💬 message Denise

What if it was never about the food?

Betsy Brenner didn't receive her eating disorder diagnosis until her 40s. She was a mother of three, a high school tennis coach, a woman who — by every visible measure — had it together. And she was quietly disappearing, not just physically, but from herself.

What she eventually learned: the behaviours were never the problem. They were the symptom. What lived underneath was decades of internalized emotion, unspoken grief, profound anxiety, and a childhood shaped by the belief that vulnerability equals weakness.

In this conversation, Betsy — author of The Longest Match: Rallying to Defeat an Eating Disorder in Midlife, recovery speaker, and founder of Gifts of Recovery — opens the door on what so many women in midlife are carrying alone.

We talk about:

— The "perfect storm" of her 40s that brought a lifetime of emotion to the surface

— Why eating disorders in midlife are so often missed, minimized, or misunderstood

— The difference between professional clinical care and peer support — and why both matter

— What it means to heal when there is no finish line

— The word that describes everything she found on the other side: freedom

It's never too late to be a work in progress.

Connect with Betsy Brenner:

📖 The Longest Match — available on her website and Amazon

📲 Instagram: @BetsyBrennerAuthor

🌐 www.betsybrenner.com

Virtual support groups for women in midlife — reach out via Instagram or email for next session dates

Connect with Denise | Thrive After 45™:

🌐 denisedrinkwalter.com

📲 @thethriveafter45podcast

💫 IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

You've stood at the mirror and felt it — that quiet moment when what used to work simply doesn't anymore. And somewhere in that moment, you wondered if something was wrong with you.

Nothing is wrong with you. No one ever taught you how to work with the skin you're in now.

Gabriela Soares is a professional makeup artist and hairstylist with over 20 years of experience working with women across every age, skin type, and life stage. As a beauty content creator her work has reached over 119 million views — not because she sells products, but because she finally said what millions of women were waiting to hear.

In this conversation Gabi and I go deep into the beauty conversation the industry forgot to have. We talk about why your old techniques stop working after 40, the difference between hiding and decorating, and the one question Gabi asks every woman before she touches a single product. Most importantly — we talk about what it means to finally see yourself clearly enough to bring your own beauty forward.

This isn't a conversation about makeup. It's a conversation about meeting yourself in the mirror again.

In this episode:

- Why foundation stops sitting the same after 40 and what to do about it

- The difference between hunting for the perfect product vs. mastering technique

- How to identify what you love about your face and bring it forward

- Why makeup is decoration not disguise

- What self-love actually looks like on the outside

- Why beauty is the sum of all the parts — not one imperfection

Find Gabi:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GlamGirlGabi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glamgirlgabi/

119 million views 🤩 and counting — go see why.

When one woman turns her light on, the whole room catches fire. 🔥

#ThriveAfter45 #ItWasNeverAboutTheMakeup #MidlifeBeauty

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

A gentle heads up: Chad's honesty doesn't always come wrapped in pretty language — and that's exactly what makes it land. Some mild profanity ahead. The truth, as always, is worth it.

You've done the work. And still — something keeps showing up the same way.

Chad Taylor didn't choose to become a psychotherapist. Life chose it for him. Twenty-five years in recovery, a plumbing business, criminal charges, and a series of moments that cracked him wide open — that's what built the man who now sits with thousands of clients across every age, every story, every kind of pain.

In this conversation, Chad and I go deep into the one thing most of us spend a lifetime avoiding: our own reflection. We talk about the black wolf and the white wolf — and why the one you feed is the one that wins. We explore egocentricity, why patterns keep repeating, and what it actually takes to stop blaming and start looking inward.

This isn't comfortable. It wasn't meant to be. But if something in your life keeps showing up the same way, this episode is for you.

In this episode:

- Why self-reflection is the hardest thing we'll ever do

- The difference between ego and egocentricity

- The 5-column inventory that reveals your part in every resentment

- What the black wolf feeds on — and how to starve it

- Why curiosity and compassion change every conversation

- Why "it's not the first drink — it's the first think"

Find Chad: chadtaylorpsychotherapy.com.au

Website: chadtaylorpsychotherapy.com.au

Podcast: It’s You. Oh F*ck. It’s ME. In Session with a Psychotherapist.

