Notes from the Edge

What if the very intelligence that helped you succeed is now keeping you stuck? Lisa Lacy sits down with Brent Lupia, Performance and Clarity Coach and creator of Externalized Sensemaking™, to explore why intelligent, high-performing people struggle with overthinking, decision paralysis, and mental clarity. Drawing from 18 years in high-stakes security and intelligence operations, Brent shares what happens when a brain trained for urgency and immediate feedback encounters uncertainty, and why thinking harder isn’t always the answer.From recognizing hidden patterns and challenging assumptions to accountability, neurodivergence, and breaking cycles of self-sacrifice, this conversation goes far beyond productivity. Brent opens up about the role he performed to survive childhood, the cost of constantly stabilizing everyone around him, and how learning to understand his own mind helped him rediscover himself. Together, we explore how curiosity, self-awareness, and personal responsibility can help us move forward without losing ourselves in the process.In this episode, we explore:Overthinking and Decision Paralysis: Why intelligent people get trapped in mental loops and how a brain accustomed to high-pressure decisions struggles with uncertainty.Externalized Sensemaking™: How putting thoughts on paper makes hidden patterns, conflicting beliefs, and assumptions visible so we can approach problems differently.Clarity, Accountability, and Personal Growth: Why understanding a problem isn’t the same as changing a behavior, and how repetition, responsibility, and self-compassion support meaningful change.Neurodivergence, Masking, and Self-Discovery: Brent’s experience of recognizing his neurodivergence later in life, becoming the person who kept everyone else stable, and learning what it means to prioritize himself.Breaking Patterns Through Curiosity and Connection: Why asking better questions, challenging our perceptions, and recognizing our shared humanity can transform relationships and the way we navigate life.Connect with Brent | Brent Lupia Coachinghttps://brentlupia.comConnect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEhttps://lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted, only to discover it isn’t the life you were meant to live? Lisa Lacy sits down with Steve Farrell, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, bestselling author, and co-founder of Humanity’s Team, to explore the journey from extraordinary financial success to spiritual awakening, conscious living, and discovering what truly makes life meaningful.From releasing fear and quieting the constant noise of achievement to recognizing our interconnectedness, Steve shares the personal experiences that transformed his understanding of success. Through a powerful live exercise, reflections on his book The Inner Way, and a heartbreaking story about his sister, this conversation explores what happens when we stop performing for the life we were handed and begin living the one that feels authentically ours.In this episode, we explore:Success Without Fulfillment: Why Steve’s multimillion-dollar Silicon Valley success felt like a temporary sugar high and led him toward a different definition of purpose.Conscious Living and Connection: A guided breathing and awareness exercise exploring how the beliefs “I am alone” and “I belong to something larger” can feel different in the body.Moving Beyond Fear: Why creating stillness, listening to your inner voice, and questioning the path others chose for you can open new possibilities.The Ripple Effect of Authenticity: How presence, compassion, conscious leadership, and everyday interactions can influence our relationships and communities.The Roles We Perform to Survive: Steve’s emotional story about losing his sister, the wake-up call that changed his priorities, and his invitation to live as your authentic self.Connect with Steve | Steve Farrellhttps://stevefarrell.orgConnect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEhttps://lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if being seen isn’t the same as being known? In a world obsessed with personal branding, social media visibility, artificial intelligence, and polished public images, authenticity may be our greatest competitive advantage. Lisa Lacy sits down with Drew Gerber, CEO and co-founder of Wasabi Publicity, to explore why meaningful visibility begins with knowing who you are, not performing who you think the world wants you to be.From finding your purpose and building authentic relationships to breaking cycles of shame, control, and never feeling good enough, this conversation goes far beyond traditional public relations. Drew shares how self-awareness, accountability, mentorship, and human connection can transform the way we approach business, personal branding, and our relationships with ourselves.In this episode, we explore:Being Seen vs. Being Known: Why authentic personal branding and meaningful visibility begin with self-awareness.Purpose-Driven Public Relations: How understanding your why creates more aligned marketing strategies, stronger trust, and meaningful impact.AI and Human Connection: Why artificial intelligence, social media, and digital perfection are challenging us to rediscover what makes us human.Breaking the Shame and Control Cycles: How releasing perfectionism, embracing accountability, and trusting yourself create room for authenticity.Mentorship, Self-Worth, and Enoughness: Why the right support matters and how asking “What is enough?” can redefine success, happiness, and fulfillment.Connect with Drew | Wasabi Publicityhttps://wasabipublicity.comConnect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEhttps://lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you voluntarily seek help for addiction, trauma, and mental health challenges, only to be told your anger is beyond a rehabilitation center’s ability to handle? In this brutally honest and sometimes hilarious solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy shares the story of getting kicked out of outpatient rehab at 40 years old after taking a therapeutic exercise called “The Bullshit Game” a little too seriously.Through personal storytelling, humor, and hard-earned perspective, Lisa explores the importance of trauma-informed care, emotional safety, accountability, and finding recovery resources that meet your individual needs. From outdated rehabilitation practices to the complicated relationship between anger and unresolved trauma, this conversation challenges the idea that recovery should look the same for everyone.In this episode, we explore:The infamous “Bullshit Game” and how a novelty button got Lisa kicked out of rehab.Why traditional addiction treatment and mental health programs don’t work for everyone.Understanding anger as a possible response to trauma, betrayal, and years of survival.The difference between genuine accountability, public humiliation, and trauma-informed recovery.How to find mental health resources, addiction treatment, and recovery support that fit your individual needs.Connect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEhttps://lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You can look successful, productive, and completely put together while quietly falling apart behind the scenes. In this Saturday Edge Note of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez, emotional intelligence expert and author of Living with the HEART in Mind, to explore why high achievers often miss the warning signs of burnout until they’ve lost their joy, motivation, and connection to themselves.Together, they examine why pushing harder isn’t always the answer, how emotional intelligence helps us understand what our emotions are trying to tell us, and why boundaries, curiosity, and purpose matter more than temporary self-care fixes. This is a conversation about letting go of the performance of being fine, learning to include yourself in the circle of care, and finding your way beyond survival mode.In This Episode:Why burnout builds quietly and how losing joy can be an early warning sign.How high achievers become disconnected from their emotions while meeting everyone else’s needs.Why emotional intelligence is a learnable skill that transforms relationships, leadership, and well-being.How to establish emotional boundaries without guilt, including the power of saying “maybe later.”Why slowing down, naming your emotions, and embracing curiosity can help you rediscover purpose.Connect with Dr. Lorea Martínez PérezWebsite: https://loreamartinez.comExplore her book, Living with the HEART in Mind: A Practical Guide to Healing from Burnout and Cultivating Purpose: https://loreamartinez.com/living-heart-in-mind/Connect with Lisa LacyWebsite: https://www.lisalacy.comJoin INSIDE THE EDGEGo beyond the public podcast with exclusive weekly episodes, private monthly conversations, and a community built around meaningful human connection.https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the very thing you spent your life trying to hide was actually one of your greatest strengths?Coach Willie Blake, entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host, and high-performance coach, joins Lisa Lacy for an honest conversation about growing up with dyslexia, feeling broken in a world designed for different minds, and discovering that self-acceptance can change everything.From struggling with self-worth to embracing neurodivergence and building confidence through small, intentional actions, Willie shares the lessons that helped him stop merely surviving and start leading with his differences.In this episode:The emotional impact of dyslexia on childhood, relationships, identity, and self-worthReframing neurodivergence from a perceived limitation into a source of creativity, empathy, and strengthOvercoming self-doubt, people-pleasing, and the pressure to fit someone else’s definition of normalWillie’s 2% Rule and GPS Goal Method for creating momentum through manageable, consistent actionLetting go of the need to be everyone’s hero, accepting our imperfections, and learning that even the strongest people need supportConnect with Coach Willie Blake:https://coachwillieblake.com/Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you begin grieving someone you love long before they’re gone?In this deeply personal episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Suzanne Sherman, author, memoir editor, and writing coach, to explore childhood trauma, schizophrenia, suicide loss, complicated grief, and the healing power of storytelling.Suzanne was just four years old when her mother developed schizophrenia. At eighteen, she lost her mother to suicide. Decades later, she found the courage to tell their story in her memoir, Living in the Long Shadow: Surviving a Legacy of Mental Illness.But this conversation reveals something profound: sometimes we grieve not only the person we’ve lost, but the life mental illness prevented them from living.Through memories of her mother, decades of unanswered questions, and the decision to finally write her story, Suzanne explores how love, grief, and healing can coexist.In This Episode:Growing Up with a Parent with Schizophrenia: How Suzanne’s childhood changed when her mother’s mental illness emerged, and what happens when children are left to make sense of experiences nobody explains.Suicide Loss & Complicated Grief: The emotional complexity of losing her mother at eighteen, including the grief Suzanne experienced long before her mother’s death.Mental Illness, Family Silence & Childhood Survival: How unspoken struggles, family dynamics, and the need to remain observant can shape a child’s understanding of safety and belonging.Memoir Writing & Healing Through Storytelling: Why Suzanne waited decades to write Living in the Long Shadow, how she found the courage to revisit painful memories, and what writing taught her about her own life.Love Beyond Loss & Finding Meaning: An extraordinary personal experience that changed Suzanne’s understanding of her connection with her mother, the importance of honest communication, and the simple words that helped her persevere: “I can do this.”From the lasting effects of parental mental illness to the courage it takes to tell a deeply personal story, this conversation reminds us that grief doesn’t always begin with death, healing doesn’t require forgetting, and some of the most important conversations are the ones families never learned how to have.Connect with Suzanne ShermanExplore Suzanne’s memoir, writing workshops, coaching services, and weekly memoir classes.Website: https://suzannesherman.comConnect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEJoin INSIDE THE EDGE, a membership community for deeper human conversations, personal exploration, and meaningful connection beyond the podcast.https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if artificial intelligence could give us more time to be human?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Jon Rossiter, entrepreneur and co-founder of Zoloto, to explore AI employees, business automation, leadership, and the future of work.But the conversation goes beyond technology. Jon opens up about people-pleasing, authenticity, accountability, and why meaningful human connection matters more than ever in an increasingly automated world.What happens when technology gives us back our time, but we still have to decide who we want to be?In This Episode:AI Employees & the Future of Work: How specialized artificial intelligence workers are transforming business operations, automation, and the way entrepreneurs manage their companies.Entrepreneurship, Productivity & Work-Life Balance: Why eliminating repetitive tasks could help business owners reduce stress, reclaim valuable time, and focus on what matters most.Leadership, Accountability & Human Trust: Why taking responsibility, acknowledging mistakes, and building authentic relationships remain essential in an increasingly automated world.People-Pleasing, Identity & Authenticity: Jon’s personal experience of letting go of the need for approval and learning to show up without wearing a mask.Human Connection & the Loneliness Epidemic: Why technology cannot replace emotional honesty, meaningful relationships, asking for help, and supporting one another.From AI-powered business transformation to the deeply human need for connection and belonging, this conversation challenges us to consider whether the future of work should be measured only by productivity or by the quality of the lives we’re creating.Connect with Jon RossiterCo-Founder, ZolotoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrossiterofficial/Connect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEhttps://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if your biggest financial obstacle isn’t your money, but the unconscious patterns controlling your decisions?Financial advisor, former monk, and bestselling author Doug Lynam returns to Notes From the Edge for a live Enneagram case study with Lisa Lacy, exploring how personality, trauma, fear, and identity shape our relationship with money.In this episode:Why financial stress activates survival instincts and unconscious emotional patterns.How the nine Enneagram personality types influence spending, saving, control, and financial decisions.A live examination of Lisa’s Type 8 personality, including power, boundaries, anger, and the fear of being controlled.How Type 8 and Type 5 personality patterns affect relationships, communication, and financial behavior.How self-awareness, compassion, and intentional choices can transform destructive money patterns into healthier financial habits.Missed Part 1?The Wealth We Can’t Spend: From Marine to Monk to Money Manager with Douglas Lynam.Find it on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-the-edge/id1896943121Connect with Doug Lynam:https://www.douglynam.comConnect with Lisa Lacy | INSIDE THE EDGE Membership:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you’re meant to live?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, to explore purpose-driven leadership, community service, personal identity, vulnerability, and how one small act of kindness can grow into a movement that changes hundreds of thousands of lives.Luke had everything he thought success was supposed to look like. A six-figure career, financial stability, a family, and a comfortable life. But something was missing.Then a simple project to build a bunk bed for children sleeping on the floor changed everything.Luke shares the unforgettable story of Haley, a six-year-old girl who had been sleeping on her school clothes because she didn’t have a bed. When she received her very first bed, she wrapped her arms around it and kissed it.That moment transformed Luke’s understanding of success, service, and what it means to make a difference.What began as a small community project became Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that no child has to sleep on the floor.But this conversation goes far beyond building beds.Lisa and Luke explore the loneliness that can exist behind professional success, the unexpected fulfillment that comes from helping others, and the personal cost of believing that leadership means always having the answers.Luke also opens up about letting go of pride, ego, and the identity he spent years performing, discovering that vulnerability may be one of the greatest strengths a leader can develop.In this episode:Success vs. Fulfillment: Why achieving everything society calls success can still leave us questioning our purpose.One Bed, Thousands of Lives: How Haley’s story helped ignite a community movement addressing childhood bedlessness.The Five Steps to Finding Purpose: Luke’s approach to meaningful action: see it, feel it, act on it, repeat it, and share it.Community Service and Human Connection: How volunteering creates belonging, shifts our perspective, and reminds us that we’re not meant to navigate life alone.Leadership, Identity, and Vulnerability: Why letting go of the need to be strong, have every answer, and perform for others can be profoundly freeing.This is a conversation about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, not because they have all the resources or answers, but because they decide to act.And perhaps the most powerful reminder is that you don’t have to change the entire world to change someone’s world.Connect with Luke MickelsonLearn about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, find a local chapter, volunteer to build or deliver beds, donate, or start a chapter in your community.https://shpbeds.org/Connect with Lisa | INSIDE THE EDGEGo beyond the public conversations with exclusive solo episodes, deeper discussions, and monthly live experiences.https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this Edge Note solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy gets personal about Bipolar I, trauma, uncertainty, and the exhausting need to control outcomes when your nervous system learned early that powerlessness could be dangerous.This is not another “just let it go” conversation. Lisa explores what control actually looks like when you live with mental illness, why uncertainty can feel threatening even when you are clinically supported and properly medicated, and how to separate what requires action from what simply requires us to tolerate not knowing yet.In this episode:Why trauma and mental illness can make uncertainty feel like dangerThe difference between taking responsible action and trying to control an outcomeHow hypervigilance can disguise itself as preparation, responsibility, and problem-solvingHow to separate facts from catastrophic predictions when your mind is activatedPractical tools for grounding, shrinking time, regulating your body, and deciding what actually needs your attention right nowIf you have ever done everything you could and still found yourself obsessing over what happens next, this conversation is for you.The goal is not to stop caring about outcomes.It is to trust yourself enough to know that you can survive the uncertainty between action and outcome.Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You can understand your patterns. You can know where they came from. You can spend years learning the language of trauma and healing, and still find your body reacting as if the danger never ended.In this Edge Note episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with registered somatic movement therapist and educator Katy Slany for a conversation about somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, embodied healing, and why insight alone does not always create lasting change.Katy explains why trauma is a whole-body experience, what people actually mean when they talk about “regulating the nervous system,” and how learning to tolerate and understand our physical sensations can change the way we respond to anxiety, fear, relationships, and the world around us. She also shares her own healing journey and how survival, illness, isolation, and the fear of connection became deeply intertwined.This conversation is ultimately about something bigger than regulation. It is about recovering choice, autonomy, and the ability to listen to the wisdom of your own body.In this episode:• Why understanding trauma intellectually may not change the body’s response• What nervous system regulation actually means and why it is often oversimplified• How somatic work can help us reconnect with sensations we have learned to avoid• Why healing is not a destination, but a changing relationship with our experiences• How inherited beliefs, survival patterns, and conditioning can disconnect us from our autonomy and powerConnect with Katy Slany:Katy Slany | Transformative Somatic EducationConnect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted and discover it still doesn’t feel like enough?Dr. Jack Groppel is a pioneering sports scientist and co-founder of the Human Performance Institute whose work reveals a powerful truth: peak performance and a meaningful life are not necessarily the same thing.In this conversation, Jack and Lisa explore how achievement can become addictive, why our need for approval can hide underneath ambition, and what decades of studying elite human performance taught him about energy, recovery, and fulfillment. Jack also shares how adopting his son and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro together ultimately forced him to reconsider his definitions of strength, fatherhood, success, and what matters most.In this episode:Human performance and sports scienceAchievement addiction and overachievementThe need for approval and people pleasingBurnout, energy management, and recoveryFatherhood and adoptionLeadership and high performancePurpose, meaning, and fulfillmentMount Kilimanjaro and Mountains WithinRedefining success Learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel and Mountains Within:https://jackgroppel.netExplore more from Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:Inside The Edge — Lisa LacyWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the thing that made you successful, your ability to push through, perform, achieve, and keep going, becomes the very thing your body can no longer sustain?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, transformational coach, and founder of The Rebuild Collective, Kristen Renee Appleby, for a conversation about burnout, autoimmune illness, the mind-body connection, and what it really means to rebuild your life from the foundation up.Kristen spent years searching for answers while navigating autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, demanding work, financial stress, emotional suppression, and the expectation that she should simply keep functioning. Eventually, she began questioning whether all of those pieces were actually separate.We talk about what happens when achievement becomes intertwined with survival, why changing a protocol without changing the environment may not be enough, and how our relationships with work, money, emotions, purpose, and ourselves can influence the way we experience our lives.This conversation isn’t about abandoning ambition. It’s about asking whether the life you’re building actually has a foundation strong enough to hold it.In this episode:• How burnout and high-achiever survival patterns can hide behind capability and success• Autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, emotional suppression, and the mind-body connection• Workplace stress, unhealthy environments, and what happens when pushing through stops working• Financial stress, money wounds, limiting beliefs, and the connection between physical and financial wellness• Kristen’s Healthy Foundation approach to rebuilding self-trust, authenticity, purpose, and a life that doesn’t require abandoning ambitionConnect with Kristen Renee Appleby:https://www.kristenreneerebuilding.comConnect with Lisa | Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the strength everyone sees is actually survival mode?Jenna Schutt, former cardiac registered nurse and stem cell transplant survivor, joins Lisa Lacy for a deeply human conversation about chronic illness, faith, fear, motherhood, and what happens when being incredibly capable convinces everyone around you that you must be okay.Diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease at 30 while raising two children still in diapers, Jenna endured ten rounds of chemotherapy, serious medical complications, a stem cell transplant, and ongoing graft-versus-host disease. But this conversation goes beyond what happened medically. Jenna and Lisa explore the identity shift from nurse to patient, grieving the life you thought you would have, learning to listen to your body, and recognizing when strength has become a performance.In this episode:Chronic illness and survival modePerforming strength while struggling internallyFear, faith and emotional resilienceMotherhood during a medical crisisGrief, identity and uncertainty after diagnosisStem cell transplant and graft-versus-host diseaseWhy being capable does not mean being okayLearning that rest is medicineThe Joy Reflex and retraining your response to fearConnect with Jenna Schutt:https://www.jennaschutt.com/Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when your mind creates a reality so convincing that everyone else can tell you it isn’t real, and you still know what you saw, heard, felt, and lived?In this Special Edition of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy opens up about living with Bipolar I Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Complex PTSD, including what psychosis actually felt like from inside of it.“The Psychotic Trifecta” is Lisa’s personal description of the collision of these conditions, not a clinical term. Bipolar I can include psychosis, while BPD and CPTSD can involve dissociation, hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, and disturbances in how we experience ourselves and other people.This is not a clinical lecture.This is what it feels like to live it.Lisa also talks candidly about spending much of her life running on mania, why mania can masquerade as extraordinary productivity, and what happened when menopause brought a kind of depression she had never experienced before.In this Special Edition:• What Bipolar I mania and psychosis can actually feel like from the inside• Why Bipolar I and Borderline Personality Disorder are often confused, but are fundamentally different• How CPTSD, hypervigilance, dissociation, and trauma responses can overlap with both• Why being highly functional does not necessarily mean someone is mentally well• What Lisa has learned about reality-checking, treatment, self-awareness, and recognizing when her own mind may not be a reliable narratorMental illness does not remove intelligence.Psychosis does not make someone stupid.Trauma does not make someone weak.And a diagnosis does not erase the human being living underneath it.Connect with Lisa Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if sustainable success has less to do with talent, motivation, or doing more and more to do with self-worth, self-belief, and consistency?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Amy Lenius, personal development and success coach, professional speaker, and Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, for a conversation about redefining success from the inside out.After navigating chronic illness from childhood, Amy began rebuilding not only her physical health but also her identity, beliefs, and relationship with herself. She explains why self-belief is built through action, why self-worth can quietly place a ceiling on achievement, and why sustainable change rarely comes from dramatic overnight transformation.They also explore people-pleasing, burnout, boundaries, perfectionism, nervous-system regulation, and what happens when you stop performing as the person everyone else needs you to be.In this episode:The critical difference between self-belief and self-worthWhy messy action and consistency can matter more than talent or motivationHow people-pleasing, dimming yourself, and weak boundaries can erode self-worthWhy sustainable growth means expanding your comfort zone instead of jumping straight into overwhelmHow small, intentional actions can create lasting success without sacrificing your health, relationships, or identityConnect with Amy LeniusNext Level University Group Coaching: nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching⁠Instagram: @amyleniusFacebook: Amy Lenius Connect with Lisa LacyInside the Edge: lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the pain you feel and the damage seen on an MRI aren’t always the same thing?Lisa Lacy sits down with neurologist Dr. Eric Anderson, MD, PhD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at Lin Health, to explore chronic back pain, the nervous system, central sensitization, and what patients should understand before making major decisions about back surgery.Dr. Anderson explains how chronic pain can become a highly sensitized alarm system, why imaging findings don’t always correspond with the intensity of someone’s pain, and how whole-person approaches may help some people retrain the nervous system and regain function.In this conversation:Why pain and structural damage are not necessarily the same thing, and what MRI findings can and cannot tell you.How central sensitization can cause the nervous system’s protective alarm system to become overly sensitive.The connection between stress, trauma, hypervigilance, the limbic system, and persistent pain.How approaches including pain reprocessing therapy, CBT, graded exposure, emotional awareness, coaching, and movement can be incorporated into chronic pain recovery.The questions to ask before back surgery, including expected outcomes, alternatives, recovery time, and when structural problems or progressive nerve damage may require surgical intervention.This is not a conversation about telling people their pain isn’t real. It is about understanding pain more completely so patients can advocate for themselves and make informed decisions about their care.Connect with Dr. Eric AndersonLearn more about Dr. Anderson and Lin Health:https://lin.healthConnect with Lisa LacyLearn more about Lisa, Notes From the Edge, and her work:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are told to look for the good, raise our vibration, practice gratitude, forgive, move on, and trust that everything happens for a reason. But what happens when positivity becomes another way to avoid reality?In this Edge Note, Lisa Lacy explores spiritual bypassing, false positivity, trauma, emotional avoidance, and the difference between acceptance and resignation. Facing what is painful does not make you negative. Sometimes it simply means you are willing to tell yourself the truth.Two people can experience what looks like the same event and carry completely different emotional consequences from it. Trauma is not determined only by what happened. Context, meaning, safety, loss, and what happened afterward all matter.Healing does not require pretending everything is beautiful. It requires being willing to see your life as it exists today so you can decide what you want to create tomorrow.In this episode:Why false positivity can keep us from making meaningful changeWhat spiritual bypassing looks like when spiritual ideas are used to avoid painful emotionsWhy two people can experience the same event and be affected completely differentlyThe difference between acknowledging victimization and remaining trapped in a victim identityWhy accepting reality may be one of the most powerful ways to reclaim agency over what happens nextGo deeper Inside the Edge https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the answers you’ve spent your whole life searching for aren’t somewhere out there, but waiting for you to finally turn inward?In this Edge Note of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, mentor, and author Rosanne Annoni for a deeply human conversation about spiritual awakening, grief, forgiveness, self-inquiry, and what happens when we stop looking outside ourselves for permission, validation, and truth.After decades as a psychotherapist and years of her own searching, Rosanne shares how therapy, meditation, loss, motherhood, relationships, and the Diamond Approach gradually brought her back to herself. Together, Lisa and Rosanne explore the difference between understanding our patterns and learning not to be ruled by them.In this conversation:Why healing often begins when we stop focusing on everyone else and turn inwardHow victimhood, blame, and self-blame can keep us trapped in old patternsWhat forgiveness can look like without excusing what happenedWhy people-pleasing and doing everything alone can disconnect us from ourselvesHow curiosity, presence, self-inquiry, and accepting support can change the way we move through lifeRosanne’s debut memoir, Unfolding the Heart: One Woman’s Quest for True Nature, explores a lifetime of searching, loss, healing, spirituality, and the courage to keep standing back up.Connect with Rosanne Annonihttps://rosanneannoni.comConnect with Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What stories disappear when the people we love are no longer here to tell them?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with entrepreneur, business coach, former United States Marine, and founder of The Story Project, Brad Koch, for a deeply human conversation about family stories, grief, memory, legacy, and the things we often wait too long to ask.Brad shares how the loss of his father-in-law, and the realization that his wife wished she had more recordings of his voice, face, mannerisms, and stories, helped inspire The Story Project. Lisa and Brad explore why knowing someone’s story can completely change the way we understand our family, our childhood, our trauma, and even ourselves.This is a conversation about remembering where we came from while the people who came before us are still here to tell us.In this episode:• Why preserving someone’s voice, mannerisms, memories, and stories can become an irreplaceable part of their legacy• How learning our family’s stories can deepen connection and change the way we understand our own past• Why waiting until time feels limited can leave us scrambling to ask questions we could be asking now• How The Story Project helps families capture and preserve stories across generations• Brad’s experience entering the Marine Corps at seventeen, the role he performed to survive, and why asking for help is not weaknessConnect with Brad:https://storyproject.appConnect with Lisa:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why a special edition? Because every once in a while, a conversation happens at the Edge that feels too important to wait its turn on the calendar. This is one of those conversations.At 18 years old, Liam Beville pushed a friend out of the path of a stolen car and took the impact himself. Both of his legs were shattered, his right knee was severely damaged, and he was told he might never walk again.He did more than walk again.Liam became an elite powerlifter, Guinness World Record holder, disability advocate, speaker and author. But underneath the records, the weights and four decades of competition was another story.For years, Liam practiced the way he walked so people would not see his limp.Strength became more than something he demonstrated. It became something he performed.In this special edition of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Liam talk about what happens when survival becomes identity, when resilience starts looking like a mask, and what it means to finally acknowledge the parts of ourselves we worked so hard to hide.In this conversation:• Why Liam focused on rebuilding his mind before rebuilding his body after catastrophic injury• The depression, PTSD and loss of dignity that accompanied his recovery• How rehabilitation eventually led him into 40 years of competitive powerlifting• Why Liam spent years hiding his disability, including practicing how he walked so others would not see his limp• What changed when he stopped seeing disability as something that diminished his strength and began allowing it to become part of his storyLiam is a Guinness World Record holder, internationally ranked powerlifter, disability advocate and brand ambassador for Active Disability Ireland. His upcoming memoir, Unbroken: The Liam Beville Story, tells the larger story of survival, performance, identity and resilience.Connect with Liam Beville:https://www.liambeville.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comListener’s Note:Resilience is not the absence of pain, disability, fear or limitation. Sometimes the strongest thing we can do is stop performing strength long enough to acknowledge what happened to us.Liam’s story is a reminder that adapting is not surrender, asking for help is not weakness, and accepting the parts of yourself that changed does not erase who you were before. Survival may require a performance for a season. Healing often begins when you realize you no longer have to keep performing it.What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the workplace you once worked so hard to succeed in becomes the place you no longer recognize yourself?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with employment attorney, workplace strategist, author, and former corporate people and culture executive Natalie Holder for a powerful conversation about workplace trauma, exclusion, toxic work culture, self-advocacy, and career reinvention.Natalie explains why workplace trauma does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it is being left out of the room, overlooked for opportunities, quietly bullied, or repeatedly questioning whether what you are experiencing is “bad enough” to speak up about.They explore why high performers may be among the last people to leave unhealthy environments, why having language for what is happening matters, and how unresolved workplace experiences can follow us into the next job if we never stop to understand them.Natalie also challenges the idea that the answer is always to quit immediately. Sometimes the most powerful move is understanding what happened, getting support, planning your exit intentionally, and asking better questions about what you actually want next.In this episode:• How exclusion and workplace trauma can hide in plain sight• Why high performers may stay in unhealthy workplaces longer• Finding the language to advocate for yourself• Knowing when it is time to stay, leave, or strategically pivot• Building a career that supports who you are becomingConnect with Natalie Holder:https://natalieholderspeaks.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the roles you learned to play in relationships start costing you yourself?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with relationship and intimacy coaches Natalie Vartanian and Glenn Nielsen for an honest conversation about marriage, somatic healing, nervous system regulation, inherited relationship roles, and what happens when couples stop blaming each other long enough to look beneath the conflict.Natalie and Glenn share how even after years of personal growth and entering their marriage intentionally, old conditioning began showing up. Natalie found herself becoming a muted version of herself, while Glenn wrestled with the enormous pressure of being the provider after the collapse of a business he had built over decades.Together, they explore why sometimes the intensity of our reaction has more to do with what is happening inside us than what our partner actually did, and how couples can begin creating a relationship based on conscious choice rather than inherited expectations.In this episode:• How the “good wife” and “good husband” roles can quietly create resentment and pressure• Why your nervous system may be reacting to something deeper than the argument in front of you• Somatic awareness and learning to recognize activation in the body• Taking responsibility for your own patterns without turning relationship work into blame• How couples can intentionally create agreements, connection, intimacy, and a relationship that allows both people to fully existConnect with Natalie & Glenn:https://wakeuporbreakup.comConnect with Lisa:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when accepting a diagnosis stops feeling like surrender and becomes the beginning of recovery?