Let's HEAL!

In this episode, my guest is Alexa Bigwarfe, an author, publishing consultant, and advocate for grieving mothers. Our conversation highlights the universality of grief and its profound impact on us. Alexa has experienced grief in many forms, including the loss of a child, loss of close friends, and divorce. She shares her lived experience with grief, both the pain and the healing. Her healing journey has been grounded in writing, beginning with a grief blog and evolving to her work today where she helps other people to share their stories in books they write, publish and sell.   Grief is universal. Alexa’s experiences with the grieving process are the same experiences that I have had throughout my healing journey. Whether we’re grieving the loss of our inner child or the loss of a baby, the pain we feel and the fear-based emotions that we carry are similar. And it can keep us in a dark place if we don’t HEAL.     Highlights of this episode 💛Writing to HEAL: Writing is such a great place to expel the fear-based emotions that we carry inside of us. It’s just you and the paper. No one gets hurt by what’s coming out of you, no matter how painful or ugly it may be. Sharing our stories helps us realize that we are not alone. 💙Grief Isolates: One way to move past isolation is through community. Women tend to talk more than men do, so there is power in finding (or creating) support groups to connect with. But, talking isn’t just for women… 💛Expert Tip: When someone is grieving, please don’t say “Everything happens for a reason.” Instead, say “I’m sorry that you’re in pain.” It’s okay if you don’t identify with the experience, but as humans, we can all relate to pain and suffering.   Resources related to this episode ✨Permission to Thrive, A Six-Month Guided Journal for Grieving Mothers. This journal is applicable to anyone on a healing journey, not just recovering from the loss of a child. It includes sections on gratitude, breathwork, self-care, journaling prompts, and affirmations. ✨Sunshine After the Storm: A Survival Guide for the Grieving Mother, a compilation of stories from parents, offering emotional support and guidance for grieving mothers. ✨Find Alexa and her work on the web at: Sunshine After the Storm WRITE| PUBLISH | SELL Womenin Publishing Summit   Connect with Alexa ✨Facebook ✨Instagram ✨LinkedIn Connect with Write.Publish.Sell on ✨Instagram   Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT #healingjourney #grief #grievingmother #writetoheal

My guest is Charles McIntyre, a survivor, addict, and man of God. In this episode, Charles shares his full circle story about surviving religious trauma, battling addiction, and HEALing to serve God. We explore his experience with hope, evolution, and love throughout his life and talk about Charles's work today ministering to and working with other men in addiction recovery, including that he teaches Sunday lessons regularly. Charles and I are more alike than we are different. We are each survivors, each having suffered in our unhealthy survivorship for years, including escape and self-isolation. We experienced events that sent us to do the real work to heal. We took our HEALing journey and did the intentional and focused work to move past our suffering. And now, we are doing work the Divine calls us to do, using our lived experiences. If God can work this way in our lives, imagine what God can do in your life.  Highlights of this episode 💛Addiction is an escape. Escape is the way many of us survive after trauma and abuse. 💙Becoming relatable. Sometimes, our life experiences are the very things that make us relatable to others so that we can serve them. 💛What if we saw our ”failures” as lessons to make us credible and relatable in our work to serve others? 💙The power of therapy. Trauma therapy helps us dig deep into experiences that burden us when we don’t realize it. The things we do to ourselves have explanations, but we need help pulling out and processing the event(s) and our associated emotions. 💛Sharing our stories of healing for purpose: hurt people hurt people, but healed people heal people.  Resources related to this episode ✨Men of Nehemiah (MON) is a rehabilitation center combining biblical teachings, military discipline, and clinical counseling to restore men to their roles in families and communities. I see MON as a microcosm of the HEAL framework. It is hope. It gives men the tools & resources to do the deep self-discovery work to heal the root cause of their addiction. And it is love.  Connect with Charles ✨Facebook Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI & TT Keywords #healingmentor #healtolove #religioustrauma #addiction #addictionrecovery  

