And Still We Rise

Cristine Seidell

The "And Still We Rise" Podcast (formally known as The Ego Project), is hosted by mental health therapist and group practice owner, Cristine Seidell. It is a space where look deeper into our limiting beliefs or behavioral patterns, seek to understand our authentic self and find new and exciting ways to celebrate the radiance we are meant to bring into the word. Through unscripted and unedited conversations with thought-leaders, therapists, spiritualists, and creatives, And Still We Rise explores how childhood wounding and intentional healing impacts our lives. 

  1. HÁ 5 DIAS

    The Visibility Wound

    Send us Fan Mail A last-minute request to speak on local news should’ve been easy for me. I’ve spent decades studying childhood development, attachment, parenting, and teen mental health. Instead, my body slammed the brakes: panic, tight chest, throat closing, tears. That moment opened a door I couldn’t ignore, not into credentials or confidence, but into the deeper question of why being seen can still feel unsafe. I unpack what a somatic trigger really is, and why visibility hits differently when the audience didn’t “opt in.” We move from inner child basics to the inner teenager, where identity, belonging, and self-exploration are supposed to be protected, not punished. When acceptance becomes conditional, visibility turns into a threat, and adulthood can bring that fear back the second we step into authority, leadership, or public expertise. I also share the personal roots of my own visibility wound, including growing up in a rigid religious family system where deviation came with judgment and rejection. Then I talk through what helped me come back to the present, including grounding, EFT tapping, and a reparenting mindset that says: I’m allowed to take up space, and I don’t have to be perfect to be accepted. If you’ve ever felt your nervous system revolt right when you’re about to be seen, heard, promoted, or publicly known, this will resonate. Subscribe to And Still We Rise, share this with someone who’s learning to be visible, and leave a review so more people can find this healing work. Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    14 min
  2. 10 DE MAI.

    The Anxious Avoidant Trap

    Send us Fan Mail The anxious avoidant trap can feel like love at first because it’s intense, familiar, and weirdly predictable. Then you blink and you’re stuck in the same loop: one person reaches for closeness, the other pulls away, and both walk away feeling unseen. We sit down with associate professional counselor Mariana Bohn to unpack why that push pull dynamic happens and what it’s really protecting underneath. We get practical about the difference between anxious attachment and avoidant attachment, including what each person is trying to secure: reassurance versus reliability, closeness versus independence. We also zoom in on nervous system regulation and the somatic signs that your body is sounding the alarm, even if your face is “cool.” Racing heart, spiraling thoughts, urgency, shutdown, and that impulse to text 20 times or disappear for a week are not character flaws. They’re learned survival strategies tied to attachment wounds and early relationship experiences. From there, we challenge the chemistry myth. Not every spark is a green flag, and calm is not the same as boring. We talk about what secure attachment can feel like in real life, how internal narratives like “I’m too much” or “I’m all alone” drive conflict, and why change takes practice in a safe relationship, often with a therapist who understands attachment and can help you build new patterns through neuroplasticity. If you’ve been chasing, running, or calling it passion while you’re exhausted, this one will land. Subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations. To learn more about the work Mariana does at Rise Therapy Center, check her out at: https://www.risetherapycenter.com/mariana Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    37 min
  3. 22 DE ABR.

    What if Play Is The Language Your Child Needs You to Speak?

    Send us Fan Mail Your child’s “just playing” is doing something huge: building a safer nervous system, a stronger attachment bond, and better emotional regulation. We sit down with senior clinical therapist Lauren Buice to translate play therapy concepts into real-life parenting you can actually use at home. We talk about play as a child’s first language and why child-led play is so different from typical games where adults correct, teach, and steer. When kids lead within safe boundaries, they feel secure enough to learn and connect, and that changes everything from behavior to trust. We dig into the science in plain English: dopamine that supports motivation and joy, oxytocin that strengthens bonding, and mirror neurons that help kids absorb our tone, facial expressions, and emotional cues. We also unpack a core truth for parents and caregivers: kids cannot learn when they feel unsafe. Play is one of the fastest ways to signal safety, which is why it often reduces power struggles and helps kids practice perspective taking and flexibility without another lecture. We get practical about what happens when play goes sideways. We share how to set simple agreements, hold boundaries without shaming, and repair quickly so the relationship stays bigger than the correction. We also cover why many adults feel awkward playing and how humor can soften everyone’s stress response, lower cortisol, and even improve transitions like getting out the door or putting shoes on. If you want parenting strategies that support connection, co-regulation, and healthier child development, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with a parent friend, and leave a review so more families can find the episode. To learn more about Lauren and the work she does, you can find her at: https://www.risetherapycenter.com/lauren Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    29 min
  4. 3 DE MAR.

