Shows
Phoenix LessonsBe Brave, Not Perfect with Amanda & CamiSend us a textDo you have a goal, resolution, or “focus” guiding your year? Even with the best intentions, what happens when you miss a day or fall off track? Cami and Amanda share an honest, uplifting conversation about staying focused on what matters, finding grace when you stumble, and getting back up after a setback—or even a complete reset. Plus, don’t miss one of our favorite TED Talks mentioned in this episode for an extra dose of motivation.Support the show
2026-02-0625 min
Phoenix Lessons"You'll never earn more than minimum wage!" with Kristi Lyn ReddySend us a textKristi Lyn Reddy is one of the strongest women we know—and we know a lot of strong women. She rescued herself and her daughter from domestic violence, built a successful real estate business, won a hard-fought battle with cancer, and recently returned to school to reinvent herself and rise once again. Find her at BalancedLivingTherapy.com for therapy, KristiLynReddy.com as an author, and ReddyRealEstateTeam.com for real estate. Support the show
2026-01-1650 min
Phoenix LessonsSetting Goals with Cami & AmandaSend us a textGoals? Resolutions? Bucket lists? How do we decide what’s actually worth chasing—and what “success” even looks like for us? In this episode, we explore how to set meaningful goals, define our own finish lines, and create realistic plans to get where we want to go.Support the show
2026-01-0239 min
Phoenix LessonsWhat We Can Learn From a Wills & Trusts Attorney About Loss and Life with Amelia HeathSend us a textWills and trusts attorneys sit at a rare intersection of law, family, and mortality. They see the practical realities of what happens when someone dies—but also the emotional, often messy human side of it. From that vantage point, someone like Amelia Heath can offer remarkably grounded wisdom about both grief and planning. Support the show
2025-12-1943 min
Phoenix LessonsAren't You Over It By Now? with Cami & AmandaSend us a textIt’s incredibly painful when your grief is still raw but the world around you seems to have moved on. That mismatch—between your inner reality and others’ expectations—can make you feel isolated, defective, or misunderstood. But nothing is wrong with you. Grief is not linear, it does not follow schedules, and it certainly does not obey other people’s comfort levels.Support the show
2025-12-0536 min
Phoenix LessonsBeyond Belief: Finding Choice After A Cult with Debbie McNultySend us a textDebbie has spent much of her life untangling the knots of shame and blame—trying to understand what truly belongs to her and what never should have. While the answers might seem obvious to some, they become far more elusive when you’re raised in a toxic spirituality that insists you’re always at fault. From the clothes she wore to the abuse she endured, the cult-like faith of her upbringing constantly turned the blame inward. But in the ashes of that pain, Debbie did the hard work—learning to lay down what was neve...
2025-11-2144 min
Phoenix LessonsBeyond Belief: Homelessness to Holiness to Wholeness with Mindi RivinSend us a textMindi Rivin spent much of her adolescence searching for herself on the streets, navigating instability and hardship. Eventually, she found safety and a sense of purpose at a local community college, where she began to rebuild her life. As a young adult, she became engaged—only to be confronted with the unexpected: her fiancé announced they would be living under the strictest tenets of Orthodox Judaism. Faced with yet another extreme, Mindi had to reckon with the chaotic forces of her past and the rigid expectations of her future. Through this journey, she dis...
