In this episode, Kimberly speaks with Jane Hardwicke Collings, a post-menopausal grandmother, former midwife, and founder of the School of Shamanic Womancraft. They explore how the lessons learned from the natural childbirth movement must now be applied to menopause, discussing what Jane calls "sage-escence," the becoming of the wise woman. Jane shares her journey from hospital nurse to home birth midwife, how her midwifery awakened her to the patriarchy's medicalization of women's bodies, and why she sees a natural menopause movement emerging. They dive deep into the connections between all rites of passage, from menstruation to birth to menopause, and examine how unresolved trauma surfaces during these transitions. The conversation also explores sexuality and the erotic through life's seasons, the impact of childhood trauma on menopausal symptoms, body shame, aging, and the cultural pressure toward hormone therapy versus embracing natural processes.

Bio

Jane Hardwicke Collings is a post-menopausal grandmother, mother of a blended family with four adult children and four grandchildren. A former Registered Nurse who worked in Paediatric Intensive Care Units and Women's Operating Theatres, she became a midwife at 26 and left the hospital system so as not to be complicit with institutionalized acts of abuse and violence on women and babies masquerading as safety. She was a homebirth midwife for 30 years in city and rural areas of Australia.

Jane carries the lineage of Shamanic Midwifery from her teacher Jeannine Parvati Baker and created the School of Shamanic Womancraft in 2009, an international Women's Mystery School. She travels internationally giving workshops on the wisdom of cycles, the spiritual practice of menstruation, sacred dimensions of pregnancy, birth, and menopause, and reclaiming women's rites of passage. She also offers teacher training, books, and e-courses.

Jane is a co-creator of Hygieia Health, a not-for-profit with a mission to create freestanding birth centers and fund homebirth. She lives in the bush on the edge of a forest in New South Wales, Australia, committed to walking her talk and treading lightly on the earth. She sees herself as an Agent of the Goddess, a Priestess at the altars of transformation.

What She Shares:

–Journey from hospital nurse to home birth midwife

–Applying lessons from natural childbirth to menopause

–Sage-escence: the becoming of the wise woman

–How childhood trauma affects menopausal symptoms

–Salutogenic vs pathogenic perspectives on women's health

–Personal healing journey around sexuality at menopause

–Crowning the Crones ceremony

–Preparing for the transition to elderhood at 70

What You'll Hear:

–Jane's awakening to the patriarchy through midwifery training

–Why she left hospital to become a home birth midwife

–Bringing midwife eyes and heart to all rites of passage

–The state of birth in Australia and globally

–Free birth, doulas, and current threats to birth workers

–How home birth advocates are embracing medicalized menopause

–HRT keeping women in a static hormonal state

–The natural menopause movement emerging

–Anti-aging culture and the privilege of aging

–Body shame rooted in menstrual shame

–Kimberly's reflections on cosmetic procedures and nervous system impact

–How orgasm and sexuality change across a woman's lifetime

–Healing sexual inheritance from mothers and grandmothers

–Unresolved trauma surfacing at menopause as healing opportunity

–First sexual experience as imprint that unfolds through life

–Libido changes through life stages

–Finding new reasons for sexuality post-reproduction

–The spiral of life: what unfolds at each new season

–Honoring crones and receiving their wisdom

Resources

Website: https://janehardwickecollings.com/

IG: @janehardwickecollings

Kimberly's Mobilize Freeze Course: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/freeze/

Kimberly is joined by luminary thinker Dr. Betty Martin as they discuss the evolution and impact of the Wheel of Consent, a vanguard model for enthusiastic consent, asking for what you want, and living out embodied intimacy. Dr. Martin, who developed the model, shares her journey from creating the wheel through her hands-on workshops to writing a book so the wheel may reach an even larger audience, with Kimberly noting just how deep of an impact Betty's work has had on Kimberly's teaching and offerings. They explore the challenges of enthusiastic consent, the importance of feeling with one's hands, and the universal nature, as well as the cultural nuances, of touch and sex. Betty emphasizes the need for accurate teaching and the development of the wheel of consent in various fields, including therapy, businesses and social justice. The conversation highlights the significance of embodiment and the incomparable emotional impact of present and thoughtful touch.

Bio

Dr. Betty Martin spent her childhood in a large family and her youth in experimental communities, learning about people in more groups than she can count. Founding a co-housing community with countless hours of meetings taught her the value of excellent facilitation. Now she enjoys helping others learn the skills she picked up along the way.

She graduated Chiropractic College in 1976 and practiced for almost 30 years, including several body-mind integration modalities. She has taught Peer Counseling for teens and adults, Educational Kinesiology and other bodywork for professionals, sexuality workshops for women, gender liberation, and boundary and communication workshops of many flavors, including Cuddle Party.

