Scars How the Affect Us with Kendra Toothill

I'm so excited to have Kendra Toothill on the show. She is a holistic women's health therapist who helps women transform their well-being by working their scars and by reconnecting with their body and resolving longstanding physical and energetic emotional challenges. Now, I met Kendra through a networking group called The Advance that connects different women in different industries, and the first time I heard that she is an expert in scars, I was intrigued, and I think you will be too. So in this episode, she's going to share with you how she's kind of moved from being in the clinical in-person work of developing her own system to now having an online business where she does one-to-one and group programs in a program that she calls Scars Reigniting Your Phenomenon.

And I never say phenomenon, phenomenon, phenomenon, right? So that's just Nikita Williams.

But you're going to learn a 3-part process to connect with your body again through scar work.

And we're going to talk about how do scars affect our bodies physically?

Like, what happens?

What's the anatomy of a scar and how does that affect us physically and emotionally? And we're going to hear about Kendra's journey through becoming known as an expert in scars. So if any of you guys are like, I don't want to niche down. Hello, this is Anish. Okay. Some of my favorite things about this episode is a couple of quotes that she shares, which, "Every scar has a story." Huh? Yes, it does. And there's so much to that. And to be okay with deep waters and scary situations, and that's okay. And I just love her. She has such a soft, welcoming, calming presence in speaking with us. But she shares so much valuable information on scars and how we can maybe have a different view of them to maybe shift our mindset and have a better view of our bodies holistically. So I want you to stay tuned because there are so many gems along the way, and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

You're listening to the She's Crafted to Thrive podcast, and this is your host, Nikita Williams. On this show, we're talking about what it's like to start, grow, and scale a business while living with chronic illness. You will hear from other creatives and CEOs as they share their stories and the lessons that led them to learn to lean more into what worked for them. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection, and fear, negative thoughts, and challenges are all a part of the journey, but there is always an abundance of wins. So stay tuned and you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to craft a life and business that thrives.

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Enjoy. I am really excited to have Kendra on the show because as you guys heard in the intro, I'm sure I gave all of her beautiful deets, but we've connected from a same network and man, what you're doing, Kendra, is just so amazing. So before we like really hop in, cause I have a tendency to do that, to hop into the conversation, to start and not allow you to do an introduction. Uh, please tell us who you are, what you do, where you're from., and all of that jazz.

Sure. So thank you, first of all, Nikita, so much. It's so great to be here and be with your community. It's, it's really great. I'm very happy to be here. So my name is Kendra Tootill. I am a holistic women's health therapist, and I help women transform their well-being by working their scars. So I help women understand the importance of scars and how they can actually be used as Transformation potential hotspots, as I like to call them, and we can use those to resolve longstanding concerns, physical, emotional, and energetic concerns for our well-being. I'm originally from Canada, and right now I live in Portland, and in very like 6 or so weeks, I'm going to be living in Costa Rica. So I'm a bit of a bouncer at the moment. But yeah, that's my— that's me.

You're just going all around the world. Totally. That's awesome. Well, first and foremost, yes, you guys heard her correctly. Scar work is what she is known for, and that obviously is what piqued my interest, like super. I was like, I know most of the women that listen to the show in some way, shape, or form have scars. Like, we think about them, but they're not like a thing that we think about. Like, you know, we see them, we think about them, we might like put some makeup on, but we don't think anything beyond like the just tangible, right? Um, for most of us. Um, and I'm saying that just from talking to so many women in general from what I do. But why scar work?

Yeah, good question. Uh, early on in my clinical practice, I just I stumbled upon the incredible positive benefit that my clients were having when I was working their scars. So people would come in to me saying, I've tried so many things, but nothing's really hitting it on the head, nothing's really lasting or getting to the core of my, of my issues. And so I started working with their scars and all of these symptoms, the physical symptoms of all sorts, which we can talk about later, and then also all these energetic, emotional symptoms as well were just kind of cleaning up by working their scars. And over time, I developed a, a system where I learned to do manual work on the scar itself, but also move the scars in a variety of other different ways, like through breathing practices, really precise styles of movement. And all of this, the whole kind of picture about scar work is it helps women come back into their body and reconnect with areas that have potentially been places of deep hurt and struggle. And so that gives us a really clean access point into that emotion and that energy, really resolving stuff that's been hanging around in our body for a long time. And of course, you get all the, the physical benefit as well when you start untangling that scar from what it's stuck onto inside of your body.

