Bodyful Episode #25: Dacy Gillespie on Finding a Style that Fits YOU and YOUR Body

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By Valerie Martin

As a surprise to literally no one, the style & fashion industry is not typically kind to diverse bodies. 🙄

And today’s guest Dacy Gillespie is one of the few personal stylists working hard to change that.

With an approach to styling that prioritizes inclusivity of all sizes, shapes, and abilities and aligns with the principles of Health at Every Size (HAES), Dacy is a tremendous gift to her industry and to each person fortunate enough to work with her as a client.

I am so glad that this is the final episode of Bodyful, because it’s a topic that I’d not covered on any previous episode, and one that is SO important and lacking in mainstream discourse. As Dacy emphasizes in the conversation, finding a style that’s right for YOUR body doesn’t mean identifying what OTHER People find “flattering” for your body type— it’s all about exploring and identifying what FEELS good and makes you feel good about yourself when you wear it.

🎧 To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or visit this link to find the episode in your favorite podcast player. There will not be additional new episodes of Bodyful, but the existing episodes will continue to live on in Valerie’s main podcast feed (which is now Bad B*tch Therapist podcast).

About Dacy Gillespie (she/her)

Dacy Gillespie intuitively guides her clients to discover what they feel best in. She helps them let go of the external messages they’ve been given about what they should wear and get to the heart of what’s making them uncomfortable about their clothes. Through their work building a functional wardrobe, Dacy’s clients make a mindset shift from thinking they need to wear what’s flattering to unapologetically taking up space in the world.

After a lifetime of jobs in high-stress careers that didn’t suit her highly-sensitive, introverted personality, Dacy started mindful closet in 2013 in an attempt to create a more emotionally sustainable lifestyle. She has two boys, ages 4 and 8, and a husband she adores who is well aware of her mental load.

To learn more or contact Dacy, visit her website at www.mindfulcloset.com or connect with her on Instagram @mindfulcloset.

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Bodyful Episode #24: Mary Reynolds Thompson on the Powerful Archetypes of the Wild Soul Woman

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By Valerie Martin

Every now and then you come across a writer whose words and ideas just hit you bone-deep.

For me, most of them have been people whose words make me feel more intimately connected with the world around me: Mary Oliver, Robin Wall-Kimmerer, Richard Powers, Bill Plotkin— and most recently, Mary Reynolds Thompson.

When I started digging into Mary’s work in preparation for this conversation, I felt that rare but familiar deep resonance. In her latest book, A Wild Soul Woman, she explores five landscape-based archetypes she’s written about previously, this time specifically in the context of how they show up in womens’ lives.

In this episode, we explore about everything from burnout and addiction recovery to defining what it means to move through the arc of the human experience in your own “shero’s journey.”

🎧 To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or visit this link to find the episode in your favorite podcast player. There will not be additional new episodes of Bodyful, but the existing episodes will live on in Valerie’s main podcast feed (which is now Bad B*tch Therapist podcast).

About Mary Reynolds Thompson (she/her)

Mary is an award-winning author, internationally recognized speaker, and a facilitator of poetry therapy. A pioneer in the spiritual ecology movement, her focus is on the transformative power of landscape archetypes and nature metaphors to reveal our true purpose and right relationship with the planet.

Author of A Wild Soul Woman and Reclaiming the Wild Soul, a 2015 Nautilus Award-winner, Mary’s writings have also appeared in numerous other publications and anthologies. Through her books, courses, and talks, she reaches creatives, change-makers, and seekers who long to awaken to their most courageous and Earth-connected selves and have the impact they desire.

To learn more or contact Mary, visit maryreynoldsthompson.com and follow her on Instagram @wildsoulwriter.

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Bodyful Episode #23: Cleveland Hughes on Trauma-Informed Boxing to Heal and Find Your Power

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By Valerie Martin

As a person who’s never been into sports, the thought of walking into a boxing ring is more than a little intimidating— but that’s exactly what I did yesterday with the support of trauma-informed boxing coach Cleveland Hughes.

Not 10 minutes prior, I called it a “boxing rink” 🤡 😂 — so suffice to say, I don’t know much about boxing. But even with just a few minutes of instruction, it was so clear to me how useful these skills could be, not only to develop physical strength, but also sharp mental awareness, bodyfulness, and perseverance.

In this conversation, Cleveland and I talk about his journey to boxing, and his decision to gain further education to become one of the world’s first trauma-informed boxing instructors through his signature program, Healing Mitts. We also commiserated about some of the ways the fitness industry can be inherently harmful, especially for trauma survivors, when leaders do NOT have a fundamental awareness of trauma.

🎧 To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or visit this link to find the episode in your favorite podcast player. There will not be additional new episodes of Bodyful, but the existing episodes will live on in Valerie’s main podcast feed (which is now Bad B*tch Therapist podcast).=

About Cleveland Hughes (he/his)

Cleveland Hughes is a boxing coach and the developer of the Healing Mitts Intentional Boxing Training System. In 2009, a therapist suggested to Cleveland that he try boxing to help him cope with my anxiety and depression. He noticed the life lessons he was learning in therapy also applied to boxing. Through deep inner work, he gained the skills necessary to fight back against his mental health issues and trauma. He knew that he wanted to help people heal through the sport of boxing.

With 15 years of experience coaching boxing, and additional education on trauma-informed best practices, Cleveland developed Healing Mitts to help empower people struggling with mental health issues. He is proud to be a trauma-informed boxing coach and a mental health advocate.He currently offers group and private coaching in-person in Miami and Nashville (soon fully relocating to Nashville), as well as coaching online.