📲Instagram: chadaylor.it’s you

TikTok: chadaylor.it’s you

Chad’s book It's You is available on Amazon, Shopify, and Audible.

When one woman turns her light on, the whole room catches fire. 🔥

#ThriveAfter45 #FeedTheRightWolf #MidlifeAwakening

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

How many times has your body known — long before your mind was willing to admit it — that this wasn't the love that was meant for you?

Sara-Ann Rosen is a dating coach for audacious women who refuse to settle. With a background in law and counselling, she approached dating like a research scientist — gathering data not just on others but on her own patterns. That journey became the foundation for Decoding Dating Dilemmas, through which she has supported over 500 women in releasing self-abandoning patterns and learning to choose relationships rooted in comfort, care, and consistency.

In this conversation, Sara-Ann and I explore what it truly means to stop choosing the right now person — and start choosing the right person.

What we cover:

• Why dating feels like one of the few things that gets harder with practice
• What need-meeting patterns are and how they quietly run our relationships
• The difference between the right now person and the right person
• Why a spark is one-sided — and what to look for instead
• How to assess goal alignment from the very first conversation
• What attunement really means and why it matters more than chemistry
• Why almost 40% of couples felt no attraction when they first met
• The research on desirability and aging — and why it will surprise you
• Why we question ourselves instead of the relationship — and how to stop

Find Sara-Ann Rosen: 🌐 Decoding Dating Dilemmas 📲 Connect with Sara-Ann through her coaching and speaking work

Connect with Denise | Thrive After 45™: 🌐 denisedrinkwalter. 📲 @thethriveafter45podcast 💫 IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™ — Canada's inaugural midlife women's gathering, November 2026 👉 Join the waitlist: ignite2026.lovable.app

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

A gentle reminder — Dana shares her personal journey through a blood cancer diagnosis and stem cell transplant. Her story is powerful and it is hers. If anything she shares stirs something in you about your own health, please reach out to your healthcare provider.

What happens when someone who has spent decades inside the healthcare system suddenly becomes the patient? Dana Sherwin — healthcare executive, consultant, and almost seven-year survivor of a stem cell transplant for a blood cancer disorder — joins Denise Drinkwalter on this episode of Thrive After 45™ to talk about the one thing most women never learned: how to show up for themselves inside the healthcare system.

Through her initiative The Thinking Patient, Dana helps people become informed, confident, engaged partners in their own care. In this conversation, she shares the hard lessons from her own health journey and the practical tools every woman needs — starting today.

What we cover:

• Why your OB-GYN should not be your primary care physician
• The importance of forming a relationship with a primary care doctor early
• What it means to truly be the CEO of your own health
• How to prepare for a doctor's appointment so you walk in focused and walk out clear
• The question you are most afraid to ask — and why you must ask it
• What 85% of diagnoses actually depend on
• Genetic testing and what it can and cannot tell you
• How to advocate for yourself inside a 15-minute appointment
• The power of writing things down before you ever step into that office

Find Dana Sherwin: 🌐 The Thinking Patient 📲 Connect with Dana through her healthcare consulting and speaking work

Connect with Denise | Thrive After 45™: 🌐 Denise Drinkwalter 📲 @thethriveafter45podcast 💫 IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™ — Canada's inaugural midlife women's gathering, November 2026 👉 Join the waitlist: ignite2026.lovable.app

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

Sylvie Beljanski was living a fast paced life as a lawyer in New York when everything shifted.

Her father was a groundbreaking biologist who discovered natural plant extracts to support the body through cancer.

When his life's work was suddenly targeted and destroyed by the government, Sylvie refused to stand by. She stepped completely out of her comfort zone, walked away from her legal career, and dedicated the next 30 years to making sure his research survived and flourished.

We get into the deeply human parts of facing illness and finding true healing.

Sylvie shares the beautiful reminder that you are so much more than a diagnosis or a tumor. We talk about the importance of being the pilot of your own life, doing your own research, and clearing out the physical and emotional toxins that weigh us down.

