Recently I’ve noticed a rising conversation among higher ed folks about the impact of prolonged stress on our bodies. This is a conversation we need to have in higher education, and we need to center the research and voices of critical disability studies scholars and disability justice advocates, who have been reckoning with these issues for a long time. In this episode, I explore how we might better support our intertwined bodies-and-minds (“bodyminds”) by releasing ableist myths about our capacity and practicing interdependence.

Find the transcript for Episode 20, “How’s Your Bodymind?” here: https://www.karengrcoaching.com/post/how-s-your-bodymind

Mentioned in this episode:

• Margaret Price, “The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain,” Hypatia 30.1, Winter 2025, 268-284.
• Susan Hrach, Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning: https://wvupressonline.com/node/866
• Christine Miserandino on spoon theory: https://lymphoma-action.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/documents/2020-05/Spoon%20theory%20by%20Christine%20Miserandino.pdf
• See more on Patty Berne in Shayda Kafai, Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/C/Crip-Kinship
• Patty Berne, “10 Principles of Disability Justice”: https://sinsinvalid.org/10-principles-of-disability-justice/
• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/T/The-Future-Is-Disabled
• Artworks in Finnegan Shannon’s series “Do you want us here or not” (2018): https://shannonfinnegan.com/do-you-want-us-here-or-not

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Join me and my co-editors Susan Hrach, Katie Linder, and Kitty Maynard for a behind-the-scenes discussion of our new book, Transformative Coaching for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Powerful Tools To Address Institutional Challenges. We talk about the collaborative experience of writing the book, our shared belief that coaching can transform higher ed, and why coaching matters now. And we reveal our “secret audience” for the book and how coaching makes us better humans.

Find the transcript for Episode 19, “Transformative Coaching” here.

• Connect with Susan Hrach: ⁠www.susanhrach.com⁠ / ⁠LinkedIn⁠
• Connect with Katie Linder: https://drkatielinder.com / https://www.youtube.com/@workflowchannel
• Connect with Kitty Maynard: LinkedIn

Find our book Transformative Coaching at Routledge and use code 25ESA3 for 20% off through Oct 31.

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Social media makes self care look easy, beautiful, and unattainable. What if we could release the aesthetic of perfection and half-ass our self care instead? In this episode, we explore practical, low-stakes approaches to several evidence-based self care practices: journaling, gratitude, meditation, and creativity. If you’re skeptical of self care, or despair of finding time or energy for self care activities, this conversation is for you!

Find the transcript for Episode 18, “Half-Assed Self Care for Weary Academics” here.

Lots of great ideas referenced in this episode!

• Pooja Lakshmin, Real Self Care / Interview on NPR
• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work
• Journaling: Pennebaker on expressive writing (content warning: sexual assault referenced); Katherine May, “How to Keep a Writer’s Notebook”
• Gratitude: Bartlett on gratitude
• Meditation: the APA’s overview and bibliography of research on meditation Creativity and process art: (SmartHistory on Process Art); my conversation about creativity with Mariglynn Edlins; Artful Parent is a rich resource for process art, pitched to parents andcaregivers but worthwhile for adults, too
• Petra Kuppers

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