Broken to Brave | Guiding you to heal & break free from anxiety
On the outside you look like you have it all together. On the inside you feel anxious, overwhelmed, stressed, or stuck in survival mode. Broken to BRAVE is where high-achieving women learn they’re not failing and finally find the calm, confidence, and freedom they’ve been craving.
I’m Dr. Steph, a former NASA psychologist turned healing coach. In this podcast, I’ll walk with you through the patterns that keep you over-functioning, people-pleasing, and second-guessing yourself, and I’ll show you how to break free. You’ll hear real stories, simple steps, and the brave questions that change everything.
You don’t need another set of coping tools. What you need is a way back to yourself.
Week by week, I will help you calm your nervous system, build self-trust, and see yourself in a new way….not as failing, not as too much. Instead, as a woman who is capable of peace, presence, and joy.
Follow on Instagram @drstephanielopez
Episodes
146 episodes
Why Holding Everyone Together Breaks You
If you're the one who reads the room, keeps the peace, and makes sure everyone is okay, you know how automatic it feels. It doesn't even feel like a choice anymore. But somewhere along the way, staying aware of everyone else's emotions turned i...
Your Anxiety Is Not Your Personality
You've probably spent years thinking, "This is just who I am," when it comes to your anxiety, and let me tell you, it's not. When anxiety has been there long enough, it starts to feel like it belongs to you. Like it's woven into how you think, ...
When Doing the Work Does Not Feel Like Enough
There's a particular kind of discouragement that comes when you're trying, you're showing up, you're doing everything you're supposed to do, and it still doesn't feel like enough. Not because nothing is changing, but because you can't see it ye...
What I Wish I Knew at the Start of My Healing Journey
I thought I was doing everything right. I was thinking differently, staying positive, figuring out my triggers. I was working on myself constantly. And yet I was still anxious, still reactive, still stuck more often than I wanted to be. I kept ...
You Can't Talk Yourself Out of a Panic Attack
If you've ever tried to reason with yourself in the middle of a panic attack and it didn't work, there's a reason for that. It's not because you said the wrong thing or didn't try hard enough. It's because panic isn't happening in the thinking ...
What Happens When Women Finally Feel Safe to Be Seen
There are moments in life where you can feel something shift, where people walk in as strangers and leave feeling deeply connected, seen, and changed.In this episode, I’m reflecting on our first international BRAVE-cation retreat in Cost...
Why Positive Thinking Isn’t Fixing Your Anxiety
If positive thinking worked, you’d probably be healed by now. And if you’re anything like me, you already know when your thoughts are irrational. You know when you’re spiraling. And yet your body still reacts like something is wrong.In t...
Breaking Generational Cycles with Wendy Snyder
If you’re in the thick of parenting and you know you want to break generational cycles, this conversation is for you.In this episode, I sit down with Wendy Snyder to talk about what it really looks like to parent differently, especially ...
Anxiety Starts in the Body, Not the Mind
If you’re still trying to think your way out of anxiety, this might be why it hasn’t worked.In this episode, I’m breaking down something that can completely change the way you understand your anxiety. You feel it before you think it. Tha...
Chronic Illness Is a Story We Can Rewrite with Karyn Shanks MD
What if chronic illness isn’t just something to fix, but a story we’ve been taught to accept as truth?In this conversation, I sit down with Karyn Shanks, MD, to explore what healing really means when we stop treating the body like a brok...
"I Betrayed Myself Before I Learned to Trust My Body" with Theresa Lear Levine
There’s a specific kind of pain that comes from knowing you didn’t listen to yourself. From saying yes when your body said no, and realizing later that you abandoned your own truth. In this conversation, Theresa Lear Levine and I talk about wha...
Why Anxiety Returns Even After You’ve Done the Work
How many times have you thought you were finally okay, only for anxiety to sneak back in the moment life gets heavy? In this episode, I talk about the quiet defeat that shows up when anxiety returns after you’ve done the therapy, used the tools...
Anxiety Came Back! (I Thought I Was Past This)
You think you’re doing okay, maybe even good, and then it hits. A thought, a sensation, a moment of pressure, and suddenly, anxiety is back. And the part that hurts the most isn’t even the anxiety; it’s the thought, I thought I figured this out...
You Can’t Think Your Way Out of Anxiety
Have you ever felt anxious the moment you woke up, before anything even happened? That racing heart, the spiraling thoughts, the pressure to calm down like everyone else seems to. I know that feeling. And I want you to know, there is nothing wr...
"I Looked Successful, But I Felt Broken" with Megan Caldwell
Megan Caldwell hit burnout twice. The first time, she left her career in education and moved her young family to start over. The second time, everything looked perfect: she was running a thriving fitness business, had three beautiful kids, and ...
Controlling Your Emotions Isn’t the Goal
We’ve been taught to manage emotions like a checklist: stay calm, don't react, hold it together. But what if that mindset is keeping you stuck? In this episode, I’m sharing what emotional maturity really feels like and how it’s less about contr...
When the Goalpost Keeps Moving
Why do we keep feeling behind, even when we’re doing the work? I’ve been sitting with this in my own life lately, and it’s something I see in so many of my clients too. That sense of not-enoughness, of constant striving, of pushing for the next...
Did You Forgot You Matter Too? with Julia Sewell
What happens when you wake up one day and realize you've abandoned yourself in the name of love?In this powerful conversation with Julia Sewell, we unpack the lived experience of working mothers who give everything and forget they matter...
The Myth of Never Feeling Bad Again
If you think healing means you’ll never feel anxious, overwhelmed, or triggered again, I want to gently challenge that idea. In this episode, I’m unpacking the perfectionism that can sneak into our healing journeys and the shame that comes with...
4 Hidden Roots of Chronic Anxiety
What if your anxiety isn’t just about your job, your hormones, or your partner not communicating? What if there are deeper roots keeping you stuck in a cycle of fear and exhaustion?In this episode, I’m uncovering the four hidden roots of...
A Meditation to Remember What Matters
When life feels overwhelming, it’s easy to forget what actually matters. After attending a funeral for someone only 38 years old, I needed to come back to myself, to perspective, and to presence. So in this episode, I'm guiding you through a me...
You Can't Heal What You Don't Own
We say we want growth. We say we want healing. But when it comes to taking full ownership of our choices, our reactions, and the messes we’ve made, that’s often where we quietly pull back.Self-accountability isn’t sexy. It’s not the part...
You Don’t Have to Save Everyone
Have you ever felt responsible for protecting others from their own pain? I’ve been there too, more times than I can count. In this episode, I’m unpacking a pattern that so many of us fall into: the need to rescue, to overgive, to soften the tr...
Avoiding It Isn’t Working Anymore
What if the very thing you've been doing to feel safe is the reason you still feel stuck?In this episode, I’m breaking down how avoidance quietly wires your nervous system to expect fear, not freedom. I’m walking through the moments we c...
When You Carry What Isn’t Yours
Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling responsible for someone else's mood? Like it's your job to fix their disappointment, even when you did nothing wrong? I’ve been there too. In this episode, I’m unpacking the emotional weight...