So it's been a long time coming, but that is the reason It's really amazing because I remember when you were doing your presentation in our pod, in our networking pod, and I was just sitting there listening and I was like, why haven't I ever heard of this before? I literally was just like, why I haven't heard of this before? And it totally makes sense. And I think more specifically when I think about myself and a lot of my audience who gravitates to me, they have endometriosis as well. And literally The physiology of endometriosis is all scar in general. Like, even how it attacks the body, it creates scars inside. And so while you were talking, I was just like, this is like mind-blowing. Like, mind-blowing. Because to understand how scars really affect you emotionally and physically, it's a whole nother approach that I don't— like we were talking, that not many people talk about. Like, it's just not something you talk about. So how—

what happened?

Some of the— like, before we get in, like, we're gonna get into a whole bunch of other stuff, but I want, I want you to really lean into your zone here because I want— I feel like, I, I feel like I am honored and privileged to have you here on the show. For someone to hear how I heard it the first time, which was like, well, what? There's something that can help like this? So how has helping women with scar work helped them in their overall holistic well-being?

Yeah. So their overall holistic well-being, women, we don't quite know, as you said, that scars are so important. And when you land on that information, like you had just expressed, so many women go, oh yeah, totally. So how do I start? Makes a lot of sense. And what that actually gives women is a sense of control of their health, which is so important. Helps them see a really clear direction. A lot of the time, I'm sure as you and your community knows, when there's a lot of confusion and like disorientation around what's going on, how can I, you know, get a handle on this? How can I manage this? And a lot of it is, um, there's lots of left-in-the-dark kind of pieces. And so when you understand your body from this perspective, it gives you so much clarity and it helps you really understand yourself. And just that on like an emotional, energetic level is huge. Because then that starts to build that inner trust where you start to build that confidence on the inside and go, maybe I can start trusting my body again because there's so much when we don't trust our body because we do this one thing and then it leads to these painful moments or struggle or whatever. So it creates this huge kind of polarization in how we feel about our body and ourselves. So that just first off is just such a big thing. And that builds over time because The— this working the scars is a process of coming back into your body. So you're healing the scar itself, but you're reconnecting with those areas that you have disconnected from. So that makes you feel like a whole woman, like an integrated, holistic woman who's in touch with her body, who's in touch with what she feels and learns how to move around that in a way that's really healthy and positive. So those are some of the emotional considerations that are just amazing.

And I love that. And what I also love is that your community is called the Radiantly Alive Woman. And the reason why I love that is because one, even in my work and the women that I talk to, they're very attuned to their body. But yet still confused. And so I think what you're doing with this work is really empowering women to take what they already intuitively know is going on, but trying to create the systems and the flow physically, one, like literally physically, and then all the other benefits that come from that. And I think that's what I feel like, that's the gap. That's also the sweet spot of, of, of what you do. So I, um, I can just geek out and love on the fact of what you do for forever, honestly. And I haven't— I've like just started being a part of your community and listening. And so I just think it's amazing. So tell us a little bit more about like your background, your history of like, um, how did you really come to this? Like, have you always been in the medical field? I know you talked about you have a clinical background, but what did that look like for you?

