Reclamation Radio with Kelly Brogan MD

What if the very practices you’re using to “heal your nervous system” are actually keeping you stuck in freeze?In this episode I sit down with Irene Lyon, one of the most nuanced voices in the trauma healing and nervous system regulation space. Irene has spent decades studying somatic education, somatic experiencing, and early developmental trauma, and what she brings to this conversation is discernment… something sorely missing in today’s wellness culture.We explore the shadow side of popular practices like cold plunging, meditation, and cathartic trauma release, and why more sensation doesn’t always mean more safety. We talk about freeze response, pre-verbal and developmental trauma, and how well-meaning “trauma hacks” shared online can actually destabilize sensitive nervous systems.This is a conversation for those who feel they’ve “done all the right things” but still don’t feel settled inside themselves. It’s also for clinicians, parents, and seekers who want to understand what true embodiment looks like—beyond trends, performative regulation, and spiritual bypassing.My hope is that this episode offers a long exhale, and a return to what is simple, humane, and honest about healing.You’ll Learn:[00:00] Introduction[16:12] Why many chronic symptoms are nervous system survival patterns, not separate diseases[25:18] How trauma-release methods fail when a person can’t feel interoception[36:41] Why early and pre-verbal trauma requires a different path to safety and regulation[44:07] What goes wrong when meditation, catharsis, or pelvic work are done too soon[46:52] How meditation can reinforce shutdown instead of presence[53:24] Why cold plunging and breathwork can trigger freeze or collapse[1:10:36] How incomplete survival responses turn into freeze, collapse, and chronic illness[1:24:11] What must be in place before emotional or sensation-based healing👉🏻 Want to start a podcast like this one? Book your free podcast planning call here.Resources Mentioned:Andrew Huberman | WebsiteAndrew Huberman Control Your Vagus Nerve to Improve Mood, Alertness & Neuroplasticity | YouTubeStephen W. Porges Vagus Theory | WebsiteWaking the Tiger by Peter Levine | BookSomatic Experiencing | WebsiteDavid Berceli Trauma Release Exercises | WebsiteMolecules of Emotion by Candace Pert | Book or AudiobookFeldenkrais Method | WebsiteEMDR Therapy | WebsiteVipassana Meditation | WebsiteSpontaneous Healing by Andrew Weil | Book or AudiobookProgressive Muscle Relaxation | WebsiteLearn more about Irene's 21-Day Nervous System Tune Up here.Connect with Irene:Irene Lyon | WebsiteIrene Lyon | YouTubeIrene Lyon | FacebookIrene Lyon | InstagramFind more from Kelly:Instagram: @kellybroganmdWebsite: kellybroganmd.comJoin Kelly's monthly membership, Vital Life Project here.Get Kelly’s new book The Reclaimed Woman here.Go to the Juvent Store and use code KELLY300 at checkout to get $300 off your purchase.You can head to lotuswei.com and use the code Kelly15 for 15% off.

Access the Audacious Embodiment recordings here.What’s the real difference between erotic energy and sexual energy, and why has that distinction been so deeply confused?In this episode, I respond to a question that opens into embodiment, sensation, and what I call erotic artistry, not as sex or stimulation, but as vital force. I talk about how many of us live in functional freeze, moving through life on autopilot, and how practices that bring us back into sensation can interrupt dissociation and anchor us in our felt experience. This episode explores female embodiment, eros vs sex, and how prioritizing the senses—comfort, pleasure, movement, and presence—can awaken creative energy and aliveness in the body, moment by moment.You’ll Learn:[00:00] Introduction[00:01:02] The real difference between eros and sexual energy[00:02:46] Living in functional freeze turns life into autopilot and disconnects you from sensation[00:04:41] Prioritizing the senses moment by moment awakens creative energy and embodied aliveness[00:06:54] Intense sensation can be completely non-sexual and still bring you back into your felt experience[00:08:58] Choosing vitality over survival becomes a conscious, embodied practice rather than an ideaWant to start a podcast like this one? Book your free podcast planning call here.Find more from Kelly:Instagram: @kellybroganmdWebsite: kellybroganmd.comJoin Kelly's monthly membership, Vital Life Project here.Get Kelly’s new book The Reclaimed Woman here.

