Exploring Your Unique Healing Gifts with Amy Russell - Part 1 of 2

In this podcast episode, the host interviews Amy Russell, a graduate of the trauma-informed coach certification program. They discuss Amy’s background, her journey through various states, and her passion for healing work. Amy shares insights into her personal transformation, emphasizing the importance of being trauma-informed and understanding the nervous system. They explore Amy's spiritual experiences, including her affinity for fairies, and how reconnecting with her childhood interests has guided her. The conversation highlights the significance of setting boundaries, recognizing inner authority, and addressing trauma within familial relationships. Amy's healing practices, including intuitive and energy-based methods, are also discussed. The episode underscores the idea that everyone has innate spiritual gifts and the value of integrating body wisdom with spiritual insights to foster healing and self-awareness.

In Part 1 of this episode, Lindsay and Amy explore Amy's personal journey, from her spiritual awakening and rediscovery of childhood passions to the challenges of navigating familial relationships and learning the importance of boundaries. Amy shares her transformative experiences with understanding the nervous system, overcoming enmeshment, and developing a deeper connection with her body. Tune in to hear insights about reclaiming oneself and living a soul-led life.

00:22 Meet Amy Russell

01:22 Amy's Childhood and Love for Fairies

03:09 Rediscovering Spirituality and Intuition

05:28 Navigating the Dark Night of the Soul

08:30 Understanding the Nervous System

18:44 The Power of Boundaries

20:52 Conclusion and Teaser for Part Two

Connect with Amy here! 

Lindsay’s current program offerings:

• Looking for a new career as a Certified Trauma-Informed Coach? It’s time to Become a Trauma-Informed Coach. Learn more about Lindsay's life coach certification here. Next round starts September, 2025!
• Are you already a Certified Coach looking to deepen your skillset by Becoming Trauma-Informed, with a spiritual twist? Click here to see if Lindsay's Advanced Intuitive Trauma Certification for Coaches is a fit for you. Our next round will begin September, 2025.
• Want a certification above + PRIVATE MENTORSHIP from yours truly? I have limited spaced available. Apply here.

Check out her website here: Website.
Find me on Instagram : @lindsaypoelmancoaching

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Your host, certified life coach Lindsay Poelman started her journey of intentional healing started when she learned that her husband had been lying to her about pornography use for a greater part of their marriage. After processing and accepting her circumstance more fully, she found coaching—which propelled her into a forward focused state of ...

Transcript

 

 📍  Hey everybody. You are listening to part one of a two part interview that I had with the lovely Amy Russell. We talk about so many amazing things today, and our conversation carried on so naturally that it ended up lasting a little bit longer than 20, 25 minutes. So we split it into two.  So that you can listen at your ease.

Enjoy.

  📍 

Hello, everyone. I know I say this like almost every time, but very happy to have a guest on the podcast today. We have Amy Russell.  Hi, Amy.

How are you?  I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I hope you guys go find the YouTube video this too, because this is I just, I adore Amy. I love her energy, everything about her. The way you move when you talk all the things just so much. And Amy is a graduate of my trauma informed coach certification program.

So we're going to talk a little bit about that today, but we're also going to talk about just fun stuff that Amy and I like to talk about  her gifts,  we could say coaching, we could say healing, like the healing work that she does but I don't want to give it all away, so I'll let more of that come from Amy.

So, Amy, I do like to check in with, I always like to ask this question with people that I interview so  please go ahead and introduce yourself however you want to. Also, if you are open to it, tell us something fun about you that not a lot of people know about. 

Okay. My name's Amy Russell and I am a native of Southern California and I'm living here in Utah.

I've, our family's lived in several states pacifically, the Pacific Northwest, pacifically,  , you say specifically . We love that area, but yeah, we're hearing Utah. It's where my husband's from. We've got five boys. We  were always moving it seems that's like a big part of our story.

But  yeah I don't even know what to say. There's just, I love being alive. I love being.  I'm learning how to love being human.  We can probably talk about that more. But let's see what was the other thing you said one thing that no one would know about me  

about you. Yeah. 

Fun. Something fun.

Or not fun. It doesn't have to be.  Yeah. Let's see. 

 I just, I love fairies. How about that?  

