Just Like Nana

Amie Penny Sayler
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Mental Health

Dive into the journey of Just Like Nana, a podcast passionately exploring ancestral trauma, generational healing, and the profound ways our family's past shapes our present mental and holistic health. Amie Penny Sayler shares captivating, research-based fiction stories of her grandmothers' lives and features insightful interviews with leading mental health and wellness practitioners.  Learn how to break cycles of trauma passed down through generations, understand family dynamics, and cultivate a regulated nervous system. Ground yourself in your history, honor your ancestors, and find your own path to trauma healing.  New episodes every Friday. Learn more at https://justlikenana.com/ 

  1. 6d ago

    Juliet Patterson

    *Content Warning: Discussion of suicide Juliet Patterson is the author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide, which explores how suicide shaped her family line. She also discusses how breaking generational silences, reconnecting with the land and local communities, and cultivating somatic awareness can help us heal inherited grief and reclaim our true sense of belonging.  About Juliet Juliet Patterson is the author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide (Milkweed Editions, September 2022), finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Awards and named one of the best memoirs of 2022 by Library Journal. She has also published two full-length poetry collections, Threnody, (Nightboat Books 2016), a finalist for the 2017 Audre Lorde Poetry Award, and The Truant Lover, (Nightboat Books, 2006), winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. A recipient of the Arts & Letters Susan Atefat Prize in non-fiction, and a Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize, she has also been awarded fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Minneapolis-based Creative Community Leadership Institute (formerly the Institute for Community and Creative Development). She teaches creative writing at St. Olaf College and Augsburg University’s low-residency MFA program. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.  In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Understand Inherited Grief and Generational Silences: Unaddressed family trauma and shame create inherited grief—an unspoken emotional weight that children absorb and carry somatically in their bodies long before they learn the facts.Reconnect with Land and Place as Somatic Anchors: Human beings are deeply mammalian; reconnecting with the physical land, environment, and regional geography helps ground us, allowing space to process complex grief that feels too heavy for everyday life.Break Free from Rigid Family Roles: Family systems often assign surface-level roles to avoid difficult feelings. Reclaiming emotional honesty and practicing vulnerability helps disrupt stilted patterns and allows each family member to express their full humanity.Examine the Pressures of Traditional Masculinity: Three generations of male suicide highlight how societal expectations of traditional, stoic masculinity force men to repress deep emotional sensitivity and isolate themselves instead of seeking community support.Cultivate Somatic Self-Awareness Daily: Simple somatic practices—such as checking in with how your body feels when you're upset or walking barefoot on the earth—help reconnect the mind and body, breaking the cycle of emotional detachment. Resources Mentioned Jonathan Foer: https://www.climateone.org/people/jonathan-safran-foerbell hooks All About Love: https://www.blackgarnetbooks.com/item/2QHtVTCGJR-y-vmDK_S93wPema Chödrön: https://pemachodronfoundation.org/Connect with Juliet Patterson Website: https://www.julietpatterson.com/ Books: https://milkweed.org/book/sinkhole Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Juliet Patterson

  2. Sep 11

    Jen Gallagher

    Jen Gallagher is here to break the silence around women's rage. She explains why anger is a vital, neurobiological survival system and how accessing somatic wisdom helps us alchemize inherited emotional patterns. Learn how to dismantle the taboo around rage, heal ancestral silences, and discover the clarity, power, and freedom on the other side. About Jen Jen Gallagher is a therapist, writer and activist with over 20 years of clinical experience. She's passionate about breaking the silence around women's rage in midlife, and dedicated to helping women discover the clarity and power in their own rage. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Recognize Rage as Accumulated Anger: Neurobiologically, rage is a primary subcortical brain system. Unlike fleeting anger, rage is the accumulation of decades of suppressed boundary violations, unmet needs, and unresolved systemic or personal traumas.Understand the Purpose of Anger: Anger acts as a critical alarm system that signals when a boundary is violated, when we need to pull back to protect ourselves, or when our nervous system is overtaxed and flooded.Bypass Cognitive Talk Therapy with Somatic Metaphor: Because rage lives deep in the subcortical brain beyond conscious words, untangling it requires visceral, somatic, and experiential approaches like non-dominant hand drawing, color mapping, and imagery.Trace Systemic and Ancestral Patterns: Unexpressed rage often stems from family systems where ancestors had to suppress their anger just to survive. Placing your personal feelings within a multi-generational genealogy helps remove individual shame and spreads the emotional weight across history.Balance Regulation and Activation for Real Change: The brain cannot rewire itself if it is completely calm or overwhelmingly flooded; real emotional transformation happens at the intersection of nervous system regulation and gentle emotional activation. Resources Juliane Taylor Shore: https://www.julianetaylorshore.com/ Learn more about genograms: https://genopro.com/genogram/ Connect with Jen Gallagher Website: https://www.jengallaghercounseling.com/ Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Jen Gallagher

