How to Trust Yourself: The Messy, Human Path to Becoming Who You Are

What happens when we stop trying to outrun the parts of our story we wish were different—and begin to understand that those very shadows may hold some of the material for our healing?
In this episode, Anna sits down with Cassidy Gard, a three-time Emmy Award-winning television producer, former Good Morning America correspondent, and author of Cosmic Goodness: Surrendering the Shadows to Live in the Light. Cassidy writes and speaks at the intersection of spirituality, motherhood, sobriety, grief, and reinvention.
For years, Cassidy made a career out of telling other people’s stories, covering breaking news, mass shootings, the Me Too movement, and some of the most emotionally intense events of our time. Behind the scenes, she was carrying a story of her own: growing up with an alcoholic father, childhood anger and shame, grief, anxiety, and the exhausting work of masking the parts of herself she didn’t yet know how to hold.
Cassidy began journaling at seven years old, and writing became both a refuge and, eventually, a way back to herself. In this conversation, she and Anna explore what happens when we turn toward our own inner world, recognize the breadcrumbs we’ve been leaving ourselves all along, and begin trusting the story that wants to emerge.
They talk about:
• Being highly visible while still hiding in plain sight
• Why Cassidy began journaling as a child and how her relationship with writing evolved
• The “cosmic winks” and seemingly small clues that can guide us through reinvention
• Moving from telling other people’s stories to claiming your own
• The emotional toll of working in breaking news and covering traumatic events
• Cassidy’s experience caring for her estranged father at the end of his life
• Grief, alcoholism, estrangement, and finding peace without receiving the closure you wanted
• Why writing a memoir can require giving yourself permission to own your lived experience
• Motherhood, sobriety, and intentionally creating a different kind of family life
• Why spirituality doesn’t have to mean being endlessly “easy breezy”
• The idea that the shadow isn’t the enemy—and that we can’t surrender what we haven’t first acknowledged
• How to begin writing when you don’t have huge blocks of uninterrupted time
• Trusting that your story is worth telling before you have proof of where it will lead
Cassidy also shares a powerful reminder for anyone who feels intimidated by the idea of writing: start smaller than the big picture. A voice memo, an iPhone note, ten minutes stolen from an otherwise full day—all of it counts. The work can accumulate before you ever know exactly what it is becoming.
As Cassidy puts it, “The shadow is also where the medicine is that you’re seeking. You cannot surrender what you have not identified and acknowledged.”
Connect with Cassidy
Learn more about Cosmic Goodness: Surrendering the Shadows to Live in the Light at CosmicGoodness.com.
Follow Cassidy on Instagram at @cassidygard.
Cosmic Goodness is available wherever books are sold. If you read it, consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads—reviews can make a meaningful difference for debut authors.
Connect with Anna
Follow Anna on Instagram: @anna_holtzman
Learn more about Anna’s work: www.annaholtzman.com
Send Anna an email and tell her what stayed with you from this episode: anna@annaholtzman.com

In this episode, Anna sits down with Australian botanical artist and creative mentor Ros Gervay to explore what it actually looks like to build a thriving creative life grounded not in hustle, but in capacity, compassion, and sustainable momentum.
In this episode, we explore:
• The story behind “Paint Rest Repeat”
Why Ros insists that rest is a core business strategy, how she learned it the hard way, and why true artistic growth doesn’t come from pushing — but from honoring your actual bandwidth.
• How Ros balances creativity, business, and wellbeing
Especially for sensitive creatives and folks with chronic stress responses, we talk about how to create, grow, and share your work without overwhelming your nervous system.
• The challenges emerging artists face most
Including fear of visibility, perfectionism, comparison, pricing fears, creative paralysis, and the belief that they need to “earn” their right to call themselves an artist.
• How Ros helps artists move through those barriers
Through community, mindset work, permission-giving, capacity-based planning, and reminding them that they’re allowed to build a business that actually fits them.
• What lights Ros up most about her work today
Hint: it has everything to do with witnessing artists come home to their own voice, trust themselves, and grow in ways that feel aligned — not forced.
This episode is equal parts grounding and inspiring — a gentle permission slip to build your creative life in a way that honors your whole self.