Yes, in my beginning, I just wrote my— I just launched my website today. So I have like a fresh About page where I talk about my kind of professional start as an overachieving kind of science nerd, like really deep in textbook and wanting to learn Western science. And that's actually what I went to school for. I have an exercise science degree in athletic therapy. So I began in working rugby like a true Canadian, doing some hockey, and working at a high school and really helping and supporting all the athletes in a high school. And it was through that context that I realized that I wanted to work more deeply with people, wanted a more thorough approach, because in that kind of setting it's kind of Band-Aid technique and making sure they're good to go just for this next game or this next you know, short-term thing. And I wasn't really hitting the depth that I was seeking. So I opened up my own clinical practice, and which was great. I was incredibly busy. But around this time, my health was just going down. My health was just deteriorating. So I was excelling professionally and learning all the things with a science background. I specialized in the nervous system and biomechanics. But everything else around me other than my professional clinical clinical practice was just crumbling. So I was, you know, having sleep paralysis, food intolerances. I was just having all of the stuff— chronic pain, cycle irregularities, mental health challenges, the whole whammy, like relationship dynamics going down the drain, just really struggling and suffering. And it was really— I couldn't get to my source of the problem with all of the the modern Western medicine I had. All that whole approach was not really touching the sides for me. It wasn't really getting to what I needed. So it was really from my own struggle that I started to turn towards Eastern traditional practice and philosophy and really start to recognize what's actually required for a true transformation. And this is around the time that I was stumbling around the seriously important effects of scars. I have some crazy stories in the beginning where when I was working with women and their scars were just like, whoa, this is a big deal. We have landed on something really important. So I started to just progress the way that I worked, which was a lot more thorough, incredible amounts of guidance and support in between sessions. And it was really picking up speed in this scar world that I was like creating that then I ended up creating a whole system over it now that I call Scars Reigniting Your Feminine. But this is, this is how I, how I began. And I just took a dive away from my Western modern world and then started to really blend these two things together. Because there's some amazing things, I'm sure, as you know, with the Western modern science. I mean, you can't live without it. Yeah, they're there when you need them for many positive circumstances, reasons. But there was something missing. And to really bring that holistic word in that you were talking about, We need to understand our body from this perspective, especially that it's an integrated whole thing, especially as a woman. It needs to be there. And I didn't, I didn't learn that. And I just kind of ran myself down into, like I say on my website, that I ran myself to the point where my body was literally screaming at me. And it was this kind of dragging myself out of that lowest point. That also blended with learning what's really required of a transformation and really taking that approach in myself, but then also bringing that and offering that out to my clients, because now I could understand where they're coming from, which was a huge thing for me. And something that came out of that for me personally, and I started recognizing it in the women I was working for, is that we're just, as women, just disconnected from our body. There's places where we have kind of detached from, for all very valid reasons, like giving birth is one, just physical injury, the chronic pain, different types of trauma, the own inner dialogue that we have and talk to ourselves on and on and on about. So it just creates this detachment. And this practice that I found to be so healing was how, how can we come back into our body? How can we reconnect in a way that's really meaningful and really feel ourselves, like you said, holistically and whole?

Would you say that your experience yourself, you— did you find healing through scar work for you, or were there other things outside of, you know, that kind of led you into this feeling of transformation or being transformed for you?

So I don't—

I got you, I got you.

Um, yeah, so I don't have any large physical scars myself. But at this time, I was like internally, emotionally, I talk about this, and I do— women ask me all the time, like, what if I don't have any physical scars on my body? Can I still benefit from your work? And that was kind of the circumstance that I was dealing with is I had all of this kind of kept, held, like constricted emotional scarring going on in my own body. So it was the blend of working with so many people. I was, you know, had the traditional clinical practice of seeing 10 people a day, and it was just like repetitive seeing this positive transformation that was happening with scars. And then my own, yeah, version of emotional energetic scars where I was noticing the benefit of it.

Wow. So you found your— you found your transformation that you're now sharing with everyone through the healing process of learning.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, that is, you know, and it's, it's something that's, you know, I haven't had hundreds of people on the show, but I've had quite a few, and this is the theme for every woman that I've ever had on the show, or even women that I talk outside of the shows, that through that pain there's purpose and there's this finding, because we're searching, we're searching for that thing that's gonna fix it, and everything else we've tried is not it. It's just not it. And then we all fall are not even thought. I think we all just discover that thing that we're already doing that we didn't even know that we were doing, that we need to do, if that makes any sense. Um, so I love, uh, I love hearing that. So while you've been developing this system, what has been some internal, you know, fears or, um, challenges? Because now you, you're leaving a practice where, you know, you have your in— you, you're in a practice versus, okay, I'm gonna take this thing that I've learned, that I've seen, into the real world, like my world, your world, and share with the masses. So has there been challenges with that for you from a business standpoint?

