Life Coaching with Christine Hassler

Regena Thomashauer — better known as Mama Gena — is a bestselling author, teacher, feminist icon, and founder of the School of Womanly Arts, which she started in her living room in 1998 and has since grown into a global movement.
For more than three decades, Regena has helped women reconnect to the parts of themselves we've been taught to suppress — our bodies, our desires, our emotions, and our pleasure. At the heart of her work is the belief that pleasure is a form of power, and that when a woman is fully connected to herself and what she wants, it changes how she moves through every area of her life.
She is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Pussy: A Reclamation, and her work has reached hundreds of thousands of women around the world. Her teachings are an invitation for women to reclaim their feminine power, raise their standards, and live with more truth, turn-on, and freedom.
Today we talk about her newest book: On Our Knees which offers a new map for navigating heartbreak, uncertainty, loss, and reinvention.

What happens when loving the people in your life starts to feel like being responsible for keeping everyone okay?
In this deeply compassionate coaching session, Christine works with Jessica, who is navigating several major transitions at once: the end of a 10-year relationship with her best friend and business partner, building her own creative career, and watching her mother rapidly decline from Alzheimer's at a young age.
As the oldest of four siblings, Jessica has spent much of her life carrying a strong sense of responsibility and loyalty toward the people she loves. When someone is hurting, her instinct is to step in, protect them, fix the problem, or even put her own life on hold to make sure they're okay.
But that way of loving has become exhausting.
Christine helps Jessica recognize the difference between holding space for someone and trying to protect them from pain. What Jessica has understood as love and compassion is sometimes an old survival pattern—one that tells her she can only feel safe when everyone around her is okay.
Together, they explore over-responsibility, codependency, boundaries, grief, nervous system regulation, and the enormous amount of energy we can lose worrying about situations we simply cannot control.
If you've ever been the strong one, the caretaker, the oldest daughter, the empath, or the person everyone depends on, this episode will help you recognize where love may have become tangled with worry, guilt, fear, and responsibility.
Press play to discover how to love people deeply without carrying their pain—and how reclaiming that energy can help you finally have more capacity for your own life.
Consider / Ask Yourself
Do you feel responsible for making sure the people you love are okay?
When someone you care about is suffering, do you immediately feel compelled to fix or rescue them?
Have you confused worrying about someone with loving them?
Are you spending so much energy managing other people's feelings that you have little left for your own needs?
Can you allow someone you love to experience pain without believing it's your responsibility to make it better?
Key Insights and A-Ha's
Holding space for someone is not the same as protecting them from pain.
Over-responsibility can become an identity and survival pattern, especially when it begins early in life.
Love can become unconsciously paired with worry, caretaking, fear, and control.
Worry can create the illusion that we're doing something when we're facing a situation we cannot control.
Constantly putting yourself in someone else's shoes can cause you to carry suffering that may not actually be yours.
When we focus primarily on other people's discomfort, we can lose touch with our own grief and needs.
Trying to fix everything may provide short-term relief but can lead to long-term exhaustion and burnout.
Healthy boundaries aren't about becoming cold or disconnected—they allow love and truth to exist together.
How to Deepen the Work
When you feel the urge to rescue someone, pause and notice what is happening in your body before taking action.
Remind yourself: "Someone I love is going through something I cannot control."
When an old caretaking pattern activates, meet it with compassion instead of criticizing yourself for falling into it again.
Practice giving the people you love the dignity of experiencing and moving through their own feelings.
Pay attention to the "energy leaks" created by worry, guilt, overthinking, and trying to control what isn't yours to control.
Ask yourself what you need emotionally before automatically turning your attention toward everyone else.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
One-on-One Coaching with Christine
Christine has opened additional space in her calendar for private one-on-one coaching. She shares her continued passion for individualized coaching and supporting people through major transitions, healing, and personal growth.
Learn more about Christine's process and apply at:
christinehassler.com/coaching
Featured Sponsor: Peluva Barefoot Shoes
Christine shares more about Peluva, a five-toe minimalist shoe featuring five-toe articulation, allowing each toe to move independently and supporting more natural foot movement while walking or running.
Use code CHRISTINE for 10% off your first pair.
Shop Peluva through Christine's link

Social Media + Resources
Christine Hassler — Take a Coaching Assessment
Christine Hassler Podcasts including Coaches Corner
Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler
Facebook — Christine Hassler
Instagram — @ChristineHassler
Instagram — @SacredUnionCouples
Apply to be coached on the show: christinehassler.com/waitlist
Courses, retreats, and more resources: christinehassler.com

