Healing Episodes

Ranae Van Roekel kept a childhood secret for decades until it led her into fraud, prison, and finally, the healing she never expected.

Drew Norton found his infant son not breathing and his marriage on the line. A story about drifting, fear, faith, and showing up.

Actor Carly Otte opens up about facing cancer twice, losing her sense of self at thirty, and finding a gentler definition of success.

Joy Kong left China at 20, survived a visa rejection and an isolating marriage, and built a life in medicine and stem cell research. A story about freedom, identity, and starting over.

Colette Jane Fehr spent years in a marriage that looked perfect from the outside. In this episode, she shares the moment she realized emotional connection had been missing all along, and what it took to finally find her voice.

Host Matt Gilhooly introduces the show and why he created it.

Kathleen McKune spent decades as a high-achieving entrepreneur before a single data point revealed her childhood was far from normal. Her story of trauma, resilience, and healing.

Matin Miryeganeh lost her mother at 13, her family's support, and the permission to grieve. This episode is about what happens when you survive alone and slowly find your way back to yourself.

Nick Gomez spent years repeating the same patterns in relationships until one honest conversation, the kind that cost him everything, finally started to change him.

When Rebe Huntman finally stopped moving forward and took a pilgrimage to Cuba, she discovered that her mother had been waiting there all along.

Shruti shares her journey living with multiple sclerosis, from early symptoms and a wheelchair to writing her memoir and choosing resilience every day.

Stephen Panus lost his 16-year-old son Jake in a sudden accident. This conversation explores grief, forgiveness, guilt, and what it means to keep walking when part of you didn’t survive.

Evan Boyer learned that the life he was supposed to be building couldn't hold him until a Christmas morning NICU stay and a career gut-check arrived at the same time and showed him what it actually meant to let go.

A Navy SEAL veteran shares how a nine-year addiction brought him to his knees, and how rock bottom became the foundation of his life's real mission.

A stroke took Deb Meyerson's voice, her mobility, and eventually her Stanford career, and this is the story of how she and her husband Steve found a way to build something meaningful from what remained.

Wendy B. Correa discovered at 62 that her father wasn't her biological dad. Her story of childhood loss, family secrets, and healing is for anyone carrying something they were never allowed to say out loud.

Eugene Z. Bertrand survived domestic violence and a near-death experience. On The Life Shift Podcast, he shares how radical acceptance and vulnerability helped him reclaim his power.

After losing her son at 23, adventurer and author Dianette Wells had to find her way back to a world that had lost its sparkle, and she did it one step, one trail, and one yes at a time.

A quiet conversation about learning to stay open and find meaning when life moves you through loss and change.

This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that stay with me after the conversations on The Life Shift. Today I am talking about the quiet ways people rebuild after loss. Not the dramatic versions we often hear about, but the slow work that happens in ordinary moments. The rebuilding that takes shape in private. The kind no one sees. In this reflection, I talk about how grief reshapes us, how healing does not mean going back to who we were, and how rebuildin...

After surviving childhood sexual abuse, Suzanne Roberts spent her life learning that the holiness she once felt in dissociation was actually the soul within her, and that healing meant remembering she was never truly broken.

After surviving childhood trauma, Erin Snow found her strength in listening, turning years of silence into a life built on empathy, healing, and truth.

This episode is part of The Things We Carry, a solo series shaped by the themes that keep showing up in the conversations on The Life Shift. Today I am talking about the belief that you have to be fully healed before you can change your life. I do not think that is true. Healing is not a finish line. It is not a requirement you have to meet before you are allowed to grow or move forward. In this reflection, I talk about why healing and change often happen together, and why waiting to feel whole...

After surviving a catastrophic car accident and 45 surgeries, author and speaker John Ulsh shares how he transformed unimaginable pain into purpose and discovered the true meaning of resilience.