Discover Your Inner Wisdom and Body Intuition On A Food Recovery Journey
Welcome to the Satiated Podcast, where we explore physical and emotional hunger, satiation and healing your relationship with your food and body. I'm your host, Stephanie Mara Fox, your Somatic Nutritional Counselor. Intuition has been fascinating for me. I first started getting into the mind-body connection through practicing and learning about yoga and yoga philosophy. In yoga classes, I would often hear teachers talking about trusting your intuition. To be guided by your intuition. But, what I rarely heard was descriptions of how do you know something is intuition. Is what you're feeling intuition or fear?
The more I learned about somatic work, the more I started to question the experience of intuition and where it comes from. When I finally discovered that intuitive processes are correlated with the activation of a part of the prefrontal cortex, called the orbitofrontal cortex, and that this part of your brain is diminished in activity after experience childhood trauma, I began to piece together that intuition is not something that everyone may easily be able to tap into based on their history.
So when more and more people started to come to me in my private practice telling me that Intuitive Eating didn't work for them, it made a lot of sense when we started to explore their past and how their unique body functions. Now, as I've said before and I'll say again, the brain is plastic and the nervous system can be rewired. This means that as you support your body in feeling safe to be here and live more and more of your life in the parasympathetic nervous system, your sense of intuition can become stronger.
I chat about intuition and more today with Katie Beecher. Katie is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Medical and Emotional Intuitive with over thirty five years of experience. Katie is featured in over 200 media outlets including Goop, Kourtney Kardashian’s website Poosh and Miranda Kerr’s Kora Organics Blog and has taught a weeklong workshop at the Omega Institute. She has a unique way of working with clients, creating a detailed, individualized, physical, emotional, and spiritual report and symbolic painting, before ever seeing them, talking with them or seeing a photograph, using only their name and age.
Katie’s first book, Heal from Within: An Intuitive Guide to Wellness is published by St. Martin’s Press. Using practical tools and techniques Katie uses in her own medical and spiritual intuitive readings, the book teaches you to be your own medical intuitive using Katie’s revolutionary, step-by-step process for connecting to intuition and spirit, finding self-love and empowerment as well as how to heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually. At the age of sixteen, without telling anyone including her parents, Katie contacted her pediatrician and began therapy for a severe eating disorder and suicidal depression. She has been healed for over 35 years.
We chat about the difference between intuition and fear, practices to strengthen your intuition, the healing power of movement and art, embracing your sensitivities, and important factors to include in your food recovery journey.
As a reminder, lots of exciting things are coming up over here. The doors to the Somatic Eating® Program open next week and my newest workshop Move Through Binge Urges and Binge Pitfalls with Somatic Eating® is happening next Wednesday. I will leave both links in the show notes to learn more and sign up.
Now, welcome Katie! I am thrilled to have you here today and to just share your unique lens from everything that you've been through with your body and food and recovery, and talk maybe a little bit about intuition today, I first would just love to get started of having listeners hear a little bit around your background and how you got to where you are today and the work that you're doing.
