What is modern life doing to our fertility- and what might our bodies be trying to tell us?

In this episode of Homestead & Heal, Lindsay and Scott sit down with women’s health practitioner Kristin Hauser for a wide-ranging conversation about fertility, Chinese medicine, motherhood, grief, and our relationship with the natural world.

Kristin has spent nearly two decades working in women’s health, beginning in birth work and prenatal yoga before moving into acupuncture, Chinese medicine, functional medicine, and somatic sex education. Today, much of her work focuses on supporting women who want to conceive naturally and training practitioners to bring a more holistic approach to women’s health and fertility.

Together, they explore why fertility challenges seem to be becoming more common, how quickly our environment and lifestyles have changed, and why fertility isn’t solely a women’s health issue. Kristin shares her perspective on stress, environmental exposures, declining sperm health, and the ways our bodies are continually trying to adapt to the modern world.

They also go much deeper than fertility alone.

Kristin shares how growing up with horses helped shape her relationship with her body, power, and the natural world; what she’s learned from splitting her family’s time between Kansas and Costa Rica; and how motherhood has influenced the way she approaches both life and work.

The conversation eventually turns toward something we don’t talk about nearly enough in women’s health: grief.

Kristin shares how Chinese medicine understands the connection between the heart and womb, why she believes grief needs space to move through the body, and some of the somatic practices she uses to help women be with grief without becoming completely overwhelmed by it.

In this episode, we talk about fertility in the modern world, Chinese medicine and women’s health, environmental and lifestyle factors affecting fertility, male fertility and sperm health, grief and the nervous system, somatic healing, motherhood, our connection to nature, and learning to trust the path you’re on.

This is a beautiful conversation about fertility, yes—but also about what it looks like to live, heal, mother, and work in deeper relationship with our bodies and the world around us.

CONNECT WITH KRISTIN

CONNECT WITH KRISTIN:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinhauser

Website: wombmedicine.com

Connect with Lindsay & Scott:

To learn more about our retreats: www.homesteadandheal.net

Connected with Lindsay: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycourcelle/

Connect with Scott: https://www.instagram.com/alchemygardens/

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What if some of the deepest wisdom we need isn't something we have to learn.....but something to remember?

In this episode, Lindsay and Scott sit down with herbalist and teacher Emily French of Sweetgrass Herbals for a conversation about herbal medicine, intuition, embodied knowing, and our innate relationship with the Earth.

Emily shares her journey from growing up deeply connected to the land to apprenticing with herbalist Chris Marano and ultimately spending more than two decades practicing and teaching herbal medicine. Together, they explore what becomes possible when we move beyond simply accumulating knowledge and learn to deeply listen- to plants, to our bodies, and to the wisdom already living within us.

They talk about strengthening intuition, the intelligence of the body, plants as teachers, the ways modern life can disconnect us from our senses, and how returning to relationship with the natural world can help us soften the armor we've learned to carry.

Emily also shares the beautiful story of a plant that has been passed through the women in her family for generations, her reflections on supporting young women through rites of passage, and why curiosity, joy, and our body's quiet yes can help guide us toward the life we're meant to live.

In this episode, they explore:

• Emily's path to becoming an herbalist and her early relationship with the Earth
• Why deep listening can be more powerful than simply consuming more information
• Developing intuition and learning to trust the body's wisdom
• Plant attunement and cultivating relationships with medicinal plants
• How modern life can numb our senses and disconnect us from the natural world
• The relationship between our bodies and the Earth
• Herbal medicine as nourishment, nervous system support, and relationship
• What plants can teach us about belonging, boundaries, grief, and becoming ourselves
• Emily's advice for trusting curiosity and following the quiet whispers within

Emily also shares about Coming Home to Ourselves, her six-week online course exploring the intersection of herbal medicine, somatic healing, nervous system regulation, and learning to listen to the signals of the body, heart, and soul.

Connect with Emily:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sweetgrass_herbals

Website: https://www.emily-french.com/

Connect with Lindsay & Scott:

To learn more about our retreats: www.homesteadandheal.net

Connected with Lindsay: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycourcelle/

Connect with Scott: https://www.instagram.com/alchemygardens/

If you loved this episode - it would mean so much to leave us a review!

In this episode of Homestead & Heal, we sit down with Kirby Criddle, a spiritual teacher, writer, trauma integration specialist, intimacy educator, and hands-on, hands-in integrative pelvic care practitioner whose work is in service to the mystical and physical forces that bring your highest Self through to this world.

In this conversation, Kirby shares the many threads that have shaped her work- from growing up as a highly sensitive child with an intense spiritual inner world, to discovering language for what she was experiencing through Barbara Brennan’s Hands of Light, to finding refuge and expression through music.

We talk about her years as a touring musician, the decision to pause music after becoming a mother, and the unexpected path that unfolded when she opened a spiritual wellness center in 2019 -only to have the pandemic dramatically shift the direction of her work.

Kirby also opens up about her postpartum experience and the profound disconnection she felt from herself during that season. That chapter became a doorway into a deeper relationship with the body and eventually led her toward trauma integration work, pelvic care, and body-led healing.

She shares what she learned through training with Martin Bauduin, including the importance of listening beyond what the mind thinks should happen and allowing the body to reveal its own pace, wisdom, and direction.

Throughout the episode, we explore what it looks like to trust clinical intuition, stay in beginner’s mind, and resist the pressure to force transformation. Kirby speaks to the difference between chasing dramatic “quantum leaps” and allowing change to unfold through alignment, relationship, and deep listening.

Her relationship with land and nature is woven throughout the conversation as well. Kirby shares about life in Saskatoon, tending a large organic garden, experiencing loneliness and belonging, and serving as a forest chaplain along the city river. We talk about the way nature can mirror our own internal processes and what a garden can teach us about control, surrender, timing, death, and renewal.

Kirby also reflects on teachers, mentorship, and power — including what difficult teachers can reveal about our own discernment and the importance of learning to trust our own inner authority.

We also dive into the work she is offering now, including Vessel, her six-month program for women designed to deepen connection with the body, intuition, inner voice, and relationship with a higher power, as well as Naked Cake, a trauma integration circle.

This conversation is an exploration of what it means to come home to the body, trust what we sense, honor the full complexity of our experiences, and allow life to unfold from a place of deeper alignment rather than force.

In this episode, we explore:

• Kirby’s work in spiritual teaching, intimacy, trauma integration, and integrative pelvic care
• Her six-month women’s program, Vessel
• Spiritual sensitivity and perceiving energy as a child
• Discovering Hands of Light and finding validation for her experiences
• Music as a lifeline and her years as a touring musician
• Motherhood, postpartum disconnection, and pausing music
• Opening a spiritual wellness center in 2019
• How the pandemic redirected her work
• The influence of her ancestors and grandparents
• Trauma-informed touch and the realities of working with the body
• Learning to trust clinical intuition
• Alignment, beginner’s mind, and allowing the body to lead
• Why transformation doesn’t always need to happen quickly
• Gardening, control, surrender, and relationship with the land
• Kirby’s work as a forest chaplain
• The lessons that can come from difficult teachers
• Reclaiming self-trust and personal authority
• Vessel, Naked Cake, and Kirby’s current offerings

Connect with Kirby:
https://www.instagram.com/kirbycriddle

Connect with Lindsay & Scott:

To learn more about our retreats: www.homesteadandheal.net

Connected with Lindsay: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycourcelle/

Connect with Scott: https://www.instagram.com/alchemygardens/

If you loved this episode - it would mean so much to leave us a review!