Episode 143: Fear From Breast Cancer: How Two Mothers Reject 'Normal' & Find Freedom with Dirci Souza and Melanie
- THA Operations
- Nov 28
- 19 min read
Updated: Dec 2
After treatment, Dirci was told by her oncologist to go back to her life as “normal.” But as she steps into the cancer support groups, everyone is in fear of remission. Melanie received the diagnosis of breast cancer, felt the fear of if treatment would get it all, and decided now was the best time for nervous system healing -not later. She finds herself on the radiation table using her somatic tools and finding a calm and a freedom that surprises the nurses.
Many people receive cancer diagnoses without anyone explaining how stress, trauma and nervous system dysregulation create the biological conditions where disease can be welcomed. For practitioners supporting clients through cancer treatment, and for individuals navigating their own healing journey, understanding the connection between stored trauma and physical health changes everything about experiencing freedom from the fear that accompanies a diagnosis, even after successful treatment.
This episode shares two stories about breast cancer and the nervous system regulation work that became essential to their ability to find freedom during and after the treatment.
You'll hear from Dirci, a mother of twins who developed breast cancer during the pandemic after years of daily overwhelm, and Melanie, whose postpartum anxiety and childhood hypervigilance preceded her diagnosis.
Both women went where their oncologists said wouldn't make a difference—yet addressing their nervous system dysregulation became the missing, foundational piece for their emotional health. Their journeys reveal what becomes possible when we heal the underlying Biology of Trauma® instead of returning to the patterns that created illness.
In this episode you'll learn:
[02:01] Dirci's Story: How her sister's death, twins' therapy sessions, and daily overwhelm preceded breast cancer
[10:54] When Doctors Say "Go Back to Normal": Why returning to life as usual after treatment felt wrong
[14:09] The Moment Everything Clicked: Discovering trauma in her body through Dr. Aimie's interview
[18:30] From Information to Embodiment: How the 21 Day Journey created awareness and presence in daily life
[21:04] The Transformation Others Noticed: Looking better after cancer treatment than before diagnosis
[27:02] Melanie's Story: Postpartum anxiety, rage, and hypervigilance that preceded her breast cancer diagnosis
[36:04] Using Rage as a Pause Button: How anger became a coping mechanism to control overwhelming environments
[41:45] Going Through Treatment with Peace: Using the heart hold on the radiation table instead of panic
[48:26] Tools That Don't Wear Out: Why nervous system regulation practices remain effective years later
[49:40] Healing the Next Generation: Breaking intergenerational trauma patterns by regulating your own nervous system
Main Takeaways:
Normal Was What Made Them Sick: When doctors said "return to life as normal," both women recognized that normal—daily overwhelm, hypervigilance, pushing through exhaustion—was what had created the conditions for illness in their bodies.
Too Much Too Fast and Too Little for Too Long: Dirci's story shows how these two trauma patterns combined—sudden losses and daily therapy stressors—created chronic nervous system dysregulation that manifested as breast cancer two years later.
The Fear of Cancer Remission In Communities: Recurrence statistics and survival rates often keep women in fear. Yet, living in fear is not freedom. Trauma Healing Accelerated Community offered a place to focus on present moment, tools for inner calm and moving toward joy and aliveness instead.
Awareness Creates Different Parenting: Learning to regulate her own nervous system helped Dirci recognize when her children were in sympathetic or shutdown states, allowing her to parent from understanding rather than trying to change behaviors.
The Body Needs Tending During Treatment: Melanie went through radiation and biopsies with peace by using somatic tools like the heart hold and orienting—creating connection with medical staff instead of being alone in her thoughts.
Healing Tools That Don't Wear Out: Unlike other modalities that lose effectiveness over time, the nervous system regulation tools from the 21 Day Journey remained relevant and powerful for both women years later.
Moving From Hours to Presence: Dirci shifted from feeling like she never had enough hours in the day to actually being present in her life—the essence of the healing journey.
Notable Quotes:
"I knew that the way my life was happening was what put me into cancer. So I needed to find help." - Dirci Souza
"I don't want to have fear, I just want to support my body. I would rather be working towards finding a path to feel joy and feel alive than to take a path that brings along the fear." - Dirci Souza
"Until then, I had no idea. Trauma didn’t cross my mind. Am I traumatized? For me it was just life. What I was going through and I needed to be brave, I was surviving." - Dirci Souza
"I used anxiety to fuel myself. So I would keep doing whatever it is I needed to do. That's the energy I ran on." - Melanie
"I could not have imagined remaining so calm and centered going through cancer treatment. I could put my hand over my heart right there on the radiation table. That was one of my favorite moments through the whole cancer journey." - Melanie
Episode Takeaway:
When the oncologist said "return to life as normal" after cancer treatment, they missed a critical piece: ‘normal’ contributed to creating the conditions for illness. Both Dirci and Melanie's stories reveal how years of nervous system dysregulation—chronic hypervigilance, pushing through exhaustion, using anxiety as fuel—created the biological environment where cancer could develop. Dysregulation multiplied by time creates disease. Their diagnoses arrived after years of too much too fast combined with too little for too long.
The remarkable insight: both women looked better after cancer treatment than before diagnosis. Why? They finally addressed underlying nervous system dysregulation, not just the cancer. Simple tools like the heart hold and Voo breath created immediate regulation—Melanie used the heart hold on the radiation table and experienced peace instead of panic. Most powerfully, healing your nervous system heals the next generation through co-regulation, breaking intergenerational trauma biology that manifests as chronic illness decades later.
Resources/Guides:
The Biology of Trauma book - Available now everywhere books are sold. Get your copy
Foundational Journey - If you are ready to create your inner safety and shift your nervous system, join me and my team for this 6 week journey of practical somatic and mind-body inner child practices. Lay your foundation to do the deeper work safely and is the pre-requisite for becoming a Biology of Trauma® professional.
Related Episodes:
Your host: Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified physician (Preventive/Addiction Medicine) with master's degrees in biochemistry and public health, and author of the national bestselling book "The Biology of Trauma" (foreword by Gabor Maté) that transforms our understanding of how the body experiences and holds trauma. After foster-adopting a child during medical school sparked her journey, she desperately sought for answers that would only continue as she developed chronic health issues. Through her practitioner training, podcast, YouTube channel, and international speaking, she bridges functional medicine, attachment and trauma therapy, facilitating accelerated repair of trauma's impact on the mind, body and biology.
Breast Cancer and Nervous System Dysregulation: Two Women Discover What Their Oncologists Never Mentioned
"I knew that the way my life was happening was what put me into cancer. So I needed to find help." - Dirci Souza
When Dirci's oncologist told her to return to life as normal after breast cancer treatment, something inside her knew this advice missed the mark. Normal had been years of daily overwhelm, chronic exhaustion, and pushing through stress she thought made her strong. Normal was what had made her sick.
Research shows approximately 20 years of nervous system dysregulation precedes autoimmune disease and cancer diagnosis. October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year, I want you to hear two stories that reveal the connection between chronic stress and breast cancer - a connection most oncologists never explain.
How Does Chronic Stress Create Conditions for Breast Cancer?
Chronic nervous system activation suppresses immune surveillance, creates persistent inflammation, and disrupts hormonal balance - creating biological conditions where cancer cells can develop unchecked. This process takes years, not days.
Dirci, a Brazilian dentist and mother of twins, developed stage one breast cancer in 2020. Her diagnosis arrived two years after a perfect storm of stressors that never let her nervous system return to calm.
Her sister died unexpectedly while planning to help with the twins. Daily therapy sessions brought strangers into her home for her children's developmental delays. She felt constantly behind, never having enough hours in the day. She believed pushing through made her brave.
Using the trauma framework I teach in The Biology of Trauma®, Dirci's pattern becomes clear: too much too fast combined with too little for too long.
The sudden shocks - her sister's death, cancer diagnosis during pandemic lockdown - layered onto chronic daily stress. Her nervous system never reached the restorative state where healing happens.
Melanie's story followed a different path to the same destination. Postpartum anxiety she couldn't name. Rage that brought deep shame. Hypervigilance from childhood amplified by new motherhood. Her body communicated distress for years through chronic UTIs, interstitial cystitis, yeast infections, and thrush before the breast cancer diagnosis arrived.
Both women were surviving. Neither recognized chronic nervous system dysregulation.
What Happens to Your Body After Years of Nervous System Dysregulation?
Dysregulation multiplied by time equals disease. Research shows autoimmunity requires approximately 20 years of nervous system dysregulation before symptoms manifest as diagnosable disease. Cancer follows similar biological patterns.
The formula stays predictable: dysregulation × time = diagnosis.
