The Sensitivity Doctor

You've spent your life being told you're too forgetful, too emotional, too much. Then you hit your forties, the symptoms pile up, and somewhere along the way you became someone who quietly believes something is wrong with her.In this episode, Dr. Amelia Kelley sits down with therapist and menopause expert Mandi Dixon to talk about what happens when ADHD and perimenopause collide in midlife. They get into the estrogen and dopamine link that can make your ADHD meds feel like they stop working before your period, the misdiagnosis pipeline that hands women the wrong labels for decades, and why unmasking might be the most healing thing you do in your forties and beyond.If you've ever wondered why everyone else seemed to get an instruction manual you never received, or why midlife feels familiar in a way you can't explain, this episode is for you.In this episode you'll learn:Why ADHD and perimenopause are so often missed in women, and who gets left behindThe estrogen and dopamine connection, and why your ADHD meds can feel weaker right before your periodThe most common ADHD misdiagnoses for women, from anxiety and depression to bipolar disorderHow to tell ADHD burnout apart from the menopause transition, and why the symptoms feel familiar to women with ADHD and brand new to everyone elseWhat masking quietly costs you, and the permission so many women have never been given to simply be themselvesAbout the guest:Mandi Dixon is a licensed therapist and ADHD coach who works with clients across Texas from her practice in the North Dallas area. A member of the Menopause Society, she focuses on the place where ADHD and the menopause transition meet in women, a gap she found under researched and rarely discussed. She blends clinical training with lived experience to help women release the shame they have carried for years and understand what is actually happening in their bodies and brains. She is currently working on her first book about what she calls "ugly perimenopause," the harder, less talked about side of the experience.Connect with Mandi:Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/adhdmenopausetherapist/⁠TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@Adhdmenopausetherapist⁠Connect with Dr. Amelia Kelley:🌍 Website: https://www.ameliakelley.com📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drameliakelley/👩🏼‍💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drameliakelley/

Complex trauma is often reduced to repeated exposure to trauma. But that definition misses something essential.In this powerful and nuanced conversation, I’m joined by Dr. Danna Bodenheimer, therapist and practice owner, to explore what complex PTSD really is and what the mental health field may be misunderstanding about it.We dive into how early, ongoing trauma can fuse with identity, shaping attachment patterns, self-doubt, shame, and the difficulty of knowing who you are outside of your trauma story. We talk about insecure and avoidant attachment dynamics, repetition in relationships, and why the idea of “healing” from trauma may be more aspirational than realistic.Instead of focusing on curing or fixing, we explore something far more compassionate. Creating ease.This episode is for anyone navigating complex PTSD, insecure attachment, relational trauma, or the exhausting pressure to be “healed.”Key TakeawaysComplex trauma is not just repeated events. It is trauma that infiltrates identity.Insecure attachment and shame often develop to preserve early caregiver bonds.Avoidant and anxious attachment styles often regulate each other through projection.Therapy for C-PTSD is relational and often long-term, not a quick intervention.Healing may not mean erasing trauma, but building tools to live alongside it with more ease.Discomfort is part of growth. It is not something to eliminate entirely.You are not your trauma, even if it has shaped you deeply.Connect with Dr. Danna BodenheimerInstagram – Link in bio for her neurodivergence training and workbookWebsite – Visit for additional resources and offeringsConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

In this deeply moving episode of The Sensitivity Doctor, Dr. Amelia Kelley sits down with physician and author Rebecca N. Thompson, MD, to explore the often-unspoken realities of fertility loss, complicated motherhood journeys, and the healing power of shared stories. Rebecca shares the inspiration behind her book Held Together, a collaborative memoir weaving her own experiences with those of 21 women navigating pregnancy loss, molar pregnancy, adoption, infertility, and nontraditional paths to family.Together, Amelia and Rebecca discuss how expectations around motherhood collide with lived experience, why ambiguous and disenfranchised grief can be so isolating, and how community, curiosity, and emotional expression support both nervous system regulation and long-term resilience. This conversation offers validation, language, and hope for anyone whose family-building journey didn’t follow a linear or socially recognized path.Key takeaways:Fertility loss, including molar pregnancy and infertility, often creates ambiguous grief that the nervous system struggles to resolve without shared understanding.Motherhood and family are not defined by biology alone; chosen family, adoption, teaching, caregiving, and community all carry profound maternal meaning.Holding grief in isolation can intensify emotional and physical distress, while storytelling helps reduce shame and restore connection.Persistence, rather than perfection or “resilience,” allows people to move forward even while feeling broken or uncertain.Healing happens through being witnessed, supported, and held together in community, not through fixing or minimizing pain.Connect with Rebecca N. Thompson, MDWebsite: rebeccanthompson.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca.n.thompson/Book: Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect LoveConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

