What happens when military service, racial trauma, profound loss, and EMDR converge into a path of healing, purpose, and compassion?

In this powerful episode of Empowered Through Compassion, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Arielle Jordan. She is an army veteran, trauma therapist, EMDR consultant and trainer, author, and advocate whose work sits at the intersection of lived experience and evidence-based healing.

Dr. Jordan shared her experience serving in the military as a Black woman and mother, naming both the strength she developed through service and the racism she endured within military systems, and her devastating loss of her daughter and father in a short period of time. Her story is an inspirational one, where she was able to move through adversary with grace and determination.

Dr. Jordan spoke with honesty about how EMDR became not just a professional modality, but a deeply personal pathway for healing. We explored how trauma lives in the body and how compassionate, attuned therapy can help people metabolize pain that feels unbearable. Her work brings a vital racial trauma lens to EMDR, reminding clinicians and clients alike that trauma is often both personal and systemic, and must be treated with humility, cultural awareness, and care.

Her incredible books are:

Holding Space: My Story of Grief, Remembering, and Thriving After Traumatic Loss

United We Serve, United We Heal.

Find out more about Dr. Jordan here:

https://www.ariellenjordan.com/

#EmpoweredThroughCompassion #TraumaHealing #TherapyPodcast #HealingConversations #CompassionCentered #EMDRTherapy #EMDRConsultant #TraumaInformedCare #Psychotherapy #TherapistLife #VeteranMentalHealth #MilitaryTrauma #GriefAndHealing #LossAndResilience #InvisibleWounds #RacialTrauma #BlackTherapists #HealingJustice #SystemicTrauma #RelationalHealing #NervousSystemHealing #AttachmentHealing #HealingTogether #PodcastEpisode #NewEpisode #MustListen #DeepHealing

Welcome to this latest episode. I am so thrilled to welcome back Jamie Marich to the podcast. In this episode we returned to Wicked and dove into a discussion about how Wicked: For Good can connect to therapy, trauma, parts, and of course politics.

Jamie is a leader in trauma treatment, EMDR, dissociation, queer-affirming healing, and expressive arts therapy. They are also the author of many important books and a powerful voice in the trauma community.

So, Jamie was a perfect guest to speak about how deeply Wicked has touched both of our systems, and how we can connect this powerful story to our work in the field. We explored some of the symbolic language of the movie, and how the narrative could be integrated into trauma work.

Wicked offers a story about oppression, identity, longing, courage, and hope. We can also see our political climate of fear and manipulation reflected in this story. The resistance to this, we learn, is friendship.

A powerful message of this movie was how we can see things from multiple perspectives. It was great riffing on this with Jamie in this episode. We explored how Glinda was able to step outside of her "bubble" and observe some of the ways she was adding to the evil of the universe.

For my system it was also so interesting to see the multi-dimensional aspects of Glinda, and how she had a lot of sadness that was being exiled in her system.

It was so much fun to speak with Jamie about the magic in this movie, and about the magic of being a part of multiple worlds (such as Elphaba). Stepping out of our perspective, and being able to hold the multiplicity really does seem to enable magic!

We even got a chance to speak about Jamie's new book, Queering EMDR, which is such a gift to the therapy community! I hope you enjoy this special episode!

You can learn more about Jamie's work at:

jamiemarich.com

Jamie's newest published book:

jamiemarich.substack.com

David's Substack:

empoweredthroughcompassion.substack.com.

In this episode of Empowered Through Compassion, I sit down with psychologist Dr. Tori Olds to explore the simple and profound act of slowing down. Tori is known for her clarity, depth, and ability to translate complex emotional processes into something the body can feel. Our conversation centers on what becomes possible when we pause long enough to listen to the quiet truths living inside us.

Together we explore Coherence Therapy and the idea that symptoms are not random. They are expressions of implicit emotional learning. These learnings often formed early in life, outside of conscious awareness, and continue to shape how we protect ourselves. Coherence Therapy gives us a way to bring these emotional truths into the light, making the implicit explicit. When people can see the juxtapositions or mismatches between what they consciously believe and what their inner emotional world holds as true, real transformation becomes possible.

Tori and I also talk about the elegance in the language and pacing of Internal Family Systems. Both of us have found that integration of models invites a more complete picture to understand how our inner systems are structured, and how we can heal trauma.

If you have ever felt stuck in the same emotional patterns, or sensed that something deeper is guiding your reactions, this conversation offers insight into what is going on in your mind and how it connects to your emotional history. This episode is an invitation to turn toward all of it with compassion.

#EmpoweredThroughCompassion #IFS #InternalFamilySystems #CoherenceTherapy #TraumaHealing #SomaticTherapy #EmotionalLearning #PartsWork #SelfLeadership #MindBodyConnection #TherapistLife #HealingJourney #ToriOlds #PodcastEpisode #NeuroscienceAndTrauma #PresentMomentHealing