  3. Sep 4

    Rebecca Ratcliff

    Rebecca Ratcliff discusses how stored ancestral trauma and unintegrated soul fragments live within our electromagnetic fields, and how bridging Western medical science with indigenous shamanic practices, soul retrieval, and ancestral sacredness can help you break inherited trauma loops and reclaim your complete, integrated self. About Rebecca Rebecca Ratcliff is a retired Family Medicine physician and spiritual healer who combines Western medical expertise with Indigenous Peruvian Shamanic practices to address the root causes of illness. After earning her Medical Degree from Rush University and completing her residency at the University of New Mexico and fellowship at Maricopa County Health Systems, she trained extensively in Andean healing traditions with Alberto Villoldo and Jose Luis Herrera, practicing Shamanic healing alongside medicine starting in 2006. Now practicing full-time in coordination with Twin Cities physicians and therapists, Dr. Ratcliff uses her background to help clients transform developmental and ancestral trauma, offering complementary Shamanic care for chronic physical and psychological conditions by bridging traditional wisdom with holistic healing. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Understand the Multidimensional Human Continuum: Western medicine excels at addressing the dense, 3D mechanical body (such as physical trauma or surgeries), but shamanic healing works with the surrounding electromagnetic and quantum fields that inform physical tissue and store emotional trauma.Integrate Lost Soul Fragments via Quantum Soul Retrieval: Traumatic childhood events or ancestral war experiences can cause fragments of the soul to stay trapped in another time and space; soul retrieval reintegrates those parts into the present body to restore wholeness and remove long-standing blocks.Shift from Historical Isolation to Sacred Connection: Western culture often leaves individuals feeling like "spiritual orphans" detached from nature. Reconnecting with the inherent sacredness of the land, mountain spirits, and ancestral lineages provides a deep, supportive container for lasting transformation.Differentiate Unhealed Ancestors from Healed Guides: When connecting with your lineage, practice discernment by intentionally calling upon your healed ancestors—those who have transitioned to a healed vibrational state and can act as loving co-workers in your healing journey.Reclaim Internal Authority Over Illness: Recognize the limitations of conventional medicine. If medical workups come back normal yet physical or emotional distress remains, look beyond the 3D model to address energetic imbalances and inherited family trauma. Connect with Rebecca Ratcliff Website: https://www.centerforcollaborativehealth.com/ Email: muni.healing@gmail.com Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Rebecca Ratcliff

  4. Aug 28

    Iya Affo

    Iya Affo, founder of Heal Historical Trauma and trauma specialist, is discussing the details of integrating versus healing ancestral trauma in our lives, as well as regulating your nervous system and tending to the living altar of your body. About Iya Iya Affo is the founder of Heal Historical Trauma, a Culturalist, and a Western-certified Trauma Specialist whose lifelong work bridges indigenous healing traditions and neurobiology. Descended from a lineage of spiritual and physical healers with heritage spanning West Africa and the Caribbean, she integrates over 35 years of client experience with formal certifications in models like Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model for Caregiving, Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), and Native American-based trauma programs. Having lived, studied, and collaborated with indigenous, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, and Native American communities across more than 30 countries, Iya is an international speaker, author, and educator who advocates for the harmonization of Traditional and Western medicine to cultivate holistic healing, reculturing, and resilience for disempowered populations worldwide.  In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Distinguish Historical Trauma from Ancestral Trauma: Historical trauma acts as the macro-level event (such as systemic violence or colonization), while ancestral trauma is how that macro event gets localized within a specific family's home life, cellular memory, and relational conditioning.Shift from Abstract "Healing" to Embodied Integration: Rather than trying to erase painful historical events, focus on integration—using ancestral rituals and somatic practices to process past pain so it increases your capacity to navigate adversity.Regulate Your Nervous System from the Bottom Up: Your neurobiology drives your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Decreasing stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline) and boosting feel-good neurotransmitters (dopamine, oxytocin) automatically changes how you think, feel, and relate to others.Utilize Rhythmic and Lateral Movement for Nervous System Regulation: Simple, rhythmic activities like swinging, hula-hooping, or walking (which induces rapid lateral eye movements similar to EMDR) calm dysregulated nervous system patterns that may have been passed down for generations.Tend to the Living Altar of Your Body: You are not starting from scratch; your physical body is the living altar of thousands of generations who survived before you. Honor your lineage by distinguishing the "fire" (creativity, strength, endurance) from the "ash" (outdated coping mechanisms) and making conscious space for your ancestors in your daily life. Connect with Iya Affo Website: https://healhistoricaltrauma.com/ Resources https://www.emdr.com/about-the-emdr-institute/ Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Iya Affo