Katie Beecher 04:21
Sure. My recovery journey getting to know myself, all the above, I really consider it starting around age 16, when I faced the fact that if I didn't address the bulimia that I had, I was going to die, and also that I was in such a depressed state that I wanted to die. I didn't feel there was any hope or that I was ever going to get better, and so I had set up a suicide plan and all that. And I call it divine intervention, because I'm not really sure why it happened. I came home from school one day and decided that I was going to call our pediatrician and let him know what I was doing and ask for help. And I had never told anyone what I was doing. I didn't tell my parents, I didn't tell anyone. It was just, you know, I had a car and a job and I was ready. So it was 1983 so he was sort of like, oh, it's okay. You'll probably grow out of it. And I'm like, no. But, he gave me the name of a Jungian psychologist thankfully. It took me three months to get the courage up to call her. So for those of you asking for help, it's hard, right? But fortunately, it was a very good match, because Jungian stuff is very intuitive oriented. I could talk about my strange talking to dead people, and she didn't look at me like I had three heads. It was like, oh, tell me more about that. And just very accepting. And so for me, that style was essential, and she taught me how to connect to my intuition and my authentic self and how to connect to my body and the eating disorder and as everybody knows, you know when your life that you spend a lot of time out of your body and disconnected from it and hating it, you know, and hating the whole process. So this is in my book too, but I'm going to pass on one of my very favorite things, and it really helped me recover, and it's why I'm still alive. So thinking about intuition, not as something woo woo or weird or unaccessible, but as a loving force connected to unconditional love and acceptance. It's like having a best friend with you, like somebody who knows everything about you and loves you anyway, a protector, and even if you're by yourself, when you're talking to your intuition or connected to it, you're not alone. So many of us you know feel alone, and the more that you get what you need, your validation and information from your intuition, the less important it is what other people think or do or say. So that's kind of the setup for the whole process. And when I say intuition, I will get more into that what it means to but when I started, I just kind of talked to generic God. But it can literally be nature, somebody in spirit, anything. It doesn't matter like what you call it. So the process is to physically write out a question or your thoughts or feelings and direct it to whatever you call your intuition, and then whatever you hear or feel in response to what you wrote, write that down, and then write back to it. And then whatever you get write that down, write back to it. So you're having a written conversation, it can be five minutes, it can be 20 minutes, totally up to you. And the act of doing it in writing is really powerful, because you have to stop what you're doing to write. So even if you stand, you still have to stop what you're doing to write. So I like to call it a mindful meditation, because you're just in this moment, you're using your body to write with so that connects you to your body and ground you. And sometimes I just say, like, do you have anything to tell me? Because when you're so caught up, even if you don't have an eating disorder, we're so put up on our own agendas, or our fears or whatever, right it's really hard to get out of our own head and out of our own space, so it's just sort of okay, you know, world, whatever, do you have anything that I need to know right now or need to work on, or something that would benefit me? I do write questions or ask from information, from my intuition, sometimes I just start writing like word vomitand see where it takes me, especially if I'm feeling uncomfortable. But I can't really place the feeling, which still happens, been recovered for 35 years, still happens. And I just kind of, you know, ask like, what is this feeling? What is it about? What's going on in my body right now? So a really important thing that I get asked about all the time is, how do I know if it's my intuition or a voice in my head or fear or something I'm making up? Really important thing, because most of us are getting intuitive hits all the time, but either we push them down because it's too scary, or we don't trust them, but we don't trust ourselves. So when I'm doing the writing exercise, even if you get stuff that doesn't relate to what you wrote at all, you know you wrote out whatever, and you get pink elephant, write that down because the information is much less important than the actual source. And what I mean by that is, when we're not thinking or we have an addiction, you know, the food or the binging, or any of that kind of stuff, we're pushing down feelings. So if you have some time to yourself, thoughts and feelings are going to come to you. And that's really, really important, and it's good information. So whatever is there, write it down, no judgment, no pressure to even do it. You're just exchanging information. You'll kind of be able to sort it out the more you do it. But if it feels like fear, then write back to it and say, is this fear? Or if you get information like, I need to get out of the relationship I'm in, or I need to set boundaries, or I don't want to do this thing that I've agreed to, whatever it is. Just be really open and write back to it and say, you know, why is this scary? What are the blocks that I'm getting? What's one step I can do toward doing that scary thing? Or, you know, whatever, but just kind of be open to the process. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. And another really cool way to use this is write to your body, your eating disorder, the bulimia, the binge eating, whatever. Write to that as your friend instead of something that you have to be afraid of or get rid of, or something that's wrong with you. Of course, the goal is to heal, but to write to it and just be like, why are you here, you know? What do you want me to know? Why am I feeling so uncomfortable? Why is this happening now? Or why did this start now, or let it be part of your healing team, instead of something that makes you feel horrible or that you have to be afraid of?