Yeah, it's a good question. So, uh, at the time of this recording, we're in like kind of COVID land, and obviously scars— when I first started working with scars, it's best done one-to-one in the same room, I have my hands on the scar and their body working the scars and really feeling that out because the scars, which we'll talk about hopefully in like at some point, just how the scars really work and bury into the body. So it's so important to feel that. And it's something that I felt just through practice. But because of the pandemic that happened, that when that was no longer an option, but the silver lining, and it's a huge silver lining and speaks to my first is women started recognizing that they could do it. Like, they're immediately in the driver's seat. They have to actively engage the problem. It's definitely not a passive approach where you lay down on a table for a certain amount of time and just have the work done to you. It's the woman taking charge. And so that kind of struggle, that in-between moment where I was like, oh boy, here we go. Like, I can't use my hands anymore. What's going to happen here? How do I do this? It was, it was a challenge, but it was so great in the outcome. I was so pleasantly surprised, which is really not a surprise. I think I said this in when I was just demonstrating the power of SCARS and the networking, that if you give a woman something small, like a little millimeter of information, that all women without a doubt, like this is true every time, they'll run like 10 miles with it. So they really started to take on scar, like working their scars and understanding it. Like you said, it's a really— once you get it, you're like, oh yeah, I can see that. I visualize that. I feel it. This makes sense. Let's get to work. So that was a really positive circumstance out of that came from COVID And I love that you shared that because there's a lot of—

I mean, obviously we know COVID is— I mean, it's COVID right now at the time of the recording, still is happening. But there, I feel like it made a lot of us face ourselves in a different way. And it forced a lot of us to see things in a different perspective. And that perspective has created, like, for a lot of people, the empowerment to make the change that they need to get to where they want to go, right? And I think that's what you're speaking about. It's like, yeah, I mean, I can physically do it for you. But now the pandemic is here. And now I'm empowering you to do this. And oh my gosh, that also empowers you to do this and help more people around the world. Than just where you physically are. So what a powerful detour in your journey.

Yeah, absolutely. It's been a, it's been a great one. It's been a beautiful kind of watching women evolve just like in front of me, just on the screen. It's so great.

Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about SCARS. We're going to get kind of geeky here for a minute, I guess.

Oh yeah.

And I think my audience is used to me telling them way too much information. So here we go. I've had several surgeries. All of them know this. So I've had multiple surgeries. But one of my biggest surgeries— I've had two, two really big ones. I've had a hysterectomy, and I've also had a knee reconstruction, which, by the way, that was two surgeries after. So I've had 2 surgeries before and then the reconstruction. And what's interesting about both of those surgeries is that my knee surgery, which was like, oh, anybody that goes through knee surgery, like, I feel you. Like, my husband, to this point, like, if anybody talks about knee surgeries, he's like quivering. He's like, I didn't experience it, but I know it was painful. There's a long scar on my leg. There's more than one scar. There's 4 because they do the probe-y thingamajiggies. And what's interesting, before that surgery, I always avoided that area. But my— I think it was my grandmother who was like, you need to massage it. And I was like, I don't want to touch that thing. Like, it's weird. It is numb. Like, it's still kind of numb. You still can't really— can't really feel it. But I found— I found that the more I touched it, the more or less, like, repulsed, one, two, and the more like, huh, this is kind of moving now. It used to not move and now it does move. But I do wonder, when you talk about scars specifically, and I'm thinking about my knee because it's so accessible versus a hysterectomy, there's a lot of scarring more on the inside than on the outside. What is the difference?