2025-11-1448 min
Phoenix LessonsBeyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme ReligionsSend us a textWhat happens when women walk away from extreme religion? Beyond Belief, edited by Cami Ostman and Susan Tive, shares powerful, personal stories from women who left rigid faith communities. These narratives reveal not only the control and misogyny often embedded in religious orthodoxy, but also the deep allure—belonging, purpose, and spiritual meaning. Honest, raw, and reflective, this collection explores the courage it takes to leave—and the complexity of what’s left behind.Support the show
2025-11-0727 min
Phoenix LessonsFaith, Fire, and Freedom with Ronna RussellSend us a textRonna Russell is a two-time author (The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher’s Kid, Scold's Bridle) and visual artist. Ronna talks with Cami and Amanda about her multiple times through the phoenix cycle finding her faith, her fire, and ultimately her freedom. View her art and follow Ronna on Instagram @scrapartcrone.Support the show
2025-10-1742 min
Phoenix LessonsLet's Talk About Sex with Cami & AmandaSend us a textWhy is it so hard to talk about sex? And if it’s such a struggle, why do we keep coming back to it? This universal experience often leaves us questioning ourselves, our desires, and our relationships. What messages did we absorb as children that now keep us silent—afraid, ashamed, and stuck in the dark? It’s time to flip the switch, break the silence, and find some real freedom.Support the show
2025-10-0326 min
Phoenix LessonsLiving Your Best Life On the Road w/ Kyle FirstenbergSend us a textKyle Firstenberg has lived through a series of Phoenix moments—periods of profound transformation where life demanded he rise from the ashes and reinvent himself. Each chapter forged a stronger, more intentional version of who he is. The result? A man who now chooses his path with clarity and courage. Today, Kyle lives life on the road—traveling, seeking adventure, and helping others experience the fullness of life through their own moments of discovery and reinvention.Support the show
2025-09-1937 min
Phoenix LessonsGet Out of Your Comfort Zone w/ Cami & AmandaSend us a textAmanda and Cami explore how stepping out of your comfort zone can open your eyes to new possibilities, help you get unstuck, and move through the ashes of what’s no longer serving you. One of their favorite tools for transformation? Travel—not the vacation kind, but real, perspective-shifting travel. Tune in to hear how shaking up your surroundings can help you shake things loose and move ahead with clarity and purpose.Support the show
2025-09-0534 min
Phoenix LessonsThank God She's Cute: A Mother/Daughter Journey with Special Needs ~ Jenn DrennanSend us a textJennifer Drennan is a 23-year critical care nurse and the mother of a special needs,disabled and autistic teenage child. When Jennifer’s daughter, Caitlyn, was born in 2010 with congenital, stage 4 cancer, Jennifer was unexpectedly thrust into on the other side of the healthcare spectrum, a totally unfamiliar world of having to learn how to parent and advocate for her medically complex child. Jenn had to navigate through the grief, anger and guilt-ridden resentment of the ashes, eventually discovering that, in order to find peace and joy again, she must ask for he...
2025-08-1554 min
Phoenix LessonsBad Bargain We Make with Cami & AmandaSend us a textWe all make bad bargains. We stay in relationships for security or stay in jobs for fear of change while living with consequences that are just too high. Bad bargains keep us stuck in the ashes and make it almost impossible for us to move forward and soar again. How do we break these bad bargains? How do we even know we're living with a bad bargain? Cami and Amanda walk us through the process.Support the show
2025-08-0134 min
Phoenix LessonsSlow Down! How One Rock Climber Got Her Feet on the Ground ~ Keely CarolanSend us a textKeely Carolan, a twenty-three year old rock climber and climbing coach, nearly lost her vocation and avocation when her body started to break down. Instead of giving up her dreams, she learn how to slow down, listen to her body, and embrace life at a new pace. You will be encouraged by her story of rising from the ashes to living out this new wisdom so early in life.Support the show
2025-07-1829 min
Phoenix LessonsHow Music Saved My Life with Cami & AmandaSend us a textCami and Amanda talk about times and ways music helps them tap into their deep joy. When we are sitting in the ashes, we often distract ourselves from the pain and discomfort, which can be health... to a point. Learn the difference between distraction and turning your attention to the under-current of passion within you.Support the show
2025-07-0328 min
