This solo episode from the archives comes from something one of my clients told me about, and it was the same thing I’ve heard from many women in this community. 

My client went to a live event-- a personal development sort of conference/retreat. She went alone, and this particular client is, like many people, massively uncomfortable with vulnerability, but really wanted to change and grow, so she did the vulnerable thing by going alone to this event. 

Everyone around her seemed to be having these massive breakthroughs, and she just... wasn't. I've been there and probably so have you. It's one of the most common and least-talked-about frustrations in personal growth.

Today I'm getting into “comparisonitis”, specifically around your personal development journey, and why what you see other people experiencing has very little to do with what's actually available to you.

What you'll take away from this episode:

• Comparing is normal and human and the goal isn't to stop, it's to notice it and get curious instead of staying stuck there
• Someone else's aha moment is happening through their lens, not yours. The same lesson can land as a 10 for them and a 2 for you, and that doesn't mean you're behind
• Sometimes you're just not ready and no amount of seminars will force a transformation before its time
• Most growth isn't seismic, it's small shifts, new tools, and slow perspective changes adding up over time
• There are seasons in this work. Transformation, healing, action, and rest. You don't have to be in overdrive all the time

Stop measuring your journey against someone else's highlight reel and come back to what's actually in front of you. Listen to the episode as I talk more about what to do if you find yourself comparing your personal development journey to someone else’s. 

Resources from this episode:
Work with me 1:1 with Devotion, or open sessions 

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook showed me a memory this week and I had to share it with you.

(See it here!)

Ten years ago I wrote that. Word for word, I still mean every single sentence.

I've been saying some version of this for my entire career–  write the thing, use your voice, stop waiting until you're brave enough or good enough or done caring what people think, because that day isn't coming and the regret of not starting is so much worse than the fear of beginning.

The thing that’s different now, is the world.

I mean, it was bad then in April of 2016, but we hadn’t even had DT’s first election into office yet. Today, women's voices have never been more needed or more threatened at the same time. The stories that get told shape what people believe is possible. The narratives that go unwritten leave a hole that no one else can fill, because no one else has your exact life, your exact perspective, your exact fingerprint on the page.

This is why Shannon Kaiser and I created The Words You're Here to Write Masterclass. Not because the world needs more books. Because the world needs YOUR book. Your Substack, your essays, your voice. Your truth in whatever form it's asking to take.

This is a 6-week live mentorship for women who are done waiting. You'll walk away with:

✓ A clearly defined and positioned writing project
✓ A structural framework and 50+ pages of real written momentum
✓ Cleared fears and roadblocks that have stalled the work
✓ A publishing path and the confidence to use it
✓ Freedom from the conditioning that taught you to stay silent
✓ A community of women doing this work alongside you

The program starts April 30th. Enrollment is open now.

I've been saying this for ten years and I'll still be saying it in ten more. But I'd really love for you to not need me to say it anymore because you already did the thing.

Resources from this episode:
The Words You're Here to Write Masterclass

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's my 51st birthday, and I'm doing what I do best, speaking from my heart. In this solo episode, I get straight to the three things I most want you to know at this stage of my life: the tools that actually accelerated my healing, what fourteen-plus years of sobriety has made possible, and why the last five years have been the most transformative (and most brutal), of my life.

I also have an exciting announcement: registration is open for The Words You're Here to Write Masterclass, a six-week live mentorship program I've co-created with my friend and  bestselling author Shannon Kaiser. Whether you're thinking about a memoir, building a body of work, or just ready to finally write the thing you've been talking yourself out of–  this one's for you!

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Plant medicine, astrology, and writing don't create the truth, they surface it.

• Your nervous system has to be ready to hold a story before you can tell it.

• Sobriety didn't just mean abstaining from alcohol, it made everything else possible.

• Staying present for the hard stuff, instead of running from it, is what allowed me to move through it.

• Perimenopause, a second divorce, Chiron return, and this cultural moment hitting at the same time is no fucking joke.

• A dark night of the soul isn't failure, it means you said yes to becoming someone new.