Learn more about Kelly's Relaxed Woman System here.What if women aren’t broken—but exhausted from living by values that don’t belong to them?Emotional suffering is often framed as pathology. But what if it’s information? What we call anxiety or depression can arise when our lived priorities are fundamentally misaligned with our inner values. When a life is organized around productivity, achievement, approval, or external validation, while deeper values point toward connection, intimacy, creativity, or pleasure, the psyche resists.For many women, this conflict shows up as burnout, resentment, guilt, or a persistent sense of futility. Not because something is wrong, but because self-abandonment has become normalized. Priorities are inherited, absorbed, and performed long after they stop feeding us.This episode explores women’s mental health through a different lens: symptoms as signals. Guilt as guidance. Exhaustion as feedback.When fulfillment is chased where it was never available, the system eventually collapses. Depression as a signal may be the moment a deeper truth insists on being heard.This is an invitation to examine your priorities and values, question what you’ve been taught to want, and consider what becomes possible when reprioritizing your life restores authentic expression.You’ll Learn:[00:00] Introduction[01:02] Depression reframed as the futility of living by priorities that cannot fulfill you[03:12] Resentment and frustration as early signals that your values and actions are misaligned[05:18] Self-abandonment as a learned strategy for belonging and approval[08:04] Burnout as the cost of organizing life around values that don’t actually feed women[10:02] The “hungry ghost” cycle created by chasing success, productivity, or validation[12:37] Guilt as an invitation to reorganize priorities rather than suppress discomfort[14:48] Alignment as the relief that comes from fully owning the choices you’ve already made[17:06] Reprioritization as a doorway to connection, intimacy, and renewed life force👉🏻 Want to start a podcast like this one? Book your free podcast planning call here.Find more from Kelly:Instagram: @kellybroganmdWebsite: kellybroganmd.comJoin Kelly's monthly membership, Vital Life Project here.Get Kelly’s new book The Reclaimed Woman here.Learn more about Kelly's Relaxed Woman System here.Go to the Juvent Store and use code KELLY300 at checkout to get $300 off your purchase.

Hear Amerly's first interview here, and listen to this related podcast on food boundaries here.What if your so-called food intolerances are really about your parents?In this episode, I sit down with my friend and mentor Amerly Centeno, a Family Constellation trainer and teacher whose work braids German New Medicine with ancestral dynamics. We trace my long, rigid history of cutting out gluten and dairy and lay it alongside the symbolic lens where those foods stand in for mother and father. From my Hashimoto's diagnosis to the first croissant I chose to eat in Europe after fifteen years without a molecule of gluten or dairy, I walk you through the inner shifts that made that experiment even possible. Tune in if you suspect your patterns with eating might be about much more than food.You’ll Learn:[00:00] Introduction[04:52] Why cutting out gluten and dairy can turn into an identity instead of a choice[09:47] What one bite of a “forbidden” food exposes about hidden rules in your body[12:36] How a small yes to pleasure can disrupt years of rigidity[14:52] Why feeling safer inside shifts how you digest the same foods[18:41] The reason symptoms can act as a biological solution when you can’t find one consciously[21:32] How early attachment patterns shape the way you take in nourishment[27:54] Why gluten and dairy often mirror the father and mother in the ancestral field[33:12] What changes when you stand as the adult child of two imperfect parents[40:52] How rigid health protocols can echo immature containment instead of true choice[44:10] Why some eating disorders reflect an unconscious loyalty to someone who didn’t get to live👉🏻 Want to start a podcast like this one? Book your free podcast planning call here.Check out Amerly's programs here and use code Kelly10 for 10% off.You can connect with Amerly and her work through her Website, and be sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook.Find more from Kelly:Instagram: @kellybroganmdWebsite: kellybroganmd.comJoin Kelly's monthly membership, Vital Life Project here.Get Kelly’s new book The Reclaimed Woman here.Learn more about Kelly's Relaxed Woman System here.You can head to lotuswei.com and use the code Kelly15 for 15% off.

Learn more about Kelly's Relaxed Woman System here.What if relaxing around money was the very thing that made it flow?In this episode, I sit down with my friend, ally, and esteemed colleague Kate Northrup, a business owner and author of bestselling books about money and doing less, as well as the host of a top ranking podcast. I still remember exactly where I was when I first read her work on making money a love story and realized I was nowhere near ready to change my own unconscious relationship with it. That title alone has reverberated through my reclamation experience of wealth and even helped me eventually say out loud that I love money.When money has always meant scarcity or panic, being with it in the body can feel like either gripping tight or checking out completely. Tune in to learn how that shows up as lived patterns and how a different kind of nervous system safety slowly makes other choices possible.You’ll Learn:[00:00] Introduction[05:14] Why redefining money as an energetic “yes to life” shifts your entire relationship with it[11:07] How noticing your open versus closed responses shows you exactly where money triggers your nervous system[16:42] What happens when you identify whether you’re in protector mode or expander mode around money[19:14] How family patterns of scarcity and abundance imprint your adult money behavior[22:01] Why kids often mirror the money fears you’re not consciously expressing[27:33] How your inherited beliefs shape whether money feels chaotic or organized in daily life[34:58] The reason your capacity to hold money expands only when your body feels safe[41:22] Why recognizing your upper limit with “havingness” changes what you allow yourself to receive[55:49] What shifts when you see every financial exchange as human-to-human rather than system-to-entity👉🏻 Want to start a podcast like this one? Book your free podcast planning call here.Resources Mentioned:Money: A Love Story by Kate Northrup | BookDo Less by Kate Northrup | BookLearn more about Kate's Relaxed Money program here.Find more from Kate:Kate Northrup | FacebookKate Northrup | WebsiteKate Northrup | InstagramKate Northrup | PodcastFind more from Kelly:Instagram: @kellybroganmdWebsite: kellybroganmd.comJoin Kelly's monthly membership, Vital Life Project here.Get Kelly’s new book The Reclaimed Woman here.Go to the Juvent Store and use code KELLY300 at checkout to get $300 off your purchase.