Stephanie Mara 11:30
There were so many pearls in that. I think what I want to start with is, first, what I really hear is, I love that you pointed out how important it is to find someone on any recovery journey that you are a match with, because if you don't feel seen, held, understood, that you can share maybe the wildest things in sessions, and someone is just going to be like, yeah, tell me more about that, like your therapist did, like that just may not be the best fit, and it really is so important to find someone that you feel safe with, that your body can relax into sessions, because that's where like deeper healing occurs. So I'm so glad that you named that, and you know, I love how you took this conversation right into talking about intuition, because I know that that is something that gets so confusing, especially when you're struggling with food or connecting with your body and your emotions, is that one, food has come in to keep you specifically, usually unconsciously, intentionally, at a distance from your body, because your body has felt so unsafe to be in and to be in connection with that when you start coming closer, you kind of named this, that there may be this onslaught of emotions, of voices, of opinions, of perspectives, of ideas that starts coming in when you slowly start to connect with yourself, and it's like, okay, what do I listen to, what do I not listen to? What's intuition, what's fear? How do I know the difference? And so I really appreciate this suggestion of actually starting to write it out. And one thing that you named, which I find is so important that maybe you could speak more to, is that you don't have to do anything with it. You know, sometimes there's this pressure that once you intuit something, like, even if it's as simple as, like, I should go outside and get a fresh breath of air. Okay, I'm intuiting that maybe I need to get outside right now, but that doesn't mean that you have to do it right then in that moment, or respond to it immediately.
Katie Beecher 13:37
I love that you brought that up because I left something very important out of my description, which is that you don't have to feel like intuition controls you. You are always in control, even if you step back and allow intuition to be your friend and give you suggestions. And I always tell people, just let the information be there. Say thank you, and you may say back to it, this is great, but right at this moment, it's not happening. I'm not ready. I'm whatever. I promise to check in a couple days, you know. So I'm not ignoring you, not pushing you down. But yeah, absolutely, even though it does put pressure on us to make changes, and it makes us uncomfortable at times, it doesn't mean that we are not an active part of the process.
Stephanie Mara 14:29
Yeah. And the other reframe that you offered was to see even any impulse, urge, craving, whether that's food or otherwise, as your friend. And I know that kind of an old paradigm used to be to label it as an ED voice and to see it as the enemy that you have to get rid of. And I love that the field is slowly being updated that this is not your enemy. That it was created at a time of your life when you actually needed this ally, this friend. It's just not supporting you now anymore, like you named you realized, wow, if I continued to have this friend be a part of my life and take over everything, I might not physically be here anymore. And so I love that you're bringing in, like, we have to start to have a dialogue with it, where I always like to use the imagery of, like, taking it out of the driver's seat. You can be in the passenger seat. I'll have conversations with you, but you are not allowed to call the shots anymore.
Katie Beecher 15:35
Yeah. I mean, I really am so, it sounds cliche, but I am so grateful for my eating disorder. It was so important because it taught me how to separate from dysfunctional family stuff. It taught me how badly I felt about my body and myself and how disconnected I was from it. It's why I do the crazy, intuitive work I do today. It's why I became a therapist. There's so many really important things happened because of it that wouldn't have otherwise. And like, I tell people, sometimes other people's pain or your own pain might be the best gift you've ever received, because you have to make changes, good or bad, right? But you have to make changes. And so for me, that was the pain that I needed, and nobody could have done it for me if I had been sent to treatment, if I had been ordered to therapy, whatever, it wouldn't have worked, because I wouldn't have been enough pain until I was ready.