If you've been waiting for permission to feel the weight of what you're carrying and keep going anyway, consider this it. Happy birthday to me! 🎉

Resources from this episode:

The Words You're Here to Write Masterclass

Last year’s Birthday series, Coming Home to Yourself, episode 1 on Self-abandonment

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My birthday is next week and I'm turning 51 🎉. Dr. Fox and I are celebrating with a road trip to DC to see Florence and the Machine in concert for the very first time. I CANNOT WAIT! But before all that, I have someone very special on the show. Friend of the podcast, Shannon Kaiser is back, and we are diving deep into something both of us have built our careers and our healing around: writing.

This episode is not just for people who consider themselves writers! It's for anyone who has something inside them that wants to come out, whether that's a memoir, a poem, a Substack post, or a raw caption about what's happening in the world right now. Shannon and I have been writing professionally for nearly 20 years, and in this conversation we get honest about fear, voice, silence, and why now, more than ever, your story needs to be told.

Here's what you'll hear in this episode:

• Why writing is one of the most powerful tools for healing, even if you never publish a word
• The difference between writing that processes pain and writing that actually transforms it
• Why so many women struggle to trust their voice (and what's really underneath that)
• What Shannon discovered when she wrote her memoir as fiction first
• Why the reaction you're afraid of is also the clarity you need
• How writing to one person instead of an audience can change everything
• What makes a piece of writing truly connect with readers right now
• Details on our free April 14th training and six-week writing mentorship

Shannon and I are both in the thick of our own memoirs, both pushing against the publishing industry's tired advice to stick to what sells, and both deeply convinced that your story (however messy, however unfinished), matters. We hope this conversation gives you permission to start!

Resource from this episode:Join us on April 14th for our free writing training!

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we jump in– I wanted to let you know I’m hosting a free live training on April 14th for writers! Check it out HERE if you’re interested. 😘

This week I’m re-airing an archived episode– it’s one of my favorites– and it’s a conversation with Thais Sky. Thais is a truthspeaker, healer, women’s coach and feminist on a heart-led mission to support the seekers, the edge-dwellers, and the “why the heck do I feel so broken” of the world reclaim their sense of belonging by learning how to explore, trust and express themselves unapologetically. Thais is so expressive and downright poetic, as you’ll hear. I loved my conversation with her and I hope you do too.

In this episode, Thais and I talk about the worthiness wound, what contributes to it, some critical steps to take to reclaim your worth and how healing the worthiness wound is a radical act. We also talk about personal development and how we often hope someone will save us, but it really comes down to doing the work. We also touch on holding the human experience and being capable of navigating through triggers, thoughts and feelings. Lastly, we talk about whiteness, patriarchy,  becoming radicalized and acknowledging that one can be both the oppressor and the oppressed (and how that doesn’t mean you are a bad person).

In this episode you’ll hear:

• What reclaiming our sense of worthiness truly means
• How to begin reclaiming your worth (and how it’s different from cultivating confidence)
• Taking on the responsibility of others and hoping someone will save us
• Healing the “little girl” within (aka inner child work)
• What contributes to the worthiness wound, and why we can’t talk about the worthiness wound without talking about whiteness
• Acknowledging ableism and fat phobia

Resources from this episode
Join me for a free live training for writers!
Thais Sky’s websiteThais on Instagram
Scene on Radio
The Start: A Forum for Radical Social ChangeAndréa Renee Johnson’s blog post on why the self-help industry is not changing the world

Thais is a truthspeaker, healer, women’s coach and feminist on a heart-led mission to support the seekers, the edge-dwellers, and the “why the heck do I feel so broken” of the world reclaim their sense of belonging by learning how to explore, trust and express themselves unapologetically. Based on her own healing journey and decades of research and mentoring women worldwide, she has developed a comprehensive model that explores and offers tools/skills to heal the pervasive sense of unworthiness within women, what she calls the worthiness wound. She also hosts a weekly podcast RECLAIM where she offers conversations on finding the intersection of feminism and spirituality. Thais received a prestigious first-class degree in Management and has studied spiritual psychology, trauma, and leadership for over 10 years. You can learn more about her and her online offerings at ThaisSky.com and just about everywhere on social media, because #millennial at @IamThaisSky.