Oh, I love that so much. And I'm like,  we were joking before we started recording, we were like, we could talk,  we could just ask Amy all the questions about fairies and let it  another podcast episode, but we'll hold that.

Fairies, I literally like when I was a little girl, I loved to go out in the backyard.  And I would sing and I would  make little potions as we had a little red wagon,  like throw in  leaves and whatever I could find in the backyard. And just I'm going to make this potion and I'm going to, I was like super imaginative, totally out there.

And  I'd have to say that I stepped away from that for a good chunk of my life. And I feel like I'm coming back into it and it's actually becoming a guiding. Energy. I get a guiding force for me to connect with that again. Yeah, 

I love that you bring that up because I was just talking to my certification group that they're getting pretty close to graduating.

And we were today was a supervised peer coaching day, and there was something that came up last week about  gifts, intuitive downloads and things like that, that we dialed into because I really do think a lot of this work is about. Yeah. Supporting people and having a contextual understanding of their mind, their body, their soul, their nervous system, trauma childhood wounds and all of that.

And a lot of it is like geared so that we can dial into these intuitive parts, these anchor into this intuitive knowing and live from a. Live life from a soul led space, which to me, the more people that do that that's what will  heal the world because then we can all  know what our earth missions are, go in that direction.

Yeah. And so I was like, I did not, and I was going to show this on the podcast today, but because we talked a little bit about that last week with them, I gave them some ideas today of like different types of spirits that can act as guides for us. And one of them was fairies.

Where's it?  I can't remember how she worded it, but it might have just been fairies, but angels, ancestors, elemental spirits. Star beings, gods, goddesses, even if it's a god or goddess of maybe you weren't raised around some part or aspect of maybe a god or goddess from a different culture.

Um, creative guides, healer guides, teacher guides, ascended masters, spirit animals, flowers or trees. And then, and groups of beings and this list that I'm pulling from, it's from a woman who has written books  that have basically come to her from downloads from groups of beings, right? So I think one of her books, she said it was the Magdalene, the Magdalenes that came. 

And then there was, I can't remember the name of the other group, but so I just love.  I love that for you, and for anyone listening who's been curious about that, because  it's it came so naturally as a kid,  and then what happens is it gets societally stripped from us. So I just love that you're allowing yourself to like, return,  right?

And it's, and I 

have to say,  It wasn't easy, it's because I've been on a rediscovery of myself  for a number of years and in 20, 2020 got kicked up a notch or two  intensified.  And  a lot of things that I leaned on. My religion, that all just fell apart. It unraveled.

I and so that threw me into this dark night of the soul, and  that's scary. That is where I began to find myself, even though I felt like I was feeling around the dark, if you've been in like a cave or. Just a dark room. And you're trying, I dropped the keys or I dropped this and you're like feeling around for you literally have to heighten all of your senses because you can't use your eyes. 

And.  It was, that's what it felt like. I can look back on it and I can describe it like that now, but it was scary. And to feel  these like  beckonings, these invitations to start  connecting with these  little interests and passions and excitement and delights that I have when I was little,  it was like, is that okay? 

And it, cause it did challenge a lot of what I grew up with in my religion. Or the religion of my childhood. And yeah, it can take some courage to, to do that. Yeah. Yeah. 

And what was it for you that supported you in finding that courage to do 

 that's a really good question. I don't know if I've ever really thought of that.

I think I've always been a spiritual person.  And so I already had a strong connection with  my heart. I didn't know that because again, it was framed in a religious context,  but it was just like this little push and it also helps to like, aside from that, my husband was on the same track. So we were able to have a lot of good conversations.

 And so that was,  there were lots of just little pieces. It was almost like this too, finding pieces to a puzzle. I didn't have a picture too. I guess I could actually sum up my life  as a whole.  This is a good segue though, Lindsay, just like when I was at a point  and you and I had met each other in that Marco Polo group.

 And then I started, I learned about your, you had your trauma informed coaching   and, like that simmered in the back of my mind  for a while. And then it was like, what, the morning of or something, I think it was like, or the night before. I don't, it was like. It was like so Indiana Jones style where,  and I'm going to come in now. 

