GoodHeart Gals

Today you will hear the story of Stephanie Botts, a Clinical Dental Hygienist turned entrepreneur and small business owner. She’s been a clinical dental hygienist for 13 years and recently founded her company, Posturepros, to help her fellow dental professionals with their ergonomics and posture. You will hear as she explains some hard truths around pain and disabilities being far too common in dentistry, She experienced it herself and decided she wanted to do something to help. She still see patients 2 days a week, but now also cares for dental professionals.

During covid she experienced the fear and fatigue so many of us did and she really felt it in her work, especially being a front line worker. Stephanie has a fascinating story to tell and I can’t wait for you to hear more. 

Kelly Craighead is the Owner, Invoke Arts LLC

She describes herself as a teacher and at the core as someone who holds space for others and allows them to express themselves as she lifts them up and fills them with high spirits and optimism.

She began her work with adults with special needs/persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 2007. In her 8 years as a Community Partner and Life Skills Specialist she gained the experience and excellent training in the history of developmental disabilities, person centered practices and grew a passion for working with persons with cerebral palsy, down syndrome, traumatic brain injury, autism/neurodiverse, spina bifida and behavior disorders.

She guides her students in a process of sharing with her what they enjoy about life, their passions and interests, who they are in the world and how they approach creating.

In 2017, she saw an opportunity to take a leap of faith and create what she had been dreaming of, her own art program, Invoke Arts LLC.

She is eager to continue to grow Invoke Arts and the individuals she serves. She began making connections with agencies and educating herself on dementia in early 2020 and intends on expanding her work in 2021 to serve those with Alzheimer’s, and dementia. 

Special guest is Tawanda Felicianna. She was born and raised in Denver, CO and has always loved photography. She’s been in front or behind the camera all of her life. For her, taking photographs is more than a profession; it’s a true lifelong passion, ever since she was a little girl with her pink barbie camera that used film. 

She loves to capture genuine moments in interesting and unique ways and loves to create beautiful photos in all types of photography. She has such a beautiful heart for young girls to help them build up their confidence. 

Lynn Jackson-Taylor is the founder of Birth Like A Boss, where she helps pregnant women from all around the world, to go from anxious and unprepared, to fully confident in their abilities to have an EMPOWERED birth, no matter what, so that they can thrive postpartum and step into a higher version of themselves.

She does this through her unique 4-step transformational program that combines hypno-birthing, mind-body physiotherapy and “Re-self-identification”.

Having experienced a natural home birth, then a heartbreaking miscarriage, and most recently a c-section during the global pandemic lockdown, Lynn has devoted the last seven years of her career to helping others build their own internal resilience to avoid perinatal trauma.

Lynn believes that every woman deserves a beautiful birth and that the only thing that stands in their way is fear and self-doubt.

From this perspective, she champions the idea that birth is not JUST about the baby, and that our hyper-medicalized systems neglect the “re-self-identification process” that happens automatically during our transition into parenthood.

Indeed, Lynn argues that the MINDSET, which we embody during pregnancy and during the actual birth, will propagate and will negatively or positively affect our health, our relationships and our performance - both at home and at work.

The good news is that while we cannot control the external variables in our lives, we all have the power to master our mindset.

Saveen is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Neuroscience Coach, and the founder of You Matter Coaching. As a Social Worker, she experienced the exhaustion, depletion, weariness, and stress mental health professionals carry on their shoulders. That’s when she decided to combine her Social Work and Neuroscience expertise. Saveen offers brain-based programs to help fellow Social Workers beat burnout, heal from compassion fatigue, renew their health, and up-level their careers.

Saveen’s goal is to help 100,000 Social Workers. With her program, Social Workers get back to doing what they love: helping people, changing lives, and saving lives. All without the collateral damage of losing themselves.

My special guest today is Nola Brantley, Founder & CEO of Nola Brantley Speaks. She is also one of our Expert Coaches for the GoodHeart App launching very soon. Nola is best known as a nationally acclaimed advocate who has played a large role in spear-heading the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children awareness and advocacy movement in the state of California since 2004. Nola has traveled the continuum of abuse that many sex trafficking victims and survivors have traveled. Nola has become nationally recognized as a powerful voice for the issue of child sex trafficking through her moving and information packed public speaking.

Her experience with the compounded risk factors of poverty, unaddressed trauma, intergenerational abuse, foster care involvement and misuse of authority all serve to give Nola a powerful firsthand understanding not only of the CSEC issue, but also of the underlying societal tapestry that creates and perpetuates the current epidemic of exploitation and violence plaguing the U.S.

Her hard work and perpetual vigilance has brought both focus and concrete resources to this chronically underserved and largely unrecognized population of victimized youth. She has taught innovative aftercare methods for abuse survivors to individuals from around the world.

Currently Nola is working as a child sex trafficking subject matter expert and a sought after master-trainer through her consultancy company Nola Brantley Speaks. Nola has trained over 150,000 professionals and community members to date. I can’t wait to hear from Nola.