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author and podcast host Reza Ghaemi for an honest, funny, and deeply human conversation about living with Bipolar I Disorder, surviving mania and hospitalization, resisting treatment, and eventually learning to work with his diagnosis instead of fighting against it.Reza, author of Bipolar Is My Superpower: How Acceptance Changed My Life and host of The Rez Podcast, shares why acceptance became a turning point in his recovery and why calling bipolar his “superpower” is not about romanticizing mania or psychosis. It is about the self-awareness, resilience, recovery skills, and responsibility he built afterward.Lisa and Reza also dig into stigma, medication, faith, family support, disclosure, relationships, and what changes when you stop hiding your story and start owning it.In this episode:• Bipolar I Disorder, mania, psychosis, and hospitalization• Moving from denial and stigma toward acceptance• Medication, treatment, sleep, and building recovery skills• Mental health disclosure in work, dating, and relationships• Replacing shame and fear with self-awareness and ownershipConnect with Reza Ghaemi:The Rez Podcast: https://www.rezpodcast.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens inside your body in the seconds between a trigger, a craving, and a choice?Dr. Deborah Rozman is a behavioral psychologist and President/Co-CEO of HeartMath. In this episode of Notes From the Edge, she joins Lisa Lacy to explore what happens physiologically when stress activates old patterns, why the familiar can feel safer even when it is destructive, and whether we can train the nervous system to create more space between an urge and our response.They unpack heart-brain communication, heart rate variability, coherence, and real-time biofeedback, while Lisa shares how biofeedback became part of her own recovery experience. Dr. Rozman also walks through a simple heart-focused breathing practice that can be used when stress, overwhelm, or cravings begin to rise.In this episode:Addiction recovery, cravings, triggers, and relapse preventionWhy the brain can reach for familiar patterns during stress and overwhelmHeart-brain coherence, HRV, and nervous system regulationUsing real-time biofeedback to recognize and shift physiological stress patternsHeart-focused breathing and creating space between an urge and a reactionConnect with Dr. Deborah Rozman:HeartMath.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:www.LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when telling the truth about your mental health could cost you your credibility, your career, or the way people see you forever?In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy talks openly about living with Bipolar I, psychosis, borderline personality disorder, addiction, hospitalization, and recovery while simultaneously building businesses, leading teams, earning six figures, and appearing highly functional to the outside world.This is a conversation about what happens when a psychiatric diagnosis becomes a verdict instead of information. Lisa explores the pressure to hide serious mental illness in professional spaces, the difference between mental health awareness and actual psychological safety, and why people should not have to prove recovery by pretending they were never sick.In this episode:• Bipolar I, psychosis and borderline personality disorder stigma• Mental illness, employment and the fear of professional disclosure• High-functioning mental illness, leadership and hidden struggles• Psychiatric hospitalization, addiction, recovery and rebuilding a life• Why workplaces need real systemic change beyond mental health awarenessConnect with Lisa:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Licensed marriage and family therapist and educator Renée Calhoun joins Lisa Lacy to unpack a deceptively simple question: when does “being strong” stop being resilience and start becoming survival mode?In this conversation, Renée and Lisa explore why highly capable people can look successful on the outside while their nervous systems remain stuck on high alert. They talk about guilt-free rest, people pleasing, overfunctioning, emotional safety, family systems, toxic relationship patterns, and the ways trauma adaptations can become so familiar that we mistake them for personality. Renée also explains why intelligence alone can’t logic us out of relationships or behaviors our nervous systems still associate with connection and safety.In this episode:Trauma and nervous system survival responsesThe difference between resilience and survival modeWhy high-functioning people can still be sufferingPeople pleasing, overfunctioning and emotional laborWhy rest can feel unsafe or uncomfortableWhen trauma adaptations get mistaken for personality traitsInternal Family Systems and parts workEmotional safety versus emotional discomfortToxic relationships and repeated relationship patternsHow family systems shape our earliest ideas about love and belongingBoundaries, self-worth and learning to say noMoving from autopilot into curiosity and conscious choiceWhy healing isn’t becoming someone new, but discovering who you are when you no longer have to surviveConnect with Renée Calhoun:https://reneecalhounlmft.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when being capable becomes the very thing that keeps people from seeing you’re struggling?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Nigerian-American physician, novelist, and storyteller Dr. Nneka Oluoha for a conversation about high-functioning depression, cultural expectations, motherhood, immigrant identity, and the roles we perform to survive.Dr. Nneka explores why the person who appears strongest may be carrying the most, why “I’m fine” can become a practiced performance, and how competence, strength, and responsibility can eventually become a prison when we never allow ourselves to put them down.She also shares her experience moving from Nigeria to the United States, navigating multiple identities as a physician, mother, wife, immigrant, and writer, and finally reclaiming the part of herself that had always wanted to write.Her novel, Live For Me Nkem, uses fiction to take readers inside depression not only through the person experiencing it, but through the family living beside her.In this episode:• High-functioning depression and performing “fine”• Competence and strength as survival roles• Immigrant identity and navigating two cultures• Motherhood, responsibility, and mom guilt• Why successful people struggle to ask for help• Depression’s impact on the entire family• Listening instead of trying to fix someone• Reclaiming parts of yourself buried beneath responsibility• The power of storytelling to create empathy around mental healthSometimes support is not having the perfect advice. Sometimes it is simply being willing to sit beside someone in the dark.Connect with Dr. Nneka Oluoha:LinkedIn-Nneka OluohaConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when something that happened to you starts defining who you are?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author and survivor advocate Amy McKiernan for a raw conversation about sexual assault, trauma, identity, addiction, boundaries, consent, and rebuilding a life beyond survival.Amy shares how being raped at fifteen shaped her identity, relationships, coping mechanisms, and sense of self-worth. She and Lisa explore numbing through drugs and alcohol, toxic relationships, motherhood, mental health labels, and the long process of reclaiming agency after choice has been taken away.They also talk about why healing is not linear, how small choices can become acts of recovery, and why trauma can remain part of your story without remaining in control of your life.In this episode:• Sexual assault and trauma identity• Addiction and emotional numbing• Boundaries, self-worth, and toxic relationships• Healing that is messy and nonlinear• Mental health labels and identity• Consent, intoxication, and accountability• Reclaiming agency and choosing yourselfConnect with Amy McKiernan:https://amymckiernan.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the person you became to survive is no longer the person you want to be?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with speaker and leadership consultant Jon Symes to explore the unconscious stories we build around identity, masculinity, success, leadership, and survival.Jon calls this work Narrative Liberation: recognizing the roles and beliefs we adopted to navigate life, then deciding which ones still belong to us.They talk about the cost of being “the strong one,” the provider, the good guy, the high performer, or the person who always has it together. Jon also shares how early survival adaptations can begin, including changing the way he walked as a boy to avoid social judgment and carrying that performance for nearly twenty years.Together, Lisa and Jon explore midlife reinvention, masculinity, people-pleasing, leadership, family roles, authenticity, and what happens when the identity that once protected you starts costing you pieces of yourself.In this episode:• Survival performance and identity• Narrative Liberation• Masculinity and provider pressure• Midlife reinvention• The “good guy” mask• People-pleasing and self-abandonment• Leadership and authenticity• Family roles and inherited stories• Reclaiming the parts of yourself you learned to hideConnect with Jon Symes:https://www.wholeandfree.meConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when a pastor trades the pulpit for a 24-year career inside the FBI?Eric Robinson spent 12 years in Christian ministry before becoming an FBI Special Agent, eventually serving 15 years as a SWAT operator and working investigations involving counterterrorism, crimes against children, gangs, drugs, financial crime, civil rights violations, political corruption, and national security.But this conversation isn’t really about badges, guns, or cases.It’s about what happens to your understanding of human beings when you’ve spent decades sitting across from victims, informants, criminals, survivors, and people living through some of the darkest circumstances imaginable.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Eric Robinson talk about:• Going from the pulpit to the FBI• 24 years inside federal law enforcement• What ministry taught Eric about interviewing, trust, and human behavior• Witnessing trauma without losing your humanity• Why context matters when we judge another person’s choices• The relationship between trauma, circumstance, crime, and survival• Why mentorship and nonjudgmental support matter• The psychological weight of believing you have to be perfect• Dropping the mask Eric wore as a pastor• Fear, competence, repetition, and learning to trust yourself• Why making the “wrong” decision doesn’t have to destroy your life• Humanizing people without excusing harmful behavior• Choosing curiosity over judgment• Why Eric believes we need more kindness in difficult conversations• His upcoming book chronicling the unlikely journey from preacher to FBI Special AgentEric’s story is a reminder that people are almost always more complicated than the headline, the crime, the job title, the mistake, or the label we’ve been given.Sometimes understanding another human being starts with getting curious enough to ask what happened before we decide who they are.Connect with Eric Robinson:https://preachertobreacher.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the behavior we’re trying to stop is actually trying to tell us something?Bryan Post is a child behavior expert and creator of the Fear to Love Method whose work challenges parents to see difficult behavior not as defiance, but as communication from a nervous system experiencing stress, fear or unmet needs. In this conversation, Bryan and Lisa explore what changes when adults stop trying to control behavior and start looking underneath it. They unpack why a stressed parent cannot regulate a stressed child, how consistency creates safety, and why the feelings we learned to suppress in childhood can continue driving our reactions decades later. Bryan also shares his “Reflect, Relate and Regulate” approach and a powerful story illustrating what can happen when a parent gets curious about the fear beneath a child’s behavior instead of immediately trying to correct it. In this episode:Childhood trauma and nervous system regulationTrauma-informed parenting and difficult behaviorAdoption, attachment and emotional safetyWhy punishment and control can intensify stressParent self-regulation and co-regulationHow childhood survival patterns follow us into adulthoodGrief, emotional healing and unresolved traumaReflect, Relate and RegulateMoving from fear-based reactions toward connectionWhy behavior can be an opportunity rather than a problem Connect with Bryan:www.feartolove.comConnect with Lisa:www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why can peace feel more uncomfortable than the crisis you spent years trying to escape?Lisa Lacy, trauma educator and host of Notes From the Edge, explores one of trauma’s strangest contradictions: the nervous system can mistake what is familiar for what is safe.In this solo episode, Lisa gets personal about becoming extraordinarily good at functioning inside chaos, from building a high-pressure career around competence and crisis management to constantly monitoring the emotional weather around her. She explores what happens when the emergency finally ends, but your body is still waiting for the next one, and why ordinary moments of safety can become part of retraining the nervous system.In this episode:Trauma, hypervigilance and the nervous systemWhy peace can feel boring, suspicious or unsafeWhen competence and productivity become survival strategiesOverfunctioning, caretaking and monitoring other people’s emotionsThe difference between connection and intensityWhy stable relationships can initially feel unfamiliarLearning to tolerate other people’s disappointmentResting without feeling like you have to earn itTeaching the nervous system that calm is safeHow ordinary can eventually begin to feel like freedomConnect with Lisa:www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What did we know at five years old that we somehow forgot along the way?Tiffany Dennison is a kindergarten and first-grade educator with 22 years of experience whose work centers on play, belonging and social-emotional development. Her classroom offers a fascinating reminder that children may understand some of the fundamentals of being human long before adults complicate them.In this conversation, Tiffany and I talk about what happens when children are given enough time to actually play, why belonging and emotional safety have to come before learning, and what five-year-olds can teach adults about repairing conflict without dragging yesterday’s resentment into today. We also get into screen time, storytelling, nervous-system regulation and Tiffany’s own journey of recognizing and releasing people-pleasing.In this episode:Play-based learning and why unstructured play mattersSocial-emotional learning and childhood developmentBelonging, emotional safety and nervous-system regulationHow children repair conflict differently than adultsThe effects of screens on connection, creativity and attentionStorytelling as a tool for learning and human connectionWhat adults model for children without realizing itPeople-pleasing, identity and learning to listen to your bodyWhy slowing down may be one of the most important things children can teach usConnect with Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Writer and memoirist Daniel Sterling spent much of his life chasing achievement, recognition, and the next version of success until he discovered that some of the hardest work a man can do happens in the few inches between his head and his heart.Daniel and Lisa talk about the childhood hunger to be seen that fueled his drive, from becoming a top U.S. alpine ski racer to television, filmmaking, and screenwriting, and what happened when that identity finally stopped sustaining him. They dig into male emotional isolation, the mentor who helped Daniel rebuild his life through self-study and accountability, and why raising emotionally whole boys requires adults willing to examine their own patterns first.In this episode:Male isolation and why emotional connection can be so difficult for menAchievement, validation, and using success as a substitute for feeling seenMidlife emotional collapse and rebuilding identity beyond performancePersonal accountability, self-awareness, and dropping defensivenessCommunication and healthier relationshipsRaising boys into emotionally whole menWhy a meaningful apology requires changed behaviorLetting go of ego and discovering who you are beyond accomplishmentsConnect with Daniel Sterling:https://daniel-sterling.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when everyone in your family knows the truth about your life except you?Al Isaacs, author of Finding Mary Smith and longtime comedian and improv teacher, joins Lisa Lacy to talk about discovering at 52 that he had been adopted and what happens to identity when the foundation of your own story suddenly shifts.Al takes us inside the ordinary phone call from his mother’s oncologist that accidentally exposed a secret his family had kept for more than five decades, and the search that followed through DNA, genealogy, Search Angels and the trail of a folk singer named Mary Smith. The conversation also moves into imposter syndrome, forgiveness, the power of improv’s “yes, and,” and the painful cost of family secrets, including the conversations we may lose when truth is withheld.In this episode:Late-discovery adoption and identityFamily secrets, truth and belongingGray-market adoption in the late 1960sDNA testing, genealogy and Search AngelsSearching for a biological mother decades laterImposter syndrome and reclaiming identityForgiveness without erasing what happenedHow “yes, and” helped Al keep moving when he wanted to give upThe memories and relationships family secrecy can cost usConnect with Al: AlIsaacs.comFinding Mary Smith is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook.Connect with Lisa: LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the traits you think are your personality are actually things you learned to do to survive?Simone Bowyer is a writer and founder of The Light Within Collective, whose work explores what she calls the “language of survival,” the patterns we develop to feel safe, loved, worthy, and less likely to be abandoned.In this conversation, Simone and I talk about perfectionism, hyper-independence, control, and overachievement as survival adaptations rather than simply personality traits. She shares her experience with severe treatment-resistant depression, years of psychiatric treatment, and ultimately electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, which she describes not as a cure, but as something that finally created enough space for her to consider life beyond the darkness.We also take the conversation into the workplace, exploring why we cannot simply leave our wounds at home, what human-centered leadership can look like, and why psychological safety matters when the person who appears to be your highest performer may actually have a nervous system that never learned it was safe to stop.In this episode:• How childhood trauma can become perfectionism, people-pleasing, control, and hyper-independence• Treatment-resistant depression and Simone’s experience with ECT• Why recovery does not erase survival patterns overnight• Performing worth in order to feel lovable and avoid abandonment• Trauma, the nervous system, and high achievement• Psychological safety and human-centered leadership in the workplace• Why healing is not linear and does not have a timeline• Simone’s book, Chasing Light, and finding color again after years of depression• Moving from asking “What is wrong with me?” to asking “What did I learn to do to survive?”Connect with Simone Bowyer:The Light Within Collectivehttps://lightwithincollective.co.zaConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Would you look away?Ruth E. Stitt is an author and licensed counselor whose family’s preserved letters from Nazi Germany reveal how persecution can unfold gradually, how difficult escape can become, and what happens when ordinary people decide whether to remain bystanders or stand up.In 1938, Ruth’s grandmother in Bridgeport, Connecticut received a letter from relatives in Berlin desperately searching for a way out of Nazi Germany. What followed was five years of correspondence filled with hope, fear, bureaucracy, attempted immigration, love and devastating loss.In this conversation, Ruth and Lisa go beyond the question, “Why didn’t they just leave?” They explore the financial, legal, political and emotional barriers Jewish families faced while trying to escape, the psychology of denial as danger slowly becomes normalized, and what fear and grief do to human beings under extraordinary pressure. They also talk about the choice that can remain when nearly everything else has been taken away: how we respond, who we love and whether we are willing to speak when someone else is being dehumanized.In this episode:• Holocaust history and life inside Nazi Germany• Jewish refugee immigration and the barriers to escape• Family letters documenting persecution as it unfolded• Denial, fear, grief and psychological survival• Why “Why didn’t they just leave?” misses the complexity of displacement• Choosing love when control has been stripped away• Turning documented family history into historical fiction• The difference between a bystander and an upstander• Moral courage, dehumanization and the responsibility to speak• Letting go of perfection, overachievement and the need to always have the answerContent note: This conversation includes discussion of the Holocaust, persecution, forced displacement, psychological trauma and profound loss.Connect with Ruth E. Stitt:https://scripturecomesto.lifeFind Ruth’s books on Amazon by searching Ruth E. Stitt.Connect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the patterns you keep repeating are not who you are, but behaviors you learned long ago and never stopped to question?Arky Jones, creator of Personality Peek, joins Notes From the Edge to explore how self-awareness can help us recognize the patterns quietly shaping our choices, relationships, work, and identity without turning personality into another label or box. This conversation gets practical fast. Lisa and Arky talk about what happens when we realize we have been living according to other people’s expectations, how toxic workplace dynamics can make us feel powerless, and why taking ownership sometimes starts with something as small as documenting your work, protecting your attention, or changing one percent of a pattern instead of trying to reinvent your entire life overnight.In this episode:Personality as a mirror instead of a labelSelf-awareness and recognizing unconscious patternsPeople-pleasing and living without full authorship of your lifeStoicism and focusing on what you can actually controlToxic workplace dynamics and protecting your workBoundaries, attention, and deciding what you are willing to giveWhy honesty with yourself matters more than the personality resultArky’s “one percent” approach to practical personal growthMoney, debt, freedom, and intentional decision-makingHow small conscious choices can change the direction of your lifePersonality Peek is designed to help people identify strengths, blind spots, and behavioral patterns without treating personality as something fixed or diagnostic. Connect with Arky Jones:https://personalitypeek.