 |
LaidOPEN PodcastAuthor: Charna Cassell
Welcome to the LaidOPEN Podcast hosted by Charna Cassell. Charna is a Trauma-Trained Psychotherapist and Sexuality Coach with over 20 years of experience. Every day, Charna helps clients heal from trauma and access more bodily joy, emotional regulation, vitality, and hope. Now she's bringing her expertise to podcasting with interviews from post-trauma thrivers who share creative resources to support living an authentic, passionate, mindful existence. Together they explore how to have a more pleasure-filled, peaceful life while reducing self-sabotaging behaviors and gaining control over reactive behaviors. Charna's mission is to help people like you understand the impact of trauma on their nervous system and therefore their relationships with an emphasis on ways to heal. In every episode, Charna explores how to build our physical and emotional capacity to be with all that moves through us and around us to ultimately feel more liberated on the other side. Join our community as we embark on this transformative journey by reaccessing our connection to aliveness. Language: en Genres: Health & Fitness, Relationships, Sexuality, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Ep 117 Spiritual Resilience for Uncertain Times featuring Gabrielle Felder
Episode 117
Tuesday, 17 February, 2026
In this episode of LaidOPEN, I'm joined by Gabrielle Felder, author of The Five Blessings of Ifá. We talk about returning to spiritual lineage, writing about Ifá as a living oral tradition, and what it meant for Gabrielle to publish this work after being raised Baptist. She shares how being on ancestral land in the American South changed her relationship to history and belonging. We explore Oshun and Obatala, gender expansiveness in Yoruba cosmology, burnout and joyful militancy, and how to remain spiritually grounded in times of cultural instability. LaidOPEN offers intimate conversations at the intersection of sexuality, spirituality, and relational healing. If you're longing for depth, warmth, and nuance, follow the show and share this episode with someone who might need it. Show Notes: 00:00 – Welcome & Introduction 02:42 – Writing Process 04:18 – Family, Faith & Secrecy 08:06 – Parents at the Book Event 09:24 – Publishing as Coming Out 12:26 – Writing About Ifá 14:11 – Southern Ancestry 18:12 – Embodying the Land 22:30 – Entering Ifá 24:43 – Mississippi River & Oshun 27:22 – Orishas & Creativity 28:03 – Beyond the Love Goddess Trope 29:00 – Yoruba Language & Gender 31:22 – Orishas & Gender Fluidity 34:18 – Micro-Acts of Freedom 35:31 – Burnout & Joy 47:17 – Collapse & Rebuilding 52:22 – Spiritual Hygiene 55:34 – Closing
