In this powerful episode, Kayla sits down with therapist and coach Danielle Z to explore the often-blurry line between therapy and coaching, and how both can support deep transformation.

They dive into Internal Family Systems (IFS), survival mode vs. success, core values, and how to shift from reactive autopilot into conscious, purpose-driven living.

You’ll learn the signs you might be stuck in survival mode and how to start regulating your nervous system, reconnecting with your core self, and building a life rooted in values, not pressure.

Connect With Danielle:

• Danielle's Website
• Danielle On Instagram
• Feeling & Healing Podcast

If you’ve ever said, “I’m doing everything right and it should be working,” or collapsed into an “I don’t even care anymore” moment, you’re not alone. And contrary to what diet culture, hustle culture, or even your inner overachiever might say—the solution isn’t more effort.

It’s grief.

In this soul-deep solo episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, Kayla explores the emotional roadblock that keeps so many ambitious women stuck in food fixation, burnout, and self-doubt. She breaks down the physiological impact of chronic stress on digestion, metabolism, and energy, then guides listeners to the real shift: releasing unprocessed grief.

We grieve old bodies, old ease, old routines, and the illusion that self-worth equals visible success. We grieve the fantasy that “effort = results” will always work.

This episode invites you to feel the grief—not to wallow, but to alchemize. Because the moment you stop fighting your sadness, you open the door to true food freedom, self-trust, and an identity aligned with your future self.

Links Mentioned:

• Eat Me: Free Mini Course in December
• Book: The Slow Down Diet by Marc David
• Book: The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren
• Divine Daddies Audio Listening Guide
• Book a Call for Eat Your Desire 1:1 Experience

In this powerful and raw conversation, Kayla interviews author Adriene Caldwell about her extraordinary journey from childhood trauma, abuse, addiction and suicidal ideation — through to resilience, writing her memoir Unbroken Life Outside the Lines, motherhood, and hope. Adriene gets candid about the years she was both victim and villain in her own story, why she refused to sugar‑coat anything, and how she now uses her voice to show others a way out.

Content & trigger warning: This episode discusses childhood abuse, extreme poverty, addiction, suicidal ideation and attempts, foster‑care trauma, and parental mental illness. If you’re in a sensitive season, please listen with care, use headphones, or consider waiting until you feel supported. Viewer discretion advised.

Listeners will walk away with:

• real examples of how to turn the worst chapters into a new narrative
• a journal prompt and song recommendation you can use immediately
• reflections on how honesty—not perfection—can be healing

Connect With Adriene:

• Adriene's Website
• Adriene On Instagram

What happens when you let go of the scale after decades of daily weigh-ins? For Kayla MacDonald, it became a powerful 7-week experiment in self-trust, discernment, and detaching her worth from a number. In this emotionally rich episode, she breaks down the double bind between diet culture and body positivity, and why both extremes can keep women stuck.

You’ll learn:

• The truth about tracking: how it can be neutral, healing, or harmful, depending on your intention
• Why Elizabeth Benton’s quote, “Avoidance isn’t refuge,” became a turning point
• How the observer effect from quantum physics might just apply to your relationship with weight
• The emotional (and cosmic) lessons Kayla faced when the “math wasn’t mathing”
• Why she no longer pedestalizes other people’s paths over her own lived truth
• And how she’s rewriting her story - from frustration and stagnation to empowered devotion

Kayla also shares journal prompts to help you rewrite your own relationship with the scale, health, and self-worth.

If you’re tired of being told there’s only one right way to love your body - or that weight loss automatically means you hate yourself - this is your permission slip to find your own middle ground.

Links Mentioned:

• Episode 196. You're Not A Number: Why Healing From The Scale Is The Real Weight Loss
• Find Kayla's Books (Your Body is Not a Weapon)
• Journal Prompts For The Episode
• Book Your Complimentary Call To Adventure

In today’s episode, we're joined by dark romance author Felsi Cyanide Sun, whose story is one of radical authenticity, creative courage, and a deeply personal relationship with a loving, non-judgmental God.