Stephanie Mara 16:37
Yeah, you know, I see that a lot when I used to be a little bit more in the like working at an outpatient eating disorder clinic, I'd see people just kind of be moved around in the system, like they go to inpatient, they go back to outpatient, they go back to inpatient, they go back to outpatient. And it can feel really difficult, because within the eating disorder field, I feel like it needs so much updating to meet a person with where they're at and to support someone in starting to come into that ownership of no one's going to do this healing for me, except myself and some individuals, like so much compassion here, that can feel like such a journey to get to that sometimes it's like, okay, well, all I can do is go to an inpatient clinic or go to an outpatient clinic, because at least I'm keeping myself alive and I'm getting some kind of support, and I'm maybe not ready to take ownership yet that like this is on me, and I'm the only one who can make the changes that I want to make. But I find that there is these missing pieces that you're talking about, of like reconnecting with the self in the process, and sometimes the journey is so focused on the eating behavior. And I talk a lotabout this in my work with Somatic Eating®, that it's so focused on the eating behavior that we miss seeing the wisdom to the eating behavior, and why is it happening? And how do we start to give your body what it is looking for in a food and non food way that feels more sustainable and more health promoting, or more, you know, emotionally regulating, than the food behavior itself, which is, you know, what it's trying to do is to regulate and to support us and feeling safe to be here.
Katie Beecher 18:31
Yeah, exactly. And I also feel like those atmospheres can feel like another form of control that other people or a system are telling us when to eat and what and what we can do and what we can't do. And I don't know about you, but my home was already way too controlling, and I needed to learn to listen to myself, like with my clients and stuff, I tell them, I don't want you to substitute my intuition for yours. You know, it's my job to help you, trust you, and you know, navigate where you're going, and you're not always going to be right, and you're not always going to be wrong. And some days are easier than other days, and it's up and down, but you have the answers within yourself, you know. And I'm just a support person. I love what you just said.
Stephanie Mara 19:22
I say something somewhat similar, of, I am not the expert of your body. You are the expert of your body. I want you to step back into being the expert of your body and to have that deeper communication with it, and I just get to be here as a support in that process. But yeah, I agree with you. So along with this kind of like writing out, having a conversation, seeing what comes up, I'm curious about your experience of intuition, and how you have discovered, I talk a lot here about how a lot of times our food behaviors are a response to past trauma and so how do we know the difference when it is intuition or when is it fear?
Katie Beecher 20:05
That's a really tricky one, because I don't look at anxiety as necessarily a bad thing. It's a warning. It's a survival mechanism, it's a pay attention, because you're doing something that is harming yourself, or you're around somebody or in a situation that's harmful. So intuition and fear can be one in the same. It's sort of discerning and asking that fear when it comes up, what is this about? Is this a warning? What is it? A warning of, you know, like our society is filled with so much anxiety, even health anxiety is just another obsession and another addiction, and anxiety can be another addiction. So it can be really hard to sit in it and sit with any pain that you're experiencing. But I have often said that one of the hardest parts of my recovery was learning to love and accept myself and to feel the good things and to give myself credit for things because the fear and the self hatred and the body dysmorphia, I had that down, but it was the oh, wait, maybe it's okay to not be perfect, and maybe it's okay to be good at something and want to shine, you know, so that authenticity is such an important part of the recovery and who we are and fear is part of being an authentic person.
Stephanie Mara 21:42
Thank you so much for that reframe. I actually completely agree with you. There have been things like big decisions that I have been faced with and noticed a lot of fear and a lot of anxiety, and what I sense, because I've been trying to explore what is intuition, how do I feel it? How do I know it?For like, a really long time. And I think I have especially found it fascinating, like, with a history of trauma, and having to heal that trauma response in my own body, of being like, yeah, what is intuition? How do I know what this is like in my own body? And that I agree with you, that if I'm feeling anxious about something, or overwhelmed, or scared about moving towards something that is also intuition. And sometimes those things get kind of like a bad rap, so to speak, of you know, like, oh, you just have to get over your fear so you can get to your intuition rather than sure, this may be something that I might want to do at some point, but fear is also telling me, like you said earlier, not now, this isn't something that my body, my psyche, whatever is ready for in this moment, and if I try to push through that, I'm actually going to end up potentially harming myself and not listening to myself, that even if this is something I want to move towards, it can't be at the pace or the time frame that I'm putting myself on, or that I may want it and may never be ready for it, and that's okay too.
