In this deeply moving episode, Dr. Patty and Lizzie sit down with Jessica Malmberg, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist who brings both professional expertise and lived experience to supporting families through miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, and fertility struggles.

This conversation is medicine for anyone navigating perinatal loss, supporting someone who is, or healing from childhood grief that was never fully witnessed. We explore how grief lives in the body, how it shapes our parenting, why rituals matter, and how nature, community, and attachment all play vital roles in metabolizing loss.

In This Episode We Explore:

1. Why perinatal loss is uniquely painful: the invisibility of grief when others never met your baby
2. How to support children through sibling loss
3. The power of play therapy and sand tray work for kids processing death
4. Why anniversaries are so potent — and how to plan rituals around them
5. How attachment styles shape the way we grieve
6. The difference between isolating and intentional solitude in grief work
7. The myth that "being fine" is the goal — and why metabolizing grief requires both constriction and expansion

Favorite Episode Ideas

"Grief needs to be digested, like compost! It mixes with everything. We're starving from those nutrients. Composting grief can actually feed us."

"Our DNA is made for a village. That's how we're supposed to heal."

About Our Guest

Jessica Malmberg, LMFT, is a trauma-informed psychotherapist with over 25 years in the healing arts and extensive training in grief work with Francis Weller. She specializes in supporting women and families through miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, and fertility challenges. An infant loss survivor herself, Jessica integrates brain spotting, co-created grief rituals, and depth-oriented approaches to help clients restore grounding, meaning, and presence. She offers therapy, grief retreats, and professional trainings in Northern California and online.

Links & Resources

→ Jessica's website: https://jessicamalmberg.com

→ Follow Jessica on Instagram: @jessicamalmbergtherapy

→ Francis Weller's work on communal grief rituals

→ Sacred Treehouse programs: https://sacredtreehouse.org

If this episode spoke to you, please leave a review and share it with someone who might need to hear that their grief is valid, their baby mattered, and healing is possible — not by rushing through, but by allowing the depth.

Lizzie and Patty introduce an exciting new series launching this January: Foundations.

Rather than focusing on quick parenting tips, this series dives deep into attachment, bonding, trauma, and healing — exploring how our earliest relationships shape not only our children, but us across the lifespan.

Attachment isn’t built in one perfect moment. It’s formed over time through thousands of small interactions, ruptures and repairs, presence in exhaustion, and love even in the midst of grief.

In this episode, we share why this series matters, who it’s for, and how understanding attachment can bring clarity, self-compassion, and healing — whether you’re expecting a child, navigating fertility or adoption, supporting someone you love, or simply wanting to understand yourself more deeply.

This conversation sets the stage for a series that honors complexity, grief, resilience, and the profound possibility of breaking generational cycles.

• Expecting parents, adoptive parents, and those navigating fertility
• Parents in early childhood, adolescence, and beyond
• People healing their own attachment wounds
• Partners, fathers, family members, and support systems
• Anyone curious about why they relate the way they do — and how healing is possible

Healing is possible. Not just for what happened to you — but for what was passed down to you.

By doing this work, we don’t just change our own lives. We change our family lines.

Stay tuned for the Foundations series, and thank you for being part of The Bonded Podcast. Please leave a review to support the growth of this important educational and inspirational message!

In this tender Christmas Eve episode of The Bonded Podcast, Dr. Patty and Lizzie hold gentle space for one of the deepest human longings: to feel that life itself is a gift worth receiving.

For many who experienced early attachment wounds, trauma, neglect, or unreliable caregiving, being alive can feel more like a burden than a celebration. If you’ve ever carried a quiet (or loud) sense of “I shouldn’t be here,” “Life is something to endure,” or “I have to do it all alone,” this conversation is for you.

With deep compassion and lived experience, Dr. Patty and Lizzie explore how these early imprints live in the nervous system, how they can block our ability to receive love and care, and — most importantly — the real hope that healing is possible. This isn’t about forcing positivity; it’s about slowly softening, opening, and reclaiming the truth that your birth was, and is, a gift.