Yeah, you touched on so many awesome points. That was great. Thanks for those examples. So the way that scars work, maybe I'll just go through like the physiology of a wound from like open to scar, and then we can kind of talk about the difference because there's some awesome stuff that you pulled out there. So, um, what happens when you have an opening to the external environment, meaning like you have an incision wound or maybe an accident and the skin broke, whatever happened, that open to the external world creates a lot of like strain to every system on your— in your body because when you're open to the external world, you have an opportunity for infection into your body. Infection is probably one of the worst things that could happen because it's an all-hands-on-deck situation to resolve an infection if it's in. And sometimes infection, as you know, can be fatal. So the, the skin, like all the tissue at that area, will close up as quickly as it, as it can. And depending on the location— so this is a perfect example, like abdomen versus knee— The scar will close and bury down as deeply as it can. And the visualization that I offer people is to imagine it like Spider-Man's web or like a bunch of little wads of gum. And it's going down as deep as it can, looking for something that is very solid and reliable that it can anchor onto. And depending on where the, the scar is, it is looking for bone. Your abdomen versus your knee, which is a difference of where the bony structures is, really impacts how much that scar is kind of going deep into your system. So if we just go into the abdominal example for a second, when you have a big scar like a hysterectomy scar over that area, the, the tissue is looking for bone to anchor onto. And where it's usually trying to anchor onto is your hips your pelvis bones, your pubic bone. But if you have other chronic stuff going on where your digestion is really slow and sluggish, where you have like stuff in your bowels for extended periods of time, the scar tissue may start to like wrap itself into the, into the bowel because it is perceiving a hollow organ as solid because there's content in it more often than not. Another example I give that's a lot more relevant now than when I started is we are so busy that we actually don't leave time in our day to go to the bathroom. Like, we don't pee. I used to say teachers are so busy that they don't have a chance to pee. It's them. But now a lot of people who are in just back-to-back Zoom meetings and doing all the things, and their bladder again is moving from a more hollow-like organ to a solid organ. So the scar really is trying to seek something to anchor onto. And particularly in the abdomen, which is very different from the knee, which again, super example.

Thanks. I'm glad my life can give you some, some things to work with.

Perfect. The abdomen, like your spine, has an incredible range. It can have— there's a lot of movement there. So when is the scar healing? It's got to make sure that it can do all, all the— it's good to go and doesn't reopen for all types of movement. Like reaching up high, reaching behind you to grab your purse in the car, filling your abdomen with food, just going to the toilet, any kind of like bearing down, stretching, flexing. Like, your spine has a ton of potential. Therefore, the scar tissue is— it has a tendency to bury itself even deeper to make sure it's good to go and it doesn't get reopened. So that's just a physical kind of consideration around a scar. In that area. And anything that you have on your abdomen is actually a— it's creating a pressure problem. There should be like an ideal amount of pressure in your torso, really. It helps you to breathe correctly. It gives like correct efficient movement to your organs and all sorts of things. We need to have pressure, uh, well distributed. You know, pelvic floor incontinence stuff is just a whole big thing. Pressure stuff's huge. And so this is what happens we have a pressure problem with abdominal stuff. So if we go into like physical considerations on your knee, the, the knee is a lot bonier. It's also a way simpler joint. It kind of, it kind of just functions like a door hinge. It just kind of does two things, just opens and closes. There's like slight bit, slight a bit of like natural rotation that should happen there, but in general it's a completely different, you know, world to it, to a spine. So the scar will bury quite deep and, and it's like right there. This— the bone is right there to anchor onto. So a lot of the time, um, there will be significant amount of scarring on, on the knee as well. And in the knee in particular, there's a ton of stuff like muscle. I feel like there's at least a dozen, maybe 20 muscles that pass and cross the knee joint. It's really significant. And everything in that area is also feeding the lower leg. So we're thinking about major arteries, major, major nerves, sciatic nerve, all of your lymphatic system, your fascial wrapping. And the scarring that you have, particularly on a joint like that, will really disturb like how centered and aligned that joint is.

Just why you might be clumsy. Yeah, yeah.

And that's another, that's another really common thing is if you have a scar on one side of your leg, like on one leg in particular, one side of your body, it creates this disturbance where you may feel like you're a bit clumsy, like you're tripping over stuff, because the scarring is actually yanking and pulling you into an area that takes you off of your center. And that also kind of translates into energy and emotion. Like maybe you also feel energetically just kind of off your center, hard to kind of find that focus point and really move forward with that kind of momentum. So the physical really helps us all get grounded in the actual situation. I love talking about the physical because it's an easy place for us to all kind of understand. But then there's so much emotion wrapped up in scars. Every scar has a story. Hysterectomies are our big deal. It's, it's no joke. It's not like cutting your finger with, you know, when you're making carrot or chopping up carrots.

