Tia Levings knows the reality behind the carefully curated image of the “trad wife.” In this conversation, she joins me to talk about Christian fundamentalism, religious trauma, and the evolution of traditional wife culture—from the Duggars and the early days of blogging to today’s highly polished world of Ballerina Farm.

Rather than retelling the story of her memoir A Well-Trained Wife, we go deeper into the questions her story raises: Why are some people more vulnerable to high-control environments than others? Why can siblings raised in the same family have such different experiences? And what should parents look for when a child is becoming vulnerable to an ideology that asks them to surrender their own judgment?

We talk about Yesteryear, the trad wife phenomenon, and what happens when an ideology becomes beautiful, aspirational, and Instagram-ready. Tia reflects on her own years as a blogger and the complicated question of whether she helped make a particular version of domestic femininity look desirable.

We also explore something more nuanced: the difference between being forced to make, cook, sew, clean, and perform domesticity—and freely choosing to make things by hand. Can activities once associated with control become creative and healing when they are reclaimed through choice and agency?

And because Tia has experienced a remarkable range of therapy, we talk about what she learned from CBT, EMDR, Brainspotting, and grief work, what each offered her, and what she believes actually helps people rebuild trust in themselves after trauma.

We end with one of my favorite ideas from our conversation: the phrase “I’m the type of person who…”—and what it means to begin creating an identity for yourself after spending years being told who you are supposed to be.

In this episode: Tia Levings, A Well-Trained Wife, trad wife culture, Ballerina Farm, the Duggar family, Yesteryear, Christian fundamentalism, religious trauma, high-control relationships, blogging, motherhood, women’s domestic labor, craft and creativity, trauma recovery, CBT, EMDR, Brainspotting, grief, identity, and learning to trust yourself again.

Tia's books are available here.

Learn more about Tia on her website and Instagram.

Lara Land-Wittich, MHC, hosts Beyond Trauma. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

What happens when we stop thinking of writing as something we do from the neck up and instead let the body have a voice?

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I’m joined by Johanna Franzel, biodynamic craniosacral therapist, teacher, and author, to explore Embodied Writing—a practice that creates a bridge between language and the body, and between the body and language. We talk about how writing from the body can bring us into real time, shifting our relationship with what is happening in the present moment rather than keeping us caught in old stories or familiar patterns.

Johanna shares how embodied writing can support people living with chronic illness, drawing from what she has learned through her own experience. We also explore why the goal of being “fixed” isn’t always the goal when it comes to mental health—and what becomes possible when we approach ourselves instead with permission, reverence, and curiosity.

We talk about the healing power of having our stories witnessed, what happens when we share our writing with others, and why practicing embodied writing in community can be so powerful. Johanna also leads us through an embodied writing practice that engages all of the senses, so have your journal ready and give yourself a few minutes to write along with us.

This is an episode about listening differently—to our bodies, our stories, and the wisdom that can emerge when we give ourselves permission to be exactly where we are.

Johanna's book, Write Yourself Home, is now available.

Learn more about Johanna on her website and Instagram.

Lara Land-Wittich, MHC, hosts Beyond Trauma. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.

What if our impulse to help can sometimes get in the way of healing?

In this episode of Beyond Trauma, I talk with Chelsea Haverly (she/her), LCSW-C about what becomes possible when we move beyond the verbal story and begin listening more closely to the body.

Chelsea brings together Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic therapy, and craniosacral work to help us understand trauma as something that lives not only in our thoughts and memories, but also in movement, sensation, relationship, and the nervous system.

We talk about the ways the body communicates things that may never make it into the verbal story—and why some trauma needs movement, touch, and attunement in ways that traditional talk therapy may not address. Chelsea also shares how this kind of work can be adapted for virtual therapy, including what therapists can do when touch or movement feels painful, frightening, or impossible for a client.

We explore the Five Element Theory and how it can offer another lens for understanding where a nervous system becomes stuck. Chelsea shares the first thing she recommends when movement feels unsafe, as well as questions we can ask ourselves to discover what kind of movement might actually support our nervous system.

For therapists, we talk about the tendency to turn therapy into a list of interventions: something to fix, assign, measure, or accomplish. Chelsea explains why this can inadvertently replicate aspects of the trauma response and why she doesn't give traditional homework. Instead, she offers something different between sessions.

We also step outside the individual therapy paradigm to ask a larger question: What happens when we understand our struggles as shaped not only by our individual histories, but by relationships, families, communities, culture, and the systems we live within?

Chelsea shares her understanding of the therapeutic relationship as inherently reparative, including the importance of rupture and repair. We discuss how to work with clients who have big goals without getting pulled into urgency or fixing, and how therapists can shift from primarily cognitive approaches toward more embodied ways of working.

And because therapists and other helpers need care, too, Chelsea offers simple nervous-system practices for people who tend to lead with their hearts, along with ideas for making our practices, businesses, and professional environments more trauma-informed.

We also talk about what trauma-informed personal training means—and why the principles of trauma-informed care can extend far beyond the therapy room.

Learn more about trauma-informed body work.

Chelsea's Website/Instagram

This episode is sponsored by My Therapy Flow. Therapy Flow transforms therapy practices with HIPAA-compliant marketing services and a custom CRM that tracks and follows up with leads automatically. Mention Beyond Trauma when you book your call and receive 50% your first three months with the Therapy Flow CRM.

Beyond Trauma is hosted by Lara Land-Wittich, MHC. Lara is an integrative Mental Health Counselor specializing in trauma recovery, anxiety disorders, and life transitions. She works with adult individuals and couples in New York State.