Katie Beecher 23:16
It is. I have a hint for people who are struggling with listening to their intuition. Words can really be a lot. Words can, you know, mess with us. We can interpret them. We can overthink them. So I'm a huge fan of symbolism and movement. And movement is a form of symbolism, because you release things that have been stored or there now, but doing maybe creative exercises. And it doesn't matter if you're an artist or not, you know, but part of my readings involve an intuitive soul painting, and it's partly because when I do my reports, I've learned not to interpret it like a human, but I'm a human. So sometimes, you know, I can over think, but when I do my paintings, it's just colors and shapes and feelings, and so I don't have those words that I can manipulate and mess with. And that's why art therapy, movement therapy, I just really, really encourage for people with body dysmorphia, eating disorders, anything, it's non threatening, and it's calmer and it's more primal. So you can do so much work without even really realizing you're doing it. You know, so much processing, and you don't have to relive in words or images, necessarily, the trauma that you've experienced in order to work on healing.
Stephanie Mara 24:47
I love that. I mean, what you're pointing to is a little bit of somatic work of we have to get out of the interpretation of how we're feeling, to try to find, always the, how do I describe this? Or, you know, what is it that I'm feeling? Can I, you know, put it into words? And what you're talking about is tapping into more of the creative, non analytical parts of our brain to move, to create art, to work in a more non linear way, to discover what it is that we might be feeling. I'm curious, even as you look at a painting that you did, is there a process that you go through of interpretation afterwards, or do you even question the interpretation that comes up afterwards as well? Because, I mean, you can keep going with that, right?
Katie Beecher 25:39
Yes. No, as part of the reading process, I interpret the painting for my clients, and I just literally listen to my guides, and whatever comes out is what's there, and I get their feelings about it. You know, what does this make you think of and it's kind of lovely, because sometimes seeing things on words that they've never told anybody, like being sexually abused or something like that, right? I don't really like to put those words down, because I don't want to re traumatize people, you know, we've never talked before. So my guides can put red, you know, around the womb area or the hips or something like that. And it's almost like instinctively, they know, yeah, that's signifying some of the trauma that happened to me related to that area. So it's such a powerful process. And I also want to say experiences that we have, especially trauma, most of the time, they don't happen in words. I mean people saying mean things to you or something, those are words, but, but it's a visceral experience. You know, abuse and all that, like it happens to our entire bodies and our psyche and our energy. So words aren't always the best way to process things that happen to our entire being.
Stephanie Mara 26:57
I completely agree with that. You know, I find it's kind of an ebb and flow of like, how do we very slowly start to be with the body more, and our brain a little bit less of the words and the interpretation, and then bring in the interpretation when maybe we need to. But you know, there's more and more research that is coming out about how things like martial arts and Tai Chi and ecstatic dance and all sorts of other different ways to move in our body that actually is sometimes more supportive for trauma healing than just continuing to talk about what happened, where sometimes then your body's reliving it and you're retraumatizing yourself.
Katie Beecher 27:41
It's so true. And to throw this out, I do pole sport. I am a pole dancer, and, you know, I've won two national competitions in my, you know, age and ability level.
Stephanie Mara 27:52
Cool!
Katie Beecher 27:53
I have to say, like my family laughs at me because they're like, before you started pole, you wouldn't even get into a bathing suit. And I, you know, it's just like my body dysmorphia, right? And I actually weigh now because I have more muscle, and in order to do things on a pole, you have to wear the equivalent of bikini, because you have to stick so and in front of people. And I have an Instagram account, and I've competed, right? So doing that has just made me feel stronger, physically and emotionally. I have a really supportive group of friends. I feel better about my body than ever before. I'm doing movement that, for the first time ever, isn't related to how much I ate or what I weigh. I love it so much that I just want to go to class just that is so freeing. And I'm 60 years old, I don't have whatever is considered to be a perfect body, and that's okay. I really encourage everyone to do something like that, even if you don't feel strong now, you'll build up the strength.