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Christopher Barker is a clinical psychologist and author whose work explores complex trauma, attachment, and one powerful idea: high functioning and psychological health are not always the same thing.In this conversation, we dig into what happens when competence, independence, perfectionism, and overachievement become survival adaptations. We talk about why you can intellectually know a relationship is unhealthy and still feel pulled toward it, why “energizing” can sometimes be mistaken for love, and how the nervous system can keep anticipating danger long after the original threat is gone.In this episode:• Complex trauma and high achievement• Attachment injuries in childhood and adulthood• Perfectionism vs. healthy ambition• Hypervigilance and waiting for the other shoe to drop• Why “activated” may be more useful than “triggered”• Trauma-informed relationships and finding safe support• Why healing may be better understood as repair• Rebuilding choice, trust, and freedom through repeated experiencesMaybe the goal isn’t to get rid of every survival strategy that got you here. Maybe it’s simply to stop letting it run the company.Connect with Dr. Christopher: https://drchristopherbarker.comConnect with Lisa: https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why can leaving someone who hurts you feel almost impossible?Lisa Lacy, trauma educator and relationship advisor, explores trauma bonding and why intelligence alone cannot protect us from relationships that reshape our attachment, reward, and stress systems.At 40, while in inpatient rehab, Lisa was told she was trauma bonded to her husband. Her response was, “I’m too smart for that.” It would take three more years to go fully no contact, and another three to work through the anger and resentment left behind. In this solo episode, she explains the biology of intermittent reinforcement, why separation can feel unbearable, and why shame rarely helps someone leave sooner.In this episode:Trauma bonding and intermittent reinforcementCoercive control in abusive relationshipsDopamine, oxytocin, cortisol and the stress responseWhy people leave and return repeatedlyNo contact and breaking the cycleMoving from survival to self-trustConnect with Lisa:www.Lisa Lacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the life that looks successful from the outside is quietly falling apart underneath?Rose Ann Forte is an international bestselling author and creator of the Choose Freedom® Program, and her work explores how lasting change can happen without building an identity around shame.In this conversation, Lisa and Rose Ann talk about Rose Ann’s years as a successful executive and church leader while privately struggling with alcohol, toxic relationships, and the pressure to keep everyone else happy. They explore why traditional recovery language did not resonate with her, how neuroscience helped her understand deeply rooted behaviors, and how her Christian faith became part of rebuilding her identity.In this episode:• Alcohol use and behavioral habits• Recovery without shame-based labels• Faith and the renewing of the mind• Neuroscience and habit formation• Toxic relationships and people-pleasing• Self-condemnation versus lasting change• Identity after addiction• Learning to choose freedomLearn more about Rose Ann Forte:https://choosefreedom.todayLearn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if suicide prevention is about more than keeping someone alive for the next 72 hours?In this special September Suicide Prevention Month solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy speaks from lived experience about her first suicide attempt at 15, later attempts, psychiatric hospitalization, and the complicated work of finding reasons to remain when life has become unbearable.Lisa remembers arriving at the hospital still wearing her cheerleader jacket, being met with shame instead of understanding, and later experiencing psychiatric interventions that contained a crisis without necessarily addressing the pain underneath it. She also explores what decades of survival have taught her about meaning, spirituality, mortality, human connection, and making life small enough to survive one hour, one breath, or one tomorrow at a time.In this episode:Suicide prevention through the lens of lived experienceSurviving a suicide attempt as a teenagerWhy shame can deepen an already unbearable crisisPsychiatric hospitalization and the limits of crisis containmentTrauma, suicidal thoughts, and emotional painWhy asking directly and listening without judgment mattersFinding meaning when purpose feels impossibleSpirituality, ancestors, and feeling connected when physically aloneSurviving one hour instead of trying to solve an entire lifeWhy a temporary state of consciousness should not make a permanent decisionWhat Lisa wishes the 15-year-old version of herself could have knownThis is not a clinical guide to suicide prevention. It is one survivor’s perspective on what helped her continue, what did not, and why sometimes staying alive begins with making the horizon small enough to reach.If you are in immediate danger or believe you may act on suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 in the United States, contact emergency services, or go to the nearest emergency department.Connect with Lisa Lacy:https://LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the thing you call your personality is actually something you learned to perform in order to survive?Ashley Townsend is a transformational and integration coach and complex trauma recovery specialist who spent 15 years working inside the mental health system before deciding that traditional labels and approaches were no longer enough.In this conversation, Ashley and I go straight into what made her become a self-described “former LCSW gone rogue.” We talk about what she witnessed working across domestic violence, addiction, foster care and trauma treatment, and how being blind shaped her own experience of trying to belong inside systems that often failed to see the whole person. Ashley also challenges the idea that personality is fixed, arguing that some of what we call personality may actually be protection we practiced until it became familiar.Then the conversation gets even deeper. Ashley shares how she performed being the “nice girl,” performed being sighted as she progressively lost her vision, and eventually performed the role of rescuer, believing she could carry systems and other people on her back. We explore why those protections were once brilliant, why they eventually become heavy, and what happens when we stop building our lives from fear and begin creating from love.In this episode:Complex trauma and the protective patterns underneath behaviorWhy Ashley chose to leave the traditional therapy modelDisability advocacy and the experience of performing being sightedMental health diagnoses, labels and the limitations of treating personality as fixedWhy “just do it” can completely miss the context of traumaThe difference between an explanation and an excuseRecovery as an ongoing process rather than a finish linePsychedelic preparation and integration, and why Ashley does not view psychedelics as a magic fixThe “nice girl,” the rescuer and other identities we perform to belongSelf-trust, play, the inner child and why healing does not always have to hurtWhat becomes possible when we stop fighting everything and start creating from loveConnect with Ashley:http://www.findingyourphoenixcoaching.com/Connect with Lisa:www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do we reach for when the thing that gave us purpose, identity, adrenaline, and belonging is suddenly gone?Sean Carberry is an award-winning journalist and former NPR Kabul correspondent whose experience raises a difficult question: what happens when you come home from years of danger, but your mind and body are still wired to look for it?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Sean and Lisa Lacy talk about what happened after Afghanistan, when Sean returned to civilian life carrying undiagnosed PTSD, without the structure, intensity, or sense of purpose that had defined his years overseas. He describes walking into a Maryland casino about six weeks after coming home, initially gambling a few hundred dollars, and how the risk, rewards, recognition, casino perks, and escalating bets gradually began filling something that was missing outside those walls.The conversation goes far beyond gambling. Sean talks candidly about identity loss, loneliness, relationships, the psychological impact of years spent witnessing human suffering, and eventually recognizing patterns he could not see while he was living inside them. He also discusses how writing became part of processing his experiences and why we need to take much more seriously what happens when veterans, journalists, humanitarian workers, and others who have spent years operating in dangerous environments are expected to simply come home and resume ordinary life.In this episode:• PTSD after war and conflict reporting• Gambling addiction and compulsive gambling• Adrenaline seeking, risk, and the nervous system• Identity loss after leaving high-intensity environments• Returning home and adjusting to civilian life• Why danger can begin to feel familiar• Casino rewards, validation, and escalating gambling behavior• Loneliness, relationships, and destructive coping patterns• Mental health among journalists and war correspondents• Supporting veterans, reporters, humanitarian workers, and civilians after high-risk assignments• Why being functional does not necessarily mean someone is okay• Writing, memoir, and processing trauma• Learning to recognize patterns before they become destructive• Why coming home deserves as much attention as going into dangerSean’s work and books:passport-stamps.comLisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the behavior you’re trying hardest to get rid of was once the very thing that helped you survive?Carol Look is a psychotherapist and founding EFT Master who has spent decades helping people understand the emotional patterns underneath self-sabotage, and why lasting change often begins with asking what the behavior is protecting us from.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Carol and Lisa Lacy explore the idea that the problem was once the solution. Addiction, procrastination, people pleasing, overworking, staying invisible, and even creating chaos can serve a purpose when the nervous system believes they are keeping us safe.Carol explains why we are wired for safety before success, and why someone can consciously want more visibility, healthier relationships, greater success, or a completely different life while unconsciously pulling themselves backward when the next level doesn’t feel safe.Lisa shares her own experience of appearing highly successful while privately unraveling, using alcohol to avoid painful emotions, and later discovering how uncomfortable peace and stillness could feel after years of chaos. They also talk about functional freeze, grief, hypervigilance, the importance of mentorship, learning to regulate reactivity, and what becomes possible when we stop asking, “What is wrong with me?” and start asking, “Why am I doing this, and what is it protecting me from?”Carol also shares how growing up in an alcoholic family shaped her tendency to take care of everyone around her, how that survival skill eventually became an asset in her work, and why learning to extend that same care toward herself changed everything.In this episode:Why self-sabotage may actually be a protective responseNervous system regulation and why safety comes before successFear of success, visibility, and “up-leveling”Why procrastination can have an emotional payoffAddiction as a way of anesthetizing difficult emotionsEFT tapping and Emotional Freedom TechniquesTrauma responses, hypervigilance, and emotional patternsWhy peace and stillness can initially feel uncomfortableFunctional freeze and appearing capable while internally checked outGrief, emotional avoidance, and learning to feel againPeople pleasing and taking care of others as survival strategiesWhy changing your own reactivity can change your relationshipsGratitude, emotional well-being, and Carol’s Yes workThe value of mentorship and support in personal growthWhy healing doesn’t mean life stops being difficultThe power of stillness, space, and finally hearing yourselfLearn more about Carol Look and her work:www.carollook.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How much longer are you willing to wait for someone else to validate what you already know happened?Lisa Lacy is a trauma educator and relationship advisor exploring one powerful idea: sometimes closure is not something another person gives you, it is something you create by trusting your own experience.In this short solo episode, Lisa shares what she learned from waiting for accountability, explanations, and validation that never came, and why healing began when she stopped requiring someone else’s version of the story to confirm her own.In this episode:Closure after betrayalRebuilding self-trustLetting go of the need for an apologyBoundaries without agreementWhy unanswered questions keep us attachedMoving forward without validationConnect with Lisa:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when everyone needs you to be okay, but you’re barely surviving yourself?Hollywood screenwriter and producer Lee Ehlers spent years learning how to survive rejection, but nothing prepared him for the loss of his wife, Erin, or for discovering that sometimes the strongest thing you can do is stop pretending you’re okay.Lee’s professional breakthrough and personal devastation collided when his feature film EXES was finally being made as his high school sweetheart and wife of twenty years was dying from breast cancer. Suddenly widowed with children who were just 10, 7, and 5, Lee found himself trying to grieve while becoming the person they still needed every day. We talk about the private cost of performing the “strong dad,” the period when alcohol became the only way he could sleep through overwhelming grief, and the moment he finally admitted, “I’m not okay. I’m struggling.”In this episode:Grief after the death of a spouseWidowed fatherhood and raising children through lossPerforming strength when you’re falling apartDepression, isolation, and asking for helpSelf-medication and coping with acute griefWhy grief doesn’t follow a predictable processSupporting someone who is grieving without prescribing how they should healThe strange collision of happy memories and devastating lossStarting over after losing the person you built your life withIdentity after lossPersistence through rejection and uncertaintyNearly two decades of pursuing a Hollywood careerScreenwriting, creativity, and finding your own writing processWhat repeated rejection can teach us about survivalThe making of EXESWhy saying “I’m not okay” can be the beginning of getting helpWatch Lee Ehlers’ film EXES on Amazon:EXES on Amazon⁠Lisa Lacy | Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if real masculine strength has less to do with pushing harder and more to do with learning how to regulate yourself, feel deeply, and stay present under pressure?Michael Ostrolenk, licensed marriage and family therapist and master coach, joins Lisa Lacy to explore one central idea: mature masculinity is not domination, suppression, or performance. It is self-governance.Michael introduces his concept of “Negative 20X,” challenging high performers to consider whether slowing down may require more courage than pushing harder. Lisa and Michael also unpack his Sovereign Gentleman framework, including how unconscious conditioning shapes identity, why men need spaces to experience and express emotion, and what disciplined presence actually looks like inside a relationship.In this episode:Healthy masculinity and masculine maturityNervous system regulation under pressureThe Sovereign Gentleman and psychological sovereigntyMale loneliness, mentorship, friendship, and the need for tribeWhy high performers struggle with rest and recovery“Negative 20X” and the drive to constantly prove yourselfEmotional intelligence, anger, sadness, shame, and healthy expressionMasculinity versus dominationDisciplined presence during relationship conflictHow childhood and cultural conditioning shape adult identityMartial arts, self-defense, capability, and personal responsibility Why kindness can be an expression of strengthConnect with Michael Ostrolenk:Website: www.michaeldostrolenk.comSubstack: Michael D. Ostrolenk / @michaeldostrolenkLinkedIn: Michael Ostrolenk, MA, MFTYouTube: @michaeldostrolenkPodcast: Resilience Redefined with Michael D. OstrolenkTeam Fudoshin: teamfudoshin.