HONORING CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH ‼️‼️Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood abuse and may be triggering for some listeners. In this episode, I welcome Susie Vybiral, founder and CEO of Room Redux, a nonprofit that transforms rooms for children who have faced abuse. Our conversation highlights the importance of awareness and action in addressing child abuse, emphasizing how Room Redux provides a tangible form of healing by changing a child’s environment and personal space. We talk about the concept of unconditional love and self-love as crucial elements in the healing process. Be sure to listen all the way through to hear our final message of hope and empowerment, emphasizing the human capacity for healing and transformation. Susie has a beautiful heart and so much compassion for this work. You’ll feel her passion for this work and her love for the kids who are beneficiaries. It’s infectious!! I’m a proud supporter of Room Redux! There are any ways that you can become a supporter, too. Susie talks about some of these at the end, including helping to buy items for the room transformations through Amazon. Check out the link below in the Resources section. #weareroomredux Highlights of this episode 💙Awareness of Child Abuse: The importance of raising awareness about child abuse and taking action. We’re talking about the impact on boys and girls, so if you see something, do something because “Compassion + Action = Results.” 💛Unconditional Love and Self-Love: Unconditional love and self-love are essential for healing. The children who receive a Room Redux room transformation may feel a sense of unconditional love that they have rarely felt. It’s about giving them an opportunity to receive unconditional love and in turn seeing their self-worth which begins to foster self-love. 💙Healing Through Our Environment: Transforming environments aids in healing. Susie talks about some of the specifics of transforming rooms to achieve specific impacts relevant to the child, their well-being and the theme that they love. Room Redux has a structured intake process to plan the transformation (experiences and challenges the child has and does face, theme, color, texture, placement all have an impact), but she has a gift to almost channel exactly what the child needs in their personal space to experience healing and unconditional love. 💛Psychology of Healing: Our brains have an amazing capacity to rewire and change, which can be facilitated through positive environments and self-love. The trajectory of our lives can be changed, and the ripple effects are profound, including the potential to stop the cycle of abuse where someone who has been abused becomes an abuser. Room Redux taps into our potential to rewire our behavior and heal by changing the physical environment of the child—starting early!! Resources related to this episode ✨Room Redux (www.roomredux.org): A nonprofit organization that transforms rooms for children who have faced abuse. ✨Children's Advocacy Center: Where Susie gained experience working with families affected by abuse. Search the bold text to find a Center near you. ✨Book: The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis Connect with Susie ✨Facebook ✨Instagram ✨LinkedIn Connect with Room Redux ✨Facebook ✨Instagram ✨LinkedIn Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT #healingmentor #childabuse #transformation

HONORING CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH ‼️‼️Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse and may be triggering for some listeners. If you’re a parent or grandparent, DON’T miss this episode, where I welcome Kimberly King, a sexual abuse prevention educator and author. She teaches body safety education for children aged 3-10 and their parents, helping them to protect their children. We talk about the critical importance of body safety education for children and how adults can empower them to recognize and report inappropriate behavior. Kimberly shares insights from her books and her experiences in teaching parents and children about preventing child sexual abuse. 💥The YouTube link to today's episode drop is in the comments. 💥CTA: Please subscribe to my channel while you are there. Your support will help me to continue bringing my HEALing message to the world. 💥Audio version of Let's HEAL! with Beth Jones is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Highlights of this episode 💙Body Safety Education For Kids: Teaching children about their bodies and boundaries is essential. It’s estimated that 68% of kids don’t tell anyone, whether that’s because they lack the vocabulary or out of fear. This is why education is so important. Prevention through awareness and education is the best way to stop child sexual abuse. 💛Say No to Hugs: This is the title of one of Kimberly’s books, and I LOVE the concept and statement for children. I know what it feels like to be forced to hug someone I didn’t want to, even though I had no idea why. When I was young, I was forced to hug my grandfather, who had abused me, and although I did not have the comprehension of what had happened to me, nor the vocabulary to tell someone, I knew that something was wrong. Having to hug him scared me and made me feel unseen and disregarded. 💙Statistics on Child Abuse: Discussion on the prevalence of child sexual abuse and the need for awareness. Kimberly and I agree that the official stats from most organizations are low, and the prevalence is much higher than we’re told. Our belief comes from our work talking to survivors or others who know survivors. 💛Top 3 tips for adults: 1) Take a sexual abuse training course as an adult. 2) Start talking to your kids early—when they’re two—about body safety and providing them with proper vocabulary. 3) Teach kids their body safety rules and rights and establish who their safety adults are. 💙Top tip for children: Read a book on body safety rules and then talk through it to make sure they understand. Giving them specific scenarios to talk through helps them develop independent thinking and problem-solving skills. Resources related to this episode ✨Books & Online Classes by Kimberly King (Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Educator| Kimberly King-Tough Topics Mom, Connecticut): ●     "I Said No to Hugs": Teaches young children about body autonomy. ●     "Body Safety for Young Children": A guide for adults on recognizing risk factors. ●     Courses for parents and children to learn about body safety in a fun manner. ✨Darkness to Light (Home - Darkness to Light): An organization focused on preventing child sexual abuse. ✨Saprea (Sexual Abuse Healing and Prevention Resources | Saprea): An organization that promotes child safety education. ✨Happy Days: The Guided Path from Trauma to Profound Freedom and Inner Peace, Gabby Bernstein   Connect with Kimberly ✨toughtopicsmom • Instagram Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT #healingmentor #childsexualabuse #childabuseawareness #childabuseprevention

