This podcast is both a resource for anyone affected by sexual trauma, as well as a tribute to all those who are doing the hard work of healing. This project asks the question “Where do we go from here?” – at both the individual and collective levels. To truly work in the direction of wholeness, we must not only tell the story of what happened to us, but we must also share our stories of healing. That is where we find our strength and our hope – the hope that healing is possible for ourselves ...
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In this episode, Molly shares a meditation originally released on the podcast “Meditations,” by her friend Gregory T. Obert in May of 2019. We are happy to share this recording here, where you’ll hear a set of sexual healing affirmations, ready by Molly and repeated several times in a loop. You may prefer to listen to this meditation in a quiet and…
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In this episode, Molly interviews Amy Dawn about how she navigated the criminal justice system after deciding to press charges against the man who raped her. Some key highlights include: How Amy found herself in a role reversal from criminal justice student to someone navigating the system, and the challenge she experienced coming to terms with bei…
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In this episode Molly interviews Amy Collins, a survivor of things that were meant to break her spirit. Being honest with her past has helped her heal in so many beautiful ways. She believes in staying true to who she is and doing what’s best for her healing. In this interview, she shares her recent experience being in recovery from addiction, an e…
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“Many sexual trauma survivors went into a freeze state.. And so there’s this sense of ‘My body betrayed me, and I don’t want to be in this body, but I’m stuck here, so I’m going to do the best job I can to not be here.’ And that is the ultimate disconnection. So what we’re going for is to start to reconnect that, just a little bit at a time, maybe …
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“I’m still struggling with ‘my body is my own’... It really does make me angry because it feels like I’m missing out on this wonderful thing that you experience with a partner.” In this episode, Molly interviews Anne Jensen, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse within a religious cult, shares her journey over the past several years after disclosing…
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In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan discuss consent in and out of the bedroom, fear of rejection (being rejected and/or rejecting someone else), and how communicating clear boundaries begets trust. -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes! Contact S…
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“I like to think that I grew up in a relatively progressive area of the country… but I definitely, by osmosis, absorbed the cultural expectations and ideas of what a man is and should be, and it was definitely not somebody who’d been sexually abused or taken advantage of. And I think that was another factor inhibiting me from talking about it - jus…
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“A lot of the work that I’m doing now is because of what happened in the backseat of that car... I would be lying if I said that that is resolved... I am recognizing that I still have a freeze response… It’s taken me nine years of resisting that there was still work to be done from that - because I didn’t want to investigate it… I lived with a very…
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In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan share their thoughts and experiences with big emotions, including “overreacting,” acting out/bad behavior, being labeled as “too emotional” or “too sensitive,” self-shaming, shutting down – and ultimately building the capacity to tolerate those big scary emotions with compassion fo…
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Dr. Rhonda Sherrod on Surviving, Healing, and Evolving in response to early childhood sexual abuse
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In this episode, Dr. Rhonda Sherrod shares insights from her own healing journey from early childhood sexual abuse, which she also shares in her recently published book, “SHE - Surviving Healing & Evolving: Essays of Love, Compassion, Healing, and Affirmation for Black People.” A passionate educator and sought after public speaker, Dr. Sherrod prev…
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**GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING** please listen with care In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan reflect on how close to home the issue of sex trafficking is, including Sarah’s own story of being groomed and, ultimately, trafficked. Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security’s relatively new definition of sex trafficking ack…
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Since 2018, Kristen has been a a certified rape crisis counselor in the state of Illinois and a volunteer medical advocate for Resilience (formerly Rape Victims Advocates). In her role as a medical advocate, Kristen provides individual level support and advocacy for survivors throughout their process at the hospital. She does this by answering page…
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In this mini-episode, Molly invites you to reach out if you or someone you know may be interested in being interviewed on the show. Listen to hear some ideas of who we’re looking for, and reach out to Molly at molly@theembodyconnection.com if you are interested. Also - What’s your word or phrase for 2022? Molly reflects on this concept, as well as …
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“And so while it is my job to support artists in the work they’re doing, I often see my own survival in the work that they’re sharing, and for me that just deepens the sense of not being alone. And every time, I think “Oh, right -- that’s the basic tenet of a healing community -- remembering ‘I’m not alone.’”… And for me it is the thing I need to c…
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Sarah and Molly on what we’re missing when we talk to young people about protecting themselves
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In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan share their thoughts on a key part of the conversation that we should be having with our young people when we talk to them about sexual assault and how we may be inadvertently blaming and shaming them into silence. -------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show …
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“You’re experiencing your everyday life in your body already. Sexual trauma is a trauma to the body already. So it’s with you. Learning how to connect to your body and understand it and feel connected to it as a supportive part of yourself can be a really important part of the journey. With some of my clients, we don’t move; we just connect to the …
