Welcome to Healing Heroines: Real Stories of Purpose, Growth & Transformation, a podcast for women who have built lives they’re grateful for, but still feel the pull for something more.
Each week, host Chandler Stroud sits down with women who have answered that call, along with the trusted guides who have shaped her own journey, to explore the stories, choices, and turning points that changed everything. From unexpected interruptions and major life transitions to quieter moments of knowing, these conversations explore what happens when we stop ignoring what life is asking of us and start trusting ourselves enough to answer.
Because sometimes, the story that changes your life starts with someone else’s.
Every woman receives the call. A heroine chooses to answer it.
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Données mises à jour le 21/09/2026
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Everyone's Grief Personas are Different: Sarah's Story
mercredi 16 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:02:17
Sarah Baldwin was standing in line for coffee with an urge to tap the stranger in front of her and say, "My mom died yesterday." Not because she wanted sympathy, but because of how lonely grief can feel, which was a feeling no one warned her about.
What if the way you grieve isn't wrong; it's just yours?
Sarah is the co-founder of Restfully, a trusted guide through the overwhelming logistics and emotions of end-of-life and grief. It's everything she wished she'd known when her mom was battling lung cancer and after she passed.
Drawing on 20 years in corporate finance and data analytics, she created the "grief persona framework" after noticing a pattern: there's friction in some families after a loved one's death because everyone grieves differently. Sarah explains each grief persona and how they each play a role in the overall grief process. She also tells Chandler why following your intuition is never the unsafe choice.
What You Will Learn
[00:08:19] Sarah growing up as a self-sufficient eldest of four
[00:12:43] Her mom's lifelong avoidance of doctors and the regret that followed
[00:14:24] A woman who found her voice two days before she died
[00:19:19] Sarah sitting with death from a young age — and what it taught her
[00:33:03] What Restfully is and who it's built for
[00:36:33] Sarah's four grief personas and the conflict they explain
[00:59:15] Why resisting your calling is actually the unsafe path
When Life Calls You Into More: 8 Women on Healing, Change, & Starting Over
mercredi 9 septembre 2026 • Durée 22:39
Sometimes the call arrives as curiosity. Sometimes it arrives as a diagnosis, a loss, or a door closing that you thought needed to stay open.
What does it actually sound like when a woman stops overriding herself and starts listening?
This compilation episode brings together some of the most honest moments from the Healing Heroines. Their stories are completely different: betrayal, chronic illness, rock bottom, emergency surgery, a slow and quiet unraveling. But the thread running through all of them is the same: a woman choosing to pay attention to what her life was asking of her, and deciding to answer.
This is where the Healing Heroines begins.
What You Will Learn
[00:07:00] Dr. Debi Silber on rebuilding after total destruction
[00:07:30] Laura on what she'd tell her younger self
[00:08:30] Nerissa on trading "why me" for "what now"
[00:10:30] Ashley on surrendering to the right path
[00:13:00] Rebekah on making tea a three-minute ritual
[00:16:00] Kristen on the body shutting you down
[00:18:30] Alayna on healing as an inner world shift
[00:21:30] Katherine on coming home to yourself with plant medicine
The Rebrand We Didn’t Plan: Welcome to the Healing Heroines
mercredi 2 septembre 2026 • Durée 32:00
We weren't planning to rebrand.
That is, until Chandler received an unexpected email during a recent family vacation. But what started as an inconvenient problem turned into something she couldn't ignore, and ultimately, a profound realization over breakfast in her kitchen that brought her to tears in the best possible way.
What if the disruption you didn’t ask for is actually pointing you in the right direction?
Introducing The Healing Heroines Podcast—a place to discover what your own heroine story might look like. You’ll still hear the true stories of women who have moved through life-changing experiences and the trusted guides who’ve helped shape those journeys. But the Healing Heroines is becoming something more: a place for women who’ve built lives they’re grateful for, and still feel the pull toward something more.
Listen to this solo episode for the full story behind the rebrand—and what’s ahead in this next chapter.
What You Will Learn
[00:09:30] Chandler's trademark challenge and what it really forced her to see
[00:12:00] Why Healing Heroines wasn't plan B but the real name all along
[00:13:30] The heroines were always the center, not a subset
[00:15:30] Why Chandler's heart wasn't fully in the membership relaunch
[00:16:00] The hero's journey and where the guides really fit
[00:19:00] Creating spaces where women can write and share their own story
[00:22:30] The reel that stopped Chandler cold and the deep remembering it unlocked
[00:26:30] How Homecoming was born and what it's meant to give women
Resources Mentioned
by Bessel van der Kolk
From Weight Loss to Weight Health in the Age of GLP-1s: Ashley's Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 26 août 2026 • Durée 01:12:05
What if the way we think about our weight started long before we ever chose to think about it at all?