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you stop the addiction, but the pain underneath it is still running your life?Dr. Dean Sunseri, licensed professional counselor, and HollyKem Sunseri, certified life coach with more than four decades in recovery, explore the work they call emotional sobriety: healing the emotional wounds and protective patterns that can remain long after the substance or destructive behavior is gone.In this conversation, we go beyond abstinence and into what Dean and HollyKem call Stage Two recovery. We talk about why unresolved pain can “seep out” through substitute addictions, anger, isolation, control, relationship conflict, or other coping behaviors, and why simply stopping a behavior doesn’t necessarily heal what created it. They walk us through their framework of the Protector, Wounded Child, and True Self, including how learning to recognize which part of us is speaking can restore choice instead of leaving us controlled by old survival responses. We also explore relationships, why one person changing can change the entire “dance,” and why reconnecting may need to happen before a couple can actually solve the problem they’re fighting about.In this episode:Emotional sobriety and Stage Two addiction recoveryWhy abstinence may be only the beginning of healingSubstance addiction, behavioral addiction, and substitute addictionsThe emotional pain underneath compulsive and self-destructive behaviorThe Protector, Wounded Child, and True SelfTrauma, triggers, and protective survival responsesWhy healing doesn’t mean never being triggered againLearning to love the parts of yourself you once tried to escapeSelf-compassion versus shame in addiction recoveryMoving from survival mode into choice, purpose, and emotional freedomRelationships, resentment, defensiveness, and emotional disconnectionWhy one partner’s growth can change the relationship dynamicReconnecting before trying to resolve conflictBoundaries, responsibility, forgiveness, and healthy communicationFinding purpose after addiction and survivalDr. Dean & HollyKem Sunseri:1. Take the free Emotional Sobriety Assessment: https://dean-jsegmrly.scoreapp.com2. Get the Book A Roadmap to the Soul Today! https://amzn.to/478rNG83. Learn more about Dean & HollyKem Sunseri: https://www.ihaveavoice.com4. Watch Free Videos on Emotional Sobriety: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbxvHYHG8El81rdV6eQ7gM7S55jXPm49&si=FOa14n7V-5OLJOQJLisa Lacy | Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Who told you that you were too sensitive, too difficult, selfish, dramatic, unstable, or simply too much? And when did someone else’s opinion become part of your identity?In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, trauma educator Lisa Lacy explores how labels, family roles, survival adaptations, and other people’s perceptions can quietly become the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and what can happen when we finally question who handed us those stories in the first place.Lisa examines the difference between personality and adaptation, why competence can become armor, and how a label can stop an investigation before it ever begins. She also shares how this question has surfaced while writing Notes From a Certified Madwoman, now autofiction, and why sometimes finding yourself is less about becoming someone new and more about subtracting everybody else.In this episode:How childhood and relationship labels can become identity“Too sensitive,” “difficult,” “selfish,” and the power of labelingCompetence as strength versus competence as survival armorWhy boundaries can feel threatening to people who benefited from your complianceFamily roles, scapegoating, and resistance when one person changesThe difference between accountability and self-erasureSurvival adaptations that become adult personality traitsWhy proving a label wrong can still allow it to control your lifeWhat happens when you enter an environment where you are no longer “too much”The question that can interrupt an old identity: Who told you that?Connect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when men are taught that vulnerability is weakness, but connection is exactly what they need most?Jason Lange is a men’s embodiment coach and group facilitator who believes men don’t need to become tougher. They need the language, relationships, and spaces that allow them to become more fully human.In this conversation, Jason shares how growing up without emotional or physical connection left him unable to understand what was happening inside his own body, eventually leading to shame, isolation, and unhealthy ways of coping. He takes us inside the somatic breakthrough that changed everything and explains why men’s groups became one of the most powerful forces in his own healing, relationships, and life.In this episode:Men’s mental health and the male loneliness epidemicHealthy masculinity and breaking out of the “man box”Why vulnerability can feel dangerous for menEmotional neglect, shame, and disconnectionSomatic therapy and nervous system healingMen’s groups, brotherhood, and co-regulationPorn, alcohol, overworking, and other forms of emotional numbingBuilding emotional intimacy in relationshipsLearning to identify wants, needs, feelings, and boundariesMoving beyond the isolated “lone wolf” model of masculinityAuthenticity instead of performing that everything is fineConnect with Jason Lange:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlange/Evolutionary Men: https://evolutionary.menEvolutionary Edge Quiz: https://evolutionary.men/quizConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you spend decades believing you’re lazy, too much, unreliable or simply doing life wrong, only to discover your brain has been working differently all along?Ellie AuDHD Capstick is an AuDHD educator and podcast host whose late diagnosis gave her something she had spent a lifetime searching for: language for experiences she once understood as personal failures.In this conversation, Ellie gets candid about the collision of ADHD and autism, years of masking and pushing herself into burnout, and why she doesn’t automatically call neurodivergence a “superpower.” She also shares what she wishes she had understood while raising her older neurodivergent children and how diagnosis helped her move from shame toward self-advocacy.In this episode:AuDHD and living with both ADHD and autismLate diagnosis, identity and self-understandingNeurodivergent masking and autistic/ADHD burnoutExecutive dysfunction versus “laziness”Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD)Trauma, vulnerability and neurodivergenceParenting neurodivergent children with confidenceSelf-advocacy, relationships and dropping the maskConnect with Ellie AuDHD CapstickFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Ls1EfoRam/?mibextid=wwXIfrLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellie-audhd-capstick-b8a971415Connect with Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the secret to a healthier, happier, more sustainable life is hiding in a bin of worms, a jar of sprouts and one really good belly laugh?Cathy Nesbitt is an award-winning entrepreneur and laughter yoga teacher who has spent more than two decades showing people how worms, sprouts, and laughter can create a healthier, more sustainable life.In this episode, Cathy and Lisa go from the surprising story behind Cathy’s “worm empire” to why she believes laughter is an essential tool for navigating stress. They talk about turning food waste into “black gold,” growing your own nutrition through sprouts, learning to move toward the weirdness, and what happened when Cathy stopped being a lifelong people pleaser and started giving herself permission to say no.In this episode:Vermicomposting and turning household waste into healthy soilWhy Cathy believes worms matter for sustainability and food securityGrowing fresh sprouts at homeLaughter yoga and nervous-system regulationWhy adults need more play and laughterStress, isolation, and protecting your mental healthRecovering from people pleasingSaying no without overexplaining or apologizingWhy shame loses power when we stop keeping it silentChoosing simple tools for a healthier, more sustainable lifeCathy Nesbitt: www.kathysclub.comLisa Lacy: www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if moving forward doesn’t require you to “get over” what happened?Stephanie Renner is an attorney, keynote speaker, and creator of the Regret to Resilience Method™, a framework for moving through unresolved guilt and regret without erasing the people, experiences, or losses that shaped us.After the death of her son Jordan by suicide, Stephanie’s understanding of regret became deeply personal. In this conversation, we talk about the brutal “if onlys” that can follow loss, the illusion of control, and why building a meaningful life after grief doesn’t mean leaving someone behind. We also explore how regret reaches far beyond bereavement, showing up in relationships, careers, caregiving, and the decisions we replay long after they’re over.In this episode:Grief, regret, and the “if only” cycleSuicide loss and unanswered questionsResponsibility vs. hindsightMoving forward without “moving on”Self-forgiveness and self-compassionThe illusion of controlFinding purpose after profound lossTurning regret into resilienceLearn more about Stephanie Renner:https://www.stephanierennerspeaks.com/Find Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when menopause doesn’t create the crisis, but exposes everything your mind and body have spent decades carrying?Lisa Lacy, writer and host of Notes From the Edge, explores how surgical menopause collided with a lifetime of trauma, recovery, psychiatric diagnoses, chronic illness and survival.After having her ovaries unexpectedly removed at 45, Lisa experienced rage, panic, depression, insomnia, brain fog and an unsettling loss of identity. In this solo episode, she examines what happens when hormonal change collides with years of stored stress, hypervigilance and survival patterns, and why women deserve more than being told they’re “just hormonal.”In this episode:Surgical menopause and mental healthTrauma activation and survival patternsRage, anxiety, depression and identity lossMedical dismissal in midlife womenHigh-functioning survival and performanceWhy menopause can expose what was already thereLearn more: www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens to the spouse when the person with the addiction gets all the attention?In this deeply personal conversation, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, speaker and advocate Roxanna Johnson to talk about the side of sexual addiction that is too often forgotten: betrayal trauma and what it does to the partner left trying to make sense of a life that suddenly feels unrecognizable.After nearly 24 years of marriage, Roxanna discovered that her husband had been living with a hidden pattern of sexual addiction. She calls the disclosure “the bomb” because it didn’t simply reveal a secret. It blew apart her understanding of her marriage, her safety and, for a time, herself.Lisa and Roxanna dig into what betrayal trauma can actually look like: hypervigilance, panic, anger, grief, shame, questioning your own reality and becoming so focused on another person’s behavior that you lose touch with your own wants, needs and identity.They also explore one of the most important distinctions in recovery: boundaries are not control. Roxanna shares how she learned to stop twisting herself into what she calls “a pretzel” to keep the peace and instead use boundaries to create emotional safety for herself, regardless of whether her partner chose recovery.The conversation goes into codependency and counterdependence, lovingly detaching, rebuilding self-trust, finding competent betrayal-trauma support, creating a recovery community, spiritual reawakening and grieving the marriage, family or future you thought you had.And perhaps most importantly, they talk about the spouse’s right to heal independently of the outcome of the relationship.Roxanna’s work and book, Forgotten in the Battle with Sexual Addiction: The Journey of a Spouse, give language and support to partners and families who have too often been treated as collateral damage in someone else’s recovery.Connect with Roxanna Johnson:https://ForgottenSpouse.comConnect with Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/podcastWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when achievement becomes a substitute for being seen?Writer, memoirist, and speaker Daniel Sterling joins Lisa Lacy for a candid conversation about men’s mental health, male loneliness, emotional vulnerability, masculinity, identity, and what it takes to raise emotionally whole boys.Daniel traces his own journey from an eight-year-old alpine ski racer who discovered the powerful rush of recognition to becoming one of the top ski racers in the country, then pursuing success through television, broadcasting, screenwriting, and filmmaking. But underneath the ambition was something much more human: the need to be seen, valued, and loved.After emotionally cratering in midlife, Daniel began questioning the identity he had built around achievement. A mentor introduced him to self-study, accountability, and a different way of living, beginning what he describes as the much longer journey from his head to his heart.Lisa and Daniel dig into why so many men learn to armor up instead of open up, how childhood messages like “toughen up” and “man up” can follow boys into adulthood, and why our current crisis of male isolation may have roots much earlier than we think.They also explore what parents can do differently: knowing the child in front of them, celebrating effort instead of achievement, allowing boys to fail and recover, giving them a voice, and creating enough emotional safety for vulnerability without removing the structure they need to grow.And perhaps most importantly, they talk about personal accountability: learning to recognize what belongs to you, apologize without defending yourself, change the behavior that caused harm, and discover who you are when you no longer need the performance.Daniel is currently seeking representation for his completed memoir, Hungry, and shares excerpts from his writing through his Substack.Connect with Daniel Sterling:https://daniel-sterling.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why does someone stay in a relationship they know is hurting them? And why can leaving feel almost physically unbearable, even when you know you need to go?In this special solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy shares her own experience of spending 13 years in a marriage marked by addiction, betrayal, coercive control, gaslighting and trauma bonding.At the time, Lisa was also carrying diagnoses of borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, complex PTSD, chronic alcoholism and codependency while managing a congenital blood disease. Over time, the chaos became so disorienting that she stopped trusting her own perception and began gaslighting herself.She left repeatedly.And repeatedly went back.Because every time she tried to leave, it felt like she was dying.It ultimately took three years to complete the divorce and another three years before she was able to fully go no contact.This conversation explores what coercive control actually looks like when it happens slowly, how trauma bonds are reinforced through cycles of fear, pain, relief and reconciliation, why mental-health diagnoses can make someone even more vulnerable to doubting their own reality, and why asking survivors, “Why didn’t you just leave?” profoundly misunderstands what may be happening psychologically and physiologically.Lisa also talks about the long road back to self-trust, the difference between understanding someone and giving them permission to harm you, and the moment when you stop making decisions based on someone’s potential and finally start looking at their patterns.Because sometimes leaving is not one brave decision.Sometimes it is a process of choosing yourself over and over again until your nervous system finally learns that freedom is safe.Learn more about Lisa and Notes From the Edge at www.LisaLacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if psychiatry looked beyond symptoms and asked a different question: What else could be happening here?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Dr. Naveen Thomas, board-certified psychiatrist and founder of Clarity Integrative Psychiatry, for a wide-ranging conversation about what mental healthcare can look like when we stop treating the diagnosis as the whole person.Dr. Thomas shares why his approach to psychiatry evolved beyond the familiar cycle of symptoms, diagnosis, medication, adjustment, and another medication. Instead, he explores the biological, psychological, nutritional, physical, and environmental factors that may be contributing to how someone feels.The conversation examines how issues such as thyroid dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency and low B12 can sometimes complicate or resemble symptoms associated with depression, and why curiosity matters before labeling someone or a condition as “treatment resistant.”Lisa and Dr. Thomas also explore:• Integrative psychiatry and whole-person mental healthcare• Root-cause thinking in mental health treatment• Depression and treatment-resistant depression• Vitamin D, B12, thyroid health and brain function• The role of medication within a broader treatment approach• Patient autonomy and self-advocacy• Why the doctor-patient relationship should be a partnership• Trauma, choice and the importance of restoring agency• The limitations created by rushed healthcare systems• What happens when healthcare becomes a commodity rather than a human relationship• Why relieving suffering may only be the beginning of what mental healthcare can accomplishDr. Thomas challenges the idea that the goal of psychiatry should simply be helping someone function well enough to tolerate life. What if the bar were higher? What if mental healthcare helped people move beyond suffering toward connection, meaning, contribution and a fuller experience of being human?Learn more about Dr. Naveen Thomas and Clarity Integrative Psychiatry:www.claritypsychiatry.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you realize the life you worked so hard to hold together no longer feels like your own? In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Jodi Koch, CEO of Elizabeth Erin Designs and host of Designing in 5D, for a conversation that begins with interior design and quickly becomes something much bigger: divorce recovery, people-pleasing, perfectionism, childhood conditioning, hypervigilance, intuition, reinvention, and learning to trust yourself again. Jodi shares how growing up as the child who took care of everyone shaped her into an adult who carried everything for everybody. She talks candidly about the exhaustion of a long marriage in which she often felt emotionally alone, the difficult decision to finally leave, and the realization that she had spent years listening to everyone except herself. We explore the connection between childhood survival patterns and adult relationships, why people-pleasing can become a form of self-abandonment, and what happens when you finally stop pouring your energy into keeping everything and everyone else afloat. Jodi also takes us inside the experiences that helped change her direction, including creating her own personal retreat, exploring plant medicine and spirituality, traveling alone, navigating divorce, rebuilding her business after a devastating disruption, and asking herself a deceptively simple question: What does Jodi actually want now? That question became her North Star. And it turns out that the philosophy behind great interior design isn’t so different from creating a meaningful life. Before choosing what looks beautiful, you have to understand who is actually going to live there. You need clarity. Intention. Function. A direction that belongs to you. Jodi shares her Designing in 5D philosophy, her intuitive approach to interior design, the importance of creating homes around the actual human beings living inside them, and how she’s using AI as a tool without removing the creativity, expertise, storytelling, and human connection that make design personal. We also talk about decision fatigue, rebuilding after divorce, releasing perfectionism, trusting your intuition, creating safe spaces, finding your true North, and the extraordinary freedom that can come from finally saying: This is what I want. Connect with Jodi Koch & Elizabeth Erin Designs Website:https://elizabetherindesigns.com Designing in 5D on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6SH9NbnLfhCmEyZsJ0r0f8 Designing in 5D on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/designing-in-5d/id1778045559 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/elizabetherindesigns/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethErinDesigns/ TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@elizabetherindesigns YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethErinDesigns5D Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/elizabetherindesigns/ LinkedIn | Jodi Koch:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodipeterman LinkedIn | Elizabeth Erin Designs:https://www.linkedin.com/company/elizabeth-erin-designs Linktree:https://linktr.ee/elizabetherindesigns Connect with Lisa Lacy https://lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if stress isn’t simply something to eliminate, but something trying to show us where healing needs to happen? In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with mental health counselor, meditation teacher, spiritual guide, author, and podcast host Dean Graves for a wide-ranging conversation about consciousness, trauma healing, identity, mindfulness, addiction recovery, spiritual awakening, emotional healing, and the search for meaning. Dean explores the idea that much of what we call our “identity” is something we construct over a lifetime, shaped by experiences, thoughts, expectations, and our attempts to get more of what feels good while avoiding what hurts. But what happens when the identity that once helped us function begins to exhaust us? Together, Lisa and Dean explore the difference between outward success and inner fulfillment, why awakening often begins when the old way of living stops working, and what can happen when we turn our attention inward instead of constantly measuring ourselves through the reactions of others. They also dig into stress as a teacher, conscious choice, meditation, self-awareness, trauma recovery, the 12-step process, addiction and dual diagnosis, personal responsibility, happiness as a measure of healing, and the gradual process of letting go of the masks and performances that separate us from a more authentic sense of self. At the center of the conversation is one deceptively simple question: Who are you when you stop trying to convince the world who you are? Learn more about Dean Graves, his books, podcasts, and work at:https://ddeangraves.org Explore Lisa Lacy, Notes From the Edge, her writing, books, and work at:https://lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive?  Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Women have it harder. There, I said it. And no, this is not a man-hating manifesto. I love men. In fact, parts of my romantic history would suggest I may have loved them a little too enthusiastically. This conversation is not about blaming men. It is about refusing to lie about what women experience in order to make anyone more comfortable. In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the cumulative cost of moving through the world as a woman: the expectation of self-sacrifice in motherhood and family life, the invisible labor women carry, the gender pay gap, sexual violence, impossible beauty and behavior standards, and the conditioning that teaches women to prioritize everyone else’s needs before their own. Lisa also digs into the medical dismissal women experience, particularly during perimenopause and menopause, when profound physical, emotional and cognitive changes are still too often minimized, misunderstood or written off as anxiety. This is also a conversation about the ways women participate in their own conditioning. The pressure to be the good mother, the easy wife, the competent employee, the caretaker, the attractive woman, the strong woman and the woman who somehow needs absolutely nothing. Because sometimes the performance that earns women the most praise is the very performance that causes them to disappear. Men suffer too. Men carry their own painful expectations around strength, provision, emotion and masculinity. We do not have to deny that truth in order to acknowledge another one: Good men don’t need women to lie about women’s experiences in order to protect men’s feelings. And good women don’t need to demonize men in order to tell the truth about being female. Maybe the goal isn’t for women to become even stronger. Maybe it is finally asking why strength, sacrifice and resilience have been demanded of us for so long. lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge.               Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The drug landscape facing teenagers is changing faster than many parents realize. In this second conversation with author, educator, private investigator, and ASAP Community founder Dave Kopeny, we go straight into what parents need to know about adolescent substance use, prevention, and the increasingly easy access young people have to potentially addictive substances. Dave discusses Kratom, products being sold in convenience stores and gas stations, changing marijuana potency, social media exposure, peer influence, family patterns, and why waiting until a child is already struggling with addiction may be waiting too long. But this conversation is not about frightening parents. It is about giving them something far more useful: agency. Dave believes parents remain one of the strongest protective influences in a child’s life. We talk about educating kids before experimentation begins, creating guardrails, monitoring without shame, having difficult conversations early, recognizing behavioral changes, and understanding the “why” underneath substance use rather than focusing only on stopping the behavior. We also explore something families often miss in recovery: you cannot send one person away to heal and return them to the exact same environment expecting everything to be different. Addiction affects the entire family system. Sustainable recovery may require parents, siblings, and caregivers to examine their own patterns, seek support, and heal alongside the person struggling. Dave also shares practical strategies from his book, Tip of the Spear: How to Educate, Supervise and Monitor Your Child in a World of Increasing Drug Abuse and Addiction, including how parents can recognize risk, communicate with schools, understand treatment options, establish boundaries, and become proactive before a crisis happens. Your child may tell you they do not want the guardrails. They still need to know someone has their back. Connect with Dave Kopeny and ASAP Community:https://asapcommunity.org Connect with Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive?  Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if designing a kitchen and designing a life have more in common than we think? In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with kitchen designer and longtime construction professional Marvin Towler for a conversation that begins with kitchen remodeling, budgets, and beautiful spaces, then takes the kind of unexpected rabbit holes we love around here. Marvin shares why a dream isn’t enough when you’re renovating a home. You need a plan. From kitchen layouts and cabinetry to flooring, appliances, construction costs, and the unexpected expenses that can derail a remodel, Marvin explains how thoughtful kitchen design can protect your budget while still creating a space that feels deeply personal. But this conversation becomes about much more than kitchens. Marvin believes the kitchen is the heart of the home because it is one of the places where we say, “I love you.” That opens a deeply personal conversation about fathers, work ethic, mentorship, regret, family, and what happens when we realize there were things we never said while we still had the chance. Marvin talks about losing his father at eighteen, learning the construction trade, choosing practicality over art, surviving the economic cycles of architecture and construction, reinventing himself professionally, and discovering that luxury isn’t necessarily about how much money you spend. Sometimes luxury is simply creating something that feels unmistakably yours. Lisa and Marvin also explore parenthood and the difficult conversations we sometimes owe our children, including admitting where we got it wrong. And near the Edge, Marvin answers the question at the center of this show: What did you perform in order to survive? His answer opens a conversation about the masks we learn to wear, the roles we perform, and what it takes to begin letting ourselves be fully seen. This is a conversation about kitchen design and remodeling, but it’s also about building something much harder than a beautiful home: a life where we make room for what matters, tell people we love them while they’re still here, admit our mistakes, and allow ourselves to finally be seen. Marvin Towler: https://perfectkitchentv.com Lisa Lacy | Notes From the Edge: https://www.lisalacy.com What did you perform in order to survive? Welcome to the Edge.                   Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the story that will not leave you alone is not merely asking to be written, but asking to become a message that changes lives?In this live episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with her publisher, award-winning author, publishing strategist, and Light Warrior Publishing founder Missy Maxwell Worton for an honest conversation about writing through fear, publishing with purpose, and turning lived experience into lasting impact.Missy has helped hundreds of purpose-driven authors move from an idea to a completed manuscript, publication, launch, platform growth, and bestseller status. Her own author journey began with the deeply personal book Don’t Mess With This Mama: Risking It All to Rescue Our Daughter, which became a number-one Amazon bestseller and received multiple literary honors.Missy also published Lisa’s Reclaiming Your Savage Sovereignty, which remained a number-one New Release in its category for two months. They are now preparing to release Lisa’s most personal work yet, Notes From a Certified Madwoman.Together, Lisa and Missy will explore:• How to know whether you have a book idea or a message you are responsible for sharing• Why talented writers remain trapped in perfectionism and fear• What authors misunderstand about publishing, visibility, and book launches• How to protect your authentic voice during editing• The difference between publishing a book and building a movement• How to tell painful stories without exploiting your own wounds• What makes a publisher believe in an author before the audience or numbers existThis conversation is for aspiring authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and anyone carrying a story that refuses to remain silent.Where to Find Missy:https://www.missymaxwellworton.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/missy-maxwell-worton-898261371/How to Find Lisa:https://www.lisalacy.com/What did you perform in order to survive?And what might it do for your life to finally put that role, mask, or performance down?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation includes candid discussion of suicide, suicidal ideation, attempts, grief, and the emotional realities carried by survivors and the people who love them.What happens when someone finally tells the whole truth and discovers that the person listening does not panic, turn away, or try to make the story more comfortable?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Sean Wellington, founder and host of the Suicide Noted podcast, for a candid conversation about suicide, survival, silence, and what it means to truly listen.Since launching Suicide Noted in 2020, Sean has facilitated more than 400 long-form conversations with suicide attempt survivors and people who have experienced suicidal ideation across 47 U.S. states and 27 countries. His mission is to help us become better at talking about the hardest parts of being human so that fewer people are forced to carry them alone.Together, Lisa and Sean explore: What suicide attempt survivors wish more people understood The difference between listening and trying to rescue Why people often remain silent until they reach a crisis What pauses, contradictions, and unfinished sentences reveal The responsibility involved in holding another person’s story How families, clinicians, leaders, and friends can become safer people to tell the truth to This is a conversation about radical listening, difficult truths, and the profound relief of being heard without being reduced to a diagnosis, a crisis, or the worst moment of your life.How to Find Sean:Home | Suicide Noted - Raw Talks with Attempt Survivorswww.seangwellington.comThe Missing RecordHow to Find Lisa:www.lisalacy.comNotes From the Edge explores trauma, identity, recovery, leadership, reinvention, and the conversations we should have been having all along.And as always, we end with the question:What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when success arrives before you have had the chance to understand who you are?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with transformational mentor, trauma-informed coach, motivational speaker, former child performer, and Licensed Vocational Nurse Hilary Momberger Powers.Hilary began working in front of the camera at five years old as the voice of Sally Brown in the Peanuts cartoons. Behind the early success, however, were unresolved childhood wounds that later contributed to addiction, painful choices, and a life that began to unravel.After entering recovery in 1983, Hilary discovered that putting down the addiction was only the beginning. The deeper work meant confronting the trauma, identity patterns, and emotional wounds that had been leading her life.Together, Lisa and Hilary explore childhood fame, addiction, inner-child work, recovery, self-advocacy, reinvention, and what it means to stop allowing old pain to make present-day decisions.This is a conversation about moving from victim to victor, reclaiming your voice, and proving that it is never too late to begin again.How to Find Hilary:Hilary Momberger Powers | LinkedInHILARY POWERSHow to find Lisa:Lisa LacyLisa Lacy | LinkedInWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when empathy feels less like a gift and more like carrying everyone else’s emotions inside your own body?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with former client, author, entrepreneur, and radio host Saylor Cooper for an honest conversation about blindness, disability, emotional intelligence, nervous-system awareness, boundaries, and learning how to become the container instead of the sponge.Saylor shares how understanding his emotional depth helped him become calmer, more grounded, and more connected to who he has always been at his core. We also explore how he moved beyond other people’s expectations to create Real Variety Radio and Hope Without Sight, platforms built around resilience, storytelling, music, and meaningful human connection.This conversation is about feeling deeply without disappearing inside what you feel, transforming adversity without allowing it to become your entire identity, and recognizing that emotional sensitivity can become a powerful form of leadership when it is supported by self-awareness and boundaries.Hosted by Lisa LacyFeaturing Saylor Cooper:Saylor Cooper | LinkedInhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blissful-connections/id1789566162What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When doing everything “right” in recovery leaves you smaller, sicker, and further away from yourself.For two years, I did exactly what I was told.Six days a week. Sometimes two meetings a day. Inpatient rehabilitation. Outpatient rehabilitation. Sponsors. Step work. Inventories. Confessions. Amends.I stayed sober.But I was not becoming healthier.I was becoming smaller.In this deeply personal episode of Notes From the Edge, I explore what happens when a recovery model fails to recognize the person sitting in front of it, especially when that person is also carrying childhood trauma, sexual assault, domestic violence, psychiatric diagnoses, shame, and a profoundly dysregulated nervous system.This is not an attack on AA.If AA saved your life, I celebrate that. Truly. Keep going.This is a grief story about realizing that the map I had been given was never designed for the terrain I was walking.We will talk about:• The difference between staying sober and actually healing• When “sharing” becomes uncontained trauma dumping• Why powerlessness, defect language, and submission may affect traumatized women differently• The importance of nervous system regulation, boundaries, safety, and co-regulation• Modern trauma approaches such as EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and somatic therapy• The evolving science of addiction and neuroplasticity• Alternatives including SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, medication-assisted treatment, recovery coaching, therapy, purpose, community, and connection• Why informed choice should be part of every recovery conversationMy nervous system did not need another moral inventory.It needed safety.Recovery should not require abandoning your intuition or becoming less yourself. It should help you become more yourself.And if one approach is not helping you heal, that does not automatically mean you are broken.Maybe you simply need a different map.This episode reflects personal experience and is intended for education and conversation. It is not a substitute for individualized medical or mental health care.Learn more about Lisa Lacy and her work at www.lisalacy.comAnd before we leave, I want to ask you the question I ask every guest:What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Beth Granger on visibility, digital trust, critical conversations, and staying human in an increasingly automated worldTechnology can help us reach thousands of people, write polished messages, and build impressive networks.But it cannot create trust for us.Beth Granger is a speaker, consultant, trainer, emcee, and LinkedIn and networking strategist who helps professionals communicate more confidently, navigate critical conversations, and turn online connections into meaningful relationships.Her message is simple and increasingly urgent:You can’t automate relationships.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Beth and Lisa explore the fear beneath professional visibility, why people hesitate to post or speak honestly online, and what separates a connection from an actual relationship.They also discuss:• How to become visible without performing a polished professional persona• The difference between listening and simply waiting to speak• What artificial intelligence can support, and what should never be outsourced• Why critical conversations either strengthen trust or quietly destroy it• How leaders, sales professionals, and teams can communicate with greater clarity and humanity• Why connection, curiosity, kindness, and community still matter in an algorithm-driven worldThis is a conversation about reputation, belonging, confidence, digital communication, and the human work required to make relationships mean something.Learn more about Beth Granger:https://www.bethgranger.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when nothing you accomplish ever seems to be enough?In this solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the long-term impact of chronic devaluation, especially when it begins in childhood. She shares personal stories of earning straight A’s, leading teams, serving on committees, excelling in performance, and still feeling as though the finish line kept moving.When you are told to go left and then criticized for not going right, you may stop trusting your own direction. Over time, that confusion can shape your confidence, your relationships, your ambition, and your ability to fully receive your own success.This conversation explores: Why devaluation can create overachievement and overfunctioning How moving standards teach children to distrust themselves Why accomplished adults may still struggle to feel successful How early devaluation can affect romantic and professional relationships The difference between creating from self-expression and performing for approval How to receive feedback without turning it into a verdict on your worth Devaluation did not stop Lisa from becoming a leader, performer, entrepreneur, writer, and creator.She accomplished it anyway.But the deeper work is learning to accomplish without still carrying the need to prove that she deserves to be valued.What have you spent your life accomplishing in the hope that someone would finally recognize your value?And what might you create next if you no longer needed their permission?Welcome to the Edge.www.lisalacy.com Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bryan Blackmon left Texas for California chasing a dream. Instead, he found himself homeless, sleeping in his car, and drowning in alcohol and addiction.Then an elderly landlord named Elaine chose not to give up on him.Her belief became a turning point, but Bryan still had to do the work of becoming someone he could believe in, too.Today, Bryan is sober, a recovery advocate, transformation coach, and the creator of Crab Crew Life, a community built around recovery, resilience, adaptability, accountability, and belief.Bryan says the crab does not swim. It does not fly. It claws its way forward from the bottom of the ocean floor.And so did he.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Bryan and Lisa explore:• What homelessness and addiction look like from the inside• The difference between getting sober and rebuilding your identity• Why redemption is not a moment, but a daily routine• The ordinary habits that restore dignity and self-respect• How one person’s belief can help rewrite a life• Why community can carry us when willpower is no longer enough• Who we become when survival is no longer our only identityThis is a conversation about second chances, accountability, human connection, and the courage required to keep clawing forward when life has taken you all the way to the bottom.Learn more about Bryan Blackmon and Crab Crew Life:https://crabcrewlif​​e.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It is exactly midnight, I am editing Notes From a Certified Madwoman, and I have finally realized something:Maybe I was never crazy.Maybe I was wounded, dysregulated, surviving, and just slightly feral.In this solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I talk about what happens when trauma is mistaken for personality, survival responses are reduced to mental illness, and the context of a person’s life disappears beneath the diagnosis.This is not an argument against therapy, psychiatry, medication, recovery, or mental health treatment. Those things save lives, including mine.It is an invitation to ask a fuller question.Not only:What is wrong with you?But also:What happened to you?I also share why some details were intentionally left out of my book, why telling the whole truth can sometimes bring consequences from the very people who benefited from your silence, and why this book is not an attempt to explain or defend myself.It is an exploration of what happens when we forget that context matters.Because trauma may explain behavior without excusing harm.Because a diagnosis may describe symptoms without telling the whole story.And because sometimes the woman everyone called crazy was carrying more than one nervous system should ever have had to carry alone.Notes From a Certified Madwoman is coming Fall 2026.Welcome to the edge.www.lisalacy.com Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Price of Waiting for Permission and the Power of Becoming Visible AnywayWhat happens when a woman stops waiting to feel confident, stops explaining every decision, and starts building the life she knows she is capable of creating?