podcast: Bombshell Tells All https://boudoirbydaysy.podbean.com/

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Daysy Teixeira

 

Going Solo: Building courage and confidence through independent travel

Travel writer, Catherine Smith, found her passion for solo travel by accident more than a decade ago. Since then, her adventures have brought her to New York City, Italy, New Zealand and beyond. Mostly importantly, these trips have allowed her to get to know herself more deeply and trust her intuition. People often assume travelling solo makes Catherine fearless, but she reminds us that she, like all of us, has fears. On each trip, she purposefully stretches and strengthens her “courage muscle”, allowing her to bring back more confidence, freedom and self-acceptance to her everyday life and relationships. That, she says, is where the magic is!

 

Connect with Catherine:

Website  Herbagswerepacked.com

Facebook  Facebook.com/herbagswerepacked

Instagram  Instagram.com/herbagswerepacked 

Twitter  Twitter.com/bagswerepacked 

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Catherine Smith

 

The Power of your Period: The importance of menstrual cycle awareness

As a Menstruality Mentor, Nikki Zavitz is on a mission to help women and womb-havers tune into their menstrual cycles. For most of her life, Nikki felt disconnected from her own body. Her first bleed brought fear and shame. The stigma and negativity around periods in our culture often creates negative stories that many of us carry around for a lifetime. Building a “red tent” on her property has created an opportunity to change that. Through her teachings, Nikki provides a safe place for womb-havers of all ages to gather, listen, share, learn and feel compassion for themselves and their cycles. She’s especially passionate about bringing this awareness to young people, so they can learn from and celebrate the natural rhythms of their bodies.

 

Connect with Nikki:

http://www.prettyriverredtent.com/

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Nikki Zavitz

Sitting in Stillness: Reflections from traumatic brain injury recovery

When singer-songwriter, Raina Krangle, suffered a traumatic brain injury, her once full life came to a sudden halt. She was forced to come to terms with the realization that she wasn’t physically able to do many of the things she could before, which was frustrating and hard to accept. The healing process forced her to reflect, recognize her own limits and be okay with who and where she was. Raina slowly immersed herself back into her music, which she discovered was her way through to healing, both physically and emotionally. Raina candidly speaks about the importance of being uncomfortable with the unknown and reminds us that positive things can come out of difficult times.

 

Connect with Raina:

https://linktr.ee/rainakranglemusic

 

Creator, Host, Editing & Production: Kim Short

Guest: Raina Krangle

Re-Defining Creativity: Exploring and embracing our unique gifts

Hollis Citron is on a mission to expand the narrow, societal definition of creativity. Many people think of creativity as a very exclusive thing that only certain people who hang their works in great museums get to claim, but Hollis wants to empower people to find and use their own unique expression and voice. Whether in a classroom, business meeting or art studio, her passion is helping people explore what brings them joy and recognize that as beautiful, creative and powerful. As a former art teacher, Hollis learned many lessons, the most important of which is that people of all ages need a safe space to express themselves. Hollis reminds us to give ourselves permission to put ourselves first, let go of control and make mistakes, in order to let our creativity flow.

 

Connect with Hollis:

Website: https://www.iamcreativephilly.net/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamcreativephilly/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamcreativephilly

Podcast: https://creativeconversations.podbean.com.

Publishing House: https://www.iamcreativephilly.net/express-yourself-publishing-house

 

Creator and Host: Kim Short

Guest: Hollis Citron

Editing and Production: Kim Short

Deciding to Divorce: Re-discovering happiness, confidence and self-love in my next chapter

Denisse Espalter was once stuck in a place where fear of shame and judgement kept her in an unhappy and unfulfilling marriage. She was faced with making a choice between remaining in the seemingly “comfortable” space she’d created for herself or journeying through the uncertainty of making some big life changes. Denisse felt the weight of societal and family pressure around going against what was expected of her, but ultimately knew she deserved so much more in her life. With a strong sense of self, as well as a good support system around her, Denisse became committed to putting her own happiness first…for herself and for her daughters. Denisse reminds us to make decisions based on what’s true to our heart and that, when we better ourselves, we better those around us.

 

Connect with Denisse:

www.unboxedlifeandstyle.com

 

Creator and Host: Kim Short

Guest: Denisse Espalter

Editing and Production: Kim Short

Grow through Grief: The life skills we need to heal + thrive through trauma

Dr. Sarah Allen knows first-hand that life can throw some hard things at you. As a pediatric neuropsychologist, she also knows that having the skills to process grief in a healthy way has allowed her to thrive after trauma. After losing three babies at birth and then her sister to cancer at a young age, she was faced with a difficult path toward healing. Through these experiences, Dr. Sarah has found her passion for teaching other parents, teachers and children the resilience and coping skills that all people should have in order to grow through grief. As a mom, she models a healthy expression of emotions and provides a safe space for open communication for her kids, in order to teach them what to do when they encounter challenging times in their lives. Dr. Sarah reminds us that the grief process is a hard path, but one that we must face, accept and move through in order to heal.

 

Connect with Dr. Sarah:

Website - http://www.brainbehaviorbridge.com/

5 Day Parenting Strategy Jumpstart starting March 7, 2022 - https://brainbehaviorbridge.com/store/5-day-parenting-strategy-jumpstart

 

Creator and Host: Kim Short

Guest: Dr. Sarah Allen

Editing and Production: Kim Short