Send us your thoughts! Feeling exhausted despite rest? This episode explores the root causes of chronic burnout and compassion fatigue among women healers over 50, highlighting why rest alone often can’t help your body recover. Dive into how polyvagal theory and somatic healing shed light on nervous system dysregulation, alongside hormonal changes during perimenopause, that trap you in survival mode. Discover why boundary setting and self-compassion are crucial steps to recla...

Send us your thoughts! Are you a woman healer over 50 struggling with compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion, feeling like a "floating head of competence" while your body silently suffers? Your chronic pain, jaw tension, and restless nights are not just signs of aging but manifestations of your nervous system under stress. In this episode, we dive deep into the science of polyvagal theory and allostatic load to explain how your body physically metabolizes the emotional toll of caregiving...

Send us your thoughts! Have you ever driven to work thinking, “I can’t do this one more year”—and immediately felt guilty for even thinking it? That’s not weakness. That’s your body telling you the truth. In this episode, Dr. Julie names what so many women healers over 50 are afraid to say out loud—and explain why that thought matters. Stay with me to the end because I walk you through: The research-backed reason “sticking it out” is no longer neutral for your nervous systemThe energetic powe...

Send us your thoughts! Do you sit in your driveway for ten minutes after a shift just staring at the garage door? You aren't checking emails. You are hiding. You are dreading the moment you walk inside and someone asks you for "one more thing." You are the most competent person in the room but you have become a "floating head" who is completely severed from your own body. This isn't just exhaustion. This is a biological and spiritual crisis that bubble baths cannot fix. Standard self-care is ...

Send us your thoughts! Are you a woman over 50 in the healing professions feeling trapped by emotional exhaustion and high-functioning burnout? In this episode of Compassion Fatigue Cure, Dr. Julie Merriman explores the deeper roots of identity burnout influenced by the "Good Girl" conditioning that once served you but now contributes to compassion fatigue. Discover how your nervous system, through the lens of polyvagal theory, reacts to setting boundaries and why this survival instinct...

Send us your thoughts! Throw away the resolution list. Seriously. Burn it. You do not need to lose 10 pounds or "work harder" to be worthy of a good year. Today, we stop trying to "fix" you because you aren't broken—you just need to feel free. In this explosive finale of the Radiance Reset, we aren't planning your year with willpower, which usually runs out by January 15th. We are planning it with Soul Power. You cannot build a new life on an exhausted nervous system, and willpower alone is n...

Send us your thoughts! Who are you without the stethoscope around your neck or DSM, without the title "Mom," or without that "Clinic Director" badge? If asking that question makes your chest tighten or panic rise in your throat... good. That panic is just the doorway to the greatest adventure of your life. For decades, you have confused your worth with your paycheck and your role with your soul. But the rules are changing. You aren't fading away into retirement; you are finally finishing the ...

Send us your thoughts! When was the last time you did something absolutely pointless, not because it was "healthy" or productive, but just because it felt like fun? If you can't remember, your spark isn't just dim; it is suffocating under decades of duty. As high-achieving women, we have been brainwashed to believe that play is lazy. But neuroscience proves the opposite: play is the only thing that unlocks the rigid "survival mode" of your brain. If you feel numb, cynical, or like you are liv...

Send us your thoughts! Have you ever found yourself agreeing to a favor while your stomach was physically knotting up in protest? Or perhaps you have caught yourself apologizing to a patient or family member who was actively yelling at you? You aren't just "nice," and you aren't just a "people pleaser." You are reacting from the Fawn Response. This is a biological survival strategy where you instinctively "merge with the aggressor" to avoid conflict. While this mechanism may have kept you saf...

Send us your thoughts! Do you feel a sudden, white-hot rage when someone asks you to do something you used to say "yes" to with a smile? Society tells you that menopause is the end—the drying up, the fading away. Biology tells a different story. Biology says you are waking up. As the "caregiving hormone" (Estrogen) leaves your system, the veil lifts. You aren't becoming "difficult" or "bitter." You are entering your Truth Serum Era. The hot flashes and the intolerance for drama aren't symptom...

Send us your thoughts! You would never let a patient ignore a gaping wound, and you would never let a client starve themselves. So why are you committing that exact violence against your own soul every single day? Today, the doctor becomes the patient. We aren't talking about skipping lunch; we are talking about "Pathological Altruism"—the medical and caregiving training that taught you to view your own survival as secondary. If you feel cynical, hollow, and like you are just a "body" doing a...

Send us your thoughts! Do you lie in bed at night, body exhausted, but your brain is frantically grocery shopping, replaying patient charts, and worrying about your aging parents like a browser with 4,000 tabs open? You are secretly terrified that your forgetfulness is a sign of something serious. This isn't just insomnia, and it definitely isn't early-onset dementia. This is the Mental Load, and it is crushing your spirit. If you are a woman over 50, your brain isn't breaking—it is evolving....

Send us your thoughts! If you stopped fixing everyone's problems today—right this second—would you still feel valuable, or would you panic? If you hesitated, I need you to know something: You aren't just "kind." You are addicted to being needed. For 50 years, the "Good Girl" identity has ruled your life, convincing you that your worth is transactional—that you only matter as long as you are useful. But that identity is a parasite. This isn't service; it is a trauma response that turns your He...

Send us your thoughts! Do you walk into a room and feel like you have slowly turned into a ghost in your own life? Or perhaps you speak up in a meeting only to be talked over like you aren't even there. You aren't imagining it. The "Invisibility Cloak" of midlife is real, but today we burn it. If you have spent decades "keeping the peace" and fixing everyone else by swallowing your own truth, your Throat Chakra is closed tight. That literal lump you feel in your throat when you try to set a b...

Send us your thoughts! Resentment isn't just a bad mood. It is a biological poison. Every time you say "yes" when you desperately want to say "no," you are literally drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. If you are a healer suffering from unexplained inflammation or fatigue, you aren't just tired—you are under attack from within. Today, we tackle the ugly emotion you aren't supposed to feel. Resentment is "anger with a tuxedo on"—it is the rage you shoved down to be profess...

Send us your thoughts! Do you come home after a long shift, sit in your car, and feel like your soul has been scraped raw? You feel like you have absorbed every single ounce of your patient's pain, and no matter how long you shower, you cannot seem to wash the heaviness off. Dr. Julie needs you to listen very closely: That is not standard burnout. That is something far more dangerous called "Secondary Traumatic Stress"—a clinical injury to your nervous system caused by your own unchecked empa...

Send us your thoughts! Have you always prided yourself on being the one who "handles it well" while everyone else falls apart? You are the rock in a crisis, the calm in the storm, and the one who can endure impossible workloads without complaining. But what if that incredible capacity to endure isn't resilience? What if it is actually a sign that your nervous system is stuck in a permanent state of survival? For women healers over 50, high stress tolerance is often worn as a badge of honor. H...

Send us your thoughts! Are you finding it impossible to actually enjoy the holiday season because your brain is stuck in hyper-drive? You are obsessively managing everyone else's emotions, menus, and memories, all while you slowly burn out in the background. If the idea of sitting down to relax makes you feel anxious rather than peaceful, you are trapped in the role of the "Magic Maker." For women healers over 50, this constant busyness isn't a personality quirk—it is a physiological trap cal...

Send us your thoughts! Have you ever hit December and thought, "I swear I’m doing everything right, so why does this still feel like too much?" It is not because you are weak, and it is certainly not because you cannot handle pressure. That deep exhaustion you feel is the invisible emotional labor of the holidays landing on women healers over 50 with twice the force. For high-achieving women, the holiday season triggers a specific spike in decision fatigue, resentment, and overwhelm. You are ...

Send us your thoughts! If you’ve ever caught yourself staring in the mirror and thinking, "When did I stop feeling like me?"—this episode explains exactly why. Burnout and compassion fatigue in women over 50 aren’t caused by doing too much. They are caused by disconnection—from your body, your relationships, and your purpose. This is the piece no one talks about, and it is the hidden engine keeping you exhausted, overwhelmed, and running on survival mode for years. You aren't just tired; you ...