Ep. 59 Embodiment, Hormone Health, and Presence with Jess Rothley of Wholly Healed
Happy #SeekTheJoy Tuesday!
On the podcast this week is Jess Rothley of Wholly Healed. Jess is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach who specializes in Functional Endocrinology (aka Hormones!). Jess works with clients to heal their relationship with their bodies through scientifically backed nourishment, psychological work, and emotional healing.
On this week’s episode we chat all about Jess’s healing journey, her definition of health, the importance of taking an integrative approach, and how Jess became the practitioner she always needed. Jess drops some serious truth bombs about our hormones and their connection to stress and mood, and how we can begin to support our overall hormone health. We also chat about embodiment, becoming more connected and in tune with our bodies, and why a processing practice is a key to healing. Plus, Jess shares with us her pursuit of presence and its connection to purpose, we chat all things #WHtabootuesday, #MyPlateMyBusiness, and so much more!
We really cover so much in this week’s new episode and I loved connecting with Jess. She is so knowledgeable, kind, the real deal and truly passionate about helping women heal their hormones, break free of restrictive dieting, and feel at home in their bodies. I can’t wait for you guys to hear this one! Make sure to join the conversation on Instagram Facebook and Twitter!
“I did a melting pot of education to pull from different fields like psychology and biology so that I could become the professional that I needed. I wanted to serve and become that for other women. If I needed it, there must have been hundreds of other women that needed it too.”
Jess is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach specializing in Functional Endocrinology. She helps women come back home in their bodies. The truth is, we all deserve whole care - and Jess fuses psychology and biology to help women heal their relationships with their food, body image, and feel good in the body that they’re in.
Jess’s story started with distorted body image and an all-consuming concern for her appearance, weight loss, and finding the “perfect” diet to fix all her problems. Fast forward to college where she was severely underweight, running marathons, and eating vegan because she thought that was what she was supposed to be doing. A few years later she was diagnosed hypothyroid. She hadn’t had a menstrual cycle in years, her digestion felt like a losing battle, and her adrenals were in the toilet. Years of over-exercising, undereating (even on nutritious whole foods), and having a debilitating body image eventually caught up with her. Jess was wholly exhausted, ironically, doing what ALL the magazines and health gurus told her she should do.
When she looked around seeking help, she was only met with doctors and psychiatrists who wanted to prescribe her meds designed for a specific piece of the whole puzzle. (Doesn’t this sound familiar!?) Doctors thought she needed birth control to fix her hormones, and psychiatrists were less concerned about her battle with body image then they were with mental health diagnoses. No one was looking at her WHOLE picture. (Been there!) The truth is her self-esteem was intertwined with her body image, her relationship with food, and her physical ailments. It was all connected, and she needed the same kind of connected help.
Jess set out to become the kind of professional she so desperately needed in her own healing journey. Someone who looks at the whole person, helping women recover from chronic dieting and years of restriction, both physically but also mentally and emotionally. Drawing lines and connecting the dots where people usually don’t. Helping women seek true health, something that has nothing to do with a dress size and everything to do with body kindness and intuitive living.
Enter Wholly Healed.
The Wholly Healed Mission is 3 fold:
(1) Never cease to embody and proclaim the truth that all women are loved, valued, seen, and enough EXACTLY as they are.
(2) To be a truth seeker and lie slayer, to bring light into the realms of female culture where darkness and lies permeate (aka the realest of the Real Talk covering everything from women’s health to women’s worth) and
(3) To create high quality content that enables women to live in such truths (blog posts, newsletters, guides, instagram posts, #WHtabootuesdays, and #hormonehacks)
Jess is truly the practitioner we ALL need. Her melting pot of education and certification allows her to look at women’s biology and psychology and guide them into WHOLE healing.
“Health is presented as something we’re always looking externally for, when in reality health comes from tuning into your body and asking your body what it needs.”
I truly love the conversation Jess and I had for this week’s episode. Health is truly all about looking internally even though we live in a world that tells us it’s all about looking externally. I loved her reflections on this, and why it’s so important to listen to that internal voice and the signs and symptoms your body is showing you. It’s within those moments that our bodies are crying out for help, and it’s up to us to pay attention, listen, and take action.