And what if we're having the wrong types of conversations about GLP-1s?
Ashley Koff is a registered dietitian, weight health expert, and founder of the Better Nutrition Program. Her understanding of weight is deeply personal, too—and she's spent her career building the framework she wishes had existed for her.
In this conversation, Ashley unpacks the critical difference between weight loss and weight health, what GLP-1 and GIP hormones actually do in the body, and why optimizing your hormones matters whether or not you ever touch the medication.
But before any of that, she shares a story she kept to herself for decades—one that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt like their body was a problem that needed a solution.
What You Will Learn
[00:10:00] Ashley's bully moment at age eight — and 40 years of carrying it
[00:15:00] How disempowerment leads to risky behaviors — the research behind it
[00:20:00] When Ashley's body started feeling like it was working against her
[00:30:30] The bar, the stranger, and Ashley's life-changing rock bottom
[00:36:30] What introduced her to GLP-1 hormones in 2004
[00:49:30] What GLP-1 and GIP actually do — beyond blood sugar
[00:53:30] Right order matters — digestion, hydration, and movement first
[01:08:30] What "your best shot" actually means beyond the medication
Resilience from Curing Lyme Disease: Alayna's Story | Healing Heroine
mercredi 19 août 2026 • Durée 01:07:24
Alayna Bellquist was bitten by a tick on a trail ride in San Diego. The ER doctor gave her two pills and sent her home.
What followed wasn't just a year in bed. It was a time when Alayna's life was abruptly halted, forcing her to reckon with everything that had come before it.
Alayna is a marine scientist, author, and speaker who spent two decades studying how ecosystems collapse and how they bounce back. Then her own body became the ecosystem in crisis. A chronic Lyme diagnosis forced her to stop racing, stop achieving, and start looking backward at a childhood that had quietly shaped her into someone who never asked for help and never took days off.
What she found on the other side wasn't just recovery. It was a completely different way of understanding what healing actually requires and how the words we use to describe our healing journey carry the most weight of all.
What You Will Learn
[00:14:30] Alayna's life scheduled to the minute, always racing
[00:18:00] What parentification explained about her patterns
[00:28:00] Three years of symptoms she called "stress"
[00:34:00] Hiding Lyme disease from her family for months
[00:37:30] Calling on a psychic out of pure desperation
[00:45:30] Addressing Alayna's true vulnerabilities, not the tick
[00:56:00] Why Alayna says "cured," not "in remission" when mentioning her experience with Lyme disease
[00:59:00] A simple perspective on what healing can actually look like
Cancer, Creativity, and Finding Herself Again: Nerissa's Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 12 août 2026 • Durée 01:03:23
Nerissa Balland was five months pregnant, working full-time, and had a 1-year-old at home when her dermatologist said the word malignant. Her first instinct was to keep going, but of course, cancer didn't care.
What happens when a life-changing diagnosis unravels your life and you don't have the words for any of it?
After two decades chasing corporate titles and pursuing nonprofit work, Nerissa had quietly set aside the one thing that had always made her feel free: art. A diagnosis of metastatic melanoma at 38 forced her to reckon not only with her health, but with the parts of herself she'd abandoned along the way.
Now, she's the author of Canvas of Courage and a therapeutic arts practitioner who reminds people that broken crayons still color.
What You Will Learn
[00:09:00] Validating herself through every promotion and job change
[00:12:30] Cancer diagnosis at 38, five months pregnant
[00:16:30] Making the invisible visible without words
[00:19:30] Why non-artists have the real advantage
[00:39:00] Ranch visit that rewired Nerissa's mindset
Loss, Reinvention, and Rebuilding Your Life: Kristen's Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 5 août 2026 • Durée 54:15
Kristen Hallett Rzasa thought she had built the life she'd always wanted—a successful corporate career, a thriving business, and a future she was excited about. Then life unraveled.
Over the course of two decades, Kristen lost her father suddenly at 52, survived a life-threatening medical emergency after years of ignoring her body's warnings, watched her dream business nearly consume her, experienced the grief of infertility, and found herself repeatedly asking the same question:
If life can change in an instant, what really matters?
In this deeply honest conversation, Kristen shares how each heartbreak became an invitation to rebuild, not by chasing someone else's definition of success, but by creating a life that truly reflected her values. Click 'play' to hear her story.