HONORING CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH ‼️‼️Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse and may be triggering for some listeners. In this episode, I welcome Scott Dille, founder and executive director of Braver Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe, trauma-informed space for survivors to heal. Scott shares his personal journey and the mission of Braver Collective, which includes sharing survivor stories and offering resources for healing. Our conversation highlights the importance of community in the healing process, drawing from our experiences with support groups and therapy. We also discuss Judith Herman's stages of healing and how community plays a crucial role at every step of the journey. 💥CTA: Please subscribe to my podcast while you are there. Your support will help me continue sharing my HEALing message with the world. Highlights of this episode 💛Introduction to Braver Collective: A nonprofit that offers an online community, storytelling, and resources built by trauma survivors for trauma survivors. 💙Importance of Community & Storytelling: We both believe deeply in community's healing power and talk about our experiences with support groups. We look for community in so many other aspects of our lives—socially or spiritually, for example—so why not in the part of our lives that is so deeply seated that we need to heal? Resistance to joining a support group can be misplaced shame that belongs to perpetrators, not survivors. 💛Focus on Young Adults: When healing begins at a young age, before the average start of the healing journey around 50, suffering as a survivor can end more quickly and move us to a longer life in which we thrive. 💙Healing Journey Phases: Scott references Judith Herman's stages of healing: safety, remembering, mourning, and reconnection. 💛Personal Growth and Purpose: Scott shares his transition from a business background to working full-time with Braver Collective, illustrating finding purpose in supporting survivors.              Resources related to this episode 💛Braver Collective: a nonprofit organization providing a safe space for survivors to heal. Available at bravercollective.org and on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. 💙Judith Herman's "Trauma and Recovery": A book discussing stages of healing from trauma. Connect with Scott & Braver Collective Scott Dille on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram Braver Collective on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube #healingmentor #letsheal #childabuseawareness #supportgroups #storytelling #communitysupport

HONORING CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH ‼️‼️Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse and may be triggering for some listeners. In this episode, my guest is Taura Edgar, founder of TALK Hong Kong, a charity focused on child sexual abuse prevention and supporting adult survivors. Our conversation explores Taura's pain to purpose journey from survivor to advocate, the critical importance of prevention, and the transformative power of community healing. TALK Hong Kong is where my journey to find my voice began. HEALing in community was an essential part of my healing journey, which led me to TALK as a support group resource and the place where I started talking, safely and outside of trauma therapy, about the abuse I have survived. As a natural-born problem-solver and someone who is an expert in prevention, I wanted to do more. So did Taura. And that began TALK’s journey to advocacy. It also started my journey to become the HEALing Mentor. Highlights of this episode 💛Founding TALK Hong Kong: Taura created TALK Hong Kong after struggling to find a support group resource that matched her specific need. Initially, her mission was to create a safe community for female survivors of sexual abuse to connect and heal. Today, the organization also provides awareness and prevention strategies as the best form of defense to reduce the prevalence of child sexual abuse. 💙Personal Growth and Advocacy: Taura shares her story of transmuting her suffering as an incest survivor to becoming an advocate for prevention. Along the way, she engaged with legal reform, which led her to the TEDx Tin Hau stage, where she shared the findings of her initial research on the prevalence and impact of child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. 💛Community Healing: Finding a community that understands your unique experiences can save your life. When you begin to heal, talking about what you’ve experienced can be overwhelming, but as you talk more, the related grief lessens. Healing and getting past the heaviness lessen as you talk more. 💙Prevention Strategies: A primary prevention strategy is training adults to protect children, including breaking through challenging misconceptions about sexual offenders such as the belief that offenders are strangers. The reality is that offenders are very often known to the child. Localized prevention training in the native language is essential, as much training offered globally today is in English.                   💛Impact of Unaddressed Trauma: Unaddressed trauma is a public health crisis. The long-term effects on individual and societal levels are costly. Early intervention and support for survivors is critical to addressing the impact. Resources related to this episode 💛TALK Hong Kong 💙Darkness to Light, including its prevention programs and training Connect with Taura & TALK Taura Edgar | LinkedIn TALK Hong Kong | LinkedIn Taura Edgar | Facebook TALK Hong Kong | Facebook Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube Keywords #healingmentor #letsheal #childabuse #childabuseprevention #childabuseawareness #survivorsupportgroups