So many of us spend our lives disconnected and not in tune with the messages our bodies are sending us. I can definitely speak from experience with this one. When we aren’t in our bodies, when we aren’t connected, we can’t connect with what’s really going on. For Jess, her embodiment is about listening to and processing her emotions. The truth is our emotions are biological happenings in the body, and we store emotions in our body. One of the best things Jess did to start to embody more, was to begin to sit in her body and feel emotions. You’ll hear it in this week’s episode - emotions demand to be felt, and if they’re not felt in the moment they’ll either be misdirected or they’ll be patient and wait. Either way, they need to be released from the body. Another aspect of embodiment is learning how to physically be in your body, and the ability to bring yourself back into your body is such a grounding exercise. I loved hearing Jess’s reflections on embodiment, and how she began to really tune in.
“Hormonally speaking stress is the enemy of female hormone health. Biologically your body is primed to be in a fight or flight state way more than someone that is at peace with themselves. So not only is it mentally exhausting to hate yourself, but it is biologically stressful on every system in your body - especially your fertility system as a woman.”
The impact of our inner dialogue on our overall health is incredible. It was so interesting to learn about the connection between our hormones and stress, and its impact on our overall well-being. The way we view ourselves physically impacts our health, and it’s a piece of the puzzle that so many aren’t talking enough about.
Working on her mental health was the biggest part of Jess’s healing process, and it was great to hear her touch on the importance of creating an environment to grow emotionally and mentally. You’ll hear it in this week’s episode - if you want an emotional processing breakthrough, you actually have to create time and the environment for that to happen and thrive. This emotional processing is a non-negotiable for Jess. If you don’t create the environment for the work to be done, we won’t see the growth. The truth is, the process is messy. You often feel like you’re not making progress and it can be really painful because you’re bringing old memories and trauma to the surface. As Jess shares, if you’re willing to create the environment and work through it, you can begin to experience the growth and the beauty that comes from it.
During this week’s episode I asked jess what was the hardest question she’s asked herself throughout her journey - and it was “What do I think my purpose as a woman is in this world? Is what I’m doing reflecting what I genuinely think my purpose is?” At the end of the day it’s all about whether your actions are lining up with what you really believe about your purpose. If not, then there’s a disconnect. We’re here for so much more than we’ve let ourselves believe possible - and it was great to hear Jess talk about this.
For Jess, a big part of purpose has been enacting presence. Choosing to ground in the life that she has right now so that she can be where she is, serving who is around her, has bene key. Purpose has truly come out of this pursuit of presence, and it’s been incredibly healing too.
It was so great to hear Jess reflect on her community over at Wholly Healed and her role as part of the greater system at play to work to empower women. A big part of her community is Taboo Tuesdays - and every Tuesday Jess covers the most taboo topics of women’s health, body positivity, female empowerment and anything in between. (psst: where #myplatemybusiness was born!). If you’re into real talk about how to support your hormones the NON diet culture way, learning more about body acceptance, and GIFS interspersed in anatomy talks, then you’ve totally come to the right place with Wholly Healed!
This year Jess created the t-shirt “My Place My Business.” I love this shirt and the movement it’s inspired. Truthfully, plate picking is more than just nosiness, it is a form of body policing. As Jess shares in this week’s episode, this idea that someone else’s body & health are public forum topics that anyone can insert themselves in is total craziness. It perpetuates judgement and shame around food, which is the OPPOSITE of what we want as free, grown ass women fully capable of making our own decisions. (Can I get an amen!?)
No more passive aggressive comments from your mother in law, no more judgey looks from the man in the next booth. Grab the shirt and join the #myplatemybusiness revolution that has helped women reclaim their relationship with their body and find food freedom.
We also chat about what it’s like to work with Jess and her role as a facilitator for her client’s growth and healing. Jess’s clients range from having thyroid and hormone imbalances to debilitating body image dysfunction they are desperate to overcome. For all cases, she employs her integrated system of healing, a WHOLE HEALING system, if you will: food, movement, and mindset. We must THINK healthy to BE healthy. (I LOVE this!!) As Jess talks about in this week’s episode, that piece of the puzzle is severely lacking in our health care system (even the holistic health care system) and that is what Jess is trying to fix. She practices integrative care that works to heal your body, mind, and heart; because Jess truly believes whole humans should be treated with whole care.
Jess is best known for a few things: Sass, Real talk bordering on #nofilter, Psychobio nerd talk, and an UNWAVERING passion for empowering women everywhere. (If you’ve tuned into her #WHtabootuesday you know!!)
To connect with Jess and learn more visit www.whollyhealed.com and connect with her on Instagram @whollyhealed and you can find her t-shirt My Plate My Business here
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