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with award-winning entrepreneur, author, podcast host, and founder of the Badass Queen™ movement, Renee Carbone Fleming.Renee filed for bankruptcy. Her marriage ended. She found herself rebuilding from the ground up and made a two-word decision that would shape everything that followed:Watch me.That decision became a philosophy, a movement, and the foundation of the WATCH ME Method™, Renee’s five-principle operating system for women who are done seeking permission, shrinking their ambitions, and waiting for approval before taking action.Renee went on to build a direct-sales organization that generated more than $13 million, lead a team of over 400 people, create a multimillion-dollar brand empire, publish three books, launch the Unapologetically Badass podcast, and see her brand featured on the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square.In this bold and honest conversation, Lisa and Renee explore:• What reinvention really looks like before the success story becomes polished• Why overexplaining quietly weakens a woman’s authority• The hidden emotional and financial cost of waiting for approval• Why confidence is the result of execution, not the requirement for it• How women can become visible before they feel completely ready• What Renee had to survive, release, and rebuild between bankruptcy and success• How to stop asking others to approve the future you are creatingThis is a conversation for every woman who has ever known she was capable of more but kept waiting for permission to prove it.Connect with Renee Carbone Fleming:https://badassqueen.coConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Female Anger, Menopause, and What Happens When the Manageable Woman DisappearsPeople celebrate strong women until those women get angry, set boundaries, stop apologizing, or remove access.In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, Lisa Lacy explores female anger, menopause, nervous-system overload, and what happens when the emotionally manageable woman begins to disappear. Menopause may not create a new, irrational woman. It may reveal the woman who spent decades swallowing betrayal, exhaustion, grief, emotional labor, and uncomfortable truths to keep everyone else comfortable.This conversation also holds the harder truth: anger can carry important information, but justified rage can still cause harm. Trauma explains behavior. It does not excuse it. Healing is not about silencing anger or worshipping it. It is about learning to hold truth without destruction, boundaries without cruelty, and power without abandoning our humanity.This episode draws from Lisa’s upcoming book, Notes of a Certified Madwoman, an exploration of trauma, survival, identity, nervous-system adaptation, and the women we became in order to survive.Who benefited from the version of you who carried her suffering quietly?Welcome to the edge.www,lisalacy.com Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the thing that made you feel most alive nearly kills you?“Rocketman” Dan Schlund is one of the last professionally trained Rocketbelt pilots in the world. For a decade, he flew jet packs at events across 25 countries and six continents, performing hundreds of flights without a parachute and with only seconds of fuel strapped to his back.But Dan’s most extraordinary story began after the spectacle ended.Following devastating burns, extensive skin-graft surgeries, and a crash that left him with a broken neck, Dan lost far more than his ability to fly. He lost his income, his marriage, and the identity he had built around being the Rocketman. He also became dependent on pain medication and had to rebuild his life from the ground up.Dan eventually founded National Set Medics, growing it into a multimillion-dollar company that provides medical professionals for film and television productions nationwide. Ten years after his final flight, he purchased the Rocketbelt and training hangar and returned to the air one more time for his memoir and documentary, The Last Rocketman.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy and Dan explore:• What happens when your identity disappears overnight• The difference between courage and fearlessness• How the nervous system responds after catastrophic injury• Addiction, recovery, and the invisible work behind a comeback• Calculated risk and decision-making under pressure• Why Dan believes fear is information, not instruction• What it took to strap the Rocketbelt on one final timeDan’s message is not that we should become fearless. It is that courage can be practiced, preparation can change our relationship with fear, and our worst experience does not have to become our final one.Learn more about Dan, his book, and the documentary:https://rocketman.tv/Learn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Psychiatric labels, medical dismissal, and what happens when a human being becomes paperworkWhat happens when a provider sees your psychiatric history before they truly see you?In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy explores the dangerous gap between being treated as a medically complex human being and being reduced to “the psychiatric patient.”Drawing from her lived experience inside mental health facilities, jail, addiction recovery, emergency rooms, and repeated life-threatening medical crises, Lisa examines how quickly dignity, autonomy, and credibility can disappear once a diagnosis enters the room.This episode explores institutionalization, medical gaslighting, hospital trauma, psychiatric bias, and the devastating consequences of being labeled emotional instead of symptomatic, anxious instead of endangered, and crazy instead of sick.It also offers an early look into Lisa’s forthcoming memoir, Notes From a Certified Madwoman, releasing in October. Part memoir, part cultural critique, and part nervous-system conversation, the book asks a question that could change how we understand trauma and mental illness:What if the diagnosis was sometimes describing survival?Mental illness should never cancel physical illness.A psychiatric record should never erase a patient’s credibility.Institutionalization should never require the surrender of human dignity.Learn more about Lisa, the podcast, and her upcoming work at:https://lisa-lacy.comNotes From a Certified Madwoman releases in October.See you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when you grow up without hearing “I love you,” without being held, and without learning what safe, enduring affection feels like?In this deeply personal solo episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, I explore the difference between loving someone and knowing how to experience love.My parents never told me they loved me. My father wrote the words in letters I would not open until decades later, after he died. My mother never said them. I learned touch through violation rather than comfort, and when I became a mother, I had to consciously teach myself how to hug my daughter and say, “I love you.”For years, I believed love meant providing. I became the financial provider, the problem-solver, the rescuer, and eventually a workaholic driven by survival.Now, with the help of transformational coach Steve Barton, I am exploring a different idea:Love can be wisdom.Love can be trust.And love can simply be love.We also talk about menopause, the disappearing bullshit filter, and the challenge of setting boundaries that are loving, direct, and final. Because you can love someone, understand them, forgive them, and still decide they no longer have access to you.This next chapter is not about performing love.It is about finally learning what love feels like when it does not require self-abandonment.What did you perform in order to survive?Learn more at lisalacy.comSee you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Burnout, Boundaries, and Why the Most Capable Person in the Room May Be Closest to the EdgeWhat happens when competence becomes a survival strategy?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with life coach and former technology leader Loren Silverman for an honest conversation about burnout, overthinking, boundaries, self-abandonment, and the hidden cost of always being the capable one.After nearly two decades working in technology, program management, and digital transformation, Loren realized that the part of his career that mattered most was not the technology. It was helping the people behind it.He also recognized a difficult truth: persistence can look admirable from the outside while quietly costing us our satisfaction, health, and connection to ourselves.Today, Loren is the founder of Silverman Coach and the creator of Life Reboot: Nerd Edition, a coaching experience for nerds, geeks, overthinkers, and overwhelmed professionals who are ready to trade chaos for clarity, build meaningful boundaries, and finally follow through on what matters.Together, Lisa and Loren explore why the most capable person in the room may also be the person closest to the edge, how competence becomes a performance, and why real transformation is often built through small, repeatable choices rather than dramatic overhauls.They also discuss the difference between persistence and self-abandonment, the role values play in decision-making, and what it takes to stop treating yourself like a problem that needs to be optimized.Learn more about Loren Silverman and Silverman Coach:http://silverman.coachLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How Parents Can Recognize Risk, Interrupt Addiction, and Become Their Child’s Strongest Protective ForceEvery parent wants to believe their child will know how to recognize danger, make the right decision, and walk away when drugs enter the picture.But today’s drug landscape is more accessible, potent, and aggressively marketed than many families realize. By the time a parent knows something is wrong, the problem may already be much larger than anyone understood.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, educator, private investigator, and addiction prevention advocate Dave Kopeny.Dave grew up in a home consumed by addiction. He was given LSD at eight years old, knew how to roll a joint by nine, and later lost his father, brother, and sister-in-law to alcohol and drug use.Those experiences became the foundation for more than 30 years of work with adolescents, young adults, and families navigating addiction and other high-risk behaviors. Throughout his career, Dave has served as a school counselor, teacher, probation officer, law enforcement officer, gang investigator, and private investigator specializing in teen addiction and intervention.Together, Lisa and Dave explore:• Why the “war on drugs” failed• How parents can recognize the early warning signs of substance use• The difference between healthy supervision and destructive surveillance• How social media and modern drug markets target young people• What parents should do when they suspect their child is using drugs• How families can replace fear and helplessness with awareness, action, and hopeDave is the author of Tip of the Spear: How to Educate, Supervise, and Monitor Your Child in a World of Increasing Drug Abuse and Addiction and the founder of ASAP Community, where he provides parents with practical tools to protect and support their children.Connect with Dave Kopeny:https://asapcommunity.orgConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Hughes on Identity, Fear, Self-Judgment, and Becoming the Person Beneath the PerformanceThe person who got you here may have been exactly who you needed to become.The achiever. The problem-solver. The founder who never stops moving. The leader who learned how to carry the pressure, meet the expectations, and become whatever the moment required.But what happens when that identity begins keeping you from where you want to go next?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with coach, author, speaker, and Untamed founder Jim Hughes for a conversation about the stories, fears, and deeply rooted beliefs that quietly shape who we become.Jim has lived in 12 countries, built and led a multimillion-dollar engineering business in Australia, explored an extraordinary range of careers, and even skied the world’s longest giant slalom race wearing only a G-string. For the past decade, he has helped high-achieving founders and leaders stop living as the people they believe they should be and begin becoming the people they genuinely want to be.Together, Lisa and Jim explore:• The hidden ways founders and high performers waste energy• Why motivation may be overrated• How fear disguises itself as ambition and growth• Why changing what you do is not enough without examining who is doing it• The role self-judgment plays in keeping people stuck• How voices from our past continue influencing decisions they are no longer entitled to make• What it takes to release the identity that helped you surviveThis is a conversation about success, identity, performance, and the courage required to stop obeying the person you once needed to be.Connect with Jim Hughes and Untamed:https://www.becomeuntamed.comConnect with Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comNotes From the Edge is where we explore trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, and the deeply human stories underneath the roles we perform.Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Curiosity, Compliance, and Teams That Think.Why do capable, intelligent teams stop taking initiative?Sometimes it is not because people are lazy, disengaged, or unwilling to contribute. Sometimes they have learned that following directions is safer than asking questions, challenging assumptions, or offering an original idea.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Dr. Katie Trowbridge, an award-winning educator, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, author, and CEO of Curiosity 2 Create.After more than 25 years in the classroom, Katie began bringing the principles of curiosity, trust, and thoughtful questioning into organizations. Her work helps leaders move beyond managing behavior and toward creating cultures where people think deeply, contribute ideas, take ownership, and lead with purpose.Together, Lisa and Katie explore:• Why leadership shifted from developing people to managing compliance• Why capable teams sometimes stop taking initiative• The leadership habits that unintentionally silence good ideas• What great teachers understand about human development• How curiosity and trust create stronger workplace cultures• The CREATE Method™ and how leaders can build teams that think for themselvesDr. Katie Trowbridge is the author of Lead Boldly, Think Deeply and the creator of the CREATE Method™, a framework designed to help leaders develop stronger thinkers and more sustainable organizational cultures.Learn more about Dr. Katie Trowbridge and Curiosity 2 Create:https://curiosity2create.orgLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comJoin us for a human conversation about leadership, curiosity, and what becomes possible when people are trusted to think.See you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when someone you love is in crisis, refuses help, and waiting for them to become “ready” may cost them their life?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with attorney, former prosecutor, and family crisis advocate Mark Astor for a necessary and deeply human conversation about addiction, severe mental illness, involuntary treatment, family trauma, and the difficult line between compassion and enabling.Mark is a partner at Astor Simovitch Law, where he helps families navigate crises involving psychiatric instability, substance use, failed treatment efforts, medical complexity, and resistance to care. His work includes emergency guardianships, recovery planning, and legal intervention through Florida laws such as the Baker Act and Marchman Act.This work is not theoretical for Mark.Two days after burying his father, he stood beside police and paramedics as a member of his own family was involuntarily transported for psychiatric evaluation. That experience gave him a perspective no courtroom ever could and ultimately shaped his mission to help families take informed, lawful, and compassionate action before irreversible harm occurs.Together, Lisa and Mark explore why “waiting until they are ready” can sometimes be deadly, how cognitive impairment affects a person’s ability to recognize that they need help, and when legal intervention may become an act of love rather than punishment or control.They also examine the emotional burden carried by parents, spouses, and siblings, the civil-rights questions surrounding involuntary treatment, and how families can preserve a loved one’s dignity while still acting to protect their life.Behind every diagnosis, arrest, psychiatric hold, or involuntary commitment is a human being trying to survive and a family desperately trying not to lose them.Learn more about Mark Astor and his work:https://x.com/AstorSimovitchhttps://www.instagram.com/https://www.tiktok.com/@astorsimovitchlawLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Addiction, Bipolar Disorder, and Rebuilding a Life with the S.O.B.E.R. MethodWhat happens when you remove the substance, but the pain, pressure, and survival patterns underneath it remain?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, entrepreneur, podcast host, and addiction recovery advocate Massimo Rigotti for an honest conversation about addiction, bipolar disorder, grief, confidence, and the complicated work of rebuilding a life in recovery.After navigating addiction, mental-health challenges, professional upheaval, and devastating personal loss, Massimo created the S.O.B.E.R. Method™, a framework combining Stoic principles, self-observation, behavior modification, the execution of positive habits, and holistic restoration.Together, Lisa and Massimo explore why abstinence may be only the beginning, what traditional recovery models can sometimes overlook, and how shame, identity, self-trust, and confidence influence a person’s ability to create lasting change.They also examine the hidden dependencies of high-achieving professionals, the difference between looking functional and genuinely being well, and what it takes to stop escaping yourself and begin building a life you no longer need to numb.Learn more about Massimo Rigotti and the S.O.B.E.R. Method:Digital S.O.B.E.R. Method: Beat Phone Addiction and Reclaim Your Attention in 5 Stoic Steps — Available now!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H93ZTVS9/ Free gift! Want the tools I use with clients?  https://sobermethod.com/5tools Your Future is S.O.B.E.R.™Website: https://sobermethod.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sobermethod/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sobermethodTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sobermethodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/sobermethodLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Richard Spegal on Dark Fantasy, Mental Health, and the Battles WithinAuthor Richard Spegal returns to Notes From the Edge for a deeper conversation about the profoundly human truths hiding inside dark fantasy.Richard creates supernatural worlds filled with danger, moral complexity, and characters who are anything but one-dimensional. Beneath the monsters, battles, curses, and impossible choices are people wrestling with grief, trauma, isolation, identity, loyalty, responsibility, and the war taking place inside their own minds.Drawing from 21 years of service in the United States Army, including the 82nd Airborne Division and the Pennsylvania National Guard, Richard brings an uncommon understanding of discipline, leadership, sacrifice, survival, and the emotional cost of always being expected to remain strong.In this conversation, we explore:• Why fantasy can reveal truths that realism sometimes cannot• How invisible mental health struggles become visible through monsters, curses, and supernatural transformations• The influence of military service on Richard’s portrayal of trauma and moral injury• Why flawed, emotionally complicated characters feel more genuinely human• What readers may be searching for when they enter darker fictional worlds• Whether the parts of ourselves we fear most are truly monsters or simply wounded places asking to be understoodRichard is the author of the Wolves and Ravens trilogy and the Eternal Nights series, where paranormal danger collides with questions about humanity, survival, love, and the choices we make when there are no easy answers.Explore Richard Spegal’s books and work:https://richardspegal.