You can learn more about Healing Mitts at healingmittsboxing.com (a work in progress, more coming there soon!) and book a virtual or in-person session with Cleveland at the website or through DM on Instagram @clevelandh.boxing, where he shares tips and resources on boxing and mental health.

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Bodyful Episode #22: Jasmin Cage on the Power of the Subconscious

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By Valerie Martin

In 2018, I went to a hypnotherapy training near Seattle. It was not your traditional therapy training— there were maybe about 30 of us staying at essentially a large cabin in the woods for about 6 days, sharing a room with 3 random strangers.

One of my roommates, Jasmin Cage, happened to be from Memphis, just a couple hours down the road from me in Nashville— and we hit it off instantly. Both yoga teachers, both vegan (for the animals and other reasons), both Enneagram 7 squirrel-brains. 😝

I’d always regretted not staying in touch with Jasmin after the training… one of those things where, after a few months had passe, I felt like I’d missed the window. Wouldn’t it be “weird” to reach out a year, 2 years later? Would she even remember me? But 4 years after that training, this August, Jasmin popped into my inbox with the gift of reconnecting AND reminding me an important lesson that avoiding doing something based mostly in worrying about what other people might think is just plain SILLY.

In this conversation, Jasmin and I shared our candid thoughts on hypnosis/hypnotherapy, the yoga world, and got into a nuanced discussion of drinking culture, sobriety (including her new project Sobrietree), and… well, we had so much to cover that we’re planning to do a part 2, coming soon!

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Jasmin (she/her)

Jasmin Cage is a Memphis, Tennessee-based fine artist and RYT-200 (soon to be 500) yoga instructor. She is a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, Heart-Centered Hypnotherapist, and a Certified Y12SR practitioner (Yoga of 12 Step Recovery). Jasmin currently teaches yoga, breathwork, and meditative practices at Lakeside Behavioral Health Systems- a network of inpatient psychiatric facilities in west Tennessee. She recently launched Sobrietree, a project incorporating yoga, art, and spoken word.

You can find out more about Jasmin and her work at jasmincageart.com and on Instagram @sobrietree.

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Bodyful Episode #20: Shea Rose on Fully Embodying Your Voice

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By Valerie Martin

Shea Rose (she/her) is one of those rare humans who is both incredibly multifaceted and genuinely DEEP in all of those facets— like a shimmering emerald that catches the light from every direction.

She is a musician, an activist, an educator, a healer— and she brings such richness into all of these capacities after having journeyed her own path from trauma to healing in ways deepened all aspects of her voice: inner voice, physical voice, and written voice.

In this conversation, Shea and I explore the power of the voice, how we can start to find our voice when it feels suppressed or small, and how we can use movement and sound to access our fullest and truest self expression.

If you’re a musician or creative of some kind, you’ll especially resonate with this one (no pun intended 🤓) but even folks who don’t strongly identify as creative will still find so much value and depth in Shea’s wisdom.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Shea Rose (she/her)

Shea Rose is a multipassionate musician, activist, healer, and curator. Her music is influenced by soul, hip-hop, rock, and folk, and speaks to identity, self-acceptance, and transformation. She was a recipient of the prestigious Abe Olman Scholarship from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has won a Boston Music Award and a SESAC National Performance Activity Award, and was a featured songwriter and performer on two Grammy Award-winning jazz albums.

Shea partners with local, national, and international organizations and has worked with over 30 community groups, charitable and nonprofit organizations in Boston and worldwide. Her collaborations include live and in-studio performances, event curation, and workshop facilitation.

Shea served as an AmeriCorps State and National program volunteer for three years and is the recipient of the Berklee College of Music, Walter W. Harp Liberal Arts Music and Society Award for her demonstration of outstanding achievement in research, civic engagement, and performance relating to music and society.

Shea also offers holistic healing and empowerment services including Embodied Voice coaching. Her work is rooted in an Afrocentric worldview, which values song as a functional tool for engaging in daily life and expression of the full range of our emotional and spiritual experiences. She also integrates yoga philosophy, asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breath control), and yogic sound into her healing work.

You can find out more about Shea and her offerings at shearose.com and on Instagram @shearose.

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Bodyful Episode #19: Laura Khoudari on Healing Trauma through Movement, One Rep at a Time

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By Valerie Martin

Each year, there are just a few books that make it onto my all-time favorites roster, and this year, one of those is called Lifting Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time.

I highlighted damn-near half the book because there was so much that resonated personally and professionally. A few chapters in, I knew I wanted to try to get the author Laura Khoudari on the podcast.

Fortunately for me, she quickly responded and was down for it— after all, Bodyful is kind of a perfect fit for all the topics she wrote about in the book! And as a fellow Health at Every Size-aligned practitioner, Laura approaches fitness and training from a weight-neutral perspective (which, I don’t have to tell you, is unfortunately a rare thing in that industry).

This was such a rich conversation, and I can’t wait for y’all to hear it. Whether you’re a trauma survivor, work with trauma, love fitness, are repelled by working out— you’ll gain something from listening to this one.

To listen to the episode, stream from the podcast player below, or search & subscribe to Bodyful on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Laura Khoudari

A trauma practitioner, and certified personal trainer, Laura Khoudari is passionate about giving people the tools they need to heal from trauma and cultivate mental health and wellness. She is the author of the book Lifing Heavy Things: Healing Trauma One Rep at a Time. Her work has been widely recognized by the trauma and fitness community, and she has been featured on Buzzfeed, UpWorthy, Outside Online, Medium, Tonic, Nike, and Girls Gone Strong. She lives in New York City with her family and two cats.

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