HONORING CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH coming in APRIL ‼️‼️Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of childhood sexual abuse and may be triggering for some listeners. In this episode, I share my journey of healing my relationship with my grandfather, who sexually abused me when I was a child. He died in 1994, 25 years before the focused and intentional part of my healing journey began in 2020. So, all the work I have done to heal this relationship has been spiritual and between our souls. I have had some genuinely profound experiences, which I share in this episode while also exploring the themes of trauma, forgiveness, and personal transformation. 💥The YouTube link to today's episode drop is in the comments. 💥CTA: Please subscribe to my channel while you are there. Your support will help me to continue bringing my HEALing message to the world. 💥Audio version of Let's HEAL! with Beth Jones is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Highlights of this episode 💛Child Abuse Prevention Month Dedication: This episode introduces a special series honoring April's Child Abuse Prevention Month. Stay tuned for the next four episodes, which will air each Friday in April. 💙Healing at the Soul Level: Learn through a real-life example of deep trauma processing about the possibility of completely healing a relationship, even with someone who cannot or does not participate in your process. 💛Radical Forgiveness: This is a profound, alternative, and transformative approach to understanding the intersection of personal trauma, spiritual growth, and life purpose (or our soul’s work in this lifetime). 💙Complex Family Dynamics: Respect and affection are often expected in familial relationships, but sometimes those expectations are misplaced or undeserved. Experiencing the demand for these actions compounds our trauma, especially as children, when we cannot comprehend or process either the abuse or the expected behaviors toward our abuser. 💛Healing Journey Stages: For survivors of child abuse, the healing journey includes confronting traumatic memories, reframing perspective, spiritual transformation, inner child work, and releasing generational trauma. Philosophical insights 💙Belief in souls traveling through multiple lifetimes 💛Understanding trauma as part of a more significant spiritual journey 💙The power of empathy and compassion, even towards those who have caused deep hurt Resources related to this episode 💙Book: "Complex PTSD: Surviving to Thriving" by Pete Walker 💛Book: "Radical Forgiveness" by Colin Tipping Part of this story is written in my book. The rest, at least as it has developed until now, is written in two blog posts on the Empowered Survivors website. All are headlined “Reframing the Hardest Parts” and can be found here: 💙Read my book Becoming an Empowered Survivor 💛Read my Let's HEAL Blog Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube Keywords #healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing #traumahealingjourney #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #childabuseprevention #childabuseawareness #generationaltrauma #forgiveness #radicalforgiveness #souljourney #spritualhealing #spiritualjourney

My guest, Aimee Stephens, shares her story about her journey from being a victim of incest to becoming a victorious 5x Ironman and 70.3 finisher. We have a lot of similarities in our stories, including suffering abuse by a family member, the unhealthy way in which our abuse was handled within the family, taking our healing journeys and marriages that did not survive our healing. “Without the hard, we wouldn’t get the easy. Without the pain, we wouldn’t get the joy. Without the rain, we wouldn’t get the rainbow.” Aimee Stephens, Turning Pain Into Purpose Highlights of this episode 💙Sometimes, how our trauma is dealt with after the fact can be worse than the events themselves. Not having the vocabulary to tell someone, ignoring or internalizing it ourselves, or being dismissed by those whom we tell are reactions that can cause us to create survival behaviors that can be very unhealthy. 💛Trauma therapy can save your life! Especially when you find a therapist who sees you and wants to help you… not necessarily the relationship. Aimee so beautifully shows us the power of the trauma therapy relationship. I feel the same way about mine! 💙When we feel out of alignment with ourselves, that may be a sign that we need to heal. 💛As we heal, figuring out what happened to us, patterns, and how we have lived can be like putting puzzle pieces together to create the complete picture of our lives. 💙Understanding that we have been abused and hearing the proper terminology can bring a host of emotions, including shock and fear. Still, it can also be liberating as we are awakened and can begin the work to heal. 💛In familial abuse, sometimes it’s not only our abuser that we need to heal our relationship with but also other family members who either protect our abuser or don’t know how to deal with the situation. Resources related to this show ✨https://stan.store/healthyaimee ✨Aimee Stephens (@healthyaimee) • Instagram photos and videos Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube Keywords #healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing #traumahealingjourney #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #Ironman #70.3finisher #victor