After retiring from her Chiropractic practice on Vashon Island, she moved into Seattle and opened a private practice as a relationship and intimacy coach, where she guided people through somatic experiences, sometimes erotic and sometimes not, so they could learn how to be comfortable in their own skin and experience pleasure in ways that supported their development.

It was during those years of working with hundreds of people that she noticed and developed the Wheel of Consent, a practice and a model of taking apart receiving and giving. She started sharing her experience with other practitioners and developed the 5-day training, Like a Pro, focusing on the Wheel, communication and professional standards.

In 2018 she co-founded the School of Consent, where she has trained numerous facilitators of Wheel of Consent workshops, and a handful of faculty to teach Like a Pro. She is happily handing over teaching to those she has trained, and these days contributes to other organizations' trainings and presents to various professional groups. She also enjoys offering supervision and mentoring to practitioners.

She once again lives in community and is the proud mom of 3 and grandma of 2.

What You'll Hear

• Dr. Martin's background in chiropractic, body-mind integration modalities, and her development of the wheel of consent

• Betty's 13 year writing process and how her clients led her to constantly evolve her concepts for the book

• The development of the Three-Minute Game the value of taking turns and asking for what you want

• Why receiving can often be harder than giving.

• The importance of touch and attention to intimacy

• Why training new teachers is so important to Dr. Martin

• They discuss cultural differences as it relates to touch and sex

• The emergence of the term enthusiastic consent

• The reach of The Wheel of Consent from relationships to communities to businesses to social movements

• The exercise of waking up the hands to improve ability to feel with them

Resources

Website: https://www.wheelofconsent.org/

Ig: @drbettymartin

Book: https://www.wheelofconsent.org/thebook

Activate Your Inner Jaguar: Sexuality and the Nervous System sign up link is here

In this episode, Kimberly and Elena discuss and reflect on their life experiences through nearly two decades of knowing one another. They discuss radical forgiveness for our families of origin, the importance of stillness and meditation, children leaving the home, and menopause. They also discuss what led Elena to write her upcoming book "Hold Nothing," which offers stories and prompts as an artful contemplative guide towards personal, daily practice for self-discovery and self-wisdom. Kimberly reads powerful excerpts aloud, and you can preorder the book in the link below.

Bio

Elena Brower is a mother, mentor, poet, artist, volunteer, bestselling author, and podcast host. She is a celebrated international yoga and meditation teacher on Glo, guiding transformative practices since 1999. Her books include the "Art of Attention: A Yoga Practice Workbook for Movement as Meditation," bestselling journal "Practice You and Being You" her collection of poetry entitled "Softening Time," along with her courses, classes, and talks, explore stages of studentship, practice, life, and listening. Her latest book "Hold Nothing" investigates what it means to let go of narratives and return to the spacious emptiness within. She also has a column on Substack and podcast Practice You. She offers weekly classes and is a candidate in Upaya's Chaplaincy Training. She volunteers in hospice and penitentiary settings, bringing yoga, meditation, and compassionate presence to her local and broader communities.

What She Shares:

–Forgiveness, repair and acceptance

–Practice of daily stillness and stability

–Powerful excerpts from new book

–Excerpts read from new book "Hold Nothing"

What You'll Hear:

–What sticks with Kimberly from Elena's teachings

–Elena forgiving mother

–Mercy and forgiveness for family of origen

–Holding onto grudges instead of real repair

–Impacting our actual spheres

–Incentivizing holding grudges long-term in culture

–Having direct contact with the present

–In contact with body as medicine

–Everyone doing their best at all times

–Making our consciousness transparent to ourselves

–Why Elena wanted to write a new book

–Meditations and personal writings

–Universal permission slip to be tender with ourselves

–How stories, prompts, and artwork came about

–Impact of writing in present tense

–Getting reader in scene that unfolds as if happening presently

–Reading excerpt from book on uncertainty

–Daily sitting in stillness to allow thoughts to emerge

–Importance of humility in work

–Addressing accusations, controversies, and publicness

–Importance of relationships, close inner-circle, close proximity

–Bringing down women taking initiatives to serve

–Evolving definition of family

–Staying present and listening during hard conversations

–Children leaving home for college

–Mothering young adults

–Conflicting emotions with children leaving home

–Advice for mothers in new paradigm shifts

–Kimberly's fresh experience taking Cece to college

–Opening to stability

–Stabilizing principle at center of every circumstance

–Turning chaos to stability

–Working in a vacuum to focus on own work

–Addressing issues of AI as writers and teachers

–Focus, devotion, returning to what matters

–Menopausal transitions with weights, HRT, supplements, sleep, friends

–Regulating nervous system through menopause

–Elena's Matter of Menopause podcast for menopause education

–Kimberly's underworld experience of menopause

–Hormones are gods

–Preorder upcoming book "Hold Nothing"

Resources

Website: https://elenabrower.com/ and https://elenabrower.com/menopause/

IG: @elenabrower

Jaguar Sex Edition Sign Up Here