Phoenix LessonsSigns of Life with Shannon KnightSend us a textShannon Knight is a psychotherapist, host of The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, and the creator The Symposium, a community of tarot and psychology. Can you use symbolic tools to help you through the ashes? Shannon is also the author of two work books, with a third coming soon: Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow exploring shadow work through tarot. Support the show
2025-06-2047 min
Phoenix LessonsHaving the Hard Conversations with Cami & AmandaSend us a textHow do you talk to your beloved aunt about politics? What do you do when a good friend says something you cannot imagine they believe? We live in polarizing times. But that doesn't mean we have to lose out on relationships which are important to us! Cami and Amanda riff on ways to help with the most difficult conversations. Support the show
2025-06-0639 min
Phoenix LessonsAt The End of My Hope with Cami and AmandaSend us a textCami and Amanda talk about what how even the helpers need help from time to time. Where do you turn when hope that you have held onto (sometimes for ages) in a certain area fades away? How do you know when to let go of hope and look for another answer? Info on the group coaching program at phoenix-lessons.comSupport the show
2025-05-3045 min
Phoenix LessonsTaking Risks in Life and Business with Brooke WarnerSend us a textBrooke Warner is passionate champion of authors and co-host of the Write-minded podcast. She started her publishing career in 2000 and worked for traditional publishers for 13 years. In 2012, she left her job as Executive Editor of Seal Press to co-found She Writes Press. She tells the story of why she left traditional publishing in her TEDx talk: “Green-Light Revolution.” Find out more at brookewarner.comSupport the show
2025-05-1634 min
Still WithinCami Ostman on Living an Aligned LifeCami Ostman, therapist, author, runner and founder of The Narrative Project and the Phoenix Lessons joins me on this episode to explore how the stories we carry shape our lives. We discuss leaving things that are out of alignment, breaking free from limiting narratives, and rising from the ashes to transform. In this conversation, Cami honors how hard life can be, reflects on what it takes to change (particularly when it comes to attachment wounds), and what is at stake if we let the parts of ourselves holding us back run us. We discuss practices to help tune into our...
2025-05-0940 min
Phoenix LessonsTiming in the Ashes with Cami & AmandaSend us a textCami and Amanda riff on how hard it is to be patient in the ashes. How do you handle not knowing what is coming next or when that next phase will begin? Support the show
2025-05-0228 min
Phoenix LessonsA Leg to Stand On with Colleen HaggertySend us a textColleen Haggerty, author of A Leg to Stand On: An Amputee's Walk Into Motherhood, discusses her journey through losing her leg in a car accident and subsequent path to forgiveness and freedom. Colleen now uses her hard-won wisdom to help others as a Soul Tender. Find out more at colleenhaggerty.com or watch her Tedx Talk: Forgiving the Unforgivable.Support the show
2025-04-1842 min
Phoenix LessonsWords Matter: Forgiveness with Cami & AmandaSend us a textHave you ever been in a long conversation with someone only to discover that the words or phrases you are using mean something totally different to the person across the table than they mean to you? We certainly have. So we're doing a series of episodes about some of the words we have found where our definitions don't necessarily line up. First of the docket: Forgiveness. Support the show
2025-04-0445 min
Phoenix LessonsClimbing with Love and Light- Bobby McLaughlin & Stacey SolainSend us a textOne of Bobby McFarland’s Phoenix moments led him to become a living kidney donor, a UNOS Transplant Living ambassador, and the leader of a living donors’ climb up Kilimanjaro. Stacey Solain was working with organizations providing clean water access around the globe when her Phoenix moment began. Now, together, they are creating spaces for all of us to live in love and light.Support the show
2025-03-2137 min
Phoenix LessonsBeauty and the Beast with Cami & AmandaSend us a textThe classic story of Beauty and the Beast (or Phantom of the Opera or Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey) has been popular for centuries. But how does this idea that the female can and needs to be quiet, good, pure enough, love strongly enough to turn the beast into a handsome prince effect us? Amanda and Cami set fire to this concept and advocate for a different way of being in relationship. Support the show
2025-03-0754 min
Phoenix LessonsA Feast for the Phoenix with Ash RodriguezSend us a textAsh Rodriguez, a Seattle-based award-winning food writer, photographer, author of three cookbooks, and host of the James Beard nominated series, Kitchen Unnecessary, talks about her spiritual journey beyond the world of food. She’s getting in touch with where our food comes from as a forager and Nature and Forest Therapy Guide amidst her process of rising anew. Learn more at ashrod.earth. Support the show
2025-02-2842 min
Phoenix LessonsOff the Grid with Cami & AmandaSend us a textCami, with the help of her brothers, built a yurt on a piece of property formerly owned by her grandparents. This experience, which she expected to navigate alone and 'off of the grid,' became a moment of reconnection for the whole family. Cami and Amanda explore the value of restful connection in the ashes and how we can all create restful moments in our lives, with or without escaping to the wilderness. Support the show
2025-02-2133 min
Phoenix LessonsHeadwinds vs Tailwinds with Cami & AmandaSend us a textWe all face obstacles which slow our progress. We may also have unrecognized support which can us fly towards our destination more quickly. Does it matter which we focus on? Cami and Amanda talk about how our natural, human tendency to focus on the headwinds of life can keep us in the ashes longer than necessary. Support the show
2025-02-1440 min
Phoenix LessonsHumanity 101 with Lauren Trantham & Tom PerezSend us a textWho controls your life? Lauren Trantham (Ride My Road) and Tom Perez (Epik Project), the team that brings you The Masculine Wilderness podcast, talk about their personal stories of undoing and remaking themselves which led them to their work in countering human trafficking. They show us how to approach a problem that appears to big to solve, by adjusting our perspective. Support the show
2025-02-1443 min
Phoenix LessonsCaraline's Phoenix Adventure with CaralineSend us a textWe all face challenges in life. Caraline (of caralinesadventure) faced a devistating and debilitating accident all-to reminicent of a childhood trauma. Undaunted and determined to rise from the ashes as a powerhouse woman and stellar mom, she rose to become an influencer and inspiration to thousands. Support the show
2025-02-1451 min
Phoenix LessonsOn Mission with Garth NeufeldSend us a textGarth Neufeld, a psychology professor, podcaster, speaker, and life coach, joins the show to discuss his personal Phoenix moments and how the basic cycles within our lives give us built-in opportunities to create new versions of ourselves and fly again in service to others. Follow Garth at https://psychsessions.org/ and https://www.onmissionconsulting.com/Support the show
2025-02-1434 min
Phoenix LessonsAn Arthurian Story with Cami & AmandaSend us a textThe story of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, and the Lady Ragnell tells the tale of kings, knights, and curses leading us to some deep truth about female agency. What do women want? And how does the power of their choices effect the patriarchal world around them? Put yourself in the place of the first cursed, then freed Lady Ragnell and decide how your Phoenix story will end. Support the show
2025-02-1440 min
Phoenix LessonsLessons from the Phoenix with Cami & AmandaSend us a textPhoenix lessons are the stories and teachings of those who can show us how to climb out of the ashes and fly again. Cami and Amanda unpack the Phoenix story and the stages of the life/death/life cycle that we all experience from time to time. Is there something in your life that needs to (metaphorically) burn? Are you stuck in the ashes? Are you ready to soar again as a new version of yourself? Let's find out.Support the show
2025-02-1431 minPhoenix LessonsPhoenix Lessons IntroSend us a textThe fabled Phoenix offers us some guidance whenever we find ourselves needing to remake our lives. Periodically she makes a nest, situates inside of it, combusts herself, and then rises again from her own ashes into a new, more spectacular version. Join us as we listen to stories from around the world and people just like you who know what it is to rise again from the ashes and soar once again! Support the show
2025-01-2800 min
The Masculine Wilderness PodcastUnveiling the Power of Storytelling with Cami OstmanIn this episode of the Masculine Wilderness Podcast, host Tom Perez engages in a deep conversation with Cami Ostman, a mentor and expert in narrative therapy and founder of The Narrative Project. They explore the importance of storytelling in personal growth, the challenges writers face, and how trauma influences the narratives we create. Cami shares her journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a therapist and writing coach, emphasizing the transformative power of writing and the need to confront inner critics. The discussion also touches on gender dynamics in writing and therapy, highlighting the unique experiences of men and...
2024-10-3049 min
Creative Status: Live Your REAL Life#76: Cami Ostman :Creative Catharsis, REALNESS, & ShadowsCreative Status is a podcast about using creativity as a vehicle for improving your life by deconstructing ego, integrating the shadow self, and designing and manifesting a real life.
Every episode explores how the creative process can help you GROW REAL by moving towards wholeness in yourself by making the unconscious conscious.
Embark on a journey of transformation with Creative Status as we delve into the power of narratives with the inspiring Cami Ostman, founder of The Narrative Project and Chief Story Warrior.
📖 Meet Cami Ostman: Join us for an enlightening episode where Cam...
2024-03-2544 min
The SPU Voices Podcast"How to Get Un-Stuck," with Cami Ostman '00Cami Ostman began her career as an English teacher. Then, after getting her master's in Marriage and Family Therapy from SPU in 2000, spent the next 20 years as a therapist. Upon writing a successful memoir and seeing first-hand the transformational power of writing one's own story, she started The Narrative Project: providing everything you need to get your book done. Now, after watching hundreds of lives grow and blossom, she is bringing those transformational lessons to non-writers as well with The Phoenix Lessons.
2024-01-1844 min
The Tarot DiagnosisLeaving the Church & Finding TarotThis week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, I’m joined by Cami Ostman - a former Internal Family Systems therapist who has journeyed away from organized religion, into tarot and therapy, and now into storytelling.
Cami vulnerably explores her experience of entering and exiting a fundamental religion, how pivotal tarot has been in her personal healing journey, and how she has transitioned from one healing profession into another.
Throughout the episode, we talk about Eight of Wands, Ten of Pentacles, Page of Swords, Ten of Cups, Six of Swords, and The Mag...
2023-11-2647 min
The SPU Voices PodcastRe-release: "Helping Others Tell Their Story," with Cami OstmanAs a therapist (she received her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from SPU in 2000) and a writer, Cami excels at helping people figure out what it is they really have to say. She is the author of the quest memoir Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents.This episode originally aired on March 25, 2019.
2022-07-2123 min
The Creative Writer's ToolbeltEpisode 163. Getting in touch with our own inner champion - with Cami OstmanSo much of how we engage with our writing is bound up with the disciplines, good and bad, we apply to ourselves, and how we feel about ourselves as writers. In this episode I tackle these issues, together with the thorny subject of dealing with our own inner critic, with speaker writer and marathon runner, Cami Ostman.
2021-09-1756 min
Prolific Pulse Press PodcastPoet Talk with Lisa Dailey by Lisa TomeyLisa Dailey is the owner of Sidekick Press in Bellingham, Washington. Her indie publishing house focuses on memoir, anthology, poetry, as well as selected works of fiction. What started with a handful of poets writing COVID-19-related poetry and the effects of being in quarantine during National Poetry Writing Month in April quickly evolved into a desire to combine the works into an anthology. Red Wheelbarrow Writers’ third publication and first book of poetry, This Uncommon Solitude, was published by Sidekick Press on October 15, 2020.
This Uncommon Solitude captures the myriad and diverse experiences during these times of qu...
2021-04-1314 min
The SPU Voices Podcast"Helping Others Tell Their Story," with Cami OstmanAs a therapist (she received her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from SPU in 2000) and a writer, Cami excels at helping people figure out what it is they really have to say. She is the author of the quest memoir Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents.
2019-03-2523 min