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's been two and a half years since I announced my separation and divorce on the podcast, and in this personal episode, I finally sit down to give the update I promised myself I'd share. What took so long? The answer, it turns out, is the very story I continue to tell… one of profound transformation, spiritual reckoning, and slowly coming home to myself.

This episode is an honest, unscripted look at what a midlife awakening can actually look like from the inside. I walk through the intersection of perimenopause, my Chiron return in Aries, the end of my marriage, and the slow dismantling of long-held beliefs about myself and my life. I share five powerful relationship self-assessment questions, reflect on the mind-body connection between suppressed needs and physical illness (drawing from Dr. Gabor Maté's work), and speak directly to women who are in that uncertain, frozen place of not-yet-knowing what to do about their relationship. The throughline of the episode is this: follow the breadcrumbs, even when you can't see where they lead.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• The five relationship self-assessment questions:
  

1. If someone told you that you're a lot like your partner, would that feel like a compliment?

2. Are you truly fulfilled in your relationship, or are you just less lonely?

3. Are you able to be unapologetically yourself in your relationship, or do you feel you have to show up differently to please or accommodate your partner?

4. Are you in love with your partner as they are right now — as a whole — or are you in love with their good side, their potential, or your idea of them?

5. Would you want your child (real, future, or imagined) to date someone like your partner?

   
   

The Chiron Return is an astrological transit in your late 40s to early 50s when the "wounded healer" planet returns to the position it occupied at your birth — and for those of us born between 1969–1976, it tends to arrive boldly and intensely.

The mind-body connection is real — drawing from Dr. Gabor Maté's When the Body Says No, I highlight research linking higher rates of autoimmune disease and non-smoking-related cancers to chronically suppressing your own needs in a relationship.

There are two very different kinds of easy — life can be logistically easier inside a relationship while quietly depleting you spiritually and physically, and it's worth asking which one you're actually experiencing.

Midlife awakenings take longer than we expect — mine stretched across nearly a decade of incremental ruptures before I finally made the decision to leave my marriage in 2023.

You are not alone — whether you're in the questioning stage, the frozen stage, or somewhere further down the road, it's all a normal and valid part of the journey.

Follow the breadcrumbs — encouragement to ask smaller, more honest questions that move you incrementally forward toward the clarity you need.

This episode is an invitation to anyone in the middle of their own becoming. Whether that looks like questioning a relationship, navigating midlife, or simply feeling the foundation shift beneath your feet like I did. My message is clear: what looks like falling apart is often falling open. The breadcrumbs are there. Keep following them.

Resources: 

Ep 540: Leaving My Marriage from July 2023

TikTok I mentioned that has those 5 questions

When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté

Single session to have your birth chart read. (P.S. I made a mistake in the episode when I said the price. Instead of pulling the episode and changing it, I will grant 5 people the discounted rate I mentioned at the end of episode 720. Once they are all booked, those discounted sessions will be gone and the regular price applies!) 

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joining me on the podcast this week is leading Latina psychotherapist, Christine Gutierrez, LHMC. Christine is the founder of Christineg.tv, an online hub that features psychologically-savvy and soulful advice. Christine also specializes in love addiction which happens to be the topic of today’s episode.

In this episode, we talked about healing from love addiction, Christine’s own experience with it and how she now helps clients move through the healing process. We also touched on codependency and love addiction red flags. It’s clear through my conversation with Christine that she has worked hard and tirelessly on learning how to trust in herself and lean into her biggest self. I’m happy to share our conversation with you. 

In this episode you’ll hear:

• What love addiction is, how Christine’s early childhood experiences ultimately led to love addiction, and how she got on the path to healing
• The distinction between healthy, falling in love and love addiction
• Some tips and tools for women struggling with love addiction
• Christine’s journey to helping other women heal, the merging of the mundane and divine and what the word Diosa means to her
• How to experience more fierce love in your life (and what fierce love is, exactly)

Resources from this podcast:
Christine’s website
Join my email list for info on upcoming writer’s program

Christine Gutierrez, MA, LMHC, is a Latina licensed psychotherapist, self-worth expert, and thought leader. Gutierrez is also the author of the book I Am Worthy,  I Am Diosa: A Journey to Healing Deep, Loving Yourself, and Coming Back Home to Soul and the affirmation deck Wisdom Del Alma. Christine has a Bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in human behavior and development and a Master’s degree from City College of New York in mental health counseling with a focus on prevention and community. Through her work, Christine offers group coaching, corporate wellness, transformational retreats such as her annual Diosa Retreat in Puerto Rico, and soul-based business mentorship in her annual Madre Diosa Legacy Council. In addition, Christine is the founder of the forthcoming app DIOSA a global community where like-hearted women gather to meet soul sisters, gather in circle, and rise together. She has been featured on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Latina Magazine, Yahoo Health, Ebony, Cosmopolitan for Latinas, Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Online, Telemundo, and others. Christine currently resides in Puerto Rico. 