Most of our guests share experiences with religious trauma or complicated spiritual histories—and so do many of our listeners. But what makes this conversation unique is the way Felsi connects with God and Jesus completely outside of traditional religious structures. Her faith is rooted in compassion, gentleness, and unconditional love.

We talk about her punk-rock days performing in underground clubs, where she and her band told the story of Jesus on stage, in the middle of goth, metal, and alternative venues—bringing light into some very dark places.

We also explore why dark romance is such a misunderstood genre, and how for many readers (including both of us), these stories can be deeply healing. Broken characters, devotion, sacrifice, redemption—these emotional archetypes hit differently when you’ve lived through darkness yourself.

This episode is a powerful look at faith, creativity, and the courage it takes to be unapologetically who you are… especially when who you are doesn’t fit the mold.

Connect With Felsi:

• Felsi On Instagram
• Felsi's Website

How to Turn Stress into Sacred Comedy (Yes, Even During the Holidays)

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, or like you're about to have a breakdown over something as simple as a cat on your blanket, you’re not alone. And better yet? You’re not broken. You’re just in need of a little Drama Queen alchemy.

In this episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, Kayla shares her three-step process for transforming inner chaos and chronic stress into something magical, and hilarious.

Expect emotional permission slips, a full Rex vs. Remington Shark Blanket Tribunal scene, and a very flustered Haven cool-down. This one’s pure emotional alchemy, and the perfect tool for surviving the holiday season (and beyond).

Links Mentioned:

• Eat Me: Reclaim Appetite, Power, & Pleasure Through Your Erotic Blueprint
• The Language of Emotions By Karla MacLaren
• Divine Daddies Audio Listening Guide
• Episode 208: You Like It Like That: Food, Power, & The Kink of Control

Why do so many women enjoy M/M fan fiction and adult films?

In this candid, nuanced, and wildly validating episode, Kayla sits down with professor, researcher, and fanfic writer Lucy Neville to explore her groundbreaking research into women’s desire, queer culture, and sexual healing through male/male erotic content.

Together, they discuss shame, kink, the community power of fandom, and what slash fiction reveals about identity, gender fluidity, trauma, and taboo. Whether you’re a fic reader, a fan of the genre, or just curious about why it resonates so deeply—this one’s for you.

Lucy’s Work & Research

• Girls Who Like Girls Who Like Boys by Lucy Neville
• Email Lucy: L.Neville@soton.ac.uk

If you’ve ever felt like food had power over you, or like your cravings ran the show, this episode is going to change your world. In Episode 208 of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, Kayla explores how the Kinky Erotic Blueprint—yes, even in the realm of eating—can rewire decades of power struggles, emotional eating, and shame.

Kayla shares her personal journey of going from feeling helpless around food to realizing that helplessness was a chosen role in a deeper power game. Through the lens of erotic blueprint work, particularly the Kinky type, she reframes cravings, control, and surrender as archetypal energies that can be harnessed—not feared.

You’ll learn:

• The core traits of the Kinky blueprint and why you might relate to them even if it’s not your primary type
• Marc David’s concept of sacred metabolizers—especially the power of story
• How rewriting your story around food and cravings can become a liberation ritual
• How Rex, her inner Daddy Dom archetype, helps her use structure as pleasure, not punishment
• Why consent is central to reclaiming your power with food—and how to bring sexy structure back into your self-care

Whether you’re Type A, kink-curious, or just tired of emotional eating running the show, this episode invites you to make your food freedom journey fun, spicy, and deeply embodied. You’re not too much—you’re just getting honest about what turns you on. And that? Is healing as hell.

Links Mentioned:

Podcasts:

• Understanding the Psychology of Learned Helplessness (Episode 68)
• Episode 204: Turn On & Sexual Energy: The Unexpected Path to Food Freedom
• Episode 206: Erotic Blueprints & Food Freedom Fantasy

Eat Me: Reclaiming Appetite, Pleasure & Power Through Your Erotic Blueprint

Divine Daddies Audio Storybook

Books:

• Chasing Cupcakes by Elizabeth Benton
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott
• The Slow Down Diet by Marc David