Ashleigh wrote “Swing” because it was her deepest, darkest secret. She thought that there wouldn’t be anybody in the world that could relate to what she experienced, so she wrote about about it to tell everybody. She thought, “Now I’m going to make this into art to share it.” An artist understands that every person will experience art in a differen…

Tiffany wants all women to have beautiful sex lives, which is why she loves to talk about sex. So much of what we’re told is either black or white in church isn’t really black or white. One of the harmful things about the way the Church has approached sexuality is that it is approached as black or white. Tiffany talks about a book called, “Out of S…

Kyra was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by an ex-boyfriend her Junior year of High School. She was taken in the middle of the night and was transported to a field behind the local HS where she was assaulted in many ways. She was put back in the car and made the comment to him “I can’t believe I ever trusted you.” So, instead of taking her home, h…

When it comes to sex, where do we start? How do you want to be approached and how do you want to hear “no?” This is an important conversation we all need to have with our partners. What makes sex meaningful? How to hear “no” is a little more complicated. Is it a simple “no,” or is there a reason behind it? What words are we choosing, and what messa…

So, how do we talk about sex and everything that goes along with it? For Fox, you start by acknowledging that it’s awkward. Two people doing a very intimate physical act is very complicated. Having humor about it can also go a long way. So, we start by owning the fact that we don’t have a lot of practice talking about these things and that it’s goi…

In this episode, Samantha talks with poet and author of "How to Bury a Boy at Sea," Phil Goldstein. Phil talks about the struggles in his life caused by his childhood trauma that eventually led him to therapy. Once in therapy, he realized that being a victim of childhood sexual abuse didn't have to define who he is. He talks with Samantha and her h…

In this episode, Samantha talks with Jody Tompros, retired social worker/therapist and owner of Mindfulness Painting, and her husband, Thom Overton, who is a couple's therapist. Thom discusses his book, "Can COVID Save This Marriage? A Therapist's Pandemic Diary," how it came to be, and how it helps people feel seen and heard. Thom and Jody discuss…

In this episode, Samantha talks with the owner of Orchid Story, Rachel Nusbaum, about how we can all explore the art of writing to help us on our own healing journeys. Her business, Orchid Story is coaching with a focus on writing as therapy. Rachel tells us how writing has helped her and how it has helped so many others she has worked with. She re…

In this episode, Samantha talks with Internal Family Systems Coach, Corinna Coppola. Corinne talks about her upbringing and why she eventually decided to get into Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a practice. She talks us through the basics of IFS and gives us a foundation to go by if any listeners would ever want to explore this healing process. So…

Danielle Brooks acknowledged all that was happening. She dug into her childhood trauma. She started to map out how some of the unhealed areas in her life shaped the decisions she was making. Danielle realized that people get stuck in regret or in lost opportunities. It was her 50th birthday and she was trying to figure out how to celebrate in the m…

Kerry Thomas is an organizing and productivity coach. She has a lot of different passions, but her favorite is working with offices. Kerry has some things she needs to get off her chest when it comes to people’s “stuff” as they get older. Let’s start with, “what small changes can I implement now that’ll make things easier for those we leave behind?…

Jill Perla is staying curious with herself even at the age of 55. She believes that you should have grace for yourself and realize that new things are coming. There’s fear around the new chapter and there’s shame in not knowing what your next steps are. Things are shifting, and she’s allowing room for that, but there’s also fear there, and possibil…

Heather Suri owns a Care Management Practice called Pathways In Aging. Care management involves helping families create teams. Their specialty is working with aging people. Older adults, in general, tend to have a different calculation of personal risk. When you’re in the closing chapters of your life, your risk is different from when you are a tee…

Eileen Grimes is the author of "The Us Journal," which is a parent-child joint journal that encourages the kindling of an authentic connection with your child. Eileen has a masters in education and her passion is in healing relationships and encouraging connections. Eileen reminds us that we need to be curious about who our kids are. When our kids …

R. Featherstone, MSN PMHNP WHNP PMH-C, is a nurse practitioner in the Richmond, VA area. They inform us that flexibility is the key to parenting. We all have a vision of who our children will be before they’re even born and we tend to lay out our hopes and dreams for the child. This vision isn't challenged until the tween stage when the parents’ va…

Dawn Geschiere is a life and empowerment coach and owner of Yes To Life Coaching. She is the parent of 5 adult children and has lots of experience to share with us. The term “no regrets” pulls us into a “guilt,” and when we do have regrets, we already have the idea that we want to have no regrets. It’s impossible to have no regrets and when we stru…

Amy Slenker-Smith is the owner of Simply Enough, a company that encourages and helps people de-clutter their homes and lives. Over the course of her life, Amy realized if she just had less stuff, she would have less stuff to take care of. She was a really “organized hoarder.” She was organized, but there was a lot of stuff. For her, life is much be…