My special guest today is Jasmyne Kettwick. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, A Registered Play Therapist, and the Executive Director of Relate Family Therapy and Counseling in Centennial, CO and specializes in helping children, adults, and families heal from current and past trauma. Prior to Relate, she was a Program Coordinator in a Dual Diagnosis Residential facility, a Therapy Provider in Outpatient Psychiatry, and she has helped clients in a variety of settings heal through therapeutic work.  She leads workshops, trainings, and talks around various topics related to mental health, prevention, trauma work, and how to motivate change. She hopes to help people build deeper and more meaningful connections with others while increasing their personal awareness through psychoeducation, support, and humor.

My special guest today is Andrea Rabold. Andrea is the Executive Director of a Colorado nonprofit called Mirror Image Arts. Andrea joined Mirror Image Arts in 2008 as an actress, continued to grow with the organization and accepted the role of Executive Director in 2012. Andrea is passionate and curious about the human experience. She is deeply committed to exploring the intricacies of human potential, to disrupting our systems of oppression, to studying power dynamics, and to discovering all of the ways in which we, humans, could support each other better. She came from Starbucks Corporation where she served 13 years in a variety of roles in retail sales, organization and program development, people management, operational leadership, project management, and event planning. Andrea has been with Mirror Image Arts for 13 years, and she graduated with a B.F.A. in Theatre from Sam Houston State University. I know you’ll enjoy getting to know Andrea and her unique perspective on intentional listening.

Today my special guest is Adrienne Elliott, the Executive Director of Heart of Adoptions Inc and Heart of Adoptions Alliance Florida. She has worked in all aspects of the child welfare system including intake, child protection, permanency and adoption. She was an adjunct faculty member for the University of Denver and Metropolitan State University and taught courses in Family Social Work, Foster Care and Adoption and co-taught a college level course for caseworkers and mental health professionals in Adoption Competence. Adrienne holds her Master of Social Work from the University of Denver and her Bachelor of Science from Purdue University. Adrienne just recently moved from Denver Colorado where she was the ED for a private non-profit adoption agency and CEO of a social enterprise focused on online post adoption services for families. She works with families looking to adopt children and has just started a new program called Hearts to Home, adopting from foster care. Ultimately, Adrienne would like to start her own consulting business working with non-profits to help them scale and become self-sufficient.

Adrienne is the parent of two sons, ages 21 and 24 years old. Her oldest just graduated from CU and her youngest is attending MSU in Denver. Adrienne has lived in Denver for 25 years and prior to that she lived and grew up in Carmel, Indiana.

The unfortunate reality is that many children don’t have loving homes that they can call their own. According to adoptuskids.org and youthtoday.org, "there are currently more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States. Roughly 20,000 youth are forced to exit the system annually without having found a forever family, leaving them to fend for themselves.

We all know just how majestic and powerful horses are, but do you know that they are also healers? Horses have incredible healing power and through equine therapy, many survivors of abuse, those living with mental health disorders, or experiencing anxiety have found emotional support and strength through spending intentional time with these powerful and magical creatures. My guest today, Jacqueline Rose, is no stranger to abuse. She suffered greatly at the hands of the people who were supposed to be caring for her the most...her parents. Her story doesn't stop there though. Jacqueline has taken the pain and abuse she experienced, to offer hope for healing for others. She is not just a survivor, she is a THRIVER. She owns multiple businesses and has a heart of solid gold. She will inspire you and challenge you in your own journey. Get ready!

Mental illness or mental health struggles are not a sign of weakness. We all experience times in our lives when we aren’t feeling our best self. Mental illness can happen to anyone, even the professionals who are typically there to help others. It’s incredibly important to start talking about this topic more openly, so we can lift the shame, remove stigma around it, and debunk the myths about people who are struggling. As a society, we tend to put emphasis on building habits around bettering our physical fitness, without paying much time or attention to our mental wellbeing. I am glad that there is more open and honest dialogue around recognizing the importance and significance of a health mental wellbeing. If you haven’t been feeling yourself lately and you need someone to talk to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to your local mental health community. You can also call the national Helpline which is free, confidential, and open 24/7. Someone on the other line will pick up and hear you out, and recommend local services for you to get help. There is no shame when it comes to mental health wellbeing. That number is 1-800-662-HELP.

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and my guest today, Jenelle Goodrich, Founder and CEO of a Colorado-Based Nonprofit called From Silenced to Saved, has dedicated her career and her life to fighting human trafficking and supporting survivors. Human trafficking is a human rights violation and is modern-day slavery. It's an egregious crime that is prevalent all around the world, including the US. Human trafficking can take place is many forms but Jenelle's work is focused on survivors of sex trafficking in Colorado. Lots of people carry around misconceptions of what sex trafficking looks like and who the victims are, so Jenelle and I dive into what the survivors she works with experience every day and how their vulnerabilities were exploited by abusers and traffickers. You might be surprised. Survivors have experienced so many deep levels of trauma and many were abused before they were trafficked. Healing doesn't happen overnight and it certainly isn't pretty. Jenelle shares HER story about what it means to "Dare to enter into the darkness to bring another into the light".