Connect with Ros
• Shop Art: www.rosgervayart.com
• For Artists: www.permissiontopaint.co
• Artist Community: www.facebook.com/groups/permissiontopaintfreecommunity
• Podcast: https://www.permissiontopaint.co/podcast
• Instagram: @rosgervayart
• Facebook: @rosgervayart
• YouTube: @rosgervay

Connect with Anna
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/
• Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/
• Free workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen: https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseen

In this episode, Anna sits down with Lara Birk, PDH, founder of The Sage Practice and one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, and courageous voices in mind-body healing today.
Lara’s work is rooted in lived experience: her own journey through a rare medical condition as a teenager, 17 surgeries, structural complications, chronic pain, and decades of navigating a system that often has no place for complexity. Her mission is to expand the field of mind-body medicine so that more people see themselves represented — and more people can access hope.
In this episode, we talk about:
• The behind-the-scenes of her recent Curable interview
Why speaking publicly felt both empowering and terrifying — and what it took emotionally to step onto a platform where her perspective diverged from the status quo.
• Navigating fear before doing something that might “rock the boat”
The internal dialogue, the nervous-system responses, the questions of belonging, and the ways Lara grounded herself through the lead-up to that conversation.
• Why she chose to speak up anyway
The deeper calling beneath the personal fear — including representation, inclusion, integrity, and service to the people whose experiences mirror her own.
• How it feels now that the interview is out in the world
Relief, vulnerability, pride, activation — and the tender mix that comes when you’ve put your truth somewhere public.
• What she’s learning from the emotional aftermath
How this moment is shaping her personal journey, her self-trust, and her evolving voice as a leader inside her field.
• Her message to anyone considering sharing their own truth
Her advice on pacing, nervous-system safety, self-attunement, community support, and the reality that you don’t have to be fearless — just resourced enough to take the next step.
This is a beautiful conversation about courage, nuance, authenticity, and what it means to become visible in a way that honors who you really are.

Connect with Lara
• Website: https://www.thesagepractice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesagepractice/
Find Lara’s courses, 1:1 and group coaching, somatic tracking recordings, and extensive free resources on her website.

Connect with Anna
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/
• Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/
• Free workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen: https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseen

Have you ever caught yourself thinking:
"I shouldn't complain. Other people have it so much worse."
Or...
"I have so much to be grateful for. I shouldn't feel this way."
If so, you're not alone.
In this solo episode, Anna explores why these seemingly innocent thoughts can actually become a form of emotional self-censorship. While gratitude is a beautiful and important practice, it can sometimes be used—often without us realizing it—to invalidate our own emotional experience.
Drawing from her work as a therapist, Anna explains how many people learn to interrupt their feelings before they've had the chance to be fully experienced. Whether you've been the strong one, the capable one, the caretaker, the successful one, or simply the person everyone assumes is "doing fine," you may have internalized the belief that your struggles don't deserve the same compassion as everyone else's.
In this episode, Anna explores:
• Why asking "Does my suffering count?" may actually be the wrong question
• The difference between genuine gratitude and emotional invalidation
• Why so many of us mistake expressing our feelings for "complaining"
• How emotional self-censorship becomes a habit
• The connection between chronic emotional suppression, anxiety, burnout, and mind-body symptoms
• What Anna means by the phrase disenfranchised suffering
• How practicing unconditional self-compassion supports emotional healing
If you've ever felt guilty for struggling because your life looks good on the outside—or if you've found yourself minimizing your own pain because others have it worse—this episode offers a compassionate invitation to stop judging your emotions and start listening to them instead.
Resources & Links:
Learn more about Anna's therapy practice: https://www.annaholtzmantherapy.com
Follow Anna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/
If this episode resonated with you, please consider following the podcast, leaving a rating or review, and sharing it with someone who might need to hear this reminder: your emotions do not have to earn the right to be met with compassion.

In this episode, Anna sits down with Mari Reisberg, therapist, performer, creativity coach, and host of the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. Mari’s work lives at the intersection of somatic therapy, performance, and play — and her core belief is simple: life gets a lot more fun when we tap into our creativity.
Together, they explore how creativity shows up in everyday life (even for people who don’t think of themselves as “creative”), why so many of us feel blocked or disconnected from it, and what it actually takes to sustain creative energy over the long haul.
In this episode, we talk about:
• What creativity really is — beyond art, performance, or “talent”
• Whether creativity is something we’re born with or something we can grow
• Why so many adults feel creatively shut down or “not imaginative anymore”
• Common barriers that get in the way of creativity, including perfectionism, fear of judgment, and productivity culture
• How nervous system states (freeze, overwhelm, stress) impact creative flow
• Why creativity coaching can be so supportive — and what it actually looks like
• Simple, doable tools Mari uses to help clients reconnect with their creative selves
• How play, movement, and silliness can become powerful creative practices
• Practices for sustaining creativity over time instead of only in short bursts
• How to start small if you’re feeling blocked, tired, or creatively “out of shape”
This is a gentle, joyful invitation to remember that creativity isn’t something you either have or don’t — it’s a relationship you can rebuild, one tiny experiment at a time.

Connect with Mari
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcreativity/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sustainingcreativity
• Podcast: https://sustainingcreativity.buzzsprout.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari-reisberg-b1320151/
Connect with Anna
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/
• Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/
• Free workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen: https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseen