Jeannie Stumne’s Catatonic to Comeback: Surviving Life's Rock Bottom

A successful career, loving family, and all the right boxes checked—yet behind the scenes, overwhelming anxiety, exhaustion, and a deep disconnect from self. This is the reality many high-achieving women face, including Jeannie Stumne, who spent 25 years building an impressive career in higher education while silently drowning in burnout.

Jeannie's powerful conversation with Jen reveals how a life-threatening nervous system shutdown became her ultimate wake-up call. After reaching a breaking point at 40, repressed childhood trauma surfaced, sending her into full PTSD symptoms while still trying to maintain her demanding director role at a major university. When the pandemic hit, forcing rapid adaptation in her professional life against the backdrop of civil unrest in her Minneapolis neighborhood, Jeannie's body finally said "enough."

What makes this episode particularly valuable is Jeannie's candid sharing of her healing journey—not just what worked, but what didn't. She explains how the perfectionist achievement mindset that contributed to her burnout actually hindered her recovery when she approached healing with the same "push through" mentality. Instead, she discovered the critical importance of nervous system regulation, somatic (body-based) healing, and finding the right community for co-regulation.

The conversation offers practical wisdom for anyone feeling depleted despite "having it all" on paper. Jeannie emphasizes starting with nervous system healing before diving into trauma work, embracing self-compassion as a foundation, and accepting that healing isn't linear but cyclical. Perhaps most powerful is her reminder that healing isn't about returning to baseline—it's about becoming more of your authentic self than you've ever been before.

Whether you're currently in burnout, supporting someone who is, or simply feeling the warning signs, this episode provides both hope and practical guidance from someone who's been through the darkest places and emerged with purpose and wisdom. Connect with Jeannie at shinebrighterlc.com or on Instagram @jeanniecoaching to learn more about her one-on-one coaching and upcoming group programs.

To contact or learn more about Jeannie

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571229877346

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniestumne/

https://www.instagram.com/healwithjeannie/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Jeannie's Journey
• 5:47 The Awakening at Forty
• 10:37 Healing Journey and Major Life Changes
• 16:30 Complete Nervous System Shutdown
• 22:31 Starting with Nervous System Healing
• 28:03 Finding Inspiration and Self-Nurture
• 33:09 Working with Burnout and Final Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:09

Welcome back to Empowered Ease. I'm Jen Ollinger. Twice a month I bring you courageous women who are rewriting the rules, choosing slowing down, self-love, and inner wisdom over the pressure to hustle and prove our worth. Today's guest embodies that revolution. Jeannie Stumney spent more than 25 years leading and pouring herself into her work and family. And behind the success, she was drowning in overwhelm, exhaustion, and anxiety. A life-threatening shutdown forced her to rebuild from rock bottom. Through somatic healing and nervous system regulation, Jeannie recovered and reconnected with her true self. Now, a trauma-informed and somatic practitioner, practitioner, excuse me, she helps parents and leaders who have it all on paper but feel depleted inside. End burnout and reclaim energy, joy, and the purpose through her somatic spark method and programs reignite and welcome, Jeannie to Empowered Ease. I'm so happy you're here. How are you?

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Oh thank you so much. I'm super happy and excited to be here with you today, Jen.

SPEAKER_00: 2:22

Yes, I'm so excited too. I'm um I love that you're, I think you're you're here to talk about burnout, which is very popular. I think all those, I've had a couple people specializing in burnout on the show, and those episodes have done really well. But what I love about you that's different is I think you're the first person that's not a nurse here to talk about burnout.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

So some definitely, definitely not a nurse.

SPEAKER_00: 2:42

But you have a great perspective and you have a history in academia, and I just want to I would love to hear your take on it and how you help people and how you got into this work and your your story of burnout.

SPEAKER_01: 2:55

So yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I started, I'm one of those people who for a long time on paper, I looked very successful. I had a 25-year career in higher ed. And so, especially in my 30s, I was kind of living that life, that autopilot life where I was married, I had a child. At the time, I was working full-time, I moved up to a director role at the University of Minnesota, which is a very large institution. And I was successful in my career, and I kind of had it all, but that's what it looks like. I was winning awards, I was doing all the things. But honestly, like most of the time with burnout, I was anxious, I was overwhelmed, I was depressed, and I was doing a lot of self, I would say, improvement work and trying to figure out all those things. And really, I just struggled with not understanding what was going on with me. So why was I so overwhelmed? I even at one point got misdiagnosed in my 30s with ADHD, adult ADHD, because of the racing thoughts, the inability to focus, all those symptoms were very similar to ADHD. So for a little while I thought I had that. And I was getting to the point where I was trying everything and I just couldn't figure out like my life is like exactly what I wanted it to be in some ways. You know, you kind of are like, this is what I went, I was a first generation college student. So I grew up working class and was a first generation college student, went to college, got my degree, got my master's degree, got my first job at the University of Minnesota, did all of that, got married, had the child, and I just couldn't figure out like why am I not as happy as it looks like I should be. Yeah, I made it. This is what I wanted. This is what I wanted. I have the education. I like, I, you know, went through barriers. I'm, you know, middle class now, not what I grew up. And so I just was getting really frustrated because my mental health was just, you know, it wasn't great and I couldn't figure it out. So eventually it was when I was 40, which I realize now from talking with a lot of people around me. 40 tends to be an age when sometimes people have like those awakening moments. And I was just frustrated because I didn't know what else to do. So I literally at one point when I was in one of my really dark places, I just threw my hands up in the air and I yelled out to the universe, what the fuck is wrong with me? Because I couldn't figure it out. And that was a very defining moment that started the beginning of my healing journey. Because very shortly after that, and it's amazing how when you ask, stuff starts to happen.

SPEAKER_00: 5:34

You are not the first guest that has said that once they localized it and like allowed themselves to just say it, like ask for it, that that's when the change started to happen. I don't know if it's what it is, if it's like a break, you break in yourself. You just let yourself feel it, or or if it's something bigger, but you're not the first person I've heard say that. So I love that. Like you have to just have the courage to ask for it and then things start lining up. Sorry to distract you. I just was like, wow, somebody just else just said this.

SPEAKER_01: 6:00

Yeah, because it's so and no, that helps me too, and know because I remember when I was doing it, I felt like, what am I doing? But it was like my my true self listened and it started to come online almost. And it was really difficult though, because what happened is my the trauma that I experienced in childhood that I had repressed, been repressing all through my 20s and my 30s to survive, all started coming back. And so I went into pretty much the full-blown PTSD symptoms. And so I was having flashbacks and like I was like, what is going on with me? And so that it was really like an awakening. It was more than, I mean, I would call it on some levels, definitely a spiritual awakening of just like all of my past trauma that I was so tightly pulling down and holding down to keep that life that I had created. It was just time for it to be revealed and for me to start the healing journey. So that's what yeah, I did. I started going to therapy and I started off really doing a lot of the more traditional things that that were that I guess when I also was a psychology major. So I kind of started there with talk therapy. Oh my gosh, I love that. Some of the more traditional things, which did help because it gave me an understanding of what was happening because it was really scary to have all these memories of trauma and stuff that I had repressed so deeply that didn't feel. I was just like, how could that be me? But I knew it was me, but it still just felt so scary. Um, and at the time too, I was still working full-time parenting. Um, I was still married at that time. So that's where I started, was kind of the traditional route of talk therapy, just an EMDR and things like that. And it helped and it got me a little bit more stabilized. But then, as I'm sure other people on their journeys, it was realizing that there were aspects of me, especially like spiritual and understanding who I really was at a core level that I had never addressed. I had so many masks on, so many filters on, that it was like that all those things started coming off. And the traditional methods, I was just like, these aren't, there's more, and I need more help. And so for 10 years, I was on a healing journey of um doing energy healing, doing I think I did almost every healing modality that there was. I just did so many different ones, which I will I'll talk a little about that more. But and all of them helped me in different ways. And I don't regret that I did that. But at the time, you know, when I was 40, that was 10 years ago, over 10 years ago, trauma wasn't talked about in the same way it is now. And so now there's so many more roadmaps. I really did not have a roadmap. I was just like, you know, I'll I'll try this modality, I'll try this. Oh, this YouTube video says, here's five things to do to end your trauma, or things like that. And I felt like I just got so I was working really, really hard at healing. But during that time, I also ended up getting divorced. So part of that healing journey too was I started realizing that I never actually made choices about what I wanted in my life. And I wasn't connected to who I really was because I had so many masks, I was playing so many roles, I was playing out the patterns that I that came from childhood, that came from experiencing abuse and trauma and realizing like, what's underneath all those? And just the way that a lot of times relationships go, the relationship, I was just like, it wasn't fair to him because I was so deep in this healing. And I also knew on the other side of the healing that we probably wouldn't be at the same place. And so, on top of all that, I ended up getting divorced when I was 40, I think 42, also. And so I kept going through then in my mid-40s, working on healing, working full-time, having my daughter, having my daughter part of the time, and then COVID hit. And so I was a director of an office, and it was with most people. We were at the University of Minnesota one day, all of our services were on campus in person. Next day, I have to have a whole office be moved to online services for college students. So amazingly, we did that and it all worked out, but it obviously is with a lot of people, that stress of living through COVID just added a whole nother layer. Additionally, I also lived in South Minneapolis at the time. So I was living in an area that was experiencing civil unrest at the time, too, during COVID. I was living really close to where the murder of George Floyd happened. So also my physical environment and everything going on in our community was also another layer adding up. And so I was I was holding on, using all the coping mechanisms, healing as much as I could. But then in 2021, when we were called, when I knew we'd have to go back to campus, so part of it was I was working remotely and I had enough flexibility that I was somehow like able to like keep keep going. But in 2021, when we were told to go back to campus, I just knew that there was no way with my mental health and physical health that I would be able to keep going and that I was already. At the time, I wouldn't have used the word burnout because I didn't understand enough about burnout. But in retrospect, I now realize that I had been in the stages of burnout for a long time. And I was to the point where if I would have gone back, I know I would have at that point really experienced burnout. So I made the really, really hard decision to leave my 25-year career and higher ed. And I moved from South Minneapolis to Lakeville, Minnesota. So I went from living in the city to a suburb here in Minnesota, which was a big change. My dad had changed schools and we had a lot of changes. And my idea was that well, I'll take some time, um, focus on myself and heal, and then start my own business and kind of reinvent myself. What happened though, that I didn't realize is that burnout can also happen. Like you can leave your job, and doesn't mean burnout just goes away. For me, what I ended up experiencing is I my healing journey started moving so fast that I was almost doing too much healing work, and it eventually caused me, caused my nervous system and my body to completely shut down. So when I look at the next big moment, I actually spent almost a year in pretty much isolation dealing with the healing of trauma, and my nervous system got so overwhelmed that I went into a canatonic state. And no one, it was really hard to get help because I had to go to the emergency room three times because the idea of physical pain and mental and emotional pain coinciding was just really hard. And so I it was hard to get help because people would say, Well, you're depressed. And I'm like, Well, I can't, I've been depressed before, this is different, but I just couldn't, and I was in physical pain. My whole body was just in pain because I had so much trauma that was leaving my body. So after three emergency room visits and basically getting to the point where I wasn't eating, I couldn't take care of myself. I had friends who, thank goodness, intervened. I reached out for help finally and said, I need help, which is a really hard thing to do when you're in that place. But I needed help, I needed community. And so they ended up helping me go to the emergency room the third time when I didn't want to go because I felt like I couldn't be helped, but they wouldn't give up on me. And they said, there has to be a way, we have to figure out what's going on. And so that last visit, they put me into an empath unit. And finally, after being there two days, the nurses, amazing, I will say, in my time. That's one thing I don't complain about is the nurses. And complain about some of the other aspects of the care. But the nurses were amazing. So between the nurses and one of the psychiatrists, they finally figured out that I was in a canatonic state and that that's why I couldn't function. My burnout was so far gone that it was past even burnout to canatonic. And so the only way to get me out of it was to do the Ada van challenge. And they did that, and I finally came back, basically came back online, is how I would experience it because it was like my true self and who I really am was just gone. I was barely functioning. And when they they did the what I guess they normally do for to see if you're in a canatonic state, it worked. And within about 15 minutes of taking the meds, I all of a sudden like felt like I woke up again. And now in retrospect, I realized it was probably my nervous system, it was just so like overloaded and stuff, and the meds just helped me calm down. So once I figured out what was going on, and I got meds, and then I went and did more trauma work, did some outpatient, did a lot of trauma work. And that was really when I started realizing okay, now I know what I want my business to be focused on. Like a burnout because there's so many different ways to experience burnout. And what I came to realize is that so many of us are in this constant state of burnout and we don't even know it. And it goes on for years because our nervous systems are stuck in a place that we're never we're never meant to live in. And so, yeah, so that's kind of a long story, but I love it.

SPEAKER_00: 15:45

I I relate with so much of it, my own burnout journey. I mean, not sp specifically, but I just I relate so to so many aspects of it. I think it's so powerful. I got I was like moved at points of it, but like yeah, I mean, seriously, like I think for me it was like listening to your story is like I what I remember about it that was was that like it you can't communicate. I I did I wasn't catatonic. I couldn't go to work for like three months, and when I did try to even think about it, it would there was like this physical sensation of a ball that felt like it was coming up my throat, and like I would die. I knew I would die if I, you know, like I was gonna choke on it, and it was just like people looked at me like I was crazy, but I'm like, this is real, this is real, like you know, so just that like trying to communicate it and people not getting it, it's so hard. It's such a hard place, it's such a scary place to be. And I just empathize with that part of your struggle so hard. You're welcome. It's it's hard, it's so it's real and it's very, very scary. You know, you talk about it now because you're out of it, but it's intense and the things that we go through. It's it's just like for people who are in it, it's you're not alone, even though you feel like you are. That's what made me feel I'm like, oh, I just felt all the feels for you. But the parts of your story I really, really relate with. I love that you are a psychology major. And I wonder personally, discovering my own childhood trauma that bubbled up in my I'm 42 and very similar stuff. I got really like had to take a lot of time to myself. I call it like the dark night of the soul. I was doing so much like meditating and energy work and sound therapy, and all these things were breaking loose. I was having flashbacks and understanding why I have these self-worth issues, and it was just so overwhelming that that shut me down for a little bit too, because it was like too much, too much too fast and therapy for me. I tried EMDR, and there's just too much nursing trauma that I have incurred over over a decade of being a critical care nurse, that I couldn't even really access any of those memories to work through them. I it was so difficult. And talk therapy helped a bit, but you know, it was really going through a program, journaling, looking at myself, asking myself, and then giving myself the time to sit with it and rest. I think I slept for three months, like just saw this intensity. So your story, I just related with it so much. And I also have always like, I'm a neurocritical ICA. I worked in mental health, and I wonder if part of that is just like an effort to understand our world and our trauma.

SPEAKER_01: 18:34

Yes, yeah, yeah. And I really question my career mode of that sometimes after some of it started coming up. I was like, my master's degree is in counseling, yeah, my undergrads in psychology. And I, you know, and I worked with students, even though I worked in advising and career counseling, I worked with students who experienced trauma because it was getting in the way of their academics. And yeah, sometimes in retrospect, I'm like, hmm, I think I was preparing myself to eventually confront my own trauma.

SPEAKER_00: 19:03

Yeah, or giving people. Sometimes I think about like you're giving people what you wish someone would have given you until you're ready to give it to yourself, right? Until you're ready to be like, okay, I'm the one that needs this. I need to give this to myself. It's just beautiful, beautiful. Yeah. So I don't know about for you. For me, I found like burnout was cyclical. Like I would feel like I got better, and then the next time it would be so much worse. And then I would feel like I don't know what I would do. Maybe I'd like to do more yoga or run or relax a little bit. And then the next time it would come around, it would be so worse until it got completely overwhelming. So anyway, that was like these are all the parts I related with. So for people listening, and I think you know, this is so relevant. The reason this is um, these are my most popular episodes is because I feel like so many people are struggling with this. So many women, COVID was such a huge stressor for so many people. The state of the world right now is stressful for many of us, especially if you're a woman. And so it's just bringing a lot of this up. Middle age, when our priorities shift, you know, all of this really powerful things happening that you've touched on there. So for people listening that are like, me, me, this is so me. What advice would you give them or where would you start? How do you help them? Like all of that, share with us.

SPEAKER_01: 20:24

Yeah, well, where I would start that I had no understanding of and have now learned is I would start with nervous system. And really before getting into like for me, I feel like I just once I found out I had trauma, I was like, dive into the trauma, you know. And I never took time to learn how to regulate my nervous system, learn how to get into really safe spaces. I would ground myself, but it was kind of more of a like throw a heavy blanket on me. And I just I didn't learn some of that before I started diving into the heavy work of trauma. And I think that's part of what caused a lot of my burnout is I was doing healing too much too fast. Yeah. Honestly, that pattern that I had of pushing and achieving, I brought that to my healing work. So, what I would say to other people is healing is much different. Slow and steady is going to be the way to go because as soon as you speed up too much, your body is going to say, This is too fast, this is too much, we can't do it, and it's gonna pull you back. And so I would start with nervous system healing and getting co-regulation. And this is something I didn't know from someone who's been through it. Because that experience, I mean, even talking to you, Jen, it's so nice because I can feel, I can feel like what you've been through. I think I didn't know the importance of how our nervous systems communicate with each other and how we co-regulate and how being with someone who has gone through the journey, not just not the exact same journey, but has gone through something similar, can really help you not just feel alone, but it's actually physiology too, of being together. So that's the first part I would say is take it slow, find support, but also, you know, find the community that's right for you. Because I know for me, like a whole eventually, especially when I did outpatient, I was in a group that was focusing on trauma, and that was so great. Like I needed it. But there was an earlier time where more one-on-one was better for me. And then eventually I got to the point where like a group format. So go start wherever you're at, but taking it slow and steady is what I would recommend, and really learning how to ground yourself, anchor yourself, and know that you have the ability to always come back and feel safe and learn how to be in your body. I'm gonna touch my body when I do that because I think that was something for me that it took me a long time, especially because I had so much disassociation that being in the body, I was trying to do too much healing work without incorporating my body. So the idea of somatic or body first healing, I would really recommend and focusing on that. And not that we don't talk about things or, you know, not that talk therapy is isn't anything, but I actually don't know that it's the place to start. I think sometimes the place to start is really getting in touch with your body. And then also I would say realizing that it is possible. I mean, I think I was so hopeless sometimes because I I just didn't believe it was possible to heal. But that it is, like you said, it's a cycle. It's almost like you heal, you level up, and then you kind of go back down and then you heal and level up. And so knowing that ahead of time, that it is a journey. I remember when I first went to therapy, I basically asked my therapist, can I have a strategic plan for healing? Because I was taking this mindset that I had from my job and from work and being a leader and applying it to healing. And the healing is just so different. It's slow. And it's getting to know yourself on this really deep level at the end of the day. And then I think the ultimate part that I would want people to know is that at the end of it, you won't just get back to a baseline. You will become more of who you really are. And so sometimes I think when we talk about healing, it's the idea of like, well, I'm just trying to get out of this dark place to get to be okay. But really, it can take you to a whole nother place that you've never been. I never really knew my true self until I went through the dark night, had the awakening, and was like, oh, wait, there's a whole part of me I didn't even know was inside of me. So that's a couple of things that I would say is just start with your nervous system, stay in touch with your body, go slow, find co-regulation that works for you. And self-compassion is the other foundation of it all. And that's a journey. Unfortunately, yeah, it's a learned journey. So again, go slow. But I think some of these things, what I realized is once you learn or love yourself, like some of these other all these techniques and strategies and self-care become easy because you just do them naturally. But when you're at a place where you're not loving yourself, you don't feel like you're enough, you don't feel like you're worthy, then all of these habits that support our health are so difficult to do.

SPEAKER_00: 25:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's very true. I kind of use that sometimes as like there's certain habits I drop first when I'm struggling. And because sometimes, you know, you find yourself you're already in the rut and you're like, oh my God, how did I get here and not know it? I'm I fell again. And so sometimes I'll use those like what what self-care habits I'm dropping off. Like, if I don't want to brush my teeth at night, I know there's something building up. If I'm not taking the time to take care of myself and I'm feeling lazy, like usually there's something, sometimes I'm just tired, but sometimes you know, it's like, what am I avoiding here? You know. So I like using that as a as a guide. But oh my gosh, I love this, I love this advice because I think feel like even like people hear it, but the perfectionism in a lot of us, it's the most difficult thing to do. Oh, and we also think of healing like it's a destination, and I think the more I heal, which is has it's sometimes harder. You know, it's like you have you suffer a little bit as you if you choose to heal. But that you know, it's that the things never really go away, except for that we revisit them in a different way, we see them in a new light, we learn to work with them. It's like I'm I'm never not gonna have the issues I have, but I'm we have different awareness of them. I see them differently. I have tools when they come back up each time. And I feel like that's really the journey. It's not a place that we achieve, but an understanding of ourselves that as we cycle through these things about us, that we get better at it or we learn new information that helps us deal, you know. At least that's my been my experience so far.

SPEAKER_01: 27:14

So yeah, no, I totally agree. And that's been my experience. And I will say the further I go along, like I have had to come to acceptance that like, yes, right now I'm probably in the best health that I've been in in my whole life, but there's still more to go. Like I still have more to go. But every once in a while there'll something will happen where I will remember I used to get really triggered by this. And all of a sudden, maybe I'll have some little feeling, but it'll be like the 90 second, like I'm angry for what is it, 90 seconds to go through emotion. I'll be angry for like 90 seconds, but I don't get triggered back into the past. And so, yeah, so just knowing that that is possible, that yeah, the stuff, it never can go completely away because it's it happened, but how you relate to it, how you move through it, and that those big triggers can, you know, that charge, I guess, that charge that you know comes with them can start to go away.

SPEAKER_00: 28:08

Well, yeah, it's like you build a relationship with it. You build it, and you know, instead of reacting to it, which is what I spent many, many years being just like reactive and avoidant, I think, until burnout made me be like, no, no, no, you have to look at this.

SPEAKER_01: 28:24

Thank you so much. Yeah, burnout is the ultimate messenger to tell you, like, I think feel like it tells you you're worth more than you believe you are. It just doesn't seem that way when you're in the middle of it. It's horrible.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

Yeah, yes. So when uh when you're looking for inspiration in your life, who are what are your what are the things that inspire you or people or whatever? What is what what are the inspirations that keep you going?

SPEAKER_01: 28:47

Well, for sure, it's my daughter. She's 17, she'll be 18 in a couple weeks. So I'm right in that, yeah, that another new place for me in my life. So that's definitely my daughter has been there. I think when I had my daughter, that was the first time I really experienced unconditional love from someone. And so, or in a way that I truly was able to receive it. And so she was also part of my kind of, I had a little bit of awakening when I had her too, of that first feeling of like, I just remember my heart just kind of cracked open when I held her the first time. Like, whoa, this is love that I've never experienced before. So she is definitely my main inspiration. But I also, as a lot of people, nature for sure, like I just like the last couple of weeks, I wasn't in nature as much. And me and my daughter just went hiking on Sunday because I was like, I could feel it. Like I could tell my true self, my inner being was like, you need to be outside. You haven't been connecting enough. And so nature for sure has been such a healing force for me. And I found that the more I healed, the more I wanted to be in nature. It's like it's almost natural to connect. And then I would say the last thing that inspires me that I really love is I do dance fitness. So I love dancing. And I was not a dancer when I was a child. I started dancing in my 30s and started doing group fitness, and that's also such an inspiration because you have to be present. There's music, there's a community, there's co-regulation and moving your body and being able to have feelings. Like it's a great place to get feelings out and process stuff in a way that doesn't feel horrible. It can feel okay. So, yeah, that's my other inspiration is is dancing and music and movement.

SPEAKER_00: 30:35

Oh, I love that. Okay, so I was gonna I ask all my guests this, but I think you kind of answered it. So I'll I'll ask you it now. I ask everyone what like their go-to self-nurture practice is when things get tough. So would you say it's your dancing or is there another procedure or yeah, I would say dancing in nature.

SPEAKER_01: 30:51

It kind of depends on where I'm at, what mood. If I want, if I'm more of like I need to be by myself, I'll probably tend to go more towards nature. And then if I feel like I need people, I need to be in a community, I'll go to dance. I'll also say I right now I have a cat, I used to have a Dog. So I usually always have a pet that's my go-to, also, because yeah, again, they're just that unconditional love. So yeah, I don't know if you can see mine. She's sleeping behind me. So yeah. Having a pet or having, yeah. And it's like I used to be a dog person, and then when I lost my dog, I wasn't ready for another dog, but I was like, maybe a cat. And that's been a nice, but I I do need to have that other being in the house, that other to connect with too. So that's my other go-to is if I'm feeling down, it's just like talk to the cat and baby voice, and that always makes me feel better. Hey, little kitty. Like that's just amazing how much that can help me shift out of wherever I am.

SPEAKER_00: 31:50

I love that. So if people are listening to this and they're they're like, oh my God, this is what I need in my life. How how do you work with people? How can people connect with you? What are the ways that you help actually help people with this?

SPEAKER_01: 32:02

Yeah. So what I've been doing is right now I've been doing mostly one-on-one working with clients. I do coaching and somatic. I'm a practice, somatic practitioner and burnout and leadership coach. So I do one-on-one programs that right now are three months. And then in January, I'm going to be doing my first group program. So I'm going to keep it a smaller group so that the community, especially with burnout, sometimes having a big group is too much. So I'm going to keep it a smaller community. But I have taught a lot in the past. I taught a course on burnout this last summer through the University of Minnesota. And I really love that group experience and love creating community. So I'm going to do that again with my work now on burnout in January. So yeah, if people, I do free connection calls. So if people want to connect with me just to see, get to know me better, see what if anything would be a good fit for them, that's definitely a great place to start or follow me on social media and get to know me a little bit better. I know that's an important piece of it. And so I'm I'm active on social media too.

SPEAKER_00: 33:08

I love that. That's perfect. So what is the website or social media that people could go to? Because some people don't. I will put all of it in the show notes, but some people are listening. So where can they go to find you?

SPEAKER_01: 33:22

So my business name is Shine Brighter. And so the website is shinebrighterlc.com. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 33:31

And what's your Insta or your social handle?

SPEAKER_01: 33:35

And so my Instagram is at geniecoaching. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 33:41

I love that. Is there anything that you would like to leave my guests with before we go?

SPEAKER_01: 33:49

Yeah, I just number one, I want to say thank you for um having me and for giving me the chance to connect with everybody and letting me tell my story. I mean, I think that's that's part of it. And I want to offer hope to people that there is hope, even though it's not necessarily a linear journey or it's not necessarily gonna happen in a week or a month, but there is hope. And that's one of the things that I want to offer. And I want to offer, yeah, you know, myself too. I love connecting with people and emailing me or scheduling a connection call because I think it's important to meet people who have been through it and have come out to the other side and also know they're still healing. Like there's that realization that like we're never done. And sometimes I I know it was hard for me when I was in my journey because I would see people who they're just like, I went through all this and I'm done and I'm great and everything's fine. And it's like, is it? And it's like, well, yeah, it is, but there's you're still always healing. So I want to offer that too that I am in a great place. I am so much better than I've ever been, but I am still on the journey with everybody too. So that's an offering, too. I'd like to give to everyone. We're we're in it together. You're not alone, even when it feels that way. And also I know how hard it is to make the first reach out. And reaching out to a friend when I was in the darkest place was so hard, but it saved my life. And so sometimes that first, if you can get that first little reach out to somebody, it's so important and you're worth it.

SPEAKER_00: 35:19

Powerful, powerful advice. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. It was honestly healing for me to hear your story. It's really powerful when people share such vulnerable things. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01: 35:33

Thank you so much. It was great. Thank you.