Stephanie Mara 28:56
Yeah, what I hear in that is also kind of the difference between, like, forced or societally expected movement compared to, like intuitive movement of when I move in this way, if I check in with how it feels, rather than looking for the external look of, is this movement giving me the look or the shape that I have been taught I should have compared to is this making me feel the way that I want to feel in my body, which is nourished, lit up, empowered, you know, excited, and that you genuinely enjoy the movement that you're doing, because that is going to make such a big difference. And I find that is a quality of just bringing back of intuition is, does it bring you closer to yourself? If you are listening to yourself and paying attention to yourself, that even validating, I am scared to do this, and I'm not ready for this yet, that's you intuiting this is what I need is to not do this, rather than I think sometimes what we're taught from previous forms of psychology is like you just gotta bust through, and fear is in the way, and you always have to get out of your comfort zone, you know, I was actually just watching a show recently that was talking about how if we move too far outside of our comfort zone, we actually go into our panic zone, rather than staying a little bit closer to our comfort zone, which can be more of our learning zone, of like we don't have to push ourselves so far out of what is comfortable to ourselves, because that's not going to be helpful either.
Katie Beecher 30:32
Right. And to do it gradually. And I also want to talk about the importance of physical and emotional strength. A lot of healing from trauma is this fear that you're going to be vulnerable again, or something bad's going to happen again, and you won't have any control over it. And yes, that can happen in life, but I know that when I go to the store, I can lift my own 40 pound bag of mulch, thank you very much, and I don't have to ask for help. I don't have to feel vulnerable. If, you know, God forbid something happens, I have a fighting chance of fighting somebody off, you know. So that physical strength also helps you feel emotionally stronger and safer.
Stephanie Mara 31:16
Yeah, and, you know, I feel like that's where sometimes, like you've been talking about of you've navigated body dysmorphia, where it can get so confusing, of coming back to the felt sense of what you're doing, of, am I like lifting weights or doing pole dancing or any kind of physical movement, because that's what I think I should do. Or this internally is helping me feel strong, that I feel like I can navigate more of life, and that's actually supporting me in feeling more empowered in my life. And that's kind of how I want to feel based off of my history of not always feeling safe or an empowered person. So I love that you're bringing that in is that I find that a lot of these kind of, like healing modalities, there's so much shame of, am I doing this right? Or what's the right thing for myself? Or, you know, how do I heal in a way that's like the most I don't know, like ethical way for me to heal from an eating disorder or body image struggles? And it's like there is no right way. It has to be what feels best to you. And I've seen so many different approaches be supportive to different people, but like we're pointing to today is that it is kind of coming back to your body, yourself, of am I intuiting that this is the best thing for me? And if the answer you get back in that moment is yes, go forth, and if at any point in time it starts being a no, then it's time to pivot.
Katie Beecher 32:43
Yeah. And also, there's so much judgment from others or as empaths, sensitive empaths, who are often the people who have addictions and eating disorders, right? We were taught to care too much about what other people think. So if your healing means that you're going to take care of you more and maybe not do so much for others, and it might irritate them or make them angry, or you might get a guilt trip, you know, that's part of healing, and that's really not your problem, but it's a huge adjustment, because then you feel like, you know, you have abandonment issues or other things. So much stuff comes up from that, but I found that learning to set healthy boundaries and giving myself permission to say no without needing to be sick, for example, right? Such a huge part of healing from the trauma and eating disorder stuff.
Stephanie Mara 33:37
Yes, thank you for bringing that back around. I was actually going to say something earlier, so you brought back a thought that I had was, you know, I had Anita Johnston on the podcast a while ago, and she wrote the book Eating in the Light of the Moon, and something that she talks about is how often those who struggle with food live in such sensitive bodies. That's what I heard you also pointing to as well, of that a lot of the times you're living in such a and I don't say sensitive in the way that we have societally put such stigma around, like, don't be too sensitive, or all these things. It's like you have an exquisitely sensitive body that potentially picks up on so many things that other people are not picking up on and that what you grew up around, didn't know how to hold space for that. Like, I know I got that a lot. I got that a lot as a kid of Stephanie stopped being so sensitive, and it took me a really long time to, like, reclaim my sensitivity as a gift. And like, it's what even like the people I work with, you know, prize the most about me is my sensitivity and what I pick up on and what I'm observing. And so, you know, I think that there's something that kind of, sometimes the focus on food and body image is trying to protect you from that sensitivity that you've ultimately been taught is wrong, but we kind of have to update the story around that that actually this is such a wonderful thing about you and I'm wondering if you went on a similar journey of, how did you reclaim, kind of your own sensitivity for yourself?
