Confessions of a Freebird - Midlife, Divorce, Heal, and Date Differently with Somatic Experiencing, Empty Nest, Well-Being, Happiness
Are you somewhere in the middle of your life wondering — is this all there is?
Maybe you've spent decades putting everyone else first. Maybe you're navigating divorce, empty nesting, loss, or the quiet ache of a life that no longer fits. Maybe you're ready for something more — you are stuck and don't know how to get there yet.
This is "the" podcast for "that".
Confessions of a Freebird is a space for people in midlife who are done surviving and ready to live again. Three times a month, host Laurie James — author of Sandwiched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go, certified somatic practitioner, coach, mother of four, divorcée, and recovering caregiver — brings you honest conversations and embodied tools for the journey back to yourself.
Expect raw personal reflections, expert conversations, and somatic coaching strategies covering everything from divorce strategies, grief, trauma healing, and anger to sex, dating again, finances, caregiving, and reinvention. Because the people who need this podcast aren't looking for toxic positivity — they're looking for someone who gets it.
Every episode is an invitation to stop managing and start feeling. To stop performing fine and start living freely. To come home to yourself through attuning to the body — and design a life that fits who you actually are now, not who you were twenty years ago or who someone else told you to be.
Whether you're in the thick of the sandwich generation, starting over after loss or divorce, or quietly dreaming of your next chapter — you're in the right place.
Confessions of a Freebird. Your midlife permission slip to evolve, heal, and fall in love with your life all over again.
Because the most important relationship you'll ever have is the one you have with yourself.
XO,
Laurie
Connect with me:
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https://laurieejames.myflodesk.com/bgtsh
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Confessions of a Freebird - Midlife, Divorce, Heal, and Date Differently with Somatic Experiencing, Empty Nest, Well-Being, Happiness
How to Break Free from Relationship Patterns Using Somatic Tools and Trauma-Informed Support with Riana Malia
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What if the patterns you keep repeating aren’t flaws or bad habits, but survival strategies your body learned long ago?
In this episode, I sit down with Riana Malia, a certified Neuro-Somatic practitioner whose work focuses on healing generational trauma through the unconscious mind, nervous system regulation, and trauma-informed care.
Riana shares her powerful personal story of betrayal, loss, and the promise she made to her daughter, that the cycle of trauma would end with her. Together, we explore how the body holds experiences the mind can’t always explain, and how unhealed childhood wounds can quietly shape our relationships, choices, and sense of self well into adulthood.
We talk about why emotional regulation is the foundation of real change, how trauma responses often disguise themselves as personality traits or self-sabotage, and how Riana used quantum healing to shift lifelong pain, without having to relive every traumatic moment.
You’ll learn:
- Why certain relationship patterns keep repeating, even when you “know better”
- How trauma responses can disguise themselves as personality traits or self-sabotage
- What somatic tools actually look like in everyday life, especially when things feel overwhelming
- The difference between emotional awareness and true embodied healing
- Why forgiveness is about reclaiming yourself, not excusing harm.
- What a practical, sustainable healing journey can look like after decades of stored trauma.
- How trauma-informed personal growth gives your nervous system a new story to follow
- How understanding your body creates emotional safety and resilience
If you’re carrying pain you can’t quite name, or if healing has felt confusing or out of reach, this episode offers a gentler, more embodied way forward.
Your body already knows the way. It just needs your attention, patience, and care.
Much love,
Laurie
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Free Resources
Click here to schedule a FREE inquiry call with me.
Click here for my FREE “Beginner’s Guide to Somatic Healing”
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Connect with Riana Malia
Click here to take Riana’s E.L.I. Assessment
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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS AVAILABLE ON THIS PODCAST ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL, MEDICAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A LICENSED THERAPIST IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS. YOU SHOULD CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A LICENSED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WITH RESPECT TO ANY MEDICAL ISSUE OR PROBLEM.