It's not like that. It's interesting you said that. I was just talking to another woman earlier today. Oops, that was my knuckles popping, you guys. I was just talking to a woman today and I was telling her about the hysterectomy or my hysterectomy. And I was like, depending on who you are, there's a grieving process that's an emotional energy place. When you have surgery, period, I think there's a level of grief. And emotional trauma that's happening that doesn't get talked about. Again, another thing that doesn't get talked about enough. Oh, you need time to recover before you can, you know, get in the car and drive after a hysterectomy. But what about the emotional recovery? So, um, yeah, I totally agree with you.

Yeah, there's a huge piece. And when I'm talking about, I go physical considerations, and then we slide into emotional and energetic considerations. And I always ask to think about and consider 3 phases of, of this emotional energetic kind of world, which is the before the surgery or before the event that created the scar, as well as the during. Like you said, every surgery there's fear involved. It's a big deal. They will rightly so, like, list off all the potential complications. It's freaky. And then there's, there's the after. The after could be like anything from the healing process of the scar up to present day because you're carrying around this stuff and maybe you're thinking about yourself differently or moving differently. There's all of these different considerations wrapped up into this that need to be, like you said, paid attention to and acknowledged.

Yeah.

And that's the work for me, not from the physical, because the physical is still a mystery-ish. I think you have definitely— it's like, you know, I'm just so amazed by the women doing things that they do. Like, I just can't. I just can't even tell you how amazing it is. But this is like one of those puzzle pieces where you're like, I didn't know it needed to be there, but oh, it needs to be there. Because the emotional part to me always made sense. It's always been the part, the emotional, the energy behind it. I didn't know how to do or how to deal with it until like in the last 5 or 6 years where I've kind of been working with that kind of place, the energy, the emotional release, the leaning in, kind of like how you teach about Scar work about like the pressure and the moving in. It's like we kind of have to do the same process with our emotions. We have to kind of lean into them and let them release because they are just stuffed in there. I call it emotional stuffing, and they're taking up a lot of space, and we ain't got that kind of space. And my mentor, she calls it— she says it's like being constipated and you don't do anything with the constipation. Like, you can die from constipation. And the emotional energy is the same thing. You can literally put yourself into that spiral of just— you can die from that emotional stuffing. And so I think that's what you're teaching too. But I love that you're teaching it from like, first, the emotional seems like the easier place, but let's talk about first what the physicality of it is before we hop into the emotional so you can have that more complete place.

Yeah, absolutely. It also, for me, like when I'm teaching and kind of guiding through women, women through this process to help them like be in their body and like physically touching their body or doing a specific movement or breath practice, or I have 6 different body practices that I help to like relieve the, the emotional and energetic and physical considerations related to the scar. Um, because we want to be connected with our body, be grounded, be kind of in ourselves while those emotions and that stuff is starting to kind of come up. So it doesn't take us into an ungrounded, kind of overwhelmed place. So that's another really good positive benefit of doing body practices for a woman, because you are spending time inside. We spend so much time in our mind, in our head, kind of up here in this This whole thing is about coming down and integrating.

Beautiful. What inspires you? Like, what inspires you beyond the fact that this is just awesome and like the whole world should know about it? But what inspires you to do what you do?

Yeah, I, without a doubt, just women in general inspire me so much. It's, it's, it really is just It's incredible to see what women are capable of and what happens when women go into these places, because there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of, you know, just kind of nipping by it. Like, I kind of want to do this work, but I'm afraid, and we don't quite land on it. And when we do, when we go in, it's like the transformation potential that women have is seriously incredible. Inspiring. Every single time I work with women and they start working and they kind of get to that place, I go, wow, that is amazing. Like, it surprises me every time. I'm like, that is incredible, because each woman is different. Like, each scar is different, and they have a, you know, the story in their life, their whole timeline is unique to them. And when you see them, like, taking on something like some of life's biggest struggles, taking it on, and then seeing how their life just starts to align after that. It just, it just gives me goosebumps every time. It's, it's just, it really is the best.