  5. Aug 21

    Missy Toy Ozeas

    Energy healer Missy Toy Ozeas discusses how hidden, inherited patterns and ancestral trauma keep us trapped in survival mode, and how to identify subconscious blocks and unlock energetic sovereignty. About Missy Toy Ozeas Missy Toy Ozeas is an energy healer and intuitive guide. She helps accomplished, heart-centered leaders find and release the hidden beliefs keeping them from their full power. She’s led thousands of sessions with clients all over the world — Hollywood creatives, wellness entrepreneurs, musicians, activists, artists — and she specializes in one thing: finding the exact belief that's running the show beneath the surface, tracing it to its origin, and clearing it so everything downstream can shift. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Distinguish Mindset from Energy Problems: When you keep hitting a wall despite doing "all the right things," you are likely dealing with stored childhood or ancestral energy rather than a lack of strategy or effort.Trace Trapped Beliefs to the Lineage: Subconscious limiting beliefs—such as "having money isn't safe"—can originate from an ancestor's traumatic survival experience and are passed down through your family line.Perform Energetic Witnessing to Clear Blocks: Ancestors long to be seen and acknowledged; simply witnessing their original fear or story with compassion allows stored energy to balance and release.Cultivate Energetic Sovereignty: Sovereignty means taking radical personal responsibility for your own energy field—walking through the world with "nothing to defend and nothing to prove" while giving others 100% permission to be themselves.Engage Your Lineage Through Simple Intention: You do not need a complete family tree or historical records to connect with your lineage; taking an intentional walk and inviting your ancestors to join you moves energy immediately. Connect with Missy Toy Ozeas Website: https://www.missyenergyhealing.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missyenergyhealing/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpw2lIbdJzRlnhcsdWSK4w More information on The Clairs: https://innerspectrumhealing.com/blog/the-clairs-explained Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Missy Toy Ozeas

  6. Aug 14

    Dionne Ford

    Author Dionne Ford, discusses her memoir, Go Back and Get It.  She addresses the sacred value of the family archive, what it looks like to cultivate a daily ancestral practice, and the undeniable necessity of reparations to heal the wealth and education gaps woven into American society.   About Dionne Ford Dionne Ford is author of the memoir ‘Go Back and Get It’, which was a 2024 finalist for the Hurston Wright Foundation Legacy Award and co-editor of the anthology Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Virginia Quarterly Review, LitHub, The Boston Globe, New Jersey Monthly, Rumpus and Ebony among other publications and won awards from the the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Newswomen's Club of New York.  Most recently, she received a 2026 Individual Artist Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Reclaim Ownership of Your Family Archive: You do not need to wait for outside authorities or a formal stamp of approval to tell you who you are. Your family history and internal architecture carry a sacred authority that is contained within you.Value the Sacredness of Oral Storytelling: Long before documentation existed, human beings preserved their legacies through oral histories. Honoring the stories passed down by a grandparent—exactly as they were told—is a vital, non-negotiable step in intergenerational healing.Engage in Embodied Ancestral Connections: Connecting with your lineage can be a deeply visceral, physical experience. Cultivating mindful habits, creating a personal altar, or engaging in ancestral physical arts like Capoeira bridges generation gaps and embodies the strength of those who came before you.Commit to a Daily Relational Ritual: Staying connected to your ancestors doesn't have to be a rigid, distant concept. Implementing a simple morning devotional or checking in with your lineage throughout the day keeps their memory alive and treats them like a close, accessible friend.Acknowledge the Ripple Effect of Reparations: Reparations are a fully tangible, executable necessity to address systemic wealth gaps, property tax structures, and education inequities. Repairing a historical wrong does not just benefit the harmed party; it actively heals and elevates the justice of the entire society. Resources https://www.aamchealthjustice.org/news/research/reparationshttps://www.ivoryinnovations.org/post/reparationshttps://www.ywcastpaul.org/history-of-the-rondo-neighborhood/https://www.ictj.org/reparationshttps://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/https://www.abada.org/capoeira-history/ Connect with Dionne Website: https://www.dionneford.com/ Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Dionne Ford

