Rebel Clinicians Podcast
The Rebel Clinicians Podcast is your home for daring conversations and innovative insights designed to transform the world of mental health and holistic healing. Hosted by seasoned therapists and healers who refuse to be confined by the traditional therapy model, each episode explores the intersection of spirituality, ancient wisdom, and modern therapy. Whether you’re a therapist, social worker, energy healer, or simply someone seeking deeper healing and personal growth, we’re here to inspire, challenge, and guide you on your path.
In each episode, we dive into powerful topics like integrating psychedelics and indigenous wisdom, breaking free from the constraints of “the couch,” financial freedom, and building an authentic practice that reflects your unique magic. We’ll share stories of clinicians who are thriving by being true to themselves, and we’ll reveal practical tools for expanding your practice beyond boundaries while nurturing your soul. From financial strategies and marketing tips to shamanic practices and spiritual journeys, this podcast brings together everything you need to become an empowered and revolutionary healer.
Join us in our mission to disrupt the field, heal deeply, and redefine what it means to be a clinician—one episode at a time. Welcome to the tribe.
Rebel Clinicians Podcast
S2E13: “West Medicine: Letting Go, Grief, and the Courage to Transform”
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S2E13: “West Medicine: Letting Go, Grief, and the Courage to Transform”
Hosts: Alex Runolfson & John Cottrell
The Sacred Directions series continues on this week's episode of The Rebel Clinicians Podcast, as Alex and John turn toward the West--the direction of the setting sun, the long exhale, and the powerful medicine of letting go.
In many traditions, the West is associated with autumn, the element of water, and the invitation to slow down, become still, and listen more deeply. Alex and John explore how West medicine supports clinicians, healers, and helpers in working with emotion, grief, shadow material, and transformation--the places we tend to avoid, but the places where real growth often begins. They reflect on Bear as a guiding archetype for the West: retreating into the cave, digesting what life has offered, and emerging changed. They also explore related cross-cultural teachings, including Jaguar in South American cosmology, Celtic themes of the Otherworld and dream-time, and Norse symbolism of the sea and initiation.
This conversation weaves together practical clinical insights and embodied tools--such as journaling prompts, boundary work, somatic support, trauma processing modalities, and TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises)--to help you explore what you're carrying, what no longer serves, and what you're ready to release. You'll also hear John connect the West to yogic symbolism of the back body--support, resilience, and the deeper question: do you have your own back?
If you're in a season of transition, reflection, or emotional processing, this episode offers language, structure, and grounded practices to help you move forward with clarity and maturity--without leaving parts of yourself behind.
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