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“When I wrote The Courage to Heal, if you had asked me who I was at that point in my life, I would’ve said ‘I’m an incest survivor,’ and that would have been it. I didn’t have any other identity. I was consumed by it, and it felt like my life had been destroyed by it and that I would never recover. So many decades later, I’m in such a different pla…
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Molly and special guest Sarah Brennan share their own experiences of the first time they shared aloud their sexual trauma, as well as what came next. SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes! Contact Sarah: sarah@theembodyconnection.com Contact Molly: molly@theembodyconnection.com Special thanks to: Jenn Baykan, virtual assi…
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“There is, in this, an opportunity to truly listen to what we’re being called to move through and move toward…. I’m being asked and called to surrender much more than I have in the past, to move further into a space of faith. I have a foundation, but I’m needing to build a house on top of that foundation.” In this special episode (after a year long…
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In this episode Molly shares some reflections on her healing journey in real time. "I'm angry that I have to do this work. And I'm angry that I've had to do all of the work I've done. I'm angry that I do most of it alone. I'm angry that I have to pay for it financially, with my time, with my energy. I'm angry that I've had pain in my body as a reac…
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"If we're not honoring boundaries with each other on a smaller scale, in a smaller context..., it's no surprise to me that we have this whole culture that is having a lot of trouble with boundaries and standing up for ourselves and saying 'no.' ... We don't wanna say 'no' to people, we don't wanna let them down, we don't wanna hurt their feelings. …
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"Every small and large step I've taken to speak, in whatever form - whether it's my voice, my play, my readings - every time I do any of that, I heal a little bit more because it's contradicting all that has made me believe I shouldn't be telling... It's always healing, every bit of it." Donna has a lot to offer with nearly four decades working thr…
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In this mini episode, I share my own story of how I decided to heal and how Reiki gave me the support I needed to do so. --------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes! Contact Molly: www.mollycoeling.com // molly.coeling@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------…
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"When you have sexual agency as a woman, there’s less of you being on the defensive as the victim. When we own our bodies, and we own not only our sexual power but also when we own our sexual pleasure, then we can say ‘Ya know, this doesn’t feel good. I don’t like this.’” Tazima - a sex & intimacy coach - talks about bringing trauma into our relati…
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“Once you start examining it, then it’s yours. Then you own it. These are MY memories. I’m not reacting out of something that happened to me; I’m reacting out of something that I own. It’s a small little adjustment in your brain, and it’s everything.” Sarah Brennan is a wife, mother of two beautiful boys and a Reiki practitioner living in Chicago. …
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"If I'm willing to take a new definition of vulnerability and recognize it as 'This is part of the human condition; everyone is vulnerable to something, and no one leaves this world unscathed in some way.' If I'm willing to look at it that way, I have more of a chance to empower myself and to help myself, rather than to just stay stuck." Sarah Buin…
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"If we're asking what's next, my 'what's next' has a lot to do with making space for people's healing, which doesn't just mean feeling good and getting bodywork and going to yoga. It could mean getting really angry and getting really sad and finding places and practitioners who can hold space for all of that healing to unfold, so that we can move i…
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“For young women and girls, overwhelmingly, the silence results in funneling them further into a system of violence. So they go from personal and interpersonal violence to structural and systemic violence, ultimately leading them to incarceration.” In this interview, Liz shares her thoughts on sexual violence both from the perspective of her profes…
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In this mini episode, I reflect on an alternative to the "he said, she said" rhetoric that is dominating the national conversation (yet again). "Even if he knows somewhere inside himself that he did this, is there any space in our current conversation for him to admit what he did, to apologize and to potentially arrive at redemption? Redemption as …
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“Scorpio is the underworld, the skeletons in our closet... And here comes this bright, shiny light [Jupiter] being like ‘Hey, let’s look at that,’ and pretty much in tandem with Jupiter’s onset to Scorpio, the MeToo movement popped up.” In this interview Carly explains how we can look to astrology to better understand the energy that was the impetu…
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“I think with the right support system and enough time, people can really understand their strengths in survival and then use those strengths and create a more thriving life.” Hillary Catrow, acupuncturist, is the owner of Quil Studio in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. In this interview she discusses her experience working with survivors of tortu…
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“When we do this for ourselves, we’re doing it for the healing of the whole world.” Anna is dedicated to the healing arts, and I have had the honor of knowing her and learning from her for several years. In this interview, she discusses the powerful practice of Forrest Yoga and how it can be used as a tool to reclaim our bodies, process emotions, r…
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“The story you tell yourself is terribly, terribly important. But when it comes to healing the body.. the question is ‘Can I transform that?’” I met Melanie in 2012 and have walked through much of my healing process with her by my side. In this episode, Melanie’s sense of humor and vitality shine through, even as she discusses her own ongoing work …
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Molly explains why she's launching this podcast and what listeners can expect. -------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes! Contact Molly: www.mollycoeling.com // molly.coeling@gmail.com --------------------------------------------------- A special thanks to: Gina McLaughlin Ph…
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