FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®: SOMATIC BREATHWORK, MENTAL HEALTH, & COMMUNITY

Ashley Snyder, a somatic breathwork practitioner, joins me in this episode to share her unique journey of healing, transformation, and finding purpose in midlife and beyond.

💡 What is Somatic Breathwork?
Ashley explains this powerful practice that activates the nervous system, reconnects the mind and body, and releases trauma stored in the body.

🌟 Who Can Benefit?
Ashley specializes in working with women who have experienced trauma, offering individual and group sessions in person and virtually.

📍 Connect with Ashley:
🌐 Website: connectwiththebreath.com
📸 Instagram: @ashley_snyder_connectbreath
🔗 Practitioner Database: https://www.somaticbreathwork.com/

📣 Want More? Join my ELEVATE Membership to access Part 2 of this conversation, where Ashley dives deeper into her mental health journey and how it has impacted her relationships.

✨ Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the bell for more inspiring conversations on navigating midlife and beyond!

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Transcript

FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®: SOMATIC BREATHWORK, MENTAL HEALTH, & COMMUNITY 

{MUSIC INTRO}

Karli: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®. I'm your host, Karli Newman, and this is a special treat for you today because I'm here with a guest. Her name is Ashley Snyder. She is a somatic breathwork practitioner, and I invited her here today to join us so she can share her story and help you learn about breath work, somatic breath work in particular, and how it has helped her on her journey in midlife and beyond.

Let me introduce Ashley. Hi Ashley, how are you today? 

Ashley: I'm great, thank you so much for having me today.

Karli: It is a joy to have you here. Now I've known Ashley for a little over a year. She is part of the women's group that I host here in Phoenix, Arizona. I met her a year ago and she was in different place than she is today. 

Ashley, tell me a little bit about yourself. Give me your story and how somatic breathwork came to be in your life.

Ashley: You are so kind, Karli, because when I came to you a year ago, I was a hot mess. 

Karli: Your words, not mine. 

Ashley: Yes. Yes. so a little bit about me, my background. I was born and raised in California. I have four grown kids. They live in California as well. I was also a surrogate, so I had twins for a couple, who also lives in Northern California.

I went to nursing school in Denver and lived there for about five years, and then I moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 2010.

I came across breath work by trial and error. It took trying something, it either not working or not working the way that I desired it to. My whole career has been in nursing. I started off in the medical field as soon as I graduated from high school. And I just felt this really strong spiritual calling and I never really knew what it was.

You know, the self doubt, the negative self talk just kept me from being able to find that. 

I had gone on a trip to St. Lucia, and everybody there was just so happy and I was regretting coming back and going to work. So I came back and I quit my job and I signed up for a somatic breathwork course. 

I had taken a couple of sessions with a neighbor of mine who had gone through the same program that I did. And it was so transformative for me that I was like, I have to do this. This is my calling. I, I want to help people specifically who have suffered trauma. 

Karli: I love that you said the word self doubt and that inner critic, you're talking about the negative internal dialogue and seeking. That's something in midlife and beyond a lot of us women are dealing with and going through. Where am I, what am I supposed to be doing? What's my purpose? 

You were seeking for your purpose, and you were seeking for your own healing. Tell me about the modalities you explored while you were on your path to healing. 

Ashley: Well, it's been several years, and I don't believe that there is one path. And I don't believe that there's one right path for any one person. I think that it is a combination of things.

I firmly believe that you should be going to talk therapy while seeking out any kinds of healing modalities, inside or outside of therapy. 

But my journey started probably close to 10 years ago. I had just gone through a divorce, and I was just tired of reliving the same scenario over and over and over.

I didn't have good communication skills. I wasn't able to express my feelings. As women our age grew up being told to just look pretty and don't upset anybody don't talk about your feelings. And I grew up in a very strong military family and a lot of men and, you know, women and children were to be seen and not heard.

That was just weighing so heavily on me. I just felt like I didn't matter. 

it started off, um, by intermittently going to talk therapy, which was my first big mistake. 

Karli: Going to therapy or intermittently doing it? 

Ashley: Intermittently. I think it's really important, even if you have to see 10 therapists, to find somebody that you really mesh with. I have the most amazing therapist now and, if I ever had to move, I would make her move with me. 

But I got very, very heavily into yoga, which worked great for me in the moment, but when I was triggered, it didn't really do much for me. I did meditation. I did try EMDR, with a therapist a few years ago. And I even went to ketamine therapy. and then of course I found breath work and sound healing and those along with my talk therapy is what I actively pursue.

Karli: Thank you for sharing all of that. I want to bounce back to what you said at the beginning of that, that there's not one path to healing and every person, every woman needs to find the combination that works for her. I support that absolutely 100%. 

Neither you nor I are mental health professionals. We work with women in midlife and beyond in different ways to help them on their wellbeing journey, to help them along their journey of midlife and beyond.

Total respect for the therapists, the counselors, the social workers in the world that are helping women and guiding them as they need support and help to deal with anything that they need to deal with. I love that you mentioned that and say that finding the right therapist for you is so, so, so important.