Yes, I, I, I feel you. I feel your connection with that inspiration. I feel the same way. Women are awesome. Like, that's just— I mean, I'm not partial. Like, I love men too, but I'm just saying women specifically are awesome. They're just so so wonderfully made, hence the name of the show. But, um, if someone were to decide, beyond like connecting with your, your, your community and being part of that and learning— by the way, it's a free Facebook group, though it'll be in the show notes— what is one thing that someone who may have a physical scar or an emotional scar that they can start doing today to kind of start the process of really getting into their body physically?

Yeah, sure. I would love to share this. This is really quite a powerful practice if it is done. You can do it on any scar. It usually takes anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes depending on you, and it's a 3-part practice. And the first part is just a— part 1 is a relaxing into which involves you setting yourself up in a comfortable place, like in your bedroom or your living room or wherever you feel safe. And you're going to sit or lay, and you're going to make hand or skin-to-skin contact with the scar. So hand to the scar contact, and you're going to activate the sense of touch. Senses— the sense of touch is the only sense in our body that's bidirectional, meaning it has healing capacity in going on a two-way highway where every sense in our body is just one way. So it's something we don't really engage and work with. And it's so powerful. So you're going to meaningfully connect and touch with your— connect with your body and then you're going to close your eyes. Phase 1 complete. Then you're going to pop into phase or part 2, which is gathering as much physical consideration as you can related to the scar. So like you said, it's gonna— you're gonna think about numbness, altered sensation, aversion. When stuff— like, a lot of women feel icky or just nauseous when they touch the scar. You want to gather as much as you can about that, as well as all the, like, ropiness, the tension, puckering, you know, pulling, all of that feeling into that. Is it hot? Is it cold? And then the third and the final part is to gather as much energetic and emotional consideration around it in those three phases that I spoke about. Which is everything that you can feel— the emotion, the energetic vibe of the situation, what you're going through at the time before the surgery or the event, during it itself, and then the after phase. And you're just kind of hanging out there, just most importantly starting to acknowledge the healing potential that is within that scar. That's what I want women to recognize, is that scars don't need to be places where we don't like, disconnect, detach, places where we feel like we have limitation and we can't do the things we wanted to do prior. I want you to feel and recognize that there's stuff in there that is totally workable and that scars really are like potential transformation hotspots where when that starts to move, when the physicality returns and all that Spider-Man's web is gone and the tissue is moving well and everything around it's moving well and all the emotion and energy that starts to come out when you start moving it, all of that is 100% workable. And it's a transformation potential that when you kind of rest in that, it feels so empowering. Like we were talking at the beginning, and it's just, it sets you on this kind of forward trajectory where you're kind of able to see your path in your direction, which again feels so good when there's— we're so often kind of in a world of confusion and disorientation. So that's the 3-part practice that you can do on every one of your scars. Definitely not all at once. Do them one at a time.

Yes, that would feel overwhelming.

Yeah, totally. But yeah, that's a powerful way to begin. I love that. I love that.

I'll have to tell you something after the show about that. But that's amazing. So for all of my ladies who are listening, like, what? This is crazy. This is amazing. I can't wait to learn more about it. Check show notes for like how to connect with Kendra for sure. But before we hop into asking you like where they can find you online and all that stuff, what has been the biggest mindset shift for you as a business owner doing this kind of work? What has been something you've kind of had to step into or reframe for yourself to really embrace the work that you are doing in your business?

I think it was moving from a, you know, clinical office, just me, tiny, you know, person in the door, person out the door, referral base in, in the town or places that I was working, and just working kind of small. And to step into this, uh, you know, people refer to me as the scar lady now. So just to really step into that role and provide this this education and this recognition that everything around your scar is an opportunity to transform, really just stepping into that role and offering that, that, that support and community for women has been a challenge. It has been something that wasn't— I wasn't really expecting. But once I made the decision to go one-to-many instead of one-to-one, I just haven't looked back. It's been some struggle, but I just— it's been such a nice journey.

That's really powerful what you just said, that, that shift of like from the one-to-one to one-to-many, that feeling like that challenge of like, can I, can I do that? Like, can I, can I do that? Is that the kind of the, the challenge piece of being like, can I, can I actually do that? So what was it for you like that was a challenge? Like, was it, was it just moving from the one-to-one or was it the feeling, the emotion of being like, I'm going to be teaching this to like more than one person at a time and also virtually, like what was the, the challenge at heart?