    Your Mom’s Fine… Until She Isn’t: A Therapist’s Guide

    Send us Fan Mail What if your nervous system learned that love required self-abandonment? We unpack emotionally immature parents with therapists Cristine Seidell and Taylor Strong, tracing how limited capacity, stress, and intergenerational patterns shape attachment—and how those early adaptations like fawning and freeze follow us into adult relationships. We start by defining emotional immaturity as a chronic struggle to regulate, reflect, and hold a child’s feelings without collapsing or retaliating. From there, we explore intention versus impact, why siblings remember homes so differently, and how “capacity” fluctuates with resources like sleep, workload, and support. The heart of the conversation is repair and accountability: what it sounds like when a parent owns harm, why that takes resourcing, and how to move from blame to compassionate clarity about needs. Cristine and Taylor offer practical steps for building self-trust and boundaries rooted in nervous system safety. You’ll hear how to identify fawning and freeze in couples dynamics, set “access levels” with family, and decide if limited contact, structured engagement, or a season of no contact fits your current capacity. We talk grief for the parent you needed, the self you postponed to belong, and the path to authentic connection when repair isn’t available yet. Along the way, we share tools, scripts, and recommended reads—Lindsay Gibson’s Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents and Meg Josephson’s Are You Mad At Me—for naming patterns and reclaiming your voice. The aim isn’t to punish the past; it’s to meet present needs with clarity, regulate through hard moments, and choose relationships that reciprocate. Press play for a grounded, nonjudgmental guide to healing attachment wounds, setting aligned boundaries, and creating space for real repair. If this resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share your biggest takeaway with us—what boundary are you practicing this week? Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    39 min
  5. 8 DE FEV.

    Invisible No More.

    Send us Fan Mail We unpack the invisible child: how being the “easy kid” can mask unmet emotional needs, shape adult attachment, and erode self-trust. We share practical tools—somatic check-ins, values work, boundaries, and self-compassion—to rebuild identity and receive care. • defining the invisible child and common family contexts • how praise for responsibility becomes a survival role • signs in adulthood: people-pleasing, numbness, loneliness • fearful-avoidant patterns and toxic dynamics risk • somatic skills to feel instead of overthink • values work as identity and boundary scaffolding • practicing self-compassion and learning to receive • nuanced repair with parents without black-and-white thinking • choosing safe relationships and building found family If you would like to work with somebody Kaylee is an amazing therapist here and really has great perspective around the parent-child relationship regardless of what age you find yourself in the parenting journey To learn more about Kaylee and the work she does, see her bio below: https://www.risetherapycenter.com/kaylee Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    27 min
  6. 5 DE JAN.

    Shame, Childhood, And Healing

    Send us Fan Mail We unpack how shame forms in childhood and why it feels different from guilt, then offer concrete ways to protect learning, autonomy, and connection at home, in school, and in relationships. Scripts, strategies, and mindset shifts help replace criticism with compassionate feedback. • defining shame as a belief about worth, not behavior • guilt as a teacher that guides change • how tone and reactions encode shame during mistakes • fear, perfectionism, and the I’m in trouble loop • family systems and sibling dynamics shaping identity • school labels, confirmation bias, and growth mindset • co-regulation, connection before correction, and scripts • feedback as a two-way process that preserves safety • using repair, do-overs, and specific observations If you're looking to learn more about this topic or others, feel free to like subscribe and follow "And Still We Rise"!  To learn more about the work Sara does at Rise Therapy Center, or any other services we offer, you can find them below! https://www.risetherapycenter.com/sara IG: @seenbysarak Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    28 min
  7. 03/12/2025

    Your Body Isn’t Overreacting; It’s Remembering What Childhood Taught It About Love