How do you care for an aging parent who never gave you what you needed as a child?
In this deeply relatable coaching session, Christine works with Kelli, whose elderly father is beginning to show signs of aging and short-term memory changes. As the firstborn daughter and the only medical professional in her family, Kelli feels much of the responsibility for preparing for what may come next.
But underneath the practical concerns is something much more complicated: grief for the father-daughter relationship she never had.
Family members have told Kelli that she can seem "cold" toward her father. Yet Christine offers another perspective—what looks like coldness may actually be protection. After years of disappointment, lack of accountability, and feeling emotionally unseen, Kelli learned that keeping her heart guarded was safer than continuing to hope her father would become the dad she needed.
Together, Christine and Kelli explore the father wound, caregiving, boundaries, resentment, grief, and how our relationships with our parents can influence the partners we choose and our ability to receive healthy love.
Christine encourages Kelli to find the "both/and": she doesn't have to pretend everything is okay or abandon the boundaries she's worked hard to create. But she can also ask herself how she wants to show up in the relationship now so that, when her father is gone, she can experience grief without guilt.
If you've ever struggled with an aging parent, felt guilty about keeping emotional distance from a family member, or wondered how your relationship with your father may be affecting your romantic relationships, this conversation will resonate deeply.
Press play to discover how you can honor your hurt, maintain your boundaries, and still choose truth and love in the relationships that matter most.
Consider / Ask Yourself
Are you grieving the relationship you wish you could have had with one of your parents?
Have others interpreted your emotional protection as being "cold" or distant?
Are you caring for an aging parent while carrying unresolved hurt from childhood?
How might your relationship with your father be influencing the way you relate to men or romantic partners?
What would it look like to experience grief without guilt?
Key Insights and A-Ha's
What looks like emotional coldness may actually be a protective response to years of hurt and disappointment.
You can accept who a parent is without pretending they gave you everything you needed.
Healthy boundaries and love can coexist.
Father wounds can influence worthiness, trust, vulnerability, and our relationships with men.
We may unconsciously seek partners who give us what we didn't receive from our parents.
Asking for help and delegating family responsibilities can prevent resentment and challenge the belief that everything falls on you.
Self-love, truth, and authenticity can ultimately become stronger protection than emotional walls.

How to Deepen the Work
Ask yourself how you genuinely want to show up with an aging parent—not from guilt or obligation, but from your own values.
Notice when hurt or protective patterns are leading your interactions and consider whether there's an authentic middle ground.
Practice reminding your younger self that a parent's emotional limitations reflect their capacity, not your worth or lovability.
Allow yourself to grieve the parent-child relationship you wanted without forcing the relationship you actually have to become something it isn't.
Ask family members for help rather than automatically carrying the emotional and practical responsibility yourself.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Be the Queen
Christine and Stef are opening the next live cohort of Be the Queen in October, focused on helping women call in healthy, aligned partnership.
Join the waitlist for early access and the early-bird discount at:
christinehassler.com/queen
One-on-One Coaching with Christine
Christine has opened additional spots in her private coaching roster and is focusing more deeply on personalized, one-on-one transformational work.
Learn more and apply at:
christinehassler.com/coaching
Featured Sponsor: Peluva Barefoot Shoes
Christine shares more about Peluva, a five-toe minimalist shoe designed to allow more natural foot movement, strengthen the feet, and provide a barefoot-style experience with cushioning for everyday movement.
Use code CHRISTINE for 10% off your first pair.
Shop Peluva through Christine's link
 
Social Media + Resources:
 Christine Hassler — Take a Coaching Assessment
Christine Hassler Podcasts Including Coaches Corner
Christine on Facebook
Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler
@ChristineHassler on Twitter
@ChristineHassler on Instagram
@SacredUnionCouples on Instagram
Email: jill@christinehassler.com — For information on any of my services!
Get on the waitlist to be coached on the show!
Get on the list to be notified about the upcoming certification program for coaches!

How often do you mistake the story in your head for the truth?
In this deeply insightful coaching session, Christine works with Shannon, who has spent much of her life feeling like she's waiting for people to leave her.
Growing up with a mother struggling with severe mental illness and a father who was absent for most of her life due to incarceration, Shannon learned to survive by becoming hypervigilant. Now, as an adult, those same survival strategies show up in her closest relationships.
A small comment from her partner becomes evidence that he's leaving.
A text message that goes unanswered becomes proof she's being rejected.
A misunderstanding quickly spirals into a painful story about not being enough.
Together, Christine and Shannon explore anxious attachment, abandonment wounds, childhood survival strategies, and one of the most powerful communication tools you can use to interrupt emotional spirals before they damage your relationships.
Christine reminds us that message sent is not always message received—and that many of the stories we create during moments of fear have far more to do with our past than with what's actually happening in the present.
If you've ever caught yourself assuming the worst, overthinking someone's words, or convincing yourself that people are pulling away without real evidence, this episode will help you slow down, seek clarity, and respond from your adult self instead of your wounded inner child.
Press play to learn how changing one simple phrase can transform your relationships—and your peace of mind.
Consider / Ask Yourself
Do you often assume the worst when someone says or does something unexpected?
Are you making decisions based on facts—or on stories your fear is creating?
Do you struggle to know whether you're truly being hurt or simply being triggered?
What would change if you asked for clarity instead of making assumptions?
Key Insights and A-Ha's
Childhood abandonment wounds can create hypervigilance in adult relationships.
Survival strategies that once protected you may now be creating distance from the people you love.
Triggers often distort reality, causing us to assign meaning that was never intended.
Vulnerability creates connection; assumptions create isolation.
Healthy relationships require clarification—not mind reading.
How to Deepen the Work
Practice using the phrases: "The story I'm making up in my head is..." and "What I'm making this mean is..."before reacting.
Notice when your nervous system jumps to worst-case scenarios and pause before taking action.
Give trusted people the opportunity to clarify their intentions before assuming rejection.
Remember that seeking clarification is an act of self-advocacy, not weakness.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
One-on-One Coaching with Christine
Christine shares that she's opening additional one-on-one coaching spots, returning to what she calls "the basics"—real human connection, personalized guidance, and transformational coaching.
To learn more, email:
Jill@ChristineHassler.com
Featured Sponsor: Peluva Barefoot Shoes
Christine shares why she loves Peluva, a five-toe minimalist shoe designed to support natural foot movement, strengthen the feet, and provide all-day comfort.
Use code CHRISTINE for 10% off your first pair.
Shop Peluva through Christine's link
 
Social Media + Resources:
 Christine Hassler — Take a Coaching Assessment
Christine Hassler Podcasts Including Coaches Corner
Christine on Facebook
Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler
@ChristineHassler on Twitter
@ChristineHassler on Instagram
@SacredUnionCouples on Instagram
Email: jill@christinehassler.com — For information on any of my services!
Get on the waitlist to be coached on the show!
Get on the list to be notified about the upcoming certification program for coaches!

What happens when the person you've always been no longer feels like the person you're becoming?
In this deeply thoughtful coaching session, Christine works with Gihan, who is navigating the space between her cultural and familial identity and the life her soul feels called to create.
Living with her mother in Cairo, Gihan has been on a healing journey that has challenged old patterns of people-pleasing and encouraged her to question what she truly wants. She feels drawn toward a simpler life—possibly living abroad, spending more time near the beach, and creating a life that feels authentic to her.
But that desire brings up a difficult question: Does she genuinely want a different life, or is she simply trying to escape the discomfort of becoming a different version of herself?
As Christine and Gihan explore that question, the conversation moves into belonging, identity, family, spirituality, and the tension that can arise when your soul seems to be pulling you in a direction that looks different from the life, culture, or expectations you were born into.
Christine offers an important reframe: transformation doesn't always have to be an either/or decision. Sometimes the path forward is both/and—honoring where you came from while also remaining loyal to where your soul is leading you.
If you've ever felt caught between who you've been and who you're becoming, questioned whether following your truth means leaving something—or someone—behind, or struggled to honor both your spirituality and your humanity, this conversation will resonate.
Press play to discover how you can follow your soul without abandoning the human parts of you that still need belonging, compassion, and connection.
Consider / Ask Yourself
Do you feel caught between the identity you've always known and the person you're becoming?
Are you questioning whether a desire for change is intuition—or an attempt to escape discomfort?
Do you fear that choosing your own path could cost you belonging, connection, or approval?
Where are you thinking in either/or terms when a both/and approach may be possible?
Key Insights and A-Ha's
Transformation often requires a period of not fully knowing who you're becoming.
Choosing a different path can activate a primal fear of losing belonging.
Your soul's desires and your human needs don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Spiritual growth doesn't require bypassing difficult human emotions like judgment, fear, jealousy, or uncertainty.
Authenticity isn't about becoming a perfect version of yourself—it's about becoming more genuine.
Our judgments can become powerful teachers when we get curious about what they're reflecting back to us.
How to Deepen the Work
Notice when you're framing a decision as either/or and ask whether there's a both/and possibility.
When judgment arises, practice acknowledging it without shame and asking what it may be showing you about yourself.
Offer compassion to the human parts of you that feel afraid when your soul calls you toward something unfamiliar.
Give yourself permission to be in the middle of transformation without needing to immediately define your new identity.
Featured Sponsor: Peluva Barefoot Shoes
Christine shares why she loves Peluva, a minimalist five-toe shoe designed to encourage natural foot movement while providing cushioning for everyday movement, fitness, and athletic activities.
Use code CHRISTINE for 10% off your first pair.
Shop Peluva through Christine's link
Social Media + Resources:
 Christine Hassler — Take a Coaching Assessment
Christine Hassler Podcasts Including Coaches Corner
Christine on Facebook
Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler
@ChristineHassler on Twitter
@ChristineHassler on Instagram
@SacredUnionCouples on Instagram
Email: jill@christinehassler.com — For information on any of my services!
Get on the waitlist to be coached on the show!
 Get on the list to be notified about the upcoming certification program for coaches!