Chronic nervous system activation creates specific biological changes:
Suppresses immune surveillance, allowing abnormal cells to escape detection
Creates persistent inflammation that damages cellular DNA
Disrupts hormonal balance, affecting estrogen metabolism
Impairs mitochondrial function, reducing cellular energy and repair capacity
Triggers stress hormones that promote cell proliferation
Dirci tested negative for BRCA1, BRCA2, and 50 other genetic mutations linked to cancer. Her genes weren't the problem. Her environment was changing how those genes expressed - epigenetics in action.
Your experiences, stress levels, and nervous system state literally affect which genes turn on or off. This explains why trauma-informed care becomes essential for cancer prevention and recovery.
The Reason To Not Go Back to ‘Normal’ After Cancer Treatment
Continuing with the same nervous system patterns that created illness creates conditions for further dis-ease, not healing. Your "normal" before diagnosis likely included anxiety, overhwelm and dysregulation your body couldn't sustain.
After surgery and chemotherapy, Dirci's oncologist delivered standard advice: "You're all set. Go back to your old life, back to everything you used to do."
She sat there, knowing in her body, this guidance was wrong.
Her normal included chronic exhaustion with no energy reserves. Daily stress from therapy sessions she couldn't control. Constant hypervigilance about her children's safety. Shallow breathing, never taking full breaths. Never orienting to her environment or feeling truly present.
For Melanie, normal meant using anxiety as fuel to avoid depression. Rage functioned as a pause button to control her overwhelming environment. Chronic hypervigilance from childhood showed up in every interaction.
These patterns create the same biological conditions that allowed cancer to develop initially. Chapter 18 of my book covers why returning to these patterns blocks healing rather than supporting it.
Fear-Based vs Life-Based Approaches to Cancer Recovery
Cancer survivor communities often focus on fear of recurrence, survival statistics, and vigilance about symptoms - creating the very stress biology that compromises healing. Life-based approaches focus on joy, nervous system regulation, and supporting innate healing capacity.
Both women initially joined cancer survivor communities seeking connection and resources.
Something felt wrong in their bodies when they participated.
Dirci describes feeling it physically: "Listening to their stories, their traumas, their fear - that could trigger many reactions in my body."
Traditional cancer communities focus on recurrence statistics, five-year survival rates, and worst-case scenarios. The conversation stays centered on fear, vigilance about every potential symptom, and what you must do to prevent cancer from returning.
Trauma healing communities focus on finding joy and calm aliveness in your body. Supporting your innate healing capacity. Building nervous system regulation and resilience. Creating safety and presence in daily life. Addressing the underlying biology that contributed to illness.
Dirci made a conscious choice: "I would rather be working towards finding a path to feel joy and feel alive than to take a path that brings along the fear."
Fear itself creates the stress biology that contributed to illness in the first place. This isn't denial - it's recognizing that your nervous system state directly impacts your immune function, inflammation levels, and cellular repair capacity.
Understanding Trauma as Biology, Not Character Flaw
Trauma represents your body's biological response to overwhelming circumstances, not personal weakness or failure. This reframe transforms shame into compassion and confusion into clear action steps.
Dirci discovered an interview where I was defining trauma through a biological lens. Everything clicked.
"Until then, I had no idea. Didn't cross my mind. Trauma. Am I traumatized? For me it was just life. What I was going through and I needed to be brave, I was surviving."
Suddenly her experiences had names. Too much too fast. Too little for too long. Nervous system shutdown. Hypervigilance. These weren't character flaws or personal weakness. They were biology.
This reframe changes everything. When you understand your symptoms as biology responding to overwhelm rather than personal failure, shame transforms into compassion. Confusion converts into clear next steps.
As I explain in Episode 32 of The Biology of Trauma® Podcast, the body communicates stored trauma through physical symptoms years before disease manifests. Learning to recognize these signals creates opportunities for intervention.
What Simple Nervous System Tools Help During Cancer Treatment?
The heart hold, orienting practices, and vagal toning exercises create immediate nervous system regulation without requiring hours of practice or complex protocols. These tools work because they align with your body's innate healing capacity.
Both Dirci and Melanie credit the 21 Day Journey to Calm Aliveness with changing their relationship to their bodies and their healing. The difference came through embodiment, not just information.
Dirci started with Week One exercises - basic nervous system regulation tools like orienting to her environment. After years of lockdown, she needed to reconnect with the world outside her narrow focus.
"I started noticing people's faces. I was so shut down. I would go to places to buy groceries and I would just stare at the shelves."
The Heart Hold: Immediate Co-Regulation
Place your hand over your heart to create immediate nervous system regulation through self-touch. This simple practice signals safety to your nervous system through co-regulation with yourself.
Melanie used this lying on the radiation table before treatment began. The physical touch combined with intentional breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system - the rest and repair state.
Orienting: Coming Back to Present Moment
Look around. Notice trees, sky, other people's faces. Bring yourself back into the present moment instead of staying in future worry or past stress.
This practice reconnects you with your environment and creates felt safety. Your nervous system needs environmental cues of safety to downregulate from chronic activation.
Vagal Tone Stimulation
Both women still use this daily for vagal tone stimulation. Melanie does it with her daughter every night before bed - healing not just herself but breaking the cycle of family intergenerational trauma and nervous system dysregulation.
The vagus nerve directly regulates inflammation throughout your body. Stimulating vagal tone through specific breathing practices reduces systemic inflammation that feeds cancer progression.
These weren't complicated protocols requiring hours of practice. They were simple, accessible tools that worked in real-time moments of stress.
How One Woman Used A Somatic Practice During Radiation Treatment
Nervous system regulation during medical treatment creates capacity to stay present and connected even in genuinely stressful situations, reducing treatment-related trauma and supporting immune function.
Melanie spent a year working through trust issues before agreeing to Western medicine treatment. Her childhood trauma made trusting doctors extremely difficult.
Throughout that process, she used tools from the 21 Day Journey.
"I could not have imagined remaining so calm and centered and grounded. Being able to just anywhere - I'm laying on a radiation table and before they start doing the work, I can put my hand over my heart right there."
At one point she needed a biopsy. Instead of panic, she found herself open, playful, connecting with the doctor and technician.
The doctor later told her: "I saw it was your name on the list and I was so happy it was going to be you."
Melanie reflects: "That was one of my favorite moments through the whole cancer journey. I was so focused on connecting with her and the technician. I could never have done that if I didn't have these tools."
This capacity for presence during treatment reduces trauma accumulation, supports immune function, and creates better treatment outcomes.
Why Did They Look Better After Cancer Treatment Than Before?
Both women addressed underlying nervous system dysregulation that had been depleting their energy, immune function, and cellular repair capacity for years - not just the cancer itself.
Here's something remarkable both women experienced: people commented they looked better after cancer treatment than before diagnosis.
"Wow, you went through cancer treatment just recently, but you look great. You look better than before."
They weren't just treating cancer. They were addressing the underlying nervous system dysregulation that had been depleting them for years.
More energy than before diagnosis. Better sleep quality and restoration. Improved digestion and gut health. Reduced anxiety and hypervigilance. Increased capacity to be present with their children. Genuine joy returning to daily experiences.
Dirci put it simply: "I was really changing the focus and I was being intentional to help me and to learn how to get inside me and find the cure inside me, that healing power inside me."
She wasn't just surviving cancer treatment. She was finally thriving.
This transformation happens because nervous system regulation supports every biological system - immune function, cellular energy production, hormone balance, inflammation regulation, and repair mechanisms.
From Never Enough Hours to Being Present: Measuring Healing
Healing gets measured by presence, not productivity. The capacity to be fully present in your body and your life indicates nervous system regulation more accurately than any checklist.
Before her healing journey, Dirci remembers thinking: "Why did God make only 24 hours for each day? I need more."
Never enough hours. Never enough done. Never good enough. Always opening tasks, never completing them.
Living in chronic nervous system activation makes time collapse. Everything feels urgent. Presence becomes impossible.
After addressing her Biology of Trauma®, something fundamental shifted. Not more hours in the day, but actually being present in the hours she had.
"I started slowing down when I was doing tasks. That helped me even breathe better. My breathing was super shallow and I started noticing people's faces."
The healing journey gets measured by presence, not productivity:
Being present to yourself and your body's signals
Being present to your children without constant anxiety
Being present to joy and pleasure, not just threat
Being present in moments instead of racing toward the future
This capacity for presence - what I call calm aliveness - serves as both the foundation and the destination of healing work. You can learn more about this in the Foundational Journey, which teaches you to create inner safety and shift your nervous system.
Can Healing Your Nervous System Actually Heal Your Children?
Yes, through co-regulation. Children's nervous systems literally regulate from their parents' nervous systems through a biological process of attunement. When you heal your dysregulation patterns, you break intergenerational transmission of trauma biology.
Dirci noticed something unexpected: "When I started looking at myself and taking care of myself, I found that my kids also were improving."
"I was becoming a better model for themselves as well. I could see their struggles better because of the awareness that was created in myself. I could recognize when they were going into sympathetic or shutdown states."
Instead of trying to change her children's behaviors, she learned to recognize their nervous system states and support them accordingly.
Melanie describes this as priceless: "To be able to fix the harms that I did when I didn't know any better - there's just nothing better than that."
Her daughter developed mast cell activation syndrome, food sensitivities, and histamine intolerance - clear signs of nervous system dysregulation passed from mother to child during those early postpartum years.
"I know through this course that this can be healed. These tools are priceless to be able to address what happened when I didn't know any better."
This intergenerational healing represents one of the most powerful aspects of nervous system work. Episode 74 with Dr. Peter Levine explores why stored trauma becomes syndromes that pass through generations.
Why Nervous System Regulation Tools Don't Lose Effectiveness Over Time
These practices work with your nervous system's innate capacity rather than applying external techniques, so they remain effective indefinitely as long as your nervous system exists.
Melanie makes an important observation: "I'm one of those people who will try all of the things, and they tend to wear out, they tend to lose their oomph. But these tools are still relevant today."
These aren't techniques you apply to your nervous system. They're ways of working with your nervous system's innate capacity to regulate and heal.
The heart hold works through immediate shifting of your nervous system. Orienting creates present-moment awareness your nervous system craves. The Voo breath stimulates vagal tone. Tracking your nervous system states throughout the day builds awareness.
These practices align with how your nervous system actually functions. They don't require heavy lifting or complex protocols. They meet you where you are and support your body's own healing intelligence.
Addressing the Biology Behind Nervous System Dysregulation
Nervous system regulation tools work better when you address gut imbalances, brain inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and hormonal dysregulation that create biological blocks to healing.
Both women also addressed biological aspects of their trauma patterns beyond nervous system tools.
Dirci worked with my team on brain inflammation, gut health, and supporting her mitochondrial function. She took all the Biology of Trauma® modules to understand how to support her body at the cellular level.
The nervous system doesn't exist separately from your gut, immune system, hormones, or cellular energy production. They all affect each other in what I call the Biology of Trauma® loop.
When your gut stays imbalanced, it affects your brain neurochemistry. That affects your capacity to regulate your nervous system. That creates more gut problems. The loop continues without intervention.
Key biological interventions include:
Addressing gut imbalances affecting neurotransmitter production (85% of serotonin is made in your gut)
Reducing brain inflammation that keeps you in freeze states
Supporting mitochondrial function for cellular energy
Balancing hormones disrupted by chronic stress
Repairing leaky gut and food sensitivities
This integrated approach addresses all layers of the Biology of Trauma®, not just psychological symptoms.
Start Where You Are: 3-Day Nervous System Tracking
Track your nervous system state every hour for three days to reveal patterns invisible to conscious awareness. This simple practice shows whether you spend most time in calm aliveness, activation, or shutdown.
You don't need cancer or serious illness to benefit from addressing nervous system dysregulation. Start now, wherever you are. You can find my nervous system journal tracker here with the Biology of Trauma book resources.
Notice your "normal." What does your typical day feel like in your body? Chronic tension? Shallow breathing? Racing thoughts? Exhaustion requiring caffeine or sugar? That's information about your nervous system state.
Ask the honest question: "When did I last feel truly at ease in my body?" Not just relaxed on vacation, from emotionally eating or with a glass of wine, but genuinely safe and present in ordinary moments. The answer reveals how long you've been operating in dysregulation.
Track your nervous system for three days. Every hour while awake, notice: Am I in calm aliveness (present, breathing fully, at ease)? Activation (in “go” mode, high energy, hypervigilant)? Or shutdown (numb, disconnected, exhausted)? Don't judge - just notice patterns.
Start with one simple practice. Try the heart hold - pause, experiment with where to place your hands so that your heart feels held. Start with just a short amount of time - we want to pace our connection with our body as it may need time to be ok with feeling safe and held without bringing up fear that it’s not safe to soften.
Get morning sunlight within 30 minutes of waking for 10-15 minutes. This supports your internal rhythms that are essential for nervous system regulation. It provides free red light therapy for your mitochondria and signals safety to your nervous system.
Question the fear-based path. If you're in cancer survivor communities or chronic illness groups that increase your anxiety rather than your capacity, consider whether they're supporting your biology of healing or your Biology of Trauma®.
The Body's Innate Healing Intelligence
Your body already knows how to heal. Remove blocks to innate healing capacity, provide supportive conditions, and build nervous system regulation - then step back and let your body's intelligence do what it does naturally.
Both Dirci and Melanie discovered what I learned deeply during my surgery residency training: the body possesses innate healing intelligence.
I didn't heal surgical incisions. I created conditions where the body could heal itself. Clean skin, dry field, proper closure - then the body did what it knows how to do.
Your healing works the same way. You don't need to force it, fix it, or fight your body:
Remove what blocks your innate healing capacity
Provide conditions that support your body's intelligence
Address the biology creating stuck points
Build capacity through nervous system regulation
Cancer treatment addresses making the cancer cells die. Nervous system regulation addresses the conditions that promoted cancer cells to develop and ensures those conditions don't persist after treatment ends.
Your Next Step: Life, Not Fear
Dirci's words capture the essential choice: "I don't want to have fear, I just want to support my body. I would rather be working towards finding a path to feel joy and feel alive."
The difference between surviving and thriving. Between managing illness and creating health. Between pushing through and being present.
Your nervous system has been trying to protect you. Your symptoms have been trying to communicate. Your body has been keeping score to show you what needs attention.
The question becomes: What is your nervous system state right now, today? And are you creating the conditions for healing or perpetuating the conditions that created illness?
You don't need all the answers. You don't need to do everything perfectly. You just need to start where you are - noticing, supporting, removing blocks, building capacity.
Helpful Research
Stress, Immune Function, and Cancer Progression Lutgendorf, S.K., & Sood, A.K. (2011). "Biobehavioral factors and cancer progression: physiological pathways and mechanisms." Psychosomatic Medicine, 73(9), 724-730.
This research establishes the biological pathways connecting chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation to cancer development and progression. The work demonstrates how chronic activation of stress responses suppresses immune surveillance, increases inflammation, and affects DNA repair mechanisms - validating why addressing nervous system regulation proves essential for both cancer prevention and recovery support. This study provides the scientific foundation for understanding how "dysregulation multiplied by time equals disease."
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cancer Risk Kelly-Irving, M., et al. (2013). "Adverse childhood experiences and premature all-cause mortality." European Journal of Epidemiology, 28(9), 721-734.
Research connecting adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to increased cancer risk later in life demonstrates the long-term biological impact of early trauma on disease development. This validates the "too much too fast and too little for too long" framework and shows why addressing childhood trauma patterns becomes essential even when cancer appears decades later. The study explains how hypervigilance and chronic nervous system activation from early life create conditions for illness years before diagnosis.
Vagal Tone and Inflammatory Regulation Thayer, J.F., & Sternberg, E.M. (2010). "Neural aspects of immunomodulation: focus on the vagus nerve." Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 24(8), 1223-1228.
This research establishes how vagal nerve tone directly regulates inflammatory responses throughout the body, including tumor microenvironments. It explains why practices that stimulate the vagus nerve (like the Voo breath and heart hold) support healing by reducing systemic inflammation that feeds cancer progression. The work provides the biological mechanism for why simple nervous system tools create measurable health impacts during and after cancer treatment, validating the effectiveness of the tools Dirci and Melanie used.
This Episode Is For:
✓ People diagnosed with cancer seeking more than medical treatment
✓ Cancer survivors told to "return to normal"
✓ Anyone recognizing their stress preceded illness
✓ Practitioners supporting clients through cancer
✓ Parents wanting to break intergenerational trauma
✓ People using anxiety as fuel to function
✓ Anyone in cancer support groups living in fear
✓ Those ready to choose joy over fear
What You'll Learn
Listen to Dirci and Melanie's stories of developing breast cancer after years of nervous system dysregulation accumulated over time creating conditions. Learn how sister's death, twins' therapy sessions, and daily overwhelm preceded diagnosis. Why oncologists saying "return to normal" felt wrong since normal created illness. How the two trauma patterns combined over years to manifest as cancer. Why traditional cancer support groups kept them in fear while trauma healing offered joy. How Melanie used the heart hold on the radiation table finding peace. Why both women looked better after cancer treatment than before diagnosis. How healing your nervous system heals the next generation through co-regulation naturally. And why the tools from nervous system regulation work don't wear out.
Normal created illness—healing requires creating new normal, not returning to old.
Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.
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