Elena explains that she is a guide who nudges you to find your own liftoff. She asks questions to get people to the nudge, but it’s about you finding your own joy, value, and truth. Our judgment of our bodies starts when we are so young. All of her experiences growing up caused her to be her own worst enemy with her body, but it took all of that to…

We have clothes in our closet that trigger us because we aren’t at that place anymore, and we need to start demanding new things from the clothing we put on our bodies. We have been on autopilot for so long. Wardrobe has always been a connection to “self” for Cristina. There’s a connection to “who am I” and that’s how she related to style. When we …

Becky Upchurch is a clarity and mindset coach. She, like so many people, grew up conflating weight and health and believes that people having weight and health issues has been normalized over time. She believes that so much time and energy is wasted on focusing on the wrong things when it comes to these things. Becky talks to Samantha about taking …

Every woman feels like they need to apologize for their body and they feel like something that’s broken. It’s not a matter of anybody having anything that is actually broken, it’s the world around us giving us bad information. Debbie was put on a diet at the age of 6 and got the message that certain bodies are good and certain bodies are bad. So, D…

This week, Samantha sits down with Lana Lechkina, a quilling artist and owner of Just Quill It. Lana was born in Russia and lived in a small town. Dentistry at that time was rudimentary and her first experience with a dentist was horrific and involved a drill and her cheek. A traumatic experience at this age has caused her to have anxiety around de…

This week, Samantha talks with DeDee Cai, owner of coaching and consulting company Fit To Profit. DeDee helps business owners create the right mindset. She says that 80% of business is mindset and 20% is strategy. We are the driver behind our businesses. DeDee loves working with moms who are business owners and helping them manage owning a business…

This week, Samantha talks with Cecile Blot (pronounced “blow”), about the challenges of starting a travel company, weathering the hit that the pandemic gave to the travel industry, and getting out of your bubble when it comes to travel. Cecile is a travel advisor and the owner of Boundless Travels, where she creates unique bespoke travel experience…

This week, Samantha talks with newborn and family photographer, Dana Graham. Her whole life, Dana just wanted to be a mom. But, in Northern Virginia, the idea of just being a mom is hard, especially when her husband was working for the government. Dana felt lost in her professional career and didn’t have a clear-cut path. Then, a Facebook ad came u…

This week, Samantha talks with the President and Founder of Storybook Treasures, Denise Corbo. Storybook Treasures is a nonprofit with the mission of “putting books into the hearts, hands, and homes of children in need.” Denise was an educator for over 30 years, but she says that teaching found her. She doesn’t describe herself as being a good stud…

This week, Samantha talks with Sarah Shores, owner of Warrenton Wellness, a wellness center offering blue light therapy. Sarah talks about her journey from doing engineering work for the US Coast Guard, to contracting Lyme’s Disease, to starting her own business offering Blu Rooms in Warrenton, VA. Sarah had a very active lifestyle running marathon…

This week, Samantha talks with Dr. Alyssa Adams, clinical psychologist turned intuitive business coach, about exploring yourself. Samantha and Alyssa met each other on a “speed networking” event and since then, Samantha has wanted to have her as a guest to "flush out" her journey. Alyssa and Samantha talk a lot about being shockingly honest and how…

This week, Samantha talks with Havilah Vangroll of Have Strategy Coaching. Havilah is a nutrition and health coach specializing in teaching the “how” to have a healthy life. Food and nutrition is what she loves, but she has also learned over time that she needs to focus not only on these things, but the person as a whole. She understands that havin…

This week, Samantha gets to be a “nerd by proxy” with Dr. Erika Michalski, EDD. Erika is a self-proclaimed nerd, and founder of "Strategically Authentic." Samantha talks with her about the science behind authenticity and satisfaction. Erika also runs the instagram site @consultantbarbie, where she wants to encourage people to be a catalyst for thei…

This week, Samantha talks with the owner of Conquer The Chaos Organizing, Kerry Thomas. Kerry understands that organization is so much more than what people realize, which is why she is so passionate about helping entrepreneurs with organization. She believes that "the more organized you are, the less time you waste." So many entrepreneurs have und…

This week, Samantha talks with wellness and success mentor and owner of Wise Oils Wellness, Athena Scalise Waitt. Athena previously worked for NATO and worked for a non-profit called “Reef Relief.” She was working in organization and managing people, but also the aspect of working for the greater good. Growing up, she wanted to be a lawyer for wome…

This week, Samantha talks with business owner and mother of 3, Julie Nicholson Burke. Motherhood was much more difficult for Julie than she ever imagined it to be. Her oldest son has been challenging to raise, and then she also has twins. So, when it came to running a business, she had to have patience. This wasn’t being carried over to her kids, t…