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Considering fascism is quickly taking hold more and more in the U.S. and beyond, I thought it would be a good idea to bring back my friend of the podcast, Beatriz Victoria Albina, to talk about nervous system healing and sexuality, emotional outsourcing and what sexuality has to do with fascism. From the start of the episode, Bea explains what trauma actually is in clear, everyday language without clinical jargon, and then we move into more nuanced topics.

Béa is a master certified somatic life coach, UCSF-trained family nurse practitioner, and breath work meditation guide who helps humans socialized as women break free from codependency, perfectionism, and people-pleasing so they can reclaim their joy. A lot of what we cover in today’s episode shows up in her brand new book End Emotional Outsourcing. 

Here’s what you’ll hear in today’s episode: 

• Nervous system dysregulation can show up in our sex lives through anxiety, shutdown, performance pressure, and disconnection, while a regulated state supports safety, presence, and genuine pleasure.
• Developmental trauma and chronic stress shape how we show up sexually, influencing our capacity for trust, intimacy, and embodiment.
• Fawning can show up in the bedroom when someone prioritizes their partner’s needs, desires, or approval over their own authentic experience.
• Dissociation and emotional outsourcing can even show up during masturbation, pulling us out of presence with our own bodies and pleasure.
• Reclaiming sexuality often begins when we stop outsourcing our emotional safety to partners and start building that safety within ourselves.
• The common advice to “stop worrying about what other people think” oversimplifies the deeper nervous system and relational dynamics that shape our behavior.
• Emotional safety and connection in a relationship often need to be addressed alongside sexual intimacy rather than waiting for one to be “fixed” before the other.
• Authoritarian cultural systems can shape our relationship to sexuality by policing bodies, pleasure, and autonomy.
• Many of us internalize these systems in our own bodies—creating self-policing patterns around desire, pleasure, and expression—and healing involves consciously deconstructing those patterns.

As a reminder, please join me on my Substack! I'm writing about topics like this, poetry, and everything in between.

Resources from this episode:
Get my emails so you won’t miss the writing program I’m teaching with Shannon Kaiser

Connect with me on my Substack, How Very Human of You
Bea’s previous interview on Make Some Noise
End Emotional Outsourcing book

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this solo episode, I’m unpacking the silence, the rage, and the tension showing up in conversations around the Epstein files and patriarchy. The idea came to me after I got a thinly veiled death threat in my DM’s a couple of weeks ago (you can scroll through the carousel of memes I posted in the link below to see it). I’m exploring what’s underneath the harassment, the absence/silence of men in certain spaces, and why shame is such a powerful, and often invisible, force in all of it.

I also want to remind you that I’m on Substack! It’s not perfect over there, but I decided to start before I was ready. You can check out some of my writing and subscribe HERE. No paywall as of now, but that may change later as I write more. I have no plans to put the podcast behind a paywall though! 

What you’ll hear in this solo episode: 

• When systems are exposed, identities feel threatened and shame gets activated.
• The difference between and shame and guilt, and how it’s organized by gender
• Shame shows up as silence, defensiveness, or aggression.
• Patriarchy shames everyone, it just looks different for men and women.
• Questions you can ask the men in your life to start having important conversations with them. 
• Accountability requires learning how to feel shame without collapsing or lashing out.

This isn’t about defending men or attacking them. It’s about understanding the emotional dynamics at play. Because if we don’t name the shame woven into our culture, we’ll keep reacting to surface behavior instead of addressing the root.