Have you ever felt disconnected from life, emotionally exhausted, or like you don’t quite belong anywhere? In this episode of The Sensitivity Doctor, Dr. Amelia Kelley is joined by Gina Cavalier to explore how trauma, chronic isolation, and prolonged survival mode impact the nervous system, physical health, and emotional regulation, sometimes contributing to suicidal ideation.Blending neuroscience, lived experience, and embodied healing, this conversation offers grounding and hope for highly sensitive and neurodivergent listeners who feel worn down by life. The episode closes with a gentle colour-based meditation designed to support nervous system regulation, restore energy, and reconnect you to a felt sense of safety and belonging.Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicidal ideation. While some themes are heavy, the focus is on healing, support, and hope.Key takeaways:Belonging is a biological nervous system need, and prolonged disconnection signals threat rather than personal failure.Suicidal ideation often emerges from chronic survival stress and thwarted belonging, not weakness or impulsivity.Trauma healing requires regulating the nervous system through embodied and relational safety, not insight alone.High sensitivity and neurodiversity can intensify the effects of relational trauma, especially when emotional needs are repeatedly dismissed.With safety, connection, and compassionate support, it is possible to move from survival mode into a life that feels meaningful and alive.Connect with Gina CavalierWebsite: https://ginacavalier.comInstagram: @gina_cavalierBook: Planet Walking: A Handbook for the LivingConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Dr. Amelia Kelley is joined by actress, podcaster, and mental health advocate Alessandra Torresani for an honest exploration of motherhood, identity, and healing after birth trauma.Together, they unpack what it means to parent without disappearing. This includes caring deeply for your child while still staying connected to who you are. Alessandra shares her experience of traumatic postpartum complications, medical gaslighting, and the emotional toll of losing trust in her body. She opens up about how returning to dance, her first love, became a vital part of her healing. This was not as exercise or performance, but as a way to reconnect with her body and nervous system.This episode also dives into mom guilt, self care, community building, body image, screen time, and the powerful impact parents have when they model self respect, strength, and emotional regulation for their children.Whether you are a parent feeling stretched thin, someone healing from birth or medical trauma, or simply navigating how to stay connected to yourself while caring for others, this conversation offers validation, insight, and permission to take up space again.Key TakeawaysYou do not have to disappear to be a good parentTrauma lives in the body and healing often requires movement, not just talkingListening to your intuition with medical providers mattersModeling self care helps children feel safer, not abandonedThere is no timeline for reclaiming yourself and readiness is personalCommunity can be created, even when it is not inheritedConnect with Alessandra TorresaniPodcast: Emotional Support PodInstagram: @alessandratorresaniConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