What You Will Learn
[00:09:30] Why she treated Jazzercise like a business from day one
[00:14:00] What ignoring her body eventually cost her
[00:19:00] Her father's sudden death at 52 — and living with no regrets
[00:28:30] Being stranded in Newfoundland on 9/11
[00:32:30] Losing her job, relationship, and direction all at once
[00:38:00] Why she buried her grief for years — and what finally helped
[00:41:00] Why stillness is where the real growth happens
[00:47:00] What inspired her to build Unwritten Legacies
Using Plant Medicines with Intention: Katherine's Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 29 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:07:16
Ever been curious about psychedelics? If so, you're not alone. But consuming psychedelic plant medicines has always been taboo, even when it comes to healing modalities. Over the years, more research has shown that plant medicines, when taken with intention, can have a positive impact on one's psyche and healing journey.
Katherine Petrullo is the founder of Lüminate and creator of Women of Impact. Her work weaves together Taoist philosophy, tantra, kundalini, and plant medicine. Before her success, she was a young woman quietly falling apart, cycling through rock bottoms, and reaching for anything external that might make her feel whole, a feeling she had never truly known. Katherine explains what finally shifted, including a plant medicine ceremony, and what she learned on the other side of it.
Click 'play' to see if psychedelics might be your next (unexpected) healing modality.
What You Will Learn
[00:07:30] Childhood existential anxiety — and distorting her voice to feel safe
[00:13:30] Why plant medicine wasn't the magic bullet she expected
[00:17:00] Why not feeling safe to share kept her deeply isolated
[00:30:30] What her first ayahuasca ceremony actually felt like — and the dark night of the soul that followed
[00:36:00] What coming back into the body actually felt like
[00:46:00] How the medicine wheel explains why so many people experience energy crashes and empty creation
[00:53:30] What Women of Impact is — and what it's actually designed to do
Burnout, Over-Functioning, and Learning to Ask for Help: Rebekah’s Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 22 juillet 2026 • Durée 58:53
Rebekah Jordan's story isn't one dramatic moment but rather a series of seasons, some marked by beautiful momentum, and some by very real collapse. As a lifelong educator, student, and explorer who spent decades teaching students of all ages, Rebekah shares with Chandler what it took to walk away from a school she founded, what it looks like to over-function in silence, and the small rituals that have helped her find her way back to herself.
Click 'play' to hear how her journey unfolds...
What You Will Learn
[00:07:30] Growing up where the filter was never "will I be able to," but always "let's find out"
[00:12:30] What she was really searching for when she drove cross-country — and whether she found it
[00:22:00] What breaking down in the Eisenhower Tunnel taught her about walking through the doors that open
[00:31:00] What nervous system collapse actually looked like when she hit her breaking point
[00:37:00] What she wants the woman who says "I'm fine" when she's not to understand
[00:40:00] What over-functioning looks like in practice — and what it costs over time
[00:45:30] Why resentment lives in the envy category, not the anger category
[00:49:00] The small rituals she's built to create real transition between work and the rest of life
Training Your Brain and Nervous System with Neurofeedback: Laura's Story | Healing Heroines
mercredi 15 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:04:57
For most of her life, Healing Heroine Laura Mahony knew she experienced the world differently. Highly sensitive, deeply perceptive, and constantly adapting to fit in, she spent decades searching for answers - turning over every stone in an effort to understand herself. It wasn't until she discovered neurofeedback that everything finally clicked.
In this conversation, Laura shares how retraining her brain helped quiet a lifetime of hypervigilance, reconnect her with the present moment, and transform the way she relates to herself and others. She and Chandler explore masking, trauma, neurodivergence, nervous system regulation, and why understanding your brain may be one of the most compassionate things you can do for yourself. You'll also hear Chandler share her own neurofeedback journey and the remarkable shifts she's experienced in sleep, anxiety, and everyday life after just a few weeks of training
What You Will Learn
[00:10:00] What it was actually like growing up as a child who could feel and perceive things others around her could not
[00:16:30] When masking started — and what it was quietly costing her
[00:20:00] How anxiety showed up in her body as a child and why she describes herself as having been "armored"
[00:30:00] Why she stopped needing a label to validate her experiences
[00:34:00] How neurofeedback works — measuring the brain's electrical activity and training it toward flexibility and stabilization
[00:46:30] What a neurofeedback session actually looks like in practice
[00:54:00] Why she built Lux Neuro and what she believes people deserve when it comes to understanding themselves
Let’s Connect!
Laura Mahony
LuxNeuro | GET 10% OFF one month of remote training or counseling if you mention Healing Heroes
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
Happiness Academy is now Healing Heroines, a signature space for women who are ready to feel more grounded, more peaceful, and more aligned — inside and out.
Download a complimentary Healing Roadmap to discover our Past, Present, and Possible framework.
Want personalized guidance for your healing journey? Book a call with Chandler!
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