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy and Notes From the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.comWelcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this deeply personal solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy records at 3 a.m., during the hour when the world grows quiet and every unfamiliar sensation in the body becomes impossible to ignore.Lisa lives with hereditary antithrombin deficiency, a rare congenital blood disorder that allows her blood to clot even while she is taking medication designed to prevent it. After surviving multiple pulmonary embolisms, permanent lung damage, years of medical dismissal, and surgical menopause, she knows what it means to live inside a body that cannot be completely trusted.But this episode is about more than illness.It is about the unbearable loneliness of carrying something no one else can see.It is about looking capable while quietly monitoring every cramp, pressure, breath, and unfamiliar sensation. It is about needing accommodations without appearing visibly sick, explaining limitations other people cannot understand, and constantly trying to determine whether the danger is physical, hormonal, psychological, or all three.Invisible illness can turn a person into the patient, investigator, advocate, and frightened witness of their own body. It can make ordinary life feel like a continuous negotiation between vigilance and joy.Lisa explores medical trauma, mortality, menopause, fear, purpose, and the exhausting expectation that people living with chronic illness should perform strength simply to remain worthy of care.This is not a story about becoming fearless.It is a conversation about learning to live fully while acknowledging that fear is sometimes reasonable, uncertainty is real, and invisible does not mean imaginary.Learn more about Lisa and Notes From the Edge at:https://www.lisalacy.comSee you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Recovery, AI, and the Human Cost of a Missed Moment in Addiction TreatmentWhat happens when someone finally finds the courage to ask for help, calls a treatment center, and no one answers?To an organization, it may look like a missed call or a dead lead. But on the other end of that phone is a human being standing inside a brief and potentially life-changing moment of willingness.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with David Sichel, founder of Blueshirt Media and a person in long-term recovery who understands this experience personally.Before entering recovery, David reached out for help with his addiction and never heard back. Today, he has built a HIPAA-compliant AI platform designed specifically for addiction treatment centers, helping them answer calls around the clock, reconnect with people who previously asked for help, and transfer qualified callers directly to admissions professionals. Together, Lisa and David explore:The performance of appearing okay while actively drowningWhat silence communicates when someone finally asks for helpThe human being behind every so-called “dead lead”Whether AI can protect human connection rather than replace itWhere technology must stop and trained professionals must step inThe ethical, emotional, and human cost of an unanswered callThis is not simply a conversation about technology. It is a conversation about timing, shame, recovery, responsibility, and what can happen when someone answers at exactly the right moment.Host: Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comGuest: David Sichel, Blueshirt Mediahttps://www.blueshirtmedia.comWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On August 9, 1969, while the world’s attention turned toward the Manson murders across town, another woman was killed on what society considered the wrong side of Los Angeles.Her name was Cletha, and she was my grandmother.She was a poor mother of six whose injuries left her face unrecognizable, yet her death was recorded as natural causes. The man responsible never faced a courtroom. There was no justice, no public outrage, and no lasting headline to make sure the world remembered her.But her story did not end there.In this deeply personal episode, I honor my grandmother and confront the generational trauma, domestic violence, silence, and survival that traveled through the women in my family. This is a conversation about what happens when pain is inherited, when women are denied justice, and when one generation finally decides the cycle will end with them.Cletha, you are the reason I teach trauma-informed martial arts in domestic violence shelters. I cannot help but believe that if you had been given the skills I have today, you might still be here with us.I pass those skills on to other women so they do not suffer the same fate and so they know how to defend themselves, their bodies, and their lives.My grandmother may never have received justice, but she will not be forgotten.Her legacy lives in every woman who learns to protect herself, reclaim her voice, and refuse to disappear quietly.This one is for Cletha. Welcome to the Edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Childhood Trauma, Self-Destruction, and Reclaiming the Person Beneath the PerformanceContent note: This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, suicide attempts, addiction patterns, abusive relationships, and trauma recovery. Please listen with care.What happens when the version of you that learned how to survive becomes the identity you no longer know how to remove?From the outside, high-functioning survival can look like success. It can look like earning degrees, building businesses, raising children, creating projects, and continuing to show up for everyone around you.Underneath the achievement, however, may be a nervous system still running on fear, people-pleasing, overworking, perfectionism, and the relentless need to prove your worth.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with trauma specialist, embodiment coach, author, podcaster, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and founder of Victim 2 Victor, Anu Verma.Anu has survived childhood trauma, suicide attempts, addiction patterns, abusive relationships, financial manipulation, and years of self-destruction disguised as coping. While appearing successful and capable to the outside world, she was often disconnected from herself and driven by the identities she had created to feel safe.Today, she helps others understand the unconscious beliefs and survival patterns shaping their lives, rebuild self-trust, regulate their nervous systems, and move toward emotional resilience and lasting transformation.Together, Lisa and Anu explore:How high-functioning survival hides beneath achievementWhy people-pleasing and overworking can become trauma responsesWhat harmful coping mechanisms are trying to protect us fromHow childhood trauma can distort love, intimacy, and self-worthThe difference between being desired and being valuedHow financial and emotional abuse erode identity and boundariesWhat people misunderstand about suicide and hopelessnessWhy healing requires compassion for the person you became to surviveWhat rebuilding yourself actually looks like in the messy middleThis is not a polished transformation story.It is an honest conversation about the masks we wear, the pain we numb, the roles we perform, and the courage it takes to reclaim the person underneath them all.Host: Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comGuest: Anu Verma, Victim 2 Victorhttps://linktr.ee/healing.journeyyWhat did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The dogs woke me up. Menopause made sure I stayed awake. And suddenly my nervous system was hosting a 3:00 a.m. board meeting about every decision I have made since 1997.In this episode of Midnight Menopausal Meanderings, we are talking about the biology behind menopause-related insomnia, including hormonal changes, temperature dysregulation, nervous-system activation, and why one small interruption can leave you staring at the ceiling for hours.But this conversation goes deeper than sleep.What happens when exhaustion, hormonal changes, and limited emotional bandwidth make it harder to keep performing, accommodating, and pretending everything is fine?Maybe menopause does not create a new woman.Maybe it reveals the woman who no longer has the neurological energy to tolerate bullshit.We explore:• Why sleep becomes more difficult during menopause• How estrogen and progesterone changes affect the brain• Why hot flashes and nighttime awakenings can trigger hypervigilance• How sleep deprivation affects emotional regulation• Why your tolerance for emotional labor may suddenly disappear• How to listen to the truths that surface at midnight without immediately blowing up your entire life before breakfastYou are not failing at sleep.Your biology has changed, your nervous system is adapting, and your body may finally be refusing to finance the performance. Learn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comNotes From the Edge is where we have the conversations we should have been having all along.Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the person you learned to abandon in order to survive is yourself?Many of us learned early how to stay quiet, become useful, keep the peace, earn approval, and make ourselves smaller so other people would remain comfortable. Those adaptations may have helped us survive childhood, but they can follow us into our relationships, our faith, our work, and the way we understand our own worth.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with international award-winning author, speaker, trauma-informed, faith-aware self-love coach, and relationship repair specialist Danielle Bernock.Danielle is a childhood trauma survivor who did not fully come into her own until her fifties. After publishing her memoir, Emerging With Wings, she transformed the story she was once afraid to tell into a body of work helping others move from survival into a life rooted in freedom, value, connection, and love.Together, Lisa and Danielle explore childhood emotional neglect, trauma that remains invisible, church hurt, spiritual bypassing, self-abandonment, relationship repair, and what it truly means to love yourself after years of performing for acceptance.They also discuss:How childhood trauma shapes adult identity and relationshipsWhy emotional neglect can be so difficult to recognizeWhat happens when pain is minimized or invalidatedHow to separate faith from the harm caused by religious institutionsWhy self-love can feel unsafe for trauma survivorsHow to tell your story without allowing trauma to become your entire identityWhy it is never too late to finally take up space in your own lifePerhaps healing does not begin when we finally become worthy of love.Perhaps it begins when we realize we were worthy all along.Host: Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comGuest: Danielle Bernockhttps://www.daniellebernock.comhttps://dani-daniellebernock-com.kit.com/de9e550f64https://dani-daniellebernock-com.kit.com/074c8b6335What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when a lifetime of caring for people, witnessing loss, raising a family, and navigating life’s hardest moments becomes the foundation for storytelling?Join me for a new live episode of Notes From the Edge with author, legal nurse consultant, hospice specialist, teacher, and multi-genre storyteller Nancy Jasin Ensley.Nancy has spent decades working in professions that require empathy, discernment, and the ability to remain present during some of life’s most critical moments. Those experiences now inform the stories she writes across memoir, literary fiction, science fiction, mystery, thrillers, action and adventure, and children’s literature.Together, we’ll explore:• How nursing and hospice shape the way we understand life, loss, and what truly matters• Why writing can help us process the experiences that leave a mark• How family, faith, service, and lived experience become powerful stories• The identity of being the helper, the strong one, or the person everyone depends on• How writers turn real-life experiences into fiction, memoir, and meaningful conversations• What it means to preserve memory and make sense of life through storytellingThis is a conversation about caregiving, creativity, resilience, reflection, and the stories that are quietly being written through each of us.Host: Lisa LacyWriter, trauma educator, speaker, and host of Notes From the Edge https://www.lisalacy.comGuest: Nancy Jasin EnsleyAuthor, legal nurse, hospice specialist, teacher, and storyteller https://nancyjasinensley.com/What did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens to the surgeon after a patient experiences a devastating complication?Clinicians are trained to make life-or-death decisions, perform under extraordinary pressure, and remain calm when everything is at stake. But they are rarely taught how to process the emotional aftermath when an outcome goes wrong.In this live episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with trauma and acute care surgeon, educator, author, and healthcare leader Dr. Daniel Eiferman for an honest conversation about the side of medicine most people never see.Dr. Eiferman is a tenured professor of surgery at The Ohio State University and a Castle Connolly Top Doctor. His book, Cut Open: A Surgeon’s Stories of Loss, Resilience, and Growth, explores the complications, difficult decisions, grief, leadership challenges, and moments of self-doubt that exist behind the operating-room doors.Together, we will explore:• Why clinicians often experience complications as personal failure• The psychological toll of a bad surgical outcome• How the culture of perfection creates shame and isolation• What it takes to rebuild confidence after failure• How clinicians can recover without becoming hardened or disengaged• What healthcare leadership owes the people working under relentless pressureThis conversation is not only for surgeons. It is for anyone who has worked in a high-stakes environment, experienced an outcome they could not entirely control, and quietly wondered whether they still belonged in the work.Dr. Eiferman will also share practical tools for clinicians who are expected to remain steady, even when they do not feel steady inside.Access his complimentary guide at:https://integritysurgery.org/signup/What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How far will we push ourselves before we finally ask what we are running from?Marc Hopkins has completed the Bigfoot 200, eight Ironman-distance triathlons, and more than 200 endurance events. But the most difficult terrain he has ever crossed was the landscape inside himself.In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Marc joins Lisa Lacy for a raw conversation about the difference between true endurance and simply enduring life. Together, they explore what happens when grit becomes avoidance, achievement becomes identity, and pushing through becomes the only way we know how to survive.Marc shares how a grueling 200-mile ultramarathon forced him to confront the anxiety, family patterns, relationship dynamics, and need to prove his worth that had followed him for decades. His memoir, Hard Things, is not simply a story about surviving an extreme race. It is about uncovering the deeper reasons we keep choosing hard things and learning when strength requires us to stop running.This conversation explores:• The difference between endurance and enduring• When grit becomes a form of emotional avoidance• The hidden motivations behind extreme achievement• How family patterns shape relationships and parenting• Who we become when we stop proving our worth• Why vulnerability may be the hardest form of strengthLearn more about Marc, explore Hard Things, and read the first chapter at HardThingsBook.com.What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why do relationships feel harder than ever, even when two people genuinely love each other?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with relationship coach, author, speaker, and ordained minister Andre Paradis for an honest conversation about love, communication, commitment, intimacy, and the survival patterns we unknowingly carry into our relationships.Before becoming a relationship coach, Andre lived an extraordinary life as a professional dancer, performing alongside artists including Michael Jackson, Prince, Paula Abdul, and Julio Iglesias. He later became a husband, father, and successful business owner before discovering a deeper calling to help people build healthier, more fulfilling relationships.Together, Lisa and Andre explore:• Why modern relationships feel so complicated• How childhood wounds influence adult intimacy• What men and women misunderstand about each other• What makes someone commit or walk away• Masculine and feminine energy without rigid stereotypes• How trauma and protective behaviors can sabotage love• What emotional safety looks like in a lasting relationshipLearn more about Andre and Project Equinox Coaching:http://www.projectequinox.netLearn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?Subscribe for more honest conversations about trauma, identity, relationships, recovery, leadership, and what it means to be human.See you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We all get the same 24 hours.So why do some people feel purposeful while others feel overwhelmed?Join me for a live conversation with keynote speaker, author, and time strategy coach C.W. Hawley as we explore the hidden relationship between leadership, identity, and the way we experience time.Rather than offering another productivity system, C.W. challenges us to rethink the beliefs, habits, and expectations that keep high performers feeling constantly behind.Together we’ll discuss:• Why burnout is often a symptom of misalignment rather than a lack of time.• How our relationship with time shapes the way we lead, work, and live.• The connection between identity, expectations, and overwhelm.• Practical strategies for creating sustainable leadership rhythms.• How to pursue meaningful success without sacrificing your well-being.Whether you’re an executive, entrepreneur, leader, or simply someone trying to balance competing priorities, this conversation will leave you thinking differently about what it means to truly own your time.What did you perform in order to survive?Welcome to the Edge.www.lisalacy.comHow to work with C.W.:Lets Talk Time - Let's Talk TimeC.W. Hawley | LinkedIn Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does success cost when the person carrying it is quietly breaking underneath it?In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with James Lang, Managing Partner and co-founder of OverLang Venture Partners, for a conversation about ambition, identity, leadership, medical crisis, and the human cost of high performance.Before launching OverLang, James served as COO of a MedTech startup, where he helped grow the company to more than $20 million in revenue, built a global team of 60 people, and helped lead the organization toward a successful exit.Then a serious medical crisis changed everything.James was forced to reconsider what he believed about work, leadership, success, and the life he was building. Today, he helps American companies grow through strategy, operations, culture, and artificial intelligence, while challenging leaders to remember that growth must support the humans carrying it, not just improve the numbers on a dashboard.In this conversation, we explore:• The hidden internal cost of outward success• How a medical crisis reshaped James’s identity and ambition• What human-centered growth looks like inside an organization• Why company culture matters when scaling quickly• What businesses are getting wrong about artificial intelligence• How leaders can separate sustainable AI from expensive hypeLearn more about James and OverLang Venture Partners:https://OverLang.comLearn more about Lisa Lacy:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat did you perform in order to survive, and is it still serving you?Subscribe for more honest conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, leadership, reinvention, and what it means to be human.See you at the edge. Notes from the Edge with Lisa LacyHuman conversations about trauma, identity, recovery, reinvention, relationships, leadership, and the lives we build after survival.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.