Dr. Yvette's Blog
Inspiration and Encouragement for Your Personal Growth Journey
Stories and learnings from my own personal journey into deeper compassion, healthier relationships and nonviolent living. Please feel free to leave comments and questions on any posts; I love being in conversation with you.
Inner Work & Discernment
#148 From Triggered to Sovereign: Learning to Stay With Ourselves in a Harsh World
A single moment, a tone of voice, a brief interaction, can completely shift our internal state. In this episode, we explore why small moments hit ...
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Boundaries & Power
#147 How to Care Without Carrying: Sympathy, Compassion, and Emotional Boundaries
Understanding the difference between sympathy and compassion can transform our relationships. In this post, we explore how to care deeply without becoming overwhelmed, and how ...
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Relational Integrity
#146 How to Stay Kind Without Draining Yourself
Many of us have learned to equate kindness with availability, But over time, that equation can leave us feeling drained, resentful, and disconnected. In this ...
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Parenting & Family Life
#145 Trying to Be a Better Parent, But Still Sounding Critical?
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, I’m trying so hard to be a better parent… so why do I still sound critical?, you’re not alone. ...
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Relational Integrity
#144 How We Become Guarded, and How We Might Soften
Guardedness doesn’t come from nowhere. It forms in relationships where trust has been strained, needs have gone unmet, or emotional safety felt uncertain. In this ...
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Trauma Repair & Healing
#143 Healing in a Fix-It Culture
In a culture that prides itself on solutions, emotional healing can feel confusing. When our nervous system releases pain through tears, tenderness, or overwhelm, it’s ...
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Relational Integrity
#142 Why We Get Defensive
Understanding why we get defensive can transform the way we approach difficult conversations. Explore how defensiveness shows up in everyday interactions, as arguing, freezing, explaining, ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#141 Is it Possible to Stay Friends With My Ex?
After a breakup, many people wonder: Is it possible to stay friends with an ex? In Episode 141 of Conversations from the Heart, we explore ...
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Inner Work & Discernment
#140 What Matters Most When We Stop Rushing for Answers
There's a kind of listening that doesn't center itself around discovering an answer. Instead of resolution, it busies itself with connection.
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Trauma Repair & Healing
#139 Grief That Doesn’t Resolve: Staying Human in the Presence of Loss
There is no standard experience of grief. When the loss itself is ongoing, the experience of grief is often ambiguous, and this ambiguous loss often ...
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Social & Systemic Change
#138 The Relational Leadership Field Guide
This guide accompanies Episode 138 on the Conversations from the heart, and offers simple, repeatable tools leaders can use immediately to increase trust, accountability, and ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#137 Loving Someone in Crisis Without Losing Yourself; A Companion Guide
This episode explores how to stay grounded when someone criticizes you, especially if feedback triggers shame, people-pleasing, or nervous system overwhelm.
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Inner Work & Discernment
#136 How to Stay Grounded When Someone Criticizes You
This episode explores how to stay grounded when someone criticizes you, especially if feedback triggers shame, people-pleasing, or nervous system overwhelm.
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Inner Work & Discernment
#135 Caretaking vs Compassion
Caretaking vs compassion asks us to notice when empathy keeps us connected, and when it quietly pulls us away from our own truth.
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Inner Work & Discernment
#134 How to Let Go When You Still Love Them
How to let go when you still love someone means learning to grieve what never was and stopping the search for connection where it can’t ...
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Parenting & Family Life
#133 How to Help Our Kids (And Ourselves) Do Hard Things
A practical companion to Ep 133 of Conversations from the Heart Most of us want to help our children (and ourselves) grow into strong, confident, ...
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Inner Work & Discernment
#132 The Art of Softening a Walled-Up Heart: Practical Ways to Reopen to Love
Softening a walled-up heart isn’t about tearing down our defenses, but learning how to meet them with curiosity, compassion, and the courage to stay present.
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Relational Integrity
#131: When Anger Drives: Practical Ways to Stay Connected Instead of Afraid
Anger doesn’t need to be feared or suppressed; when we learn to meet it with curiosity, movement, and care, it can become a doorway to ...
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Social & Systemic Change
#130: Understanding Stigma: How Judgment Replaces Empathy in Modern Culture
When we equate human worth with productivity, stigma becomes inevitable. This episode unpacks how judgment toward disability and dependence is shaped by cultural conditioning—and how ...
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Inner Work & Discernment
#129 – How to Stay Grounded When Someone’s Coming In Hot
How to stay grounded around intense emotions and recognize a freeze response as useful information.
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Inner Work & Discernment
The Good I Am Waiting For is Already Moving Through Me
The good we are waiting for moves through us.
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Relational Integrity
#128 – How to Interrupt When Someone Talks “Too Much”
How to interrupt a conversation without guilt or defensiveness. Learn how to lean into connection even if it means disconnecting in the midst of inattention. ...
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Relational Integrity
#127 What to Say When Fear Is Running Your Relationships
What to say when fear is running your relationships. Learn how to check assumptions, ask for clarity, and choose courage over anxious stories.
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Relational Integrity
#126 Struggling to Connect with an Emotionally Unavailable Person? Practical Moves That Actually Help
When someone is emotionally unavailable, it’s usually not a lack of care or effort, it’s a nervous-system capacity limit, and no amount of better communication ...
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Inner Work & Discernment
#148 From Triggered to Sovereign: Learning to Stay With Ourselves in a Harsh World
A single moment, a tone of voice, a brief interaction, can completely shift our internal state. In this episode, we explore why small moments hit ...
Read more
Boundaries & Power
#147 How to Care Without Carrying: Sympathy, Compassion, and Emotional Boundaries
Understanding the difference between sympathy and compassion can transform our relationships. In this post, we explore how to care deeply without becoming overwhelmed, and how ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#146 How to Stay Kind Without Draining Yourself
Many of us have learned to equate kindness with availability, But over time, that equation can leave us feeling drained, resentful, and disconnected. In this ...
Read more
Parenting & Family Life
#145 Trying to Be a Better Parent, But Still Sounding Critical?
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, I’m trying so hard to be a better parent… so why do I still sound critical?, you’re not alone. ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#144 How We Become Guarded, and How We Might Soften
Guardedness doesn’t come from nowhere. It forms in relationships where trust has been strained, needs have gone unmet, or emotional safety felt uncertain. In this ...
Read more
Trauma Repair & Healing
#143 Healing in a Fix-It Culture
In a culture that prides itself on solutions, emotional healing can feel confusing. When our nervous system releases pain through tears, tenderness, or overwhelm, it’s ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#142 Why We Get Defensive
Understanding why we get defensive can transform the way we approach difficult conversations. Explore how defensiveness shows up in everyday interactions, as arguing, freezing, explaining, ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#141 Is it Possible to Stay Friends With My Ex?
After a breakup, many people wonder: Is it possible to stay friends with an ex? In Episode 141 of Conversations from the Heart, we explore ...
Read more
Inner Work & Discernment
#140 What Matters Most When We Stop Rushing for Answers
There's a kind of listening that doesn't center itself around discovering an answer. Instead of resolution, it busies itself with connection.
Read more
Trauma Repair & Healing
#139 Grief That Doesn’t Resolve: Staying Human in the Presence of Loss
There is no standard experience of grief. When the loss itself is ongoing, the experience of grief is often ambiguous, and this ambiguous loss often ...
Read more
Social & Systemic Change
#138 The Relational Leadership Field Guide
This guide accompanies Episode 138 on the Conversations from the heart, and offers simple, repeatable tools leaders can use immediately to increase trust, accountability, and ...
Read more
Relational Integrity
#137 Loving Someone in Crisis Without Losing Yourself; A Companion Guide
This episode explores how to stay grounded when someone criticizes you, especially if feedback triggers shame, people-pleasing, or nervous system overwhelm.
Read more