    Send us Fan Mail Your nervous system learned about love long before you had words. In this conversation, we follow that thread from early implicit memory to the patterns many of us feel in adult relationships—chasing, shutting down, or spinning between the two—and we unpack a kinder way forward. We explore the spectrum of attachment styles with clarity and nuance, showing how secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized patterns actually feel during conflict and what they signal beneath the surface. We dig into why secure attachment isn’t the absence of disagreement but the presence of clear thinking, emotional range, and timely repair. For anxious responses, we talk about flooding, impulsivity, and the urge to pursue for relief. For avoidant responses, we name the quiet danger of numbness and faux self-sufficiency. When disorganization enters the room, we map the chaotic swings between fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, and we emphasize the need for pacing, safety, and often professional support to prevent harm and restore clarity. Most importantly, we offer practical steps to widen your window of tolerance and rewire old rules through new experiences. Somatic reparenting becomes a simple, powerful tool: a steady hand, slower breath, and curious questions that help you hear what your younger self needs right now. From time-bound pauses that honor reconnection to concise repair language that lowers defensiveness, you’ll leave with grounded strategies to reduce resentment and build trust. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your inner child is loved, accepted, and important—and you can learn to love in ways that feel safe to your body. Looking to begin a conversation with your little one? Try these prompts: “Sweet one… what’s going on?” “Are you feeling small, unimportant, or unsafe right now?” “Did someone hurt your feelings…  or speak to you unkindly?” Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    19 min
  8. 23/09/2025

    The Comfort Zone Killer: Finding Friends Who Challenge You

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when we step outside our comfortable social bubbles? Licensed Professional Counselor Lauren Buice joins Cristine Seidell to explore how intentionally building diverse friendships transforms not just our communities, but our mental health. The conversation begins with a crucial reframing – diversity extends far beyond race and gender to include age differences, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and abilities. Lauren explains how staying in homogeneous social groups creates harmful "echo chambers" that reinforce our biases and actually increase our anxiety when confronting differences. Through her touching personal story of living with 80-year-old Glenda, she demonstrates how intergenerational friendships provide unique perspective and wisdom that same-age relationships simply cannot offer. Using her hand-drawn "Comfort-Stretch-Panic zones" model, Lauren visually illustrates a counterintuitive truth: the more we stay in our comfort zone, the smaller it becomes. By regularly stretching ourselves through diverse connections, we gradually expand what feels comfortable, building cognitive flexibility and resilience that serves us throughout life. For those feeling overwhelmed by the idea of diversifying their communities, Lauren offers gentle, practical starting points – pursue activities you genuinely enjoy where diverse people naturally gather, engage in volunteer work with a shared purpose, or explore community centers and libraries. She provides a powerful litmus test for authentic intentions: "Am I looking to learn or looking to earn?" Would you still participate if you couldn't tell anyone or post about it? Perhaps most compelling is Lauren's insight that diverse communities enhance our capacity for processing life's hardest moments. Different cultures and communities offer varied approaches to grief, trauma, and healing. By expanding our circles, we gain access to a wealth of coping tools and wisdom that wouldn't be available in homogeneous groups. Ready to expand your bubble? Listen now to discover how getting a little uncomfortable might be the best thing for your mental health. To work with Lauren and or learn more about the work she does, you can find her at: https://www.risetherapycenter.com/lauren Or on IG @laurenrisetherapycenter.com Thank you for tuning into And Still WE Rise! If you would like to learn more about me or the work our practice is doing, feel free to follow us on Instagram at: @atltherapygirl and @risetherapycenter Or check us out at www.risetherapycenter.com Disclaimer: And Still We Rise is meant to provide perspective and meaningful conversations around mental health topics. It is not meant to provide specific therapeutic advise to individuals. If anything in these podcasts resonates, ASWR recommends consulting with your individual therapist or seeking a referral from your primary care physician.

    26 min

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The "And Still We Rise" Podcast (formally known as The Ego Project), is hosted by mental health therapist and group practice owner, Cristine Seidell. It is a space where look deeper into our limiting beliefs or behavioral patterns, seek to understand our authentic self and find new and exciting ways to celebrate the radiance we are meant to bring into the word. Through unscripted and unedited conversations with thought-leaders, therapists, spiritualists, and creatives, And Still We Rise explores how childhood wounding and intentional healing impacts our lives.