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Women on the Brink
Welcome to Women on the Brink - Are you a woman who feels stressed out and overwhelmed in your everyday life? This website and podcast is designed to support and encourage women dealing with different types of stress and adversity. We're here to provide tools that can be used to raise self-awareness and build resilience, so you can step away from the edge of the cliff that you may be teetering on. Join your host, healthcare practitioner and stress & wellness coach, Chris Jeffrey, and move your life from diving to thriving, from chaos to calm.....
Episodes
97 episodes
The Messenger on the Seawall
Lately, I've been thinking about messages. Not because I've been receiving many, but because perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention. After hearing beautiful stories from a hospice nurse practitioner about unexpected messages, I found my...
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None of Us Can Truly Be Without "We." Ubuntu, Indinewemagadenoog, and the Wisdom of Belonging
What if two cultures separated by continents arrived at the same profound truth? In this episode, I explore the African philosophy of Ubuntu alongside the Ojibwe teaching of indinewemagadenoog,"all my relations", while sharing my own j...
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What Anthropology Taught Me About Racism, Drugs & the Stories We Tell Ourselves
I thought I was taking a course about drugs at University. Instead, I learned about race, power, history, and the stories we tell ourselves about addiction. In this episode of Women on the Brink, I share the lessons that shocked me the...
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Are You Standing in Front of a Threshold?
Today on the show, I explored the idea of threshold addiction, our tendency to pull back just as we're about to experience meaningful change. Whether it's pursuing a dream, sharing our work, starting a business, or stepping into a new ...
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Madonna, Aging, Relevance, and Evolution
This week on the podcast, we explore a question that goes far beyond Madonna, Pamela Anderson, or celebrity culture: What is the next song of our lives? As we age, evolve, and face changing identities, we're all challenged to ask whether we're ...
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I Did the Thing
Two years ago, I started a podcast to do something that terrified me: put my voice out into the world. And, almost 100 episodes later, I can officially say, I did the thing.In today's episode, I'm sharing why I've decided that Episode 10...
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Are You The Hare or the Tortoise?
The other day while running the Vancouver Seawall, I noticed something: lots of people passed me but I rarely passed anyone. Then Taking the Long Way by The Chicks came on, and suddenly it hit me: I’m the tortoise. I move slower than a...
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The Weight Mothers Carry (And Why We Need to Talk About It)
What if one of society’s biggest blind spots is how much we expect mothers to carry?From emotional regulation to attachment, to shaping tiny nervous systems, we place enormous responsibility on mother and then often leave them to d...
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The Pivot is Not a Restart
In this episode, we explore the idea that a pivot is not a restart, but more of an evolution. Inspired by a real-life career crossroads, we talk about how changing direction in life doesn’t mean starting over, but rather integrating everything ...
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Functional Burnout: When You're Still Showing Up, But Something in You Has Left
This episode is for the woman who is still showing up to her life… but feels like something inside her has quietly checked out.We’re talking about functional burnout , the kind no one sees. The kind that looks like compete...
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Why “Low” Emotions Still Show Up Even After You’ve Done the Work
You’ve grown. You know you have. So why are the same old emotions showing up again?In this episode, we’re unpacking the disorienting experience of feeling “low” emotions after you’ve already done so much inner work. Thi...
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You’re not reacting to them, you’re reacting to what you believe about them.
We like to think we’re seeing people clearly. That what we’re reacting to is what’s actually happening. But most of the time? We’re not seeing them. We’re seeing them through us.In this episode, I talk abo...
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The Risk of Being Seen
We women have said we have been invisible for a long time. Especially older women. We're told to be visible, to speak up, to show up fully, but no one really talks about what happens after you do. In this episode, I unpack ...
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When Stress Becomes a Presence
I woke up in the middle of the night, completely awake, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and there was a heavy pressure on my chest. Both times, there was a figure in the room that felt very real. I thought I was losing my mind… un...
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Medicine Isn’t What You Think It Is
When most people think of medicine, they think of something they take.But what if real medicine isn’t found in a bottle at all?In this episode of Women on the Brink, we explore a different way of understanding healing.&nb...
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The Courage To Bloom
What if the life you’re holding onto… is the very thing holding you back? In this episode of Women on the Brink, I share the moment I had to leave a long-term relationship because our values were not aligned. And here's the big q...
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When Healing Becomes Too Much
At some point, healing turns into a full-time job… and your body still feels exhausted. More treatments. More rules. More effort. But what if that’s the problem? This episode explores why doing everything to get better can a...
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Why Boys Struggle to Become Men Today
Why are so many young men searching for answers about masculinity online? In this episode of Women on the Brink, we explore the disappearing rite of passage for boys, the importance of male mentorship, and why the transiti...
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I'm Turning 65 (And I'm Buying the Pants Anyway)
Why do so many women feel pressure to stop aging at 40? In this episode of Women on the Brink, I unpack the quiet cultural conditioning that tells women they should look forever youthful, and what it takes to push back against it. From...
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Radical Responsibility - In a World Run by Unregulated Nervous Systems
The headlines feel like a group chat between emotionally reactive world leaders and our nervous systems are tempted to join in.In this episode of Women on the Brink, I explore radical responsibility where I'm choosing to r...
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Friends, Lovers or Fu#k Buddies?
This episode of Women on the Brink dives into the blurry lines between friend, lover, and casual sex—and why those categories get so complicated for women, especially in midlife. Chris and regular guest Kim Protopappas unpack the emotion...
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The MAGIC of Making Mistakes
In this episode, I’m reframing something so many women quietly carry: mistakes.We’re taught to value formal education, linear careers, and “getting it right.” But what about the lessons we learn from heartbreak, detours, wrong turns, and...
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Midlife Grief in Women: Identity Loss, Hormones & How to Pivot After Change
What if the thing that’s making you feel lost, numb, restless—or strangely relieved—isn’t a crisis… but grief? In this episode of Women on the Brink, we explore the quiet, complicated grief that so many women encounter in midlife...
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Women’s Creativity Is Not Optional—Here’s Why
When women stop creating, we don’t get calm — we get cranky.Tired. Flat. Irritated by everyone and everything.And we assume it’s hormones, stress, or ‘just getting older’…when really? Something essential has been shut down....
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Dating, Self-Value and Finding Yourself in Midlife - with Kim Protopappas
Women on the Brink began as a personal inquiry — an attempt to understand how I kept tripping myself up, not just in romantic relationships, but in my life. I was curious about how smart, capable women (myself included) quietly abandon...
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