"The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk sparked worldwide conversations about the reality of trauma in our everyday lives. It opened our eyes to the deep connection between our brains and bodies and gave us an understanding of just how much of a role our bodies play in stress regulation. As we dive into the idea of "listening to our bodies" to navigate stress in our roles as social service providers, we couldn't overlook this key giant in the literature around trauma in our bodies.

Welcome to Season 2 of Full Cup Professionals. In this introductory episode, Faith and Christa lay out the theme for Season 2 and why this one practice is the game changer for any and all resilience work. We're so glad you're here! Let's dive in.

In our last episode of Season 1, we recorded in person to do a taste test of three herbal infusions that each help support the body through stress. As we sipped our tea, we talked through the various kinds of rest and the different ways to practice those kinds of rest. We laughed, told stories, and dropped some clues as to our focus for next season! Thank you so much for embarking on this journey with us! We can't wait to come back to continue to support you as you support others!

We experience all of life - the physical, mental, and emotional - in and through our bodies. Our relationship to food and approach to nourishment play a massive role in how we feel and the quality of our life experience. In this episode, we dive into how nutrition impacts our mental health, what food is actually doing in our body after we eat it, and what foods you can incorporate today to begin supporting your body through stress. Christa shares her story with chronic illness, nutrition, and disordered eating and what she learned in each step of her journey. We all eat every day and the choices we make can serve to support us or add to our dis-ease. We hope this episode gives you some ideas to start making choices from a place of love that gives you the support you need to thrive.

What if there's more to your stress than you think? We're all about navigating stress on this podcast. Part of navigating stress is embracing the purpose it's serving and how it may actually be supporting our healing and growth. In this episode, we talk about stress as a messenger, how to understand what your stress is telling you, and how you can use that information to move through your situations. This conversation will help you reframe your stress as something to honor and leverage for your benefit instead of something to conquer and overcome.

The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal, PhD

How to Make Stress Your Friend

This episode is sponsored by Holistic Hope.

Serving in a high-trauma space is challenging, but what if you have lived through that experience yourself? When people who have been through trauma begin to work as advocates or leaders in that space, it adds additional complexity to the dynamic that needs to be honored, understood, and addressed. In today's episode, we sit down with Tina Bauer, an adoptee and former foster youth who now advocates for youth in care. We talk through the good, the bad, and the messy of being a leader with lived experience and how organizations and managers can best support survivors as they share their stories or work on their teams. Tina not only works for a non-profit that helps youth in care find homes, she also uses her social media to share honest, real, and often hard truths that adults need to hear to better serve child welfare-involved youth. If you have lived experience or you work with those who do, this is an episode you don't want to miss.

You can find Tina Bauer on Instagram and connect with her via her website.

This episode is sponsored by Good Sustained. If burnout, vicarious trauma, and staff turnover are impeding your mission, fill out this form to see how I can help revitalize your team and optimize your operations so you can continue your mission for years to come.

Randy Kaiser served over a decade in law enforcement before discovering a framework that changed his life. In this episode, we talk with Randy about the compounding trauma he experienced from his childhood experiences, personal losses, and working as a human trafficking investigator. Randy gets HONEST about his emotional disconnection and what happened when he realized there was a better way to work and live that improved the quality of his life, especially his relationships. Randy now trains law enforcement to implement the practices of TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) to improve their outcomes and their wellbeing. This is one you don't want to miss.

Connect with Randy

k4enterprises.org

Are you a social service provider looking for a safe place to process your work experiences? Do you feel like you could use better tools as you work with your clients? Holistic Hope can help with both! Visit their website for details:

holistichope.net

Want to learn more about TBRI? Check these out:

Research article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3877861/#:~:text=Trust%2DBased%20Relational%20Intervention%20(TBRI)%20is%20a%20therapeutic%20model,treatment%20for%20at%2Drisk%20children.

TBRI Webpage:

https://child.tcu.edu/about-us/tbri/#sthash.fKTzqDBd.dpbs

2020 was a wild time for the field of social work. Social workers in various settings were pivoting their operations and practices to be able to keep serving their clients safely. The increasing demand and fast changes put a lot of strain on social workers and the burnout was REAL. Wouldn't be amazing if someone had been looking at the conditions under which social workers were operating, seeing where the overwhelm was stemming from, and noting the supportive practices that helped to contribute to resilience and longevity. Thankfully, that's exactly what Dr. Jillian Landers did for her dissertation. In this episode, which is really a reunion of friends, Dr. Landers unpacked her findings and the lessons they hold for the field of social work moving forward. Dr. Landers work helps us know what practices and supportive systems and practices will BEST keep our social workers healthy and thriving in their roles. You won't want to miss this episode!

Want to optimize YOUR team's operations to foster resilience, promote self-care, and offer excellent services? Good Sustained offers consulting, workshops, and coaching to help your team feel their best and keep doing amazing work!

For more info, visit goodsustained.com