Key Themes & Takeaways

• Early attachment experiences shape whether life feels safe, welcoming, or threatening
• Common signs today: chronic self-protection, difficulty receiving care, deep shame, a sense of not belonging, or life feeling like something to “manage” rather than enjoy
• Healing isn’t about blaming parents
• Receiving is the gateway and often the first step toward feeling life as a gift
• Energetic and systemic healing can be profoundly gentle — no need to re-live trauma verbally; the nervous system unfolds at its own pace
• Mindfulness and self-compassion practices build inner trust and create safe space for deeper work

Upcoming Generational Healing Opportunity

If this episode stirred something in you and you’re ready to gently explore healing the mother wound in a safe, trauma-informed container, we invite you to join our intimate January 2026 workshop: The Love of the Mother with Maria do Carmo.

This full-day experiential gathering uses systemic and energetic practices (including elements of family constellation) to restore the flow of nurturing energy — no verbal re-telling of trauma required. Space is very limited for depth and safety.

Details & registration: https://sacred-treehouse.mykajabi.com/systemic-healing

We welcomed our first male voice on The Bonded Podcast, a South Florida therapist Joseph Lee, for a conversation that pulls back the curtain on what’s really going on inside men’s hearts and minds.

Joseph is an open book; he deeply believes in showing up authentically, and that’s exactly how this episode unfolded, raw, compassionate, humorous, and full of zero-shame insight. With warmth and deep respect for both masculine and feminine energies, we explore:

1. The light and dark sides of masculine traits
2. How pornography and modern hookup culture quietly reshape young men’s relationship with sex and intimacy
3. The biological realities that can make true emotional bonding harder after casual sex
4. Why “making him wait” can actually protect the space for real companionship and intimacy
5. The transformative power of pausing dating to heal and clarify your vision
6. The King & Queen dynamic: you attract what you embody
7. Why ghosting and emotional unavailability often aren’t personal
8. Practical, non-meditation ways to cultivate mindful awareness
9. How women can gently invite men into vulnerability

Whether you’re dating, partnered, or simply want to better understand the men in your life, this episode brings understanding, compassion, and real hope — plus actionable tools delivered with humor and heart.

Favorite Quotes

“Awareness is the currency of change and growth.”

“We’re all just lost little children doing our best to figure out this crazy existence.”

“In order to attract a Queen, you have to be a King.”

“Make him wait… because you want him to truly see you as a Queen.”

Connect with Joseph on instagram @Josephleecounseling

Private practice: https://josephleecounseling.com/home/

Affordable insurance-based telehealth: https://www.mindspatelemed.com/

Resources Mentioned

Date Like a Queen with Samantha Bove Ep.19

Sacred Treehouse mindfulness programs: https://sacredtreehouse.org

If this episode gave you new understanding or hope about yourself or the men in your life, please share it with someone else who would benefit from this message ❤️

As the holidays roll in with their Hallmark movies, family interrogations about your dating life, and the perfectly curated couple photos popping up on IG... this fear can hit hard: “I’m never going to meet my person.”

In this raw, warm, and deeply hopeful episode, Lizzie and Dr. Patty sit down with Reiki master, business intuitive, and Dating Queen Samantha Bove. Samantha takes us from her own days of fear-driven relationships and scarcity to now being divinely in partnership with her King and guiding hundreds of women to do the same through her program Date Like a Queen.

If you’ve ever felt punished by singleness, terrified you’re “too much,” or secretly believe all the good ones are taken — this conversation is medicine. DM us or leave a review on what wisdom you're taking away from today's episode!

In This Episode We Explore:

• Why the holidays amplify the “I’ll be alone forever” story (and how to use this season as a portal instead)
• The dangerous myth that “If I were really healed, I’d already have my person”
• Queen energy: what it actually feels like to receive, lead, set boundaries, and trust yourself unapologetically
• How receiving is actually giving (and why men need you to let them give)
• Healing the sister-wound so other women stop feeling like competition
• Dating apps as a spiritual practice

Favorite Sammi Quotes

“Singleness is not a punishment. It’s an invitation.”

“Receiving is giving. When you let someone help you, you’re giving them the gift of getting to be generous.”

“Great queens know boundaries aren’t to keep people out — they’re to protect the kingdom.”

About Our Guest

Sammantha Bove is a Reiki master, business intuitive, archetypal coach, and the creator of Date Like a Queen — the program that helps women release hidden blocks, embody their inner Queen, and call in their King (or Queen). After years of fear-based choices and deep personal transformation, she now lives in New York with the partner she manifested. She’s passionate about playful, creative healing and proving that the journey to true love doesn’t have to be hard.