Everyone should have a therapist on call on speed dial, or at least know if I were to need it, this is the person I would reach out to, so if a moment comes up where you are in need, it's already there for you. You have that in your circle of care, even if it's not someone you're currently speaking with, to be able to reach out and have a conversation with a consultation, should you need it is really important. Because that can be a timely thing when you need that support. 

Ashley, you mentioned 10 years you've been on this journey, and you're just now feeling like, 'Oh, I found the answer.' That's so important for everyone to know. It's not a quick fix. It's not an overnight thing. But to also recognize you're doing the work along the way. 

Ashley: Oh, absolutely. 

Karli: Everything that you do try and do explore gives you the answer. Yes, that does work for me. Yoga, it works for me in this situation, but not this one. Or I thought this would be the answer and it wasn't. So you can move on to trying the next thing. Those are all really important aspects of caring for your mental health. 

Ashley, I know women in the audience are wondering, what is somatic breathwork? Because there's more than one kind of breathwork, right? 

Ashley: Oh, there's so many modalities of breathwork out there. Somatic breathwork in particular is a less aggressive form of holotropic breathwork, if anyone has ever heard of that.

Soma means body and you breathe in a way that you activate the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. And you're stressing your body, but it's not in a way that you've been activated. You're in control.

When we have suffered trauma, stress, or anything that our body has held on to, there's a disassociation between the subconscious and the body.

Our body and our breath are capable of so many amazing things. Our skin has all of these micro hairs that can pick up any kind of change in our environment. Whether it be temperature, whether it be a situation that reminded us of a situation we were in when we were 10.

The body picks that up and within a split second it sends that signal to the insula in our brain and the insula is what is responsible for sending the message out to secrete fight or flight hormones.

That's why so many times people will start to have anxiety or panic attack and they don't even know why. They don't realize that, five minutes ago their breathing started to increase, their chest was rising, they were breathing through their mouth, they weren't breathing through the belly.

So somatic breath work brings those two things together. It's body awareness and things do come up. You tap into the things that have been stored in your body. Those hormones that are secreted get stored in your cells, in your organs. Until we can do the work to release that, then we're still going to have the anxiety. We're still going to have the depression. We're still going to have the illnesses that it may be causing.

Karli: That sounds so impactful. 

Ashley: It is. 

Karli: I can see, just based on your explanation, how entering into that particular world has really helped you heal. 

The mind body connection, those are three words that get thrown around randomly here in the well being world. To hear you explain what somatic breath work is and how that connection from your body to your mind is actually connected to your memories, to your past, to your trauma that you've been holding onto, anything that triggers you.

How can a client work with you here in Phoenix, and then if someone listening is not in Phoenix, how can they find a somatic breathwork practitioner that is in their area?

Ashley: Well, a few things. First of all, the beautiful thing about somatic breath work is it can be done via Zoom. I was skeptical at first, but I've had some very, very powerful expressions from clients who I have done virtual sessions with.

If you prefer in person, through the program that I took, it's called Somatiq, S O M A T I Q, breathwork. You can go to their website and they have a practitioner database. You can look up by name, you can look up by state, and I'm on that website as well. It just depends on what you're looking for. 

Group sessions are also available in your area. I need to use a different space. My house doesn't accommodate a group, so I would rent a yoga space. A lot of yoga studios will partner with a somatic breathwork practitioner and they will host special events for those kinds of things. 

Karli: You mentioned that you do virtual work. So if anyone in the audience is interested in doing a session with Ashley, you can. Her website is connectwiththebreath.com and she mentioned Somatiq. I will put that link in the show notes and transcript as well as her website. And Ashley, listeners can find you on Instagram too, right? 

Ashley: Yes, it's @ashley_snyder_connectbreath. 

Karli: @ashley_snyder_connectbreath. I'll include the link in the show notes and transcript, my friends. So don't you worry that'll all be there. 

So you mentioned how women can connect with you. Describe the client that tends to be the best fit for you because I'm sure that's important in a breathwork practice too. 

Ashley: It is. First of all, you have to be over 18 years of age.

I can work with male or female clients. However, working with women who have suffered trauma, is my favorite clientele to work with. 

Karli: If that sounds like you, anyone out there in the audience watching or listening, I encourage you to get in touch with Ashley so she can lead a very impactful somatic breathwork class for you.

You also do tuning fork tell me about that. Chakra work? What is that? 

Ashley: Yes, so I'm a very spiritual person. Our chakras are nerve bundles. And where we hold trauma in our bodies can make a huge difference, because you can get a blockage there, and that can prevent you from being able to have a full expression during a breath work session. 

Sound bowls are very healing. And tuning forks, I use weighted tuning forks so you can actually place them on the body and the tuning forks are different frequencies. What they do is they will bring your frequency into alignment of where it's supposed to be and help open up those chakras.

Karli: I have done a couple of sound bowl sessions, in different group settings and it does take you to another place. 

When you mentioned when you were talking about our skin and how our skin can pick up things in a social situation that we're not aware of. It's that energy. And that's what I think of as you're talking about the tuning forks of how that would feel going through your body and in those centers. 

Ashley: Yes. And when you start to clear those things out, you actually feel yourself vibrating at a higher frequency. It's amazing. 

Karli: Oh, I'm getting more and more excited to book a session with you. Okay. tell me about the things you've overcome, what you're still hoping to learn or resolve and where you're at in your midlife experience. 

Ashley: I think for anyone who has suffered trauma, it is a lifelong journey of healing.

You will never get to a place where it's like ahhh, I reached the end of this road. You can get back to leading a healthy, fulfilling, meaningful life. And I feel like that's where I am now.

Going through therapy myself and being in midlife. As a woman, it can be very scary, right? Especially if you've had kids and now you're an empty nester and now you're like, What am I going to do with my life?

And I thought that although I love being a nurse, I thought that I was going to have to be a nurse for the rest of my life, even though that's not truly what feeds my soul.

And so I was able to let go of that fear. And that fear is what holds you down and holds you back. And by letting that go, I'm able to pursue my passion. 

Karli: Oh, that's a good one. Every single one of us has fear in our life. You hit the nail right on the head and figuring out how to feel fearful, but not let us hold ourselves back is a huge, huge step.

And midlife and beyond is a time of life where a lot of women are exploring that and making that happen and moving through that fear that just keeps us from our dreams, that keeps us from the big, beautiful things that are meant for us. 

 I can just hear how even in a year since I've known you, the difference that this work has made in your life and the combination of things that you're doing and having a good therapist that is there for you, and the other work that you're doing in conjunction with that has really made a difference for you.

I'm so appreciative for you being vulnerable and sharing that with all of our audience today 

Ashley: Thank you. And there's a difference, you know, everyone has fear. You're never going to get rid of fear. It's just a matter of, is it leading you or is it controlling you? When you get scared, do you embrace it and say, okay, I'm scared, but here I go?

Or is it, oh my God, I'm too scared. I could never do that. It's that self doubt talk online. 

Karli: Yeah. Yeah. And really having a trust level with yourself that, yeah, it's scary, but I have the tools to try, to get to the other side, to flourish on the other side of my fear. And I love what you said, let it lead you rather than control you. Fear can help you.

It can be a sign that you're going into territory that. is really going to pay off for you, is going to get you where you want to go.

Fear can also tell you, a gut feeling that this is not safe for me. Being able to decipher between those, being able to understand what your body is telling you in those moments, which kind of fear is it?

Is it one that is leading you or is it one that's holding you back? 

Those are really important things to know and understand about yourself. 

Okay, I have to say for our audience here, you are listening to part one of my conversation with Ashley Snyder. And if you are part of my ELEVATE membership, you're going to get to hear part two of my conversation with Ashley, where she's going to dive deeper into some more of her struggles with mental health and her journey and how it has impacted her relationships.

Good juicy stuff that you're going to want to hear. Go to the link in my show notes or transcript and check out my ELEVATE membership. 

Ashley, I have one more question here for you in part one of our conversation, and I always wrap my guest episodes with this question. What is your favorite thing about the FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®?

Ashley: You, Karli. Um, it has given me a sense of community within women that I can relate to. Coming to your groups, making the friendships outside of those groups, and having somebody that understands what you're going through, and there's an age difference enough that, you know, you can look to other women for wisdom and how they went through something at your age, and vice versa.

Karli: Thank you. I've met the most amazing women in the past year and a half with this group that I have in Phoenix and I'm really fostering that same kind of a warm, welcoming, kind, supportive community of women in midlife and beyond in my ELEVATE membership, too. So no matter where you are, even if you're not in Phoenix, you can feel a part of this community as well.

Midlife and beyond, Ashley, what do you love about it? 

Ashley: Well, the biggest thing obviously was letting go of the fear and now it's about gaining new friendships. Getting more involved in the community. Being able to do whatever I want. 

Karli: Yeah. 

Ashley: And just gaining a new sense of confidence that guides me into living a fulfilling life. 

Karli: You mentioned doing whatever you want. and having a boost in your confidence.

Those are two huge things in midlife and beyond. The recognition that I get to put myself first. Whether you have children or not, listeners, watchers, you get to prioritize you. And this is a beautiful time of life to start doing it if you haven't yet. It's never too late.

And the confidence that Ashley talks about is actually fostered by putting yourself first by going out and exploring and being curious and doing the things you've wanted to do and working through that fear. Thank you, Ashley, for sharing those things. 

Ashley: Thank you, Karli. 

Karli: Okay, we're going to wrap up part one. This part of our conversation, Ashley. 

So listeners and watchers, again, if you want to hear a bit more from Ashley, dive a little bit deeper into her struggles with mental health and her relationships and a couple more things about her midlife and beyond experience, go to the ELEVATE link. Get into the membership and you can listen to part two.

Remember, you can contact Ashley on her website connectwiththebreath.com. I will put her email in the show notes and transcript and you can find out more from her about somatic breath work and how it might help you work through some of your trauma, some of your struggles, here in midlife and beyond.

Ashley, thank you so much for your time today. It's been so great having you here. I really appreciate it. See you in a little bit with part two. 

Ashley: Bye, Karli.

{MUSIC OUTRO}