She even opens up about walking away from a toxic marriage to protect her peace and her personal mission.

This episode is a huge permission slip to take up space and make the choices that are best for your own well being.

Sylvie's journey is proof that the hardest pivots often lead to the most beautiful destinations.

Connect with Sylvie:

• Website: https://beljanski.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beljanskifoundation
• Sylvie's Foundation & Conference: https://integrativecancerconference.com

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

Terri Hanson Mead spent decades navigating predominantly male fields, but what really captured my heart is how she redefines midlife.

Terri is a commercially rated helicopter pilot, an author, an investor, and a coach who helps women go from living on autopilot to taking intentional control of their lives.

When she hit her forties, she did not experience a crisis; instead, she hit a wall of burnout and realized that the narrative about women shrinking as they age is completely broken.

We talk about her path of learning to fly, why she used to hide her dreams to avoid feeling like a failure, and how to reclaim your agency in your fifties and beyond.

We discuss the invisible pressure to look perfect, the exhaustion of constantly worrying about our appearance, and how stepping away from those expectations gives us the space to finally do what fills our souls.

Terri’s perspective on midlife as a puberty of the mind and body is so grounding.

She reminds us that taking just two minutes a day to pause and breathe can be the exact permission slip we need to start making different choices for ourselves.

Find more from Terri Hanson Mead here:

📚 Book: Piloting Your Life
● 📹 YouTube: Terri Hanson Mead
● 📰 Newsletter: PYL In-Flight Entertainment
● 🎙 Podcast: Piloting Your Life
● 📰 Medium Blog: Medium: Terri Hanson Mead
● 💻 Social:

Instagram: @terrihansonmead + @pilotingyourlife
LinkedIn: Terri Hanson Mead
Facebook: Terri Hanson Mead
🧭✈️❤️Zeke and Terri Adventures

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...

💬 message Denise

Ernest Ellender, who people call the Black Belt Trauma Coach, is a former clinical psychologist who realized that sometimes we need more than just talk....we need to train our hearts and bodies like a martial artist would.

We dove deep into the idea that we don't have to let our past trauma be the boss of our future.

Ernest shares about the "trauma lies" we tell ourselves just to survive childhood and how those stories follow us into midlife until we choose to replace them with truth.

It’s not just about a one-time "aha" moment; he talks about the "grind" of self-improvement and why it’s so important to actually enjoy the process and celebrate the tiny wins along the way.

You’ll hear us talk about:

• How to spot the "trauma lies" that are secretly running your life
• Why your 40s and 50s are the best years for deep transformation
• The 20 rules for healing and making your new, healthy life feel normal
• Practical ways to reward yourself and change your internal self-talk

Ernest is such a grounded, wise soul, and his perspective on resilience and embodied strength is exactly what we need in this season of life.

Connect with Ernest here:

Website: www.healfromchildhood.com

* link to a free 36-page summary of my book: https://www.healfromchildhood.com/free-download

* link to the softcover in the Amazon bookstore: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXJ5C4NB

* audiobook on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ew0H4mdwCxFvgUi168ETK?si=35ff1687a0e34aca

Thank you for spending time with me today on the Thrive After 45™ podcast! If this episode spoke to you, be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss one.

November 2026, I will be hosting a live, in-person experience called IGNITE: The Inner Uprising™.

It is a two-day immersive gathering for women in midlife — women who feel the quiet pull toward something more truthful, more embodied, more fully their own.

IGNITE is an extension of these conversations.

It’s where reflection becomes embodiment.

Where insight becomes integration.

Where women who have held so much for others gather to stand fully in their own sovereignty.

If something in today’s conversation stirred you — if your body leaned in — that is NOT accidental.

The waitlist is now open.

Get your name on the list now, and never miss an update and special price breaks that will exist for early registrants.

https://ignite2026.lovable.app

There is a place for us to gather.

If you loved this episode, I’d be so grateful if you left a review - it helps more amazing women like you find this show!

Your journey doesn’t stop here - let’s keep the conversation going! Connect with me at denisedrinkwalter.com, and follow ...