  7. Aug 7

    Amy Vincze

    Amy Vincze, EFT Tapping coach and creator of the Soar with Tapping app, discusses the benefits of an EFT Tapping practice and how it can help heal ancestral trauma. Amy also explains the importance of engaging with uncomfortable emotions, instead of always forcing a focus on the positive. About Amy Vincze Amy Vincze has been a dedicated professional in the health and wellness industry for over 20 years. She's a certified tapping coach and has been for more than 16 years. She has witnessed profound transformations both in her own life and in the lives of her clients as the founder of the Soar with Tapping App, Amy is on a mission to make the life-changing benefits of tapping accessible to everyone. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Target the Root Cause Over the Symptom: Treating symptoms like overeating or procrastination can be like placing a temporary band-aid over a gushing wound. True, permanent healing requires moving past surface symptoms and engaging directly with the originating core belief systems.Understand the 3-in-1 Power of EFT: Tapping combines physical percussion on ancient energy meridians (like acupuncture without needles) with cognitive reflection and deep somatic grounding to bring your mind (which often focuses on the past or the future) completely into a safe, present moment.Down-Regulate the Amygdala 43% Faster: When your subconscious tracks a perceived threat, your brain triggers a rapid surge of cortisol. Percussive tapping acts as a somatic override, signaling your inner guard dog to stand down and clearing stress hormones 43% faster than doing nothing at all.Access Ancestral Portals for Lineage Healing: Deep structural wounds—such as rigid, inherited programming about cultural expectations and gender roles—can visceralize in your body. Somatic tapping helps open an energetic portal to resolve these blocks, shifting the lineage pattern for yourself, your children, and the ancestors who came before you.Lean Intensely into Uncomfortable Emotions: You cannot bypass heavy states by rushing toward shiny, fake positivity. True emotional processing demands that you safely sit with emotions for roughly 90 seconds, acknowledging and feeling them until the intensity drops enough for your brain to accept a positive pivot. Resources What is EFT Tapping?: https://eftinternational.org/discover-eft-tapping/what-is-eft-tapping/ Connect with Amy Vincze Website: https://soarwithtapping.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soarwithtapping/ App on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soarwithtapping&pli=1 App on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/soar-with-tapping/id6449354621 Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Amy Vincze

  8. Jul 31

    Elizabeth Rosner

    Author and teacher Elizabeth Rosner discusses the importance of naming and acknowledging intergenerational trauma before moving towards healing. Elizabeth touches on the cultural understanding of intergenerational trauma, the limitations of scientific understanding, the importance of personal and collective histories, and more. About Elizabeth Rosner Elizabeth Rosner is an author and teacher whose work focuses on the redemptive power of storytelling and deep listening. Her six books have been translated into twelve languages and have received literary prizes in the US and abroad. Her most recent book, Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening, blends personal stories of growing up in a multilingual household with multidisciplinary research about sound and silence in the natural world. Her previous book, Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and was named among the best books of 2017 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Elizabeth travels widely to lecture and lead workshops internationally; her teaching carries forward a message of perseverance and tenacious optimism. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Validate the Biological Reality of Transferred Trauma: Intergenerational trauma is a concrete transmission where an ancestral injury, atrocity, or structural attack creates psychological consequences and genetic adaptations passed down to children and grandchildren. Knowing this science validates that you are not crazy for carrying fear from events that occurred before you were born.Reclaim the Ancient Wisdom of Lineage: While Western science is just beginning to understand the explicit mechanisms of epigenetics, indigenous cultures have always held the ancient understanding that we must look backward seven generations and forward seven generations when navigating our life purpose and actions.Embrace the Power of Deep Naming: True emotional and ancestral transformation cannot happen if we rush past the pain to reach a forced state of healing. We must dedicate time, energy, and meticulous attention to looking at, acknowledging, and naming our personal and collective histories to break the grip of secrecy and denial.Uncover the Multi-Generational Gifts of Resilience: Your ancestral inheritance is not solely defined by anguish and trauma loops; it also carries beautiful, luminous gifts. Reclaiming your lineage means actively identifying and savoring the creative talents, love of beauty, multilingual voices, and fierce courage passed down by those who came before you.Exercise Your Sovereign Capacity to Change: Although we possess no control over the exact traumatic history or genetic blueprint we are given, we hold absolute sovereignty over what we choose to do with it. By practicing deep listening and meeting ourselves honestly, we can actively rewrite our biological programming and choose our own changes Resources Mentioned Elizabeth’s Books: https://elizabethrosner.com/books/Connect with Elizabeth Website: https://www.elizabethrosner.com/index.html Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizrosner/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61096.Elizabeth_Rosner Connect with the Show Website: justlikenana.comShare Your Story: If you have a family story or trauma you’re exploring, reach out via our website for a chance to be interviewed.Connect with Just Like Nana's Website. A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective. Theme music by Carter Penny.

    Elizabeth Rosner
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About

Dive into the journey of Just Like Nana, a podcast passionately exploring ancestral trauma, generational healing, and the profound ways our family's past shapes our present mental and holistic health. Amie Penny Sayler shares captivating, research-based fiction stories of her grandmothers' lives and features insightful interviews with leading mental health and wellness practitioners.  Learn how to break cycles of trauma passed down through generations, understand family dynamics, and cultivate a regulated nervous system. Ground yourself in your history, honor your ancestors, and find your own path to trauma healing.  New episodes every Friday. Learn more at https://justlikenana.com/ 

Information

  • Creator
    Amie Penny Sayler
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Just Like Nana
  • Show Website
    Just Like Nana