In this episode, hear from a master as she explains what’s happening in Reiki and the power of healing when energetics, spirituality, body touch, and emotions come together. My guest, Jennifer Dennison, is a gifted healer with a shared strength story. Her journey led her to experience the healing power of Reiki for herself and as a lived experience to help her clients.  BONUS FEATURE: Listen to us explore what happened to me during some of my most powerful healing experiences facilitated through Reiki with Jennifer, including my experience seeing my grandfather as a young boy before he suffered his trauma and human conditioning. This experience was one of the most profound parts of healing my relationship with my grandfather, the first person who abused me. Highlights of this episode 💙Reiki helps us to remain in love-based emotions associated with higher levels of consciousness. Emotions like depression, sadness, fear and shame can be transmuted to awareness, surrender, joy and love through Reiki practice. 💛Reiki facilitates physical healing by releasing blocked energy from our bodies. But it can also open us up spiritually and help us discover our life’s purpose. 💙Often our healing is associated with generational trauma, which is not time-bound. We have the power to heal our generational past and future generations that come from us. I have had this exact experience: healing myself, releasing my grandfather, and stopping the generational trauma from falling to future generations of my family. Ultimately, what’s happening in my family is an elevation of our collective consciousness moving us all toward love. 💛Healing is like peeling back the layers of an onion. As we move forward, we revisit the painful parts of our lives and sometimes past lives. Ultimately, we heal by allowing the process to unfold, giving up control, and surrendering. Trust in the process and the provider you have been led to is foundational to allowing the process to unfold. Resources related to this show ✨Connect with Jennifer at Beyond the Veil Higher Healing: https://l.bttr.to/CEmCY Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | YouTube Keywords #healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing #traumahealingjourney #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #reiki #reikimaster #spiritualhealing #energyhealing #energetichealing #emotionalhealing #bodywork #healingpastlives #generationaltrauma #healinggenerationaltrauma 

My guest in this episode, Brian Henderson, and I have interesting similarities in our stories. Our journeys began within months of each other, and we both walked our healing pathways in Hong Kong. As a result of our healing, we left professional services (where we worked with companies on high-stakes matters), found our life’s purpose, and now serve other people as they walk their healing pathways. I love the part of this conversation where we talk about how trauma and abuse can show up in our performance at work, often through what is perceived to be underperformance. Yet, neither the manager nor the employee has any idea. Rarely do we think about healing from our past to improve performance at work.   And I REALLY love the part where we talk about MEN! I am passionate about the reality that trauma and abuse know no demographic boundaries, including gender. Men are emotional beings who can be hurt in all the same ways that women can be and, therefore, also need to heal if they are living in suffering as an unhealed survivor. Highlights of this episode 💙Healing is a marathon, not a race. 💛Work can distract us from what needs to be healed in our personal lives. 💙Burnout occurs when stress exceeds the body’s coping ability, and no amount of well-being practice can prevent the effect on the body. Brian talks about having a healthy lifestyle—exercise, meditation, yoga, being in nature—which would typically help offset burnout. Still, he was under so much pressure at work that no amount of his healthy lifestyle was enough to keep him from burnout. 💛Part of evolving is coming to understand that sometimes we are our own worst enemy—what I refer to as the wretched abuser—because we can contribute to our suffering. 💙Trauma and abuse can show up in our professional lives through performance evaluations where we are told, for example, that we don’t have a voice, mumble, are not assertive, or do not have “executive presence.” Healing can help us to improve, but as employees, we may not recognize that our past can impact our performance. Managers rarely have the training to recognize healing work to help improve employee performance. 💛Similarly, we must understand the workplace triggers that make us less-than-effective leaders or leaders without presence and an ability to connect deeply with colleagues. 💙The benefits of support groups specific to the trauma and abuse you have experienced cannot be overstated. There is so much power in connecting with and being understood and accepted by people with shared experiences. Resources related to this episode ✨MoveMEN! is a support group where men can slow down, relax, drop the tough guy, be kind, support each other and cultivate some wellness wisdom. ✨MoveMEN! on ​IG​ ✨Insight Dialogue is partner work with expression and listening to develop deep interpersonal relationships and facilitate healing. ✨Burnout Recovery Support Groups ✨Brian Henderson (he/him) | LinkedIn Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media @bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT Keywords #healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing “traumahealingjourney #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #burnout “jobperformance #supportgroups #movemen