Katie Beecher 35:14
Oh my gosh, absolutely. And to piggyback on that too, just to mention, it's no accident that neurodivergent people and people with, I happen to have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It basically makes your body and energy extra sensitive, so you dissociate from your body and lots of other things. So I don't think it's any accident that those of us who are more empathic and sensitive, including having sensitivities to things, you know, like more things bug us. I don't think there's any accident there at all. And I really did have to get to know myself in a different way, because it was always, you know, you're overreacting or whatever, and growing up in a home where people don't talk about things, and there's denial of dysfunction, and there's already that kind of, you know, shut up and stay over their voice because no one wants to hear it. So it's a whole combination of things, but being super sensitive has been really difficult, and so some of it was building up a bit of a tolerance and deciding what was really important and what I needed to react to and maybe what I could reframe. But I've come to see it as a strength in a lot of ways, as long as I don't go down the rabbit hole sometimes. But you know, we are who we are, and I'd rather be a sensitive person than an uncaring person any day.
Stephanie Mara 36:45
Yeah, absolutely yes. And I agree with you that I feel like sometimes when so much of like our natural selves, our authentic selves, are kind of viewed as the wrong way to express yourself in the world. It's like, you know, okay, well, maybe if I try to look the right way, or maybe if I try to eat the right way, like, then I'll feel like I belong, I love that you're bringing up, just kind of this, you know, neurodivergence is that, I think more and more research, again, than I've been reading, is bringing out just that a lot of individuals with neurodivergent brains struggle in their relationship with food, and I find that if we could maybe create this is a much bigger picture. If we could maybe create a society that met all neurotypical and neurodivergent brains in all of their uniqueness, and that everyone was supported and welcomed and appreciated for all of their uniqueness in their own way that, you know, maybe food and body image concerns could decrease because we're not trying to be something that we're not.
Katie Beecher 37:55
I love that so much. I mean, we're living in a society where it's hard enough to just be a different color or a different whatever different means, other than, you know, white and male or something. So it's so sad to me, because what you're saying, I just think the basis of like, love and peace and decency, you know, and not to mention self acceptance and feeling okay about who you are in your body.
Stephanie Mara 38:23
Yeah, and from everything you share today, I really hear like to get back to a place of relationship with self, intuition with body. It is such a journey, and so you've offered a lot of really great tools along the way today, of like journaling, movement, conversation, I'd love you to share a little bit more about what these paintings are that you were referencing, and any other baby step you feel would be supportive to people to start to practice connecting with their intuition.
Katie Beecher 38:53
Sure, so for anybody who is watching, covering up the name, but this is just one example of an intuitive painting that I create, and everything, every color, everything, has significance when I get that kind of a blue, curvy area inside of the gut, that's often my signal for people who are picking up their own and other people's emotions in their guts. You know, that's just one example. And in my book, I teach people how to make their own intuitive soul painting. And there's a little bit of reluctance, because they're like, well, it's gonna look dumb, or I'm not artistic. Well, what I just showed you looks like a five year old did it. So, you know, this is not an art contest, and as you are doing it, because I'll do it for myself too, just the process of being calm and being present, I get information that comes through thoughts or feelings or intuitive information, because you are distracted in a good way from life. So it's really kind of a magical thing that you can do for yourself. You know, even if you go outside and make a sculpture out of leaves or whatever you do watching ants, literally does not matter, but just getting yourself out of the anxiety state, or the, you know, highly sensitive state, or something like that, even making a figure of yourself in painting form. It's a totally different way of looking at your body parts, for example. They're weird colors and so, you know, not the same kind of judgment we usually have when we look in the mirror, for example. But I really encourage people to do something that they love, that's creative, maybe something they've never done before. So there's not the judgment of the end product. It's a wonderful just way to calm your nervous system and have a little fun. We're all so serious.