Links & Resources

→ Date Like a Queen: https://www.samanthabove.com/datelikeaqueen

→ Follow Sammantha on Instagram: @samantha.bove

→ Sammantha’s podcast: She's Too Much

→ Sacred Treehouse programs & workshops: https://sacredtreehouse.org

In this heartfelt holiday episode, Dr. Patty welcomes her dear friend and co-owner of Therapeutic Oasis, Christie Caggiani — a registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, and eating-disorder specialist with over 35 years of experience.

Together they unpack why the holidays can feel so dysregulating around food (especially when you have trauma, attachment wounds, or a history of disordered eating), and how to move through this season with more kindness, presence, and trust in your body.

If family gatherings trigger old food rules, body comments, or emotional eating — this episode is your permission slip to do the holidays differently.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• How to stop the cycle of body & food shaming (especially with kids and teens)
• The #1 most important thing you can do for your nervous system this season
• How to cope with emotional eating without spiraling into guilt
• Practical ways to protect your peace at family gatherings (even when diet talk starts)
• Why “saving up” calories all day almost always backfires
• How to bring self-compassion to the table instead of perfectionism
• Simple cope-ahead strategies so you don’t have to white-knuckle it through December

Listen to the previous holiday survival episodes:

Ep.16 “When Holidays Feel Hard” with Dr. Vassilia Binensztok

Ep.17 "Holiday Survival Guide: 3 Quiet Hacks” with Lizzie Shutt

Download the guide HERE to carry the supportive hacks with you into the party!

If this episode helped, please share it with someone who dreads holiday food talk — it can be a very thoughtful gift you give this year ❤️

Leave us a review — it truly helps more people find the show and spread the message it's never too late to heal.

If holiday gatherings ever leave you activated, overwhelmed, or stuck in old patterns, this is the practical episode to keep in your pocket. In this solo episode Lizzie guides you through three discreet, powerful tools you can use at the Thanksgiving table, in the bathroom, or mid-conversation — no one will know you’re doing them.

You’ll actually practice each one during the episode so your body already knows what to do when the moment comes, tune in for:

• Using Mindfulness of Emotions and SUDS scale to address emotional dysregulation early
• The STOP skill — the pause button to keep your sanity
• Soothing Touch — to calm your nervous system with zero words
• The Self-Compassion Break — for guilt, shame, or negative self-talk spirals

FREE DOWNLOAD: Mindful Holiday Survival Kit cheat-sheet linked below

https://sacred-treehouse.mykajabi.com/pl/2148723154

Share this episode with a friend or family member you know will be navigating a challenging holiday season and leave us a 5 Star review to support these tools reaching others in the seasonal slumps (because you/we are not alone).

Explore upcoming classes and retreats at www.sacredtreehouse.org

In this episode of Bonded, Lizzie sits down with trauma therapist and author Dr. Vassilia Binensztok for a deeply compassionate conversation about why the holiday season can stir up so many emotional and relational challenges—and how you can genuinely support yourself through it.

Triggers around the holidays are incredibly common and often tied to old attachment patterns or childhood experiences, sometimes operating unconsciously. The first step toward healing is awareness: noticing the physical cues, emotional shifts, and reactive patterns that show up during this time of year. And because the holidays can pull on so many internal threads, boundaries—both internal and external—become essential tools for protecting your energy and staying grounded.

Whether it’s family conflict, old attachment wounds, grief, or the pressure to “feel festive,” this episode offers grounding, validating guidance for anyone who finds this season difficult.

• Nervous system signs that your body is preparing for stress—and how to recognize them early
• Practical strategies for building regulation and capacity during emotionally charged moments
• How mindfulness and self-compassion help interrupt shame and “should” thinking
• Creative ways to reclaim the holidays and make them your own—even if past memories are painful
• How to talk with partners and loved ones about boundaries, expectations, and emotional needs during this season

Dr. Vassilia Binensztok is a psychotherapist, trauma expert, writer, and founder of a group practice supporting clients across the lifespan. She specializes in complex trauma, relational wounds, anxiety, and somatic work—and brings a grounded, heartfelt approach to healing.

Private Practice: https://www.junocounseling.com/about-us/about-dr-binensztok

Surviving and Savoring Thanksgiving: https://citylifestyle.com/articles/surviving-and-savoring-thanksgiving