Reframing our Stories: The Podcast reframingourstories

In this episode, Kara talks with Anna Hayek and Marco Orlando on the topic of sexuality health education for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the community that supports them.
Anna works for Mad Hatter Wellness, a business that creates comprehensive sexual health education programming that educates, trains and empowers people with intellectual disabilities and their support systems. She is a 200 Hour Certified Yoga Teacher, as well as a Certified Yoga Calm Youth Instructor and is certified to teach K-12 ESL and Spanish. She uses these certifications within her sexuality education classes.  Anna appreciates opportunities to empower people to connect to their breath, body and community. 
Marco Orlando is a trained peer educator on the Empowered Together curriculum, on the topics of healthy relationships and sexual health, designed for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The lessons were created to be co-led by a professional educator and peer educator. He is on the Board of Directors for Speaking Up For Us (SUFU), an organization in Maine that advocates to empower people living with developmental disabilities to speak up and take action in ways that improve their lives. 
Learn more:Anna Hayek @ madhatterwellness.comMarco Orlando @ sufumaine.org/marco-orlando

We can get stuck in the stories we tell ourselves and this can be an exhausting way to live. However, our brains are pretty wonderful and with intention we can help rewire and change the ways we show up for ourselves. This is what Christina Woods did for herself and now she is helping others through hypnosis and coaching. 
Christina combines her background in corporate leadership along with her life experiences in dealing with trauma and abandonment to empower other women to trust their intuition and set themselves free of self-doubt. 
As the CEO and Founder of Wise Woods Hypnotherapy and Coaching, Christina has extensive experience working on complex challenges and pulling potential out of others so that they can become self-reliant individuals. Through this deep hypnotherapy and coaching work, she empowers women to shed old programming, so they can live the life they deserve. She has been honing her intuition and spiritual energy practice throughout her entire life, and it is this experience, knowledge, and wisdom that she brings to every client during each session. Christina wants everyone to stop looking outside for what they need and instead look inside themselves. She helps her clients step into their true authentic self, free of self-sabotaging behavior, so they can live a life full of deep meaning, and potential.
Christina is a licensed Rapid Transformational Therapist®, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Empowerment Coach, and Reiki Master.
Learn more:Website | Facebook | InstagramJoin Christina's Private Facebook Group

On our podcast, we’ve talked a lot about sexuality related to people who identify as female, but today we are focusing on those who identify as male. Societal gender roles not only impact females, but everyone else. Reece Malone and Kara discuss the way that the buzz phrase “toxic masculinity” affects those who identify as male and the way their female partners perpetuate this culture. Reece discusses topics brought into this sex therapy practice and how many grown men don’t know how to access their emotions as they have been told to shut them off for so long. This messaging affects the way they show up in relationships and their sexual lives. Listen to the way Kara and Reece unpack these narratives together. 
Reece Malone is a sexologist, sex therapist and sexuality educator. He is an associate professor at Antioch University Seattle and a certified sexuality educator supervisor through the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists.  He provides program and policy consultation and service provider training in healthcare, education, social services and corporate sectors. Reece’s specializations include: workplace equitable and inclusive communication and practices, sexuality and sexual orientation awareness, 2SLGBTQIA+ equity and inclusion, transgender and gender diversity, issues in human sexuality, and sex-positive / sexuality affirming service delivery. He also has sex therapy and intimacy coaching private practice 
Learn more: 
. Website. Linkedin. An Intersectional Approach to Sex Therapy: Centering the Lives of Indigenous, Racialized, and People of Color

When a person is told they have breast cancer, there are many emotions that come from that diagnosis, including grief and fear. Lisa Chism is very aware of these emotions and the way they continually show up throughout the journey of battling breast cancer. This is why she looks at the whole picture with those affected by this diagnosis – from their sex lives, care and well-being, and how menopause or perimenopause is affecting them. In this episode, Kara and Lisa discuss the many things a person can experience with breast cancer and how to advocate to get the best care they deserve. 
Lisa Chism holds a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) and is the clinical director of Oakland Macomb Center for Breast Health. She holds three specialty certifications which include certification as a Menopause Practitioner through the Menopause Society, certification as sexuality counselor through the American Association of Sexuality Therapists, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), and after 15 years caring for breast cancer survivors and patients at high risk for breast cancer, she became certified in breast care through the Oncology Nursing Society. Lisa has established a dedicated menopause and sexual health clinic caring for the menopausal and sexual health needs of women who have a history of breast cancer or are at elevated risk for breast cancer. 
Lisa has authored numerous publications related to women’s healthcare including serving as lead author of the 2023 Menopause Society’s Non hormonal position statement. She guest lectures at universities across the country and her textbook The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional Issues is in its fifth edition. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and was selected as Menopause Practitioner of the year 2011. She formally served on the Board of Directors at the North American Menopause Society as well as a federal advisory committee with the CDC regarding breast cancer in young women. In October 2021, Lisa Chism was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Learn more:Oakland Macomb Obstetrics & Gynecology Provider ProfileNorth American Menopause SocietyInternational Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health

Kara gets personal with author Shannon Harris as they talk about her book The Woman They Wanted. As a pastor’s wife, Kara identified with Shannon in that the church can be hard place to be due to always feeling watched. Shannon and Kara share emotional moments together as they talk about being women, wives, and mothers while maintaining and navigating their identity in church spaces. Shannon Harris is a singer, actor, composer, writer, feminist, wild woman, and permission giver. She grew up performing, singing, and writing music and theatre until she met and married bestselling author Joshua Harris. Since her departure from conservative Christianity and conclusion of her marriage, Shannon has re-evaluated the ideas society takes for granted about women and their contributions. Now, Shannon has returned to pursuing a career in the performing arts. She is currently writing a one-woman musical comedy and released her first album under the name Shannon Bonne. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.Instagram: www.instagram.com/shannon.bonneWebsite: www.shannonbonne.com

In this episode, Kara talks about some of the things she has been reframing from her teaching students and her time in advent. In a recent teaching session at a church, they talked about secrets and shame. She talks about how it matters that Jesus came from an unwed, teenage girl. So much of the pain we carry has been constructed by society based on other stories of shame. We don’t need to hang on to shame. If we as a society learned how to operate from curiosity and support, and changed “better than” messaging, we would all be better off. Kara talks about how she hopes everyone in this season remembers that they matter and to offer themselves some compassion.