Stephanie Mara 40:47
Yeah, I love that, because even doing it with your non dominant hand, like, I'm wondering if you've ever played with that of, like, really get out of the like, adult mind frame of, I have to do this right or perfect, and being like, okay, can I get out colored pencils and crayons and paints and things and like, how do I tap into something totally different in my body of even, like, if I was still a kid, how would I see my soul on paper, and how would I draw that and color that and be that? I love that suggestion, because it does kind of tap you back into who you know yourself to be, rather than maybe who you think you should be.
Katie Beecher 41:29
Oh my God, that's absolutely so true. And just like being a kid, you know, having fun, sometimes that can bring up things you haven't thought of in forever, and maybe it's something that unconsciously has been blocking your healing. You know, you don't really know but, but I do know that when I try to be a control freak and push my agenda, which, you know, we're human, it happens that does not work. So it's a nice way of letting go.
Stephanie Mara 42:00
Yeah, were there any other final suggestions that you would offer listeners of any practices that you have found supportive to start to connect with the body and intuition inside of themselves.
Katie Beecher 42:11
Not necessarily practice, per se, but I wanted to bring up what you said about finding someone to work with that you're comfortable with. It can be really tough, and I think that finding someone who has had experience in what you're dealing with, it's not a deal breaker, but I think it's can be really important, and somebody who is accepting of you and really listens, and I think that the intuition, authenticity piece is very, very, very important. But you know, don't be afraid to be like this isn't working, and let people, let your therapist, or whoever you know, let them know, and it's not a failure on your part. It can be really hard to find a good match sometimes.
Stephanie Mara 42:59
Yeah, thanks for bringing that back around. It does sometimes take time, and I love that you're also bringing up how important it is to ask for what you need with those you're working with, because that also is a practice of, usually when you're struggling, maybe with food or body that your voice has, as we're talking about, been suppressed, and so even sometimes being in the practice of asking those you're working with, of you know, I'd love you to do more of this, or I'd love more of that in my session, or this isn't working for me, or didn't like the way you responded there, is actually strengthening the bond that you have with the person that potentially you want to continue working with. And so I agree with you. I find that so important to even see, can this person that I'm working with meet my therapeutic needs.
Katie Beecher 43:44
Right. And we're all different, so you know, that's okay. And also, you can get different things from different people, like do art therapy, movement therapy with another therapy, for example, or whatever works for you. You know, don't be afraid to combine things.
Stephanie Mara 43:59
Yeah, I call it creating your self care team. So sometimes, you know you need many different kinds of practitioners that you're working with to really create the team that's going to hold all of your needs as a human being.
Katie Beecher 44:12
As well as your intuitive guides who are always there for you. And you may not know what they look like or have their names or any of that kind of stuff, but we all have them. They're always there.
Stephanie Mara 44:24
Yeah, such a lovely addition, and I just loved our conversation today. Thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom. And I'm wondering how individuals can keep in touch with you and your work.
Katie Beecher 44:36
Sure, so the easiest way is my website. It's Katie Beecher, B, E, E, T, H, E, R.com, I'm on Insta and and all the things as Katie Beecher medical intuitive, but yeah, probably the most central way is through my website. You can get me on all the other things through that.
Stephanie Mara 44:55
Amazing. Well, I will put all of those links in the show notes. And thank you so much again for being here and having this conversation.
Katie Beecher 45:01
Absolutely my pleasure. I really enjoyed it.
Stephanie Mara 45:04
Yeah, well, to everyone listening as always, if you have any questions, email me at support@stephaniemara.com. I always love connecting with you all, and I hope you all have a satiating and safety producing rest of the day. Bye!
Keep in touch with Katie:
Website: https://katiebeecher.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiebeecher_medical_intuitive/