This week, Samantha talks with founder of DC Fempreneur (DC Fem), Lisa Shapiro about what DC Fem means to her and how it has helped her not just professionally, but personally as well. Lisa set out on her entrepreneurial journey when she gave up her regular corporate job to pursue something that she felt a need for. She created a space where entrep…

This week, Samantha talks with social media guru Karlyn Ankrom about being a dance instructor, the nuances of impostor syndrome, and the benefits and pitfalls of today's social media scene. Karlyn's passion comes from her ability to help people tell their story in a micro-moment. Today, this is done through social media. When she pairs her passion …

This week, Samantha talks with Gresham Harkless, digital marketing consultant and host of the "I Am CEO" podcast. Samantha was a previous guest on Gresh's podcast and he has spoken to over 900 CEO's and entrepreneurs to bring the knowledge and wisdom that each have to offer to his listeners. Gresham got his entrepreneurial start at age 10 when he s…

This week, Samantha talks with blogger Danielle Ellis her journey of growth and healing. Danielle is a mother of two daughters who delves into her own childhood in this episode. She explains what it was like for her growing up with a mother who wasn't present, and father who wasn't around, and an abusive stepfather. She ran away at 18 years old and…

This week, Samantha talks with Michelle Coe. Michelle is the owner of Blue Sky Phoenix, a marketing strategy company. Michelle begins by walking us through her 10 year journey as an entrepreneur. She moved from Western New York to Virginia and thought that if she’s going to move this far away from her family, she was going to make it worth it. The …

This week, Samantha talks with owner of Your-White-Knight restaurant consulting, Sarah White. Sarah is also described as a political "first responder," in that she sees politics as a place where so many people are running away from it and she is running into it to do what she can to make her voice, and the voice of the people she wants to represent…

This week, Samantha talks with life coach and owner of Selfish Mama, Tina Unrue. Tina writes in "Her Growth Collective" along with Samantha and a community of other women on Instagram each Thursday. Tina quotes Brenee Brown when explaining that "Her Growth Collective is a community that brings women together with the intention of growth." This epis…

In the conclusion of their discussion about "Long-Gaming," Samantha and Don talk about what it means to keep running to Christ. The long-game mentality for any hard situation can be, "let me get through the next 2 minutes," then, "let me get through the next 2 hours," then, "let me get through the next 2 days," and so on. This is a great strategy t…

Samantha and Don discuss what it really means to be a Christian in Part 4. Part of long-gaming involves understanding that we all have our crosses to bear in life and if we are to be "like Jesus" in all ways, we are going to go through some hard times. The hands and feet of Jesus involve the messy parts of life, but sometimes we only want the "happ…

In Part 3, Don and Samantha discuss purpose and perspective. Long-gaming relies on these two key things, so we should all aim to have the "purpose" mentality, which means that we need to gain perspective on life's journey.By Samantha Spittle

In Part 2 of "Long Gaming," Samantha and Don talk about how God is the ultimate "long-gamer." God is the great "I Am," and He is "who was, and is, and is to come."By Samantha Spittle

In this episode of Walk Me Through This, Don and Samantha talk about "Long-Gaming." Part 1 gets into the "Messy Middle," which is the area somewhere between "Once Upon A Time" and "Happily Ever After."By Samantha Spittle

This week, Samantha talks with yoga instructor and life coach, Monica Fernandi about the "ABCs of Amazing Health." These are: A - Attitude of Gratitude Monica's attitude of gratitude is apparent from the beginning of the conversation. She believes we all should strive to have gratitude at the forefront of all of our attitudes. B - Breathe Breathing…

This week, Samantha talks with professional actor and coach, Kari Ginsburg. Kari is the owner of Uproar Coaching, LLC, a boutique coaching practice that provides coaching support and tough love to female entrepreneurs. Lastly, but certainly not least, Kari is proud to be mom to rescue dogs. Kari walks us through her experiences to explain how lesso…

This week, Samantha sits down with Ed Johnson, executive leadership and mental fitness coach, to discuss Positive Intelligence (PQ). Joining Ed and Samantha this week is Bridget, one of Ed’s coaching clients. Bridget provides her perspective on what coaching means to her and what coaching has done for her. Bridget details her journey of self discov…

This week, Samantha talks with Amanda Huffman, host of the podcast, "Women Of The Military" and of the blog, airmantomom.com. Amanda shares her story of coping with PTSD and her journey from recognition to healing. She shares a heartbreaking story that we can all relate to of reacting to triggers and yelling at her two year old son, and then explai…

This week, Samantha talks with empowerment coach, Dawn Geschiere about authenticity. Dawn opens up about her struggles while parenting her 5 children (now grown) and how she realizes looking back that she had created a container to shelter her kids that didn’t allow for authenticity. Dawn discusses one of the four cornerstones of her coaching model…