In this compassionate and eye-opening episode, Amelia sits down with breakup and relationship coach Cole Zesiger, who has helped millions online learn how to navigate heartbreak with clarity, emotional safety, and self-respect. Cole shares the deeply personal story of his early divorce, the patterns of anxious attachment that shaped his relationships, and the unexpected journey that led him to rebuild his life and help thousands do the same.Together, Amelia and Cole break down why breakups feel neurologically like withdrawal, what “euphoric recall” has to do with your ex, why the holidays intensify loneliness, and how to make the no-contact rule actually work without feeling like you are losing your mind. Cole also explains the biggest mistakes people make right after a breakup, the surprising science behind why your brain becomes obsessed with your ex, and how to rebuild a life that feels bigger, safer, and more meaningful than the one you are grieving.Whether you are in the early shock, the confusing in-between, or trying to stop the cycle of “one more text,” this episode offers compassionate insight, grounded strategies, and the hope you might not realize you need right now.Key Takeaways:Why your brain treats heartbreak like survival mode and how evolutionary wiring makes you want to chase your ex even when you logically know better.The real reason no-contact is so hard and how to create a plan that protects your emotional and neurological energy.What euphoric recall is and why your brain only replays the good memories plus how to ground yourself in the full truth of the relationship.How to rebuild your life after a breakup by focusing on the pillars that shape your sense of identity, connection, and purpose.Why the holidays intensify heartbreak and practical ways to lean on safe relationships, structure, and self-compassion to get through the season.Connect with Cole Zesiger:Website: coachcolezesiger.comInstagram: @coachcolezesigerTikTok: @colezesigerYouTube: Cole ZesigerBook: Exes & No’s - available for pre-order (bonus course included)Connect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

In this deeply validating and eye-opening episode, Dr. Amelia Kelley sits down with psychologist and birth trauma specialist Teela Tomassetti, founder of the Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma Center in Canada. Together, they bring long-overdue attention to an experience far more common than most people realize: birth trauma, which affects up to 45 percent of birthing parents.Teela shares her personal and professional journey into this work, including her own traumatic childbirth experience and the years-long process that followed. She breaks down what birth trauma really is, how to recognize it, and why so many women dismiss or minimize their own symptoms. Amelia also shares her own powerful birth stories, offering a rare, vulnerable look at how trauma can stay alive in the body long after delivery.Whether your childbirth was traumatic, complicated, confusing, or simply not what you expected, this episode gives you the language, validation, and tools to begin understanding and healing your story.This conversation is for mothers, partners, birth workers, medical professionals, and anyone who wants to better support the postpartum experience with compassion and truth.Key Takeaways:Birth trauma does not only happen during delivery. It can occur before, during, or long after childbirth.Trauma is subjective. Only you get to define whether your birth felt traumatic, regardless of medical outcomes or others’ opinions.Highly sensitive and neurodivergent mothers may experience birth environments more intensely, making compassionate care essential.The golden hour is a myth that pressures mothers. Bonding is not a moment. It is a relationship that forms over time.Postpartum is not six weeks. For many mothers, recovery emotional and physical can take one to two years.Birth debriefing is a powerful way to heal: through understanding, story sharing, and validation from supportive people or professionals.Birth trauma impacts the nervous system, identity, and attachment. But healing is absolutely possible.Connect with Teela Tomassetti: Instagram: @theteaonbirthtraumaPractice: Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma CenterInstagram Practice: @perinataltraumapracticeConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content

What happens when “being strong” starts to hurt?In this deeply honest conversation, Dr. Amelia Kelley sits down with Dr. Marline C. Duroseau, resilience expert, author, TEDx speaker, and leadership executive, to explore a powerful and often overlooked concept: resilience fatigue.Together, they unpack how resilience can sometimes be weaponized when pushing through challenges becomes a mask we wear to survive rather than a tool for growth. Dr. Marline opens up about how to recognize when your strength is no longer serving you, how to take that mask off safely, and why learning to accept help can be the most radical act of resilience.This conversation is a reminder that resilience isn’t about perfection or constant productivity. It’s about knowing when to rest, receive support, and show up as your authentic self.Key Takeaways:Resilience fatigue happens when pushing through becomes a default mode, leading to exhaustion, tension, and emotional shutdown.You can’t heal behind a mask. True resilience requires authenticity and the courage to take off your “strong” face.Accepting help is a skill, and it can be one of the most powerful ways to recover from burnout.Perfectionism and people-pleasing often disguise themselves as strength. Your best is enough.Building healthy boundaries with yourself, including rest, is essential to sustainable resilience.Connect with Dr. Marline C. DuroseauWebsite: www.mcdbe.comInstagram: @mcdbeLinkedIn: Dr. Marline C. DuroseauConnect with Dr. Amelia Kelley: About | Dr. Kelley's Books | Instagram Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sensitivity-doctor/exclusive-content