What if recovery isn’t about getting around our pain—but learning how to be with what we feel?
In this episode of Girl, Take the Lead!, Yo welcomes Lisa Ketcham-Hendrickson, somatic nurse coach and founder of Human Recovery.
Drawing on more than 30 years in emergency and trauma nursing—as well as her own journey through profound loss—Lisa integrates nervous-system regulation, yoga, breathwork, somatic practices, grief work, and wellness coaching.
Her work is rooted in the belief that healing is a process of coming home to ourselves—remembering the innate wholeness that has always existed beneath our conditioning, protective patterns, and the roles we have learned to carry.
Five years ago, Lisa’s understanding of trauma and grief became deeply personal when she lost her two oldest sons eight months apart to suicide and addiction. What followed was a healing journey that transformed not only how she understood grief, but how she understood recovery itself.
At the center of Lisa’s work is a simple but powerful idea:
We can’t heal what we don’t feel.
Together, Yo and Lisa explore what it means to come home to ourselves—to notice what is happening in our bodies, sit with discomfort rather than automatically avoid it, and learn to trust ourselves as a safe place again.
They also explore grief beyond the loss of someone we love. Grief can accompany transitions, changing identities, ancestral wounds, letting go of old coping mechanisms, and even experiences we consider joyful.
And perhaps surprisingly, making room for grief may actually expand our capacity for joy.
In This Episode, We Explore:
- Why trauma and addiction can be connected through our desire to numb discomfort
- What it means to “come home” to ourselves
- Why we can’t heal what we don’t allow ourselves to feel
- The grief involved in letting go of coping mechanisms that once helped us survive
- How we can honor what once protected us even when it no longer serves us
- Why grief can accompany transitions—including joyful ones
- How making room for grief may deepen our capacity for joy
- The importance of community in healing and recovery
- Ancestral grief and the many forms grief can take
- Becoming a safe space for our inner child
- How our bodies can help us recognize a nervous-system response
- Lisa’s sensory-journaling practice and the grounding question: “Am I safe?”
- Breathwork and somatic practices that can help us reconnect with our bodies
- Why healing and recovery are ongoing practices rather than destinations
About Lisa Ketcham-Hendrickson
Lisa Ketcham-Hendrickson is a somatic nurse coach and founder of Human Recovery.
Through Human Recovery, Lisa hopes to build community and create greater awareness of grief as a powerful and necessary part of healing. Her integrative coaching program is designed for people who are ready to come home to themselves beneath the conditioning, roles, and protective patterns they have learned to carry.
Connect with Lisa
Human Recovery: www.humanrecovery.life
Email: lisa@humanrecovery.life
Instagram: @human.recovery.llc
Facebook: Lisa Ketcham-Hendrickson
Upcoming Opportunities to Connect with Lisa
September 11–13: Keynote speaker at the Denver Yoga Summit
Beginning September 22: The Wild Edge of Sorrow — Embodied Book Club
November 12: New group cohort of the Human Recovery coaching program
Resource Mentioned
Francis Weller — The Wild Edge of Sorrow
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If this conversation resonated with you, share the episode with someone who might need the reminder that healing can begin when we give ourselves permission to feel.