TRANSFORMED with Britta Bushnell Dr. Britta Bushnell

A very special and personal conversation around rituals & celebrations with my Mom - Paula Rochelle. This Season 2 teaser episode is a special release we wanted to share before the Holidays. We hope this episode inspires you to create simple, easy and personal traditions with your own family, in your very unique way.

Have a wonderful, warm, and ritualized Holiday season.

See you in 2022 for Season 2 of TRANSFORMED.

“The body just keeps talking louder and louder because it’s trying to get us to listen to a more fundamental message.” - Kimberly Ann Johnson

We're wrapping up the first season of TRANSFORMED with Kimberly Ann Johnson aka MAGAMAMA. Her book, The Fourth Trimester, should be required reading for most birthing women. Her courses guide participants to an embodied understanding of the nervous system and how this body wisdom matters for those of us pursuing a well-lived life. In this episode, Kimberly shares personal stories as well as deep wisdom, starting with her experience and knowledge of the postpartum period and taking us through parenting teenagers, big life changes, and fundamental nervous system know-how.



In this episode, Kimberly  and I discuss:


Kimberly’s personal postpartum journey

Depression after birth

Understanding the nervous system as Life 101

Moving away from your parents as an adult

Jaguar parenting

Parenting as an unequal relationship

Writing her new book


Read more about Kimberly and her work: About MAGAMAMA


Some of Kimberly’s offerings:


The Fourth Trimester https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Trimester-Postpartum-Balancing-Restoring/dp/1611804000/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+fourth+trimester&qid=1593449665&sr=8-2

The Fourth Trimester Cards https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Trimester-Cards-Support-Inspiration/dp/1611807646/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-p13n1_0?cv_ct_cx=the+fourth+trimester+cards&dchild=1&keywords=the+fourth+trimester+cards&pd_rd_i=1611807646&pd_rd_r=10ba9be6-e375-49ad-8163-807723ec89af&pd_rd_w=AIQsm&pd_rd_wg=ipKox&pf_rd_p=1da5beeb-8f71-435c-b5c5-3279a6171294&pf_rd_r=Z3VTKMKMS6XC7BR888S8&psc=1&qid=1593449697&sr=1-1-70f7c15d-07d8-466a-b325-4be35d7258cc

Activate Your Inner Jaguar (online course) https://www.magamama.com/jaguar

Tending the Collective Nervous System https://www.magamama.com/collective

“Systemic racism is attached to every aspect of our society.” - Kimberly Durdin

Allegra Hill & Kimberly Durdin are two black midwives who have embarked on the journey of starting their own birth center. In this episode, they share what called each of them to midwifery as well as what inspired them to the arduous task of starting a birth center. They help us understand the need for Black owned and operated birthing centers and the racial inequities faced by BIPOC birthing people, especially Black birthing parents and babies. Systemic racism impacts every industry. We have an open discussion about how it affects the birth world.


Today's wisdom comes from:

Kimberly Durdin IBCLC, Doula & Senior Student Midwife

Allegra Hill LM, CPM, Doula/Monitrice & IBCLC

Read all about my guests on their website.



Topics we discuss on this episode:


Their personal journeys to becoming midwives

The difference between midwifery care and working with an OB

Starting a birth center in South LA

The transformative process of opening a birth center

Roadblocks and racism as a birth professional


Episode Resources:
Kindred Space LA www.kindredspacela.com
Follow Kindred Space on Instagram @kindredspacela
Support Kindred Space LA through Venmo: @ProjectMotherPath (note: Kindred Space LA)
Donate to Kindred Space LA through GoFundMe.com


Episode Mentions:
Heather Schwarz https://www.montereybirthcenter.com/our-story
Shafia Monroe https://shafiamonroe.com/
Sara Howard https://www.horizonmidwifery.com/
Tioma Allison https://tiomamidwife.wordpress.com/about/
Juliana Fehr, CNM, PhD, FACNM https://www.su.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/juliana-fehr-phd-cnm-rn/
Aleks Evanguelidi LM http://www.aleksevanguelidi.com/
Nikki Helms San Diego Birth Center GoFundMe


Episode Credits:
Produced by Aleksa Mara
Edited by Veronica Gruba
Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

Today I share a conversation about the soul journey of menopause with the remarkable Dr. Christine Downing. Christine is a powerhouse in the academic fields of mythology and religion, but also she’s a powerhouse in life! She was a beloved professor of mine during grad school and served as the chair of my dissertation committee. Dr. Downing is 88-years-old and full of vitality, wisdom, and perspective about all phases women traverse in a lifetime.

In this episode, Christine and I discuss:


Mythology & the menopausal transition

Why it’s important for men to understand menopause

The value of taking trips at the brink of life changes

When to acknowledge the finality of things

Recognizing your limits

The importance of mourning

Female friendships as medicine

How there’s always a way in which we’re not quite ready for change


“It’s scary to let go of who you’ve been. To feel like you didn’t choose to be where you are. ” - Christine Downing



More about Christine:

Christine is a core faculty member in the Mythological Studies Department at Pacifica University. She has made extensive scholarly contributions to the fields of Religious Studies, Mythology, and Gender Studies. She is Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies from San Diego State University where she taught for almost twenty years. In 1974, Dr. Downing became the president of the American Academy of Religion, making her the first woman to do so. She has also taught concurrently at the San Diego campus of the California School of Professional Psychology, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She lectures frequently to Jungian groups both here and abroad. Christine Downing has forged a career in the academy and in the evolution of feminist thought through the unique blending of rigorous scholarly work with the personal voice of biographical writing and self reflection.



Dr. Downing is the author of numerous scholarly essays and important books in the field such as:


The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine

Gods in Our Midst: Mythological Images of the Masculine – A Woman’s View

Long Journey Home: Re-visioning the Myth of Demeter and Persephone for Our Time

Myths & Mysteries of Same-Sex Love

Psyche’s Sisters

Women’s Mysteries

This episode is different. I don’t have a guest to talk with, it’s just me sharing my thoughts about racism. This episode is mostly for white folks or at least non-black people. Anyone is welcome to listen, but in this episode, I am a white woman speaking to other white people about racism. There are experts on the lived experience of being Black in the U.S. (pretty much all Black people living in the U.S.) and there are white people who specialize in talking to other white people about racism. I’m not either of these. I’m an imperfect white woman learning and growing along the messy path of becoming anti-racist and that’s exactly what I want to share with you in this episode.



“What we need to do is understand that internalized racism exists in each of us, it’s been cooked into the tissue of my being from the reality of living in a country BUILT on racism—and as a white woman, it’s my job to unpack what’s been put there while I may have been sleeping.”



Topics we cover include:


The killing of Black people

What my mom has to say about unpacking racism

My own racism

Being imperfect and messing up

What I did at a midwifery conference

Shame and fear around racism

Public commitments to doing more unlearning and relearning


Episode Resources:

Favorite Chart of Resources for Anti-Racism Work.

Want to buy your books from Black owned bookstores? Here’s a list.

Books mentioned:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Movie: 

13th Streaming on Netflix

Course on race and the nervous system with Sabia Wade and Kimberly Johnson

A Lifetime in Quarantine 



Episode Credits:

Produced by Aleksa Mara

Edited by Veronica Gruba

Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD

In this episode I speak with author and physician Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona about how he brings storytelling and narrative into his healing processes. A teacher in many respects, Lewis believes that telling a story (or “sharing a case-study” in doctor talk), is the most effective way to teach. 

This conversation is helpful in shifting the way you look at your life and the stories you tell yourself that not only affect your neurological and mental health, but your physical health as well. What are the biological consequences of the stories that we tell ourselves? Can we rewrite our stories to better our lives? 

“We are the swarm of stories that surround our physical body.” - Lewis Mehl-Madrona 

Topics we cover include:
Indiginous knowledge
Narrative medicine
The Power of Talking Circles
Imagery & Narrative in Healing
Issues of Psychology during Birthing
Epigenetics vs. genetics in disease

About our guest:
Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate professor of family medicine at the University of New England. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He has also written Narrative Medicine, Healing the Mind through the Power of Story: the Promise of Narrative Psychiatry, and, his most recent book with Barbara Mainguy, Remapping Your Mind: the Neuroscience of Self-Transformation through Story. 

Lewis currently teaches with the family medicine residency at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) in Bangor, where he does inpatient medicine, outpatient precepting, and obstetrics. He works in consultation-liaison psychiatry at EMMC and also at Acadia Hospital. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Coyote Institute for Studies of Change and Transformation. Lewis has been studying traditional healing and healers since his early days and has written about their work and the process of healing. His goal is to bring the wisdom of indigenous peoples about healing back into mainstream medicine and to transform medicine and psychology through this wisdom coupled with more European derived narrative traditions. 

Read more about Lewis Mehl-Madrona on his website. 

Episode Resources:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coyotehealing/
The Coyote Trilogy: Coyote Wisdom, Coyote Healing, Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Healing the Mind Through the Power of Story by Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Narrative Medicine: The Use of History & Story in the Healing Process by Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Episode Credits:
Produced by Aleksa Mara
Edited by Veronica Gruba
Hosted & Created by Britta Bushnell, PHD