Yeah, I think the big thing was recognizing that the potential that's inside scars is really big and to hold that for people as part of their journey is a big deal. I had you know, recognize the importance of scars early on. But really, I've just started to step into the real kind of transformation potential. Like women, when they go through this process with me, so much comes up. It's not just, you know, working the scar physically and a really like tiny kind of isolated thing. Like their whole life changes. And to be that kind of support system was, was It was an interesting place to step into when I started doing my 6-month transformation programs. It was something that I was like, okay, this is— we're going all in deep diving with, with, with women. And it was, it was overwhelming at first because it means not only do they have to do what they need to do to really transform, I have to show up for them and really like, you know, I'll go as deep as you want to go. Let's jump off the diving board together kind of thing. Which was overwhelming, but it's worked out incredibly well. The results have been overwhelmingly positive. So it is— it's been a great learning experience for sure.

So if you were to give someone one piece of advice, like someone who's listening to this and still like, I don't know if I understand this, or someone who's like, I have this thing that I'm trying to do, but I'm not really sure if I'm, if I'm the one to do it. What would be your advice to them?

Yeah, my one piece of advice to that, because it does come up pretty often because we aren't too sure about scars and the healing potential yet, we haven't quite landed on, on that, or we haven't like felt that impact in ourselves. So a lot of this work is a lot less about doing and like trying to understand and like the mind wrapping around, kind of trying to control the situation. It's a lot of relaxing and almost letting go into the situation, which is scary. So my advice would be to just know that scar work can change and do big things. And that it is overwhelming and scary, and that's just okay. And that the way that I work with women one-to-one in my group, but also in my community, is so— is nothing shy of insanely supportive, because I know it— that's what it, what it takes at the beginning stages of some of a woman's transformation, of someone's transformation. So to just be okay with deep waters and scary situations. It won't be like that forever, but it, it feels like a lot at the beginning. I love that.

That's like a lot of things in life, but it's such a great piece of advice. Okay, so tell us what's new and exciting because you have some new exciting things coming, and probably when this airs it will be live, I think. So tell us a little bit more about what's coming up for your business and where we can find you on all of platforms.

Yeah, absolutely. So like I said at the beginning, I launched my website today, so that is incredibly exciting. Inside that website, there's a lot of resources. There's a free guide to like some notes of that 3-part practice that I just shared with you if you want to just, you know, have it close by and refer to it often. I also created a a course called Scars Matter, and it's inside my website. It's a $27 course that helps you really understand the importance of scars in these two categories of physical and emotional, energetic, which I hope is a huge helpful resource that can spread far and wide so that women understand the importance of scars. And then in a, in the kind of group way to work with me, You can work in my live-in program. The membership, I only open it up once a year. And so it's opening up and the registration ends the 15th of August, but it's going to open up again next year. I'll open up once a year and that's a full, long annual women's-only group membership to again work on transforming your scars and well-being. And then I have the one-to-one, which is the Radiantly Alive 6-month program, which is an incredible program. It's kind of how I've been working for so long, but it's just evolved into this, like I said, deep dive into a real transformation of your longstanding issues. And then, like you said, I got my Facebook community, which I'm incredibly active in. Uh, we go live twice a week in there talking about a single scar in particular. So women have been posting scars that they're interested in, and I've been just one by one banging them out, giving as much information as I can and offering a way to particularly work with that Scar. So that will continue. There's about 100 comments on there, so there's a lot of scars I got to get through.

Yeah, it's still happening. Yeah, well, because no one else is going to answer that question except for Kendra.

Yeah, totally.

Well, I am just really honored that you came on the show to share a bit of information with us. Um, so that we can kind of start along that path of seeing the importance and the empowerment of being with our scars, that they can create some transformation in the healing process and how it can really transform our lives. So thank you so much for coming on.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Nikita. It was really, really wonderful.

All right, y'all, that's a wrap. Thank you for listening, and I hope this conversation inspired you. Be sure to visit craftedtothrive.com to check out our show notes, connect with our guests, and grab some of those goodies. Join us for the next episode. And in the meantime, remember, yes, yes, yes, you are crafted to thrive.