I'm here. I'm doing this. I will say that also  learning about learning about the nervous system and how it  caused me to  React in life. I don't know if that's the right way to put that, but  I had no idea that my nervousness was running the show for most of my life.  And understanding that I had been living in fight or flight for like most of my life.

And then beginning to realize, Oh, here are some tools now that I can start  using to calm down. And what does it mean to feel grounded?  That definitely helped me begin to step further out of my comfort zone into who I truly am. And, yeah. Yeah. That was beautiful. 

No, I love that so much because it really is the crux of  what I do.

And I think the goal for people is to help them anchor into more of who they are and a lot of times we've got to develop out a connection with our own body, the unique ways that our body speaks to us and understand the language of our body, understand the difference between Intuitive hit and a trigger or some sort of nervous system message and, just how understanding the blueprint of like how our nervous system makes sense of information today.

Sometimes based on past experiences, even if it's not necessarily true now. And so just helping people to tease all of that out so that they know what is what when stuff comes up. So that we're not,  leaving marriages out of fear and confusing it for divine or confusing.  Oh, I bet.

Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. What were you going to say? That's huge. Learning how to discern between, like you just said, like that. I can't say enough of how what are the words to use for this? It's like clarifying. It's like I've said before, it's grounding, but being able to go, Oh, I understand it is building that relationship with my body.

I understand what my body is saying right now.  And I understand that this is a fear response. Okay. And being able to like,  be able to pull them apart. Like you said, tease out. It's it is it's like pulling it apart and going, Oh, I, I see that so clearly now. And it took me practice. It still does, but that is so empowering in this process of trying to understand who I am.

Where I'm headed and, all the things that are connected to that that's massive and especially coming from a high demand religion where, it's all about the outside authority. I remember so many times just being like confused of, is this me, or is this  the spirit or God or whatever?

And Really having a tough time trying to make decisions because of it, like I had no inner authority  and  now going through the deconstruction and  like reclaiming myself on in so many ways, and physically with my body like that. That's wholeness that, that feels like wholeness to me  and it really does.

It clears the eyes and I'm able to discern with so much confidence now. Again, I'm still, it's still human. I'm still working on things,  but I've come a long way though. I've come a long way. 

Yeah. 

Thank you. Yeah.  

You're so sweet. No, but and it's been so fun to just be a part of, for me on my end to see it all transpire, because if Amy, you just know that she has so  many different gifts, spiritual gifts could we say like temp, like earthly gifts?

I don't know. To me, it's all spiritual, but like you have so many gifts of insight but, yeah. You're also like very smart on top of it all. It's just been fun to see all of it transpire and come through you as powerfully as it does now.  Because it really does when you speak speak with knowing or when have downloads and things like that.

It's really cool to see. It's very inspirational. Oh, 

I love it. It's fun to actually look at the first call with you guys, like with your group and see myself. I think it would be fun.  That would be fun. 

One of my favorite. One of my favorite Amy memories during the program and will you tell me if we need to edit this out like somebody getting coached.

No idea who it was, but it was they were getting coached and in some way they had been this person in a. I would say Amy's opinion, but probably mine as well. Like they had been wronged. There was something there, like boundaries being crossed, ignored, dismissed, something like that. And when I coach someone, I usually pin myself and them.

So I mainly see them and I can see all the students and I could see Amy

bouncing around just mad and just  What? All of this stuff, like leaning forward and back and I don't think the person getting coached just saw it, but I just remember like thinking, okay, I love how kinetic this person is. I love how much that like she feels. And I just love how you feel for people too.

Like that real caring, like it all just comes through, but it's a really, also a really fun memory as well. 

I totally thought it was off camera. So I'm like, I'm just going to feel.  And I remember feeling, I think I'm probably connected with some of my own issues and so I was feeling it pretty deeply but yeah.

Yeah. 

That's funny that you remember that. 

And it can tap into that collective And I will say like sacred feminine rage so that people think rage is always a bad thing, but so many people, time over time have been dismissed and discounted for simply being a woman. And so I think we do feel that collectively.

And so it just felt like you were feeling that on this person's behalf. And but it's one of my. Things I just love about you just the way that you express yourself through movement and it's really fun. So, anyway, we'll get back to, let's get back, we'll get back to what we were  talking about earlier, but so as far as like you coming into that knowing and the COVID stuff and different things like that I'd be curious to know like your experience Because one thing you said in the beginning of the call or earlier in the call is how  this trauma informed code certification helped you deepen and develop out these.

gifts that you have these spiritual gifts that you have that you now use to help people, which is so amazing. And so I was just going to ask, eat personally or professionally before you signed up for the program, were there problems, blah, I can't even talk before you signed up for the program.

Were there any problems you were noticing in your life or anywhere else?  And what did that frustration look like? You is look like for you as you tried to solve that specifically. And then as you did learn more of these tools,  how did that help you with that? And the reason that I say this is because or the reason I'm asking is because  In the program, we, everybody brings like a big relationship to the table that they want to look at or work through.

And it can be a person, a place, a thing, an institution, organization, money, an experience, a set of experiences. And were there things like that happening for you when you signed up? And,  yeah, what did that look like for you as you tried to solve that without having this understanding of the nervous system and trauma and the body and how it all connects?

Yeah, like reaction, like very reactionary.  Yeah, I was probably still in the throes of deconstructing, so a lot was coming up  and, with relationships familial relationships and that's beginning to really understand. And owning the word trauma, that was actually a part of my story.

And it's funny having been through, this, I call a healing journey for all these years. I was definitely learning a lot about myself, but like I said, like this was where it all was coming to a head.  Really getting down to the bottom and crooks of things. Let's see your follow up with that question was like how I saw it begin to change that we asked 

you like started to understand  these systems  differently and how they work together and everything.

 There was a lot of,

let's see, let me see. I'm trying to like, figure out how to word this  because there's just so much.

Peace is the word that's coming to me.  Because I was beginning to see me, I think there, I didn't understand that I was, there was a lot of entanglement enmeshment. I was, I had learned that to a degree, but, I understood there was some codependency  that I was working through.

But I didn't understand the enmeshment part  and and that's like complex trauma was the culprit  and beginning to I, this is what it, this is cool. Learning about my nervous system. I felt like I was I don't know, I was learning about me, obviously, but it was like seeing myself  with a different mirror  and I was learning, I think, how my body was trying to speak to me the entire time. 

And let's see  how I was, why I was in fly or flight. Yeah, I don't know if I'm answering your question, but it was just, it was beginning to pull things apart. And. I can't like land anything specific, but  yeah, it just felt like I was. Beginning to see myself more clearly and that enmeshment that I was in with these familiar relationships and being able to like,  Oh, this is yours.

This is mine. And I now see how you're reacting and I'm choosing not to react. And this is, oh, oh, hello  boundaries. That I, sorry, the boundaries.  Okay. I had not lived with boundaries up until probably starting the certification. That's huge. Like everyone is listening. I was like in my. Late 40s. 

Hello.  That long of my entire existence without boundaries. I didn't know what boundaries were. I did not know what they were. I always thought that they were, and I was like chronic people pleaser. So I was like, Oh, I'm not going to do that. I would hurt their feelings. I had no idea that.

How boundaries were such, they were an act of love. They were an act of self love. So through this, through that process of your classes and the groups,  I was beginning to understand how, like what boundaries were,  how they felt in my body  and how to articulate them.  Huge. Like that, that alone, that piece of the puzzle right there, game changer 

for me.

Yeah. Oh, I love that you share that too. And tell me, I don't want to speak for you either, but As you learned about that  and connected to your body in that,  did it start becoming very clear? Ooh, boundary crossed or like when you self betrayed, did it start, did you notice like a difference in your bodily cues or sensations that kind of spoke up when you were maybe self betraying or ignoring boundaries or when your boundaries were just being, violated or ignored? 

Oh my gosh. Yes. And that was beautiful to be able to start recognizing 

 That because that was like reclaiming myself  and the feeling to reclaim oneself is the most wonderful gift I think anyone can experience in their life if they've never had it before.  Like it's like drinking from fresh, clean water that you didn't know was there.

  📍 All right. That's it for part one, but stay tuned for part two where we get into some other really, really fun  📍 topics that I  love talking about with clients and friends and all the things. This was such a blast for me to be here,  interviewing Amy, and I'm so glad you got to be a part of it.