In This Body

What if understanding your patterns is not the same as changing them? In this episode, I’m joined by Rebekah Ballagh, a counsellor, somatic and nervous system coach, and author, to explore the gap between insight and real change. The place where the mind understands, but the body does not yet feel safe enough to follow. Rebekah shares her experience with panic and illness, and how it revealed the limits of purely cognitive tools. We talk about intellectualising as a form of protection, and ex...

What if coming home to your body feels unfamiliar because you were taught to see it as something outside of you? In this episode, Ailey sits down with somatic educator, author, and artist Abigail Rose Clarke to explore what embodiment actually is beneath the noise. Not a concept to master, but a practice of curiosity, presence, and relationship rooted in lived sensation. We talk about what pulls us away from ourselves, from objectification to self surveillance, and the cultural belief that th...

What if the reason you struggle to speak up in medical spaces is not weakness, but your body recognizing it is not safe? In this episode, Ailey Jolie is joined by Dr. Tracy Shevell, a maternal fetal medicine specialist and women’s health advocate, to explore what happens when women enter rushed healthcare systems and leave unheard. Drawing from her experience as both a physician and a patient, Tracy shares how easily voices get lost, even when the stakes are high. We talk about self advocacy,...

What if your biggest fear isn’t a flaw, but an echo from a story that began before you were born? In this episode, Ailey Jolie sits down with Mark Wolynn, author of It Didn’t Start With You, to explore how inherited trauma can shape our fears, patterns, and relationships. Mark shares how intergenerational stress can be passed through families, why symptoms often appear around key life milestones, and how language can reveal whether a struggle comes from personal experience or generational roo...

What if the most radical thing you can do for your life and relationships is to feel your body right now? In this episode, we’re joined by somatic psychotherapist and movement pioneer Christine Caldwell to explore bodyfulness, the embodied counterpart to mindfulness, and why attention belongs in sensation, not just thought. Christine shares how her work integrating dance therapy, body psychotherapy, and Buddhist practice led to founding the Somatic Counselling program at Naropa University. We...

What if the wisest part of you isn’t your thinking mind, but the sensations already alive in your body? In this episode, executive coach and Enneagram expert Courtney Smith joins us to explore how fear quietly shapes our choices and how learning to feel what’s here now can restore agency, presence, and pleasure. Courtney shares her path from Yale Law and McKinsey to a body first approach blending the Enneagram, conscious leadership, and somatic awareness. We unpack three core fears: loss of s...

What if the stories your body carries are the map back to belonging? In this conversation with Palestinian–American poet and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan, we explore how narrative, trauma, and the nervous system meet inside a living body. Hala shares how displacement shaped her love of books and oral histories, why writing still arrives as mystery, and how creative practice can offer coherence when life feels scattered. We move beyond buzzwords to talk about embodiment as a political act—...

What if your body isn’t a barrier to spirituality, but the place where the sacred actually meets you. This is the heart of the conversation with spiritual teacher and retreat leader Brandon Nappi, whose work weaves together Christian mysticism, Zen practice, and somatic healing. Together, we explore a spirituality that is grounded, honest, and lived through the body. Brandon shares how his understanding of faith was transformed through contemplative practice and relationship, learning to hold...

Join Ailey Jolie for a raw and personal solo episode of How To Be In This Body. In this New Year's reflection, Ailey shares what happened when her body stopped letting her perform; a year of health crises, the real story behind her viral posts, and the decision to focus her attention on her upcoming book and course INBODY. In this episode, she explores what it means to let go of an identity built around being needed, why she's done setting goals from the neck up, and the question she's ...

Join Ailey Jolie and Mariel Pastor, therapist, trainer, and creator of Character Mapping, on this episode of In This Body. The conversation moves through the heart of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy; exploring how self-energy, parts work, and somatic presence can bring us into deeper peace with ourselves and with one another. Mariel shares reflections on spiritual embodiment, cultural conditioning, and the healing power of love in therapeutic spaces. Together they speak to the nuanced r...

Join Ailey Jolie and Dr. Christy Gibson, physician, trauma educator, and author of Modern Trauma, on this rich and timely episode of In This Body. Together they explore how trauma lives not just in our minds but in our bodies, and how the pressures of modern life—from the climate crisis to constant digital exposure—shape our nervous systems in ways both visible and hidden. Dr. Gibson shares her vision of trauma as an adaptive response rather than a pathology, highlighting the importance of cr...

Join Ailey Jolie and Linda Hartley, somatic practitioner, author, and a teacher of The Discipline of Authentic Movement, on this contemplative episode of In This Body. Together, they explore embodiment as an evolving, relational journey—shaped by age, memory, and the quiet intelligence of the body itself. Linda shares her path from early dance to the development of a healing modality rooted in Body-Mind Centering and Authentic Movement, offering insight into how presence, witnessing, and soma...