34 min

Ep.31 | Katie Gustafson: Thriving After Cancer: Finding Healing Through Radical Self-Care & The Enneagram Saving You a Seat

    • Management

When the tough stuff in life hits (like a breast cancer diagnosis), many of us want to run and hide. But what if we were able to sit with the pain? What if we were able to stay calm amongst the precious, messy, life-shattering moments that is life, instead of trying to escape?

This week on Saving You a Seat, we find out how to do this. Our guest, Katie Gustafson, calls it: radical self care.

Katie and I talk about what it is like to receive a breast cancer diagnosis. We both chat about our journey through a cancer diagnosis and how our healing deepened as a result of committed self-discovery, gratitude, and listening deeply to our hearts, souls, and bodies.

Katie says (22:17), “When it gets real, when it gets tough– that’s the time where we need to rush in and hold ourselves and hold space for ourselves the most. That’s when self care gets real.”

Katie is a therapist, an enneagram guide, writer, and a warrior for self-care. She uses the enneagram to help people identify the story they have been asleep in and break free of the lies they’ve been telling themselves. Katie’s unique program, The Practice, combines both western and eastern tools for a new way to approach personal empathy.

The paralleled paths we discuss on this week’s episode of Saving You a Seat are not simple and not for the faint hearted. When you choose to walk your path differently, with courage based confidence, and stop playing small, you just might find that it’s in the really tough and difficult circumstances that we come into contact with our deepest wisdom, presence and joy.

Here’s what we connect on:


Katie and Karen discuss their breast cancer journeys (3:05)
How the Enneagram can be used as a holistic tool to deepen our body, mind, and soul synergies (8:27)
Learning how to find presence, daily gratitude, and gifts through even the hardest seasons of life (14:44)
How to embrace radical self-care, cultivate self compassion, and change your outlook and perspective on life (16:55)
Connecting consciously: How we can wake up to what is in our hearts and be rigorously self-honest (23:50)

To further connect:


More on Richard Rohr
Subscribe to The Practice monthly toolkit
Email Katie: katie@katiegustafsoncounseling.com

Thank you for grabbing a seat at the table, please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next conversation!

To find more on Katie, visit her website katiegustafson.co or on Instagram @katiegustafson.co.

To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

When the tough stuff in life hits (like a breast cancer diagnosis), many of us want to run and hide. But what if we were able to sit with the pain? What if we were able to stay calm amongst the precious, messy, life-shattering moments that is life, instead of trying to escape?

This week on Saving You a Seat, we find out how to do this. Our guest, Katie Gustafson, calls it: radical self care.

Katie and I talk about what it is like to receive a breast cancer diagnosis. We both chat about our journey through a cancer diagnosis and how our healing deepened as a result of committed self-discovery, gratitude, and listening deeply to our hearts, souls, and bodies.

Katie says (22:17), “When it gets real, when it gets tough– that’s the time where we need to rush in and hold ourselves and hold space for ourselves the most. That’s when self care gets real.”

Katie is a therapist, an enneagram guide, writer, and a warrior for self-care. She uses the enneagram to help people identify the story they have been asleep in and break free of the lies they’ve been telling themselves. Katie’s unique program, The Practice, combines both western and eastern tools for a new way to approach personal empathy.

The paralleled paths we discuss on this week’s episode of Saving You a Seat are not simple and not for the faint hearted. When you choose to walk your path differently, with courage based confidence, and stop playing small, you just might find that it’s in the really tough and difficult circumstances that we come into contact with our deepest wisdom, presence and joy.

Here’s what we connect on:


Katie and Karen discuss their breast cancer journeys (3:05)
How the Enneagram can be used as a holistic tool to deepen our body, mind, and soul synergies (8:27)
Learning how to find presence, daily gratitude, and gifts through even the hardest seasons of life (14:44)
How to embrace radical self-care, cultivate self compassion, and change your outlook and perspective on life (16:55)
Connecting consciously: How we can wake up to what is in our hearts and be rigorously self-honest (23:50)

To further connect:


More on Richard Rohr
Subscribe to The Practice monthly toolkit
Email Katie: katie@katiegustafsoncounseling.com

Thank you for grabbing a seat at the table, please rate this podcast and subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next conversation!

To find more on Katie, visit her website katiegustafson.co or on Instagram @katiegustafson.co.

To connect with Karen, follow her on social media: @karenjhardwick and visit connectedleaderbook.com to order The Connected Leader today.

34 min