In this episode, I sit down with integrative psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and poet Brittany Robertson, LICSW, whose work centers on embodiment, liberation, and deep relational healing for “the strong sensitive one.” Our conversation moves quickly from her professional bio into something far more personal, playful, and unexpected: how a mini-trampoline became an essential tool in her therapeutic life, self-regulation, and resistance to professional compliance.
We explore the slow creep of disembodiment that so many therapists experience: the spell of seriousness, the pull of productivity, the dopamine hit of “getting to the next appointment,” and the ways early-career clinicians can confuse adrenaline for aliveness. Brittany names the cultural and institutional forces—capitalism, burnout, training norms—that can flatten clinicians and sever them from the playful parts of themselves.
What emerges is a rich conversation about compliance vs. creativity (a theme dear to this podcast). We talk about how systems groom us to feel “adult” through commutes, checklists, and policing our own embodiment—and how therapists often mistake being dutiful for being effective. Brittany beautifully describes how trampolining helps her practice a different truth: that play, silliness, and bodily curiosity are not indulgences but pathways back to presence.
She explains how the trampoline enables a kind of descending into the body—a gentle, respectful, non-urgent form of embodiment. Not a workout, not a performance, not progress. Just buoyancy, feedback, and the freedom to be “beautifully messy.” We even talk about the literal and metaphorical act of resisting gravity, and how the trampoline can function as a tiny rebellion against internalized compliance.
By the end, the trampoline becomes less a wellness gadget and more a symbol of something wider: the ongoing project of reclaiming play, resisting urgency, and making therapy a place where embodiment and aliveness can actually happen.