Resources from this episode:
Devotion program
Andrea’s Substack, How Very Human of You
Sign up for my emails
Instagram reel about men and shame Instagram reel that contains a terrible message from a random man on the internet
Four Holy Emotions episode on Spotify
Documentaries I mentioned

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week I’m bringing back an important conversation from the archives.

Dr. Valerie discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success, happiness, and fulfillment by healing the collective, inherited trauma of oppression. She is also the author of Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment.

I met Dr. Valerie at an event late last year. I serendipitously sat at her table and as she was talking about her work and her book, I was enamored. In fact, I invited her onto the podcast on the spot. Her work is important, interesting, and backed by science.

When it comes to the patriarchy, as women, there is a deeper issue going on then the blame game. We are not going to heal by pointing fingers. My conversation with Dr. Valerie is just one step of many that will help move women towards healing from the patriarchy.

In this episode you’ll hear:

• How Dr. Valerie discovered PSD and how her search began with asking the question, “What is wrong with me?”
• Oppression is traumatic and it is deep in our DNA
• Patriarchy does not equal men and men do not equal patriarchy, patriarchy is a system that has been oppressive and disempowering to women
• PSD is the invisible inner barrier to women's happiness and fulfillment and trauma defenses: mind, body, and action
• Some of the symptoms or circumstances of PSD (and yes, we all have it)
• Dr. Valerie’s message to men and how to bring them into the conversation and still take care of ourselves

Resources mentioned in this episode: Devotion program

Andrea’s Substack, How Very Human of You

Sign up for my emails

Instagram reel about men and shame
Dr. Valerie Rein’s website
Dr. Valerie’s 3 Minute Re-Power Tool
Dr. Valerie on Instagram
Book: Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment 

Dr. Valerie Rein has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success, happiness, and fulfillment by healing the collective, inherited trauma of oppression. She holds an EdM in Psychological Counseling from Columbia University and a PhD in Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Her bestselling book, “Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment” and her cutting-edge mind-body healing programs have helped thousands of women ditch the game of survival, of “how much can I bear?” and master the game of thriving, of “how good can it get?” Dr. Valerie is a sought-after speaker and trainer at conferences and companies committed to setting new standards of excellence in their industry in diversity, equity, and inclusion, employee satisfaction and physical and mental health, and creativity and innovation.

Book recommendations:
I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. Check out these amazing book recommendations here. Happy reading!

MSN is supported by:
We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I turned the mic on a few days ago and this episode is a bit of an update. I don’t know about you, but recently I haven’t been able to think about or process much else except what’s happening in the U.S. and beyond. 

This episode is me slowly telling you what’s been happening behind the scenes recently, as well as over the last few years. Soon, I won’t be so vague, as I’ll be able to reveal more about what’s happened to me, and what it’s taught me. The good news about me is that I can take the terrible and sometimes traumatic things and turn them into personal power. 

If you’re going through what I’m going through, feeling re-traumatized having to hear what has happened and continues to happen to women and children, not just here, but worldwide, I’m sure you might be experiencing the 4 holy emotions: Terror, rage, shame, and grief. All at once, or one at a time. 

I see you, and I feel you. I’m thinking of you, and holding you in my heart. Together, we can create collective power in order to take the system down. I truly believe there are more than us than there are of them. 

Here's what you’ll hear in this week’s episode: 

• A prayer/intention that I didn’t know I set into motion in 2019 and how it’s impacted me even now 

• Chiron (returning planet in our astrological chart) returned for me recently and what that is 

• The online harassment I’ve been receiving lately specifically because I’ve been speaking out against ICE and what’s happening with the release of some of the Epstein files

• Why I start to obsess on the psychology of women like Pam Bondi, and my opinion about her 

• The one suggestion I have for you right now in order to help you feel the feelings you’re experiencing right now

Resources:⁠

How Very Human of You (my new Substack)
Restraint by FATM on Spotify
Restraint by FATM on Apply Music
Episode 659 on The Four Holy Emotions
The Mama Attorney’s post on Instagram Book recommendations: I love a good personal development book, and you do too, right? I’ve compiled a list of book recommendations, as mentioned in past episodes. ⁠Check out these amazing book recommendations here⁠. Happy reading!  

MSN is supported by: We love the sponsors that make our show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠andreaowen.com/sponsors/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices