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

In this enlightening second part of the podcast interview, host Lindsay dives deep with Amy Russell into the profound impacts of setting boundaries and being trauma-informed. They discuss how reclaiming one's self through boundaries can transform relationships and self-perception. 

Amy shares personal stories from her healing journey, emphasizing the importance of understanding bodily cues and sensations. The conversation also explores the integration of spiritual gifts with a grounded knowledge of trauma and the nervous system. A must-listen for anyone interested in healing, personal growth, and the intersection of body, mind, and spirit. See link below to learn more about Lindsay's available certification programs for deeper insights into trauma-informed practices.

00:00 Introduction and Overview

00:26 Understanding Boundaries and Self-Love

02:15 Family Dynamics and Personal Growth

06:11 Discovering and Embracing Spiritual Gifts

20:42 The Importance of Being Trauma-Informed

27:34 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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, everyone. Welcome to part two of my podcast interview with the , incredible Amy Russell. In this part, you're going to hear more about  about the profound impact that this has had on her relationship with herself, with  with other people in her lives.

We also talk about the importance of being, being trauma informed, especially in the context of helping others heal and discover their true selves. So . I hope you enjoyed the second part as much as I do.   Here we go.

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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.

I love that. And it's just something everybody's so deserving of. Because we come here  having a lot of this stuff, just this systematically stripped from us. That's like the, almost like the tide or like the, that's just like the flow of it. And so to be able to step out of that and see who you are and return to who you are it's everything.

And I think it's what we need to heal the world, oh, huge. Absolutely. Absolutely.  

Absolutely. It's part of, it's, it is, it's essential, I think, because I noticed then as I was implementing these things in my life with the familial relationships there were some hard conversations that I chose to have  that I knew I needed to have. 

And cause I come from a family where we didn't really talk about hard things. It was all about, keep the faith and doubt your doubts and be happy all the time.  It was never going below this like  superficial level.  And  I'm the oldest in my family. And so  I knew I had this inner knowing that I needed to be the one to start changing this.

It wasn't, I wasn't going to be like, we're changing everything, but it was actually,  it was more about It was actually just me wanting to be myself and saying, I'm actually not going to live like this anymore. I'm not going to follow this pattern anymore. I'm not going to continue in the cycle anymore.

This is, that's a feeling of self betrayal if I do. And I can't do that and like my body, there was, when I had to come to my parents and tell them that I was leaving this religion, like my body was breaking down as in I like the aches and pains in my back and my neck and my hips  were debilitating and I'd never experienced that before and I needed to.

Speak to them. And that was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but  that was like the birthing of my autonomy and it needed to happen that way. And  just having subsequent conversations  and understanding how to articulate myself and how, in the boundaries and, or, and being okay of you know what, I actually am not going to participate in this right now.

Thank you. And I end the discussion or I'm not going to go and do this. Yeah,  it's great. It helps everybody. Begin to  see the elephant in the room. Basically that's been sitting there the entire time. And everyone still has their choice to, they have their choice of how they're going to handle it.

They can still  not see the elephant in the room and continue on. And that's fine. Like I can't force anyone. To do anything.  All I can do is be true to me and have my own boundaries and but I will say though since that, since the upheaval the atom bomb, which  really feels like it was for them and my heart goes out to them.

There's been. Change. It's very subtle. I will I can say the word change and you're like, Oh, wow, like night and day. No, there's still like a lot there, but it's this slow process of things coming. So when you talk about healing the world and that we need boundaries to do that, I think it just brings everybody to zero point. 

They can choose at that time if they want to take accountability and see the truth or not. But until then, we all stay in this place of enmeshment and codependency and, never really rooting into who we truly are. That's what I think. Yeah.  

I love that. I love that for you. And it just it just, every, it just feels like you are living. 

What comes to me is like you're living in a way.  Where, you found yourself. And then when we talk about the people you want to help, where it's I just want to help people find who they are, return to who they are.  I were listening and were, was trying to figure that out, I'd be like, yeah, like that's, she  did that.

She is doing that. What does she know that I don't. And so  tell me more about like how you came to, when it comes to the people that you want to help. Yeah, like I just think it's so simple, but it's also like the idea I just I want to help people find themselves like it sounds so simple,  but there's so much magnitude in that too, 

 so how would I go or how am I doing that is that your question is 

or just how did you come to that with like with the people that you want to help Yeah.

Like how did you decide that's what you want to do? Is it through your lived experience? Is it through what you've seen around others too? Or just the profound, sense of peace that you said that you notice now where you're like, everybody deserves this. I 

I think I've always felt that actually, like when I was little the adults would always ask us kids, what do you want to be when you grow up?

And, They all said, mom or nurse or, whatever. And  I was always like, Oh, I just want to help people. I didn't really know what that was or how it looked.  And so now that I'm like, reconnecting with those desires. Ugh,  seriously we are here to be ourselves and no one else.

And if there's I think, just coming from my own process  in finding myself And understanding that how difficult it can be and how challenging it can be and how heavy and scary, and that there's, there's traumas, there's things like it takes courage to feel sometimes.

Sometimes that's the first step into coming to know who we are, just by letting ourselves feel. Yeah, as that's the angle that I go, that's, yeah. Do you want me to go into what I. What I'm doing or I don't know, 

whatever feels good to you. I just love hearing it because it's just, it just feels like a human, and it just feels like it feels like a human, and it just feels like what  everybody's deserving of, yeah.  

Yeah. Human, and I feel like everyone has that inner voice within their hearts. That's always calling to them.  And if we're living in a system or, if we're living in a system that doesn't allow us to do that, it can be difficult.

It's difficult. It's difficult to do that.  So  yeah, I like one of the things I've always been drawn to the healing arts, like the healing arts as in like your metaphysical, your alternative healing, like I've got a  certified in Reiki.  And  I've always been curious. Not always. I remember when I learned about like energy healing, I thought, Oh, that's cool.

But because I was in the religion, it was discouraged. And so, I started to dive into that again a little bit further and just  felt like I could feel like I felt like I wanted to, I felt like calling to me.  And even though I certified in Reiki during that certification, it was like, Amy, okay.

You already know you don't need to do it this way. It was this feeling of like, this is an activation. This is a remembrance. This is a, it's a connecting and do you,  and I. Yeah, I've been, it was just trusting those impressions and so when people come in to see me,  it's super intuitive.

Just I like,  now I'm like, how do I explain all that?  Because there's, this is like that other conversation we could have, but 

yeah it's just, it's ineffable, like the experience and it might make sense that it is, but if you have words for it, we'd love to hear it for sure.

I think a lot of times this stuff is so limitless that  there isn't it's almost like a language doesn't quite do justice, 

it's, yeah, 100 percent on that.  It's really the, our hearts have the answer. Like I knew that my heart has the answer. Like I, if there's one thing that I'll take from the religion and there's still other things that I can still that feel true to me.

It's about that notion that the universe is within us.  It was framed as the kingdom of God is within you, but it's that same notion of the universe is already within us.  And that's not putting myself over anyone or under, but it's realizing that we are connected to a greater force  and that forces love.

And, everyone can definitely have their idea of what that is, but it's that inner knowing it's that inner light and love that we all have.  And. That's where all the answers reside. And so  yeah, it's just following what I have been called to. It's literally there was a couple years ago,  just before the end of the year, I was down with COVID and It was that time to do a lot of studying and I started diving into what the heck is channeling and  are fairies real and what the heck is a star seed and all of those things.

And I began to like trust. Where am I being pulled to? Yeah. And I have a library of books. Have I finished them all? No.  I am not a linear learner or reader. There are a few books I have read straight through, but it's like learning how to follow that intuition. Yeah. That's basically how My sessions go and they are there.

Everything's sound healing. It's with sound bowls. It's with the flu. It's with drums. It's, um, it's vocalization. It's light language. It's winds of literally,  it's amazing there that as I go, there are new. Gifts that are coming online that I didn't know and this is not just me. Okay, like Everybody this is and I'll just say this to standing on my soapbox Everybody can have these special gifts.

Yeah, call them psychic telepathy, whatever Everybody can have them. It's whatever they're called to. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah and speaking to this  You actually brought something up that I do want to touch on, but speaking to that, what you just said, I actually, there's a quote I want to read. I'm just going to pull it up real quick.

And it's in our trauma informed workbook because ,  we have stuff on intuition and there's a way that I teach this so that we can feel safe to bridge into some of these gifts.

 But there's this awesome quote that kind of touches on a little bit what Amy and I have been talking about. Yeah. And one thing that I have read and I believe that goes along with this quote is that We are, as humans, we may be predisposed to certain spiritual gifts,  yet we all have the ability to access all, any and all spiritual gifts that we want to.

So I, that's something that I really, I love . And  , I'll read the quote. I think I just found it. 

Oh, go 

for it. Um, this is a guy named Matt R.

M. I might be butchering the last name. Sorry, Matt. But he says, I have come to believe that extrasensory perception,  Okay, so these Claire's, these different intuitive gifts that we have, Isn't necessarily our senses extended beyond  our physical and ordinary senses, though that's how it's defined and an easy way to explain it.

Rather, I have come to believe that our psychic senses are our primary senses. The senses we have as spirit beings and our physical senses are extensions of those primary psychic senses.  And then he says, I know,   and then he says, we come into this world and into the womb with our psychic senses fully developed.

It's only after birth as a child develops in ages that these psychic senses recede while our physical senses take over. As physical beings, our physical senses are limited to as far as one can touch, hear, taste, smell, and so on. But as spiritual beings, which we are before and after physical incarnation, our psychic senses are limitless.

So that's so good, but it goes along so well with what you're talking about with the way that you were like doing your work, where it's it's like you've come online with this stuff. And as you do that, it's like more just keeps dropping in, which I love.  

Okay. First of all, I need that quote.

So please send it to me after this. Honestly we are, I really feel like we are in a time right now where we are our own gurus. Okay. And I think that just comes to. All the answers are within us. That doesn't necessarily mean you don't go when you ask for help. Like you, you follow what you're drawn to, but like  to that it's,  we are limitless.

We are limitless. And we just have to have all of the certifications or unless you feel drawn to go. And that's where that discernment piece comes in and it's like, why do I want to go do this? And having that real honest conversation with yourself and then go, Oh yeah, that is definitely for me. Or, Oh, actually think I can pick that side of me.

And yes, like people, let  me think here,  maybe this can get it out. I don't know. But like for a long time, I felt a lot of insecurity and imposter syndrome because I did not have all of these certifications. And I'm not  downplaying that those are essential and important, and that we do find a lot of security and certainty in someone who does have those certifications.

 Yeah, you know what I'm saying? I get, my whole point though is that it really is just listening to our hearts and seeing where we're pulled and feeling where we're pulled and just trust that.

Yeah, I really feel that too because,  where we're leading in with the world today.

With AI and all these different things. It's, to me, it's almost. Compelling us to go into our soul and into our knowing so that we can distinguish   what we're pulled towards or what our truth is almost like regardless of what we see, right? AI videos of your kid asking for help. When it's not right and so the more that we can dial into this deep knowing that we all have access to the more again it's going to help us discern our truth from something else and that and so going with what we feel drawn or pulled to even if we don't have an explanation for it 

something else I wanted to touch on to that I think is really important and  I'm such a believer in all of these spiritual gifts. And sometimes when I think of spiritual gifts, I just think of them like coming from the sky, almost like dropping in in different ways, but also having them grounded. 

And  an earthy knowing and understanding of like our body, who we are, trauma, the nervous system intuition, mapping our body, understanding all of these things. And I think that's part of why I feel so deeply about this certification because  I think it can help people earth enough into their knowing and create enough of a foundation or support system to feel tethered  to something so that they can.

, have this exploratory experience into  their spiritual gifts without floating away. If that makes sense, because I have seen  spiritual people come through and it's they're not tethered in some sort of knowing or understanding  the body and trauma and systems of oppression and knowing what emotional abuse is.

And I've seen people spiritually bypass.  The needs of humans or clients in the name of these gifts that they have. Which I think are there, but  there's some power to having it being tethered in  knowledge and understanding  ourselves. And so to me personally,  the perfect blend of that is what we're talking about, right?

Like having this understanding of the body trauma, the nervous system, so that we can feel safe to just explore. But tell me more, like what comes up for you as I say that? 

No, I think the body is so essential. It's essential. Why is it essential?  Through understanding how my body speaks to me and like you were saying, having that understanding of,

or so that you're not bypassing other people, right? You're not spiritually bypassing. I'd also say that our bodies  are, they are, they have their own wisdom. 

Yeah. For sure. 

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I've come to understand that even like my organs, have, they're almost, they feel like sentient beings to me. They, if I want to speak to my liver, I feel this reciprocated, thank you. 

And maybe that sounds odd to other people, but that's what I've come to know about my own body. And there's so much wisdom there. Like we are it's. This beautiful thing to think about the ethereal and to be telepathic and Psychic and all of this stuff is all the spiritual stuff But it does need to be all grounded within our body like it's not just  all right It's for the human experience, I stubbed my toe.

I'm human, it's something like that. It's it's really about That integration of both the spiritual and the physical together like they're, they are meant to be integrated into one.  So allowing for that, the humanness of life,  while experiencing this ethereal. Spirituality of life as well. 

Yeah. Yeah. I love how you say that. Really beautiful.  Awesome. Awesome. I, this has just been so fun. I feel like we could just keep talking for days.  We're already done. Are we 

literally almost done?  

We've come to our end.  Probably. Probably. It's been, I think we've And recording for getting, we're getting up there.

And so just really quick,  it's just been such a treat to have you on the podcast and I want as many people to know you as possible. So I was just going to say is there anything else you want us to know about you and the people you serve or, why you think it matters to be trauma informed to serve the people that you serve or how has that made a difference specifically?

Absolutely. Absolutely. In your healing practice, like what,  and I'm asking a lot of questions, but what  would you want the world to know as? Yeah, 

I think I'll answer this when why is it important to be trauma informed?  Because I feel like it's important to be trauma informed because we are coming out of trauma as a collective.

Yeah, we are coming from generations that do not know how to feel and deal with the heavier things.  We are coming from generations that  have had to be in survival, they, and there's no judgment because I understand now that  everything that has happened in generations past has just been a product of, what has happened.

It's all working out, it's all working out, but we are now in, in a place and in a vibrational, a frequency within the world now that.  We want that authenticity. We want that truth. We want to feel what it really feels like to be loved.  And to feel  like what it is to feel love within us, like to be love what does that mean?

And, within that, who am I and what is my purpose and the whole thing.  And so in order to untangle I feel like my husband, I talk about this a lot. It feels our generation, I'm turning 50 next week,  that feels like our generation and I'm only speaking for our, my little world here, but it feels like we're a bridge generation where  we have so many of us have woken up and we're like, Oh,  This is these are toxic traits that are being passed on.

I'm not so happy and I don't know if I like how this is going and I don't like if I, I don't know if I want to actually continue this, and so we're making, we're being, beginning to become informed. We're beginning to make changes. So becoming, being trauma informed is necessary. And I will say this one last thing.

I know we're running out of time.  For example we moved to this neighborhood a few years ago. And I was still deconstructing and I met one of the women that I met within the religious congregation. She reached out to me and she's Hey, come and hang out with my friends. And they. Are all moms of kids that are LGBTQ  and this was a particular thing that I had not explored.

Like I, I've been afraid to, cause it seemed very big. But I knew that though, what I was being taught didn't really feel right. I didn't know why.  And as I sat there and spent time with these women  and got to hear their stories and they were also deconstructing. So we had that in common.  I, Began to see the world in a very in a newer way, in a better way, in a more informed way, and  did not realize  how much  damage was being done to  brothers and sisters of the LGBTQ community.

And it was eye opening to me.  So taking that information or information, but I'm like, information is like such like a meh word. It was like, it was wisdom.  And I felt so humbled. And I felt a new, deeper level of love  that I didn't know existed. And that keeps happening, by the way, but  maybe that's it too, saying like becoming more trauma informed, like there is the ugliness, but really it, like it opens up the heart to this awareness and this deeper understanding of how to truly love  not only others.

Myself, I literally began to learn how it means to love myself. This was a precursor to stepping out of my comfort zone and telling my parents, I needed to, I was leaving the religion that their stories gave me courage to do that, to stand in what I felt was right for me to be true to myself. And if there's any I think of.

My friends who, you know, lesbian or queer, gay or whatever, like they, they are examples to me of.  Such bravery and courage and love,  they are standing in their truth and it is scary for them. And yet they go and do it. And I'm, and then anytime I feel to shy away from my own truth.  I think of them. I do.

So talk about trauma informed. Cause if there's anyone that's experiencing trauma, I think everyone does right. And every in every category,  but they experienced trauma, like on the fear that they feel every day to just be themselves. So to be trauma informed. Yeah. That's  hopefully I explained that.

Oh, 

I appreciate you sharing that and it does matter so that you can  just have a contextual understanding of what people might be experiencing. To be more compassionate and more loving. And I do think it's empowering. Like I think sometimes people think that focusing on  stuff like this is a victim mindset and just get over it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But being willing to look at shadows to me is one of the most courageous things that humans can do. And it's what we need to elevate  the level of consciousness that we're all living in. And so we're seeing that. And it's not pretty. So  as we see that, how can we again, see it and take care of ourselves, find that balance.

It's just an interesting time to be alive, 

yeah. It's interesting and exciting and tense. It's all the things we're like one big pile of. And  just we're in there trying to like alchemize and make everything just like your compost pile, right? You throw in the scraps, you throw in the things you don't want, but you know that this beautiful chemical process happens and it becomes nutrient dense soil.

I feel like that's what we're all in as a collective right now. So when we are waking up to be true to ourselves, we become, we're that chemical process that's beginning to change things into a denser nutrient dense soil. Oh, I love 

that so much. Ah it's been so lovely having you. Thank you so much for being here.

You're just wonderful and well put for anyone who wants to get in touch with Amy. I'll put, we'll put in the show notes a way to get in touch with her and we'll go from there. Does that sound good?  📍 Yeah. 

  📍 It sounds great. 

Thank you so much. Really enjoy it. Thanks everybody for being here. Bye.