What happens when your life changes in a single phone call?

What are the boundaries of your role as a compassionate parent when your child experiences a sudden, life-altering injury?

In this deeply moving episode, Molly sits down with Stacy Crawford — a mind-body practitioner with an M.S. in education, a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, and the founder of Klear Water Coaching & Wellness — to share the story of her son’s spinal cord injury at the age of 17 and the healing journey that followed for herself and her whole family.

Stacy brings us into the moment everything changed — and what happened in the days, months, and years that followed. Together, she and Molly explore the boundaries of crisis: what is needed in the moments after an emergency, how to help without overstepping your loved one’s boundaries, and the art of loving someone fiercely without losing yourself in the process.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What it’s like to receive “the call” — and how mind-body tools helped Stacy regulate her nervous system in her moment of crisis
• The impact of medical professionals repeatedly telling a 17-year-old, “You may never walk again” — and why language matters in trauma recovery
• How belonging to a community can have such a profound impact on healing
• What ableism is and why it matters
• Fawning, overfunctioning, and the boundary work required to heal after the traumatic injury of a loved one
• The power of learning to respect your loved one’s boundaries during recovery
• Why accepting help is often the hardest — and most important — first step

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Today’s Guest:

Stacy Crawford, M.S. Ed., is the founder of Klear Water Coaching & Wellness LLC and a lifelong educator devoted to helping individuals, leaders, and organizations reconnect with clarity, purpose, and their innate potential. With more than 15 years of coaching experience, Stacy brings an integrative approach that weaves mind–body awareness, embodiment, and depth coaching. Her work supports meaningful transformation, helping people cultivate self-trust, rediscover joy, and live and lead with greater clarity, alignment, and authenticity.

You can find Stacy at www.klearwatercoaching.com or follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Also, she and Valeyne Grotrian (from Episode 33!) are hosting a talking circle for women, and you can learn more here.

About Mason:

Stacy’s son Mason Branstrater, now 22, is an entrepreneur, content creator, and public speaker. After years of recovery and finding his purpose, he is committed to making a difference in the lives of others. His work is focused on those with physical disabilities and spinal cord injuries but is meant to inspire all people. Through his channels, he shows the world what is possible for disabled and abled individuals alike.

You can find Mason at www.masonbran.com or by following him on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

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Get the Boundaries Breakthrough Mini Course for FREE – and kickstart your boundaries journey.

Pre-order Molly's new book, The Great All, and get an illustrated copy of the companion journal for free.

Thanks for listening to We Are the Compassionate Revolution! If you love the show, please help support it (at no cost) so we can reach more compassionate souls: follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or leave a review. Remember: Love is the way!

What does a love-based movement look like in practice?

This week, Molly interviews Minnesotan and narrative specialist Amy K. Thompson to talk about what she’s witnessing on the ground in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Amy holds a doctorate in physical therapy and a master’s degree in community and public health; she’s also a talented musician, artist, and poet. (We are also proud to have her as a coach inside Molly's Becoming Boundaried Bootcamp).

Molly and Amy reflect on the concept of compassionate nonviolence, taking inspiration from great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. They uncover how practices of community care and creative expression can help people metabolize fear and grief into something greater. They also examine the idea that pain (physical, emotional, spiritual, and cultural) is transformed through witnessing, truth-telling, and love.

Remember: Love is not just a feeling, but can be a form of empowered action.

In this episode (recorded January 29, 2026), Molly and Amy explore:

• what’s unfolding on the ground in Minnesota, and how this movement reveals both our historical wounds and deep collective capacity for change.
• why the act of witnessing is a doorway to healing, both individually and collectively.
• what it looks like to show up in the face of fear without losing your center.
• how community gathering can help transmute grief and outrage into love in action.
• Amy’s poem “How to Kill a Poet” and how there are things violence cannot destroy.
• the deeper truth beneath this moment in history: that what we’re seeing in Minnesota is reflective of what’s possible when compassionate people stand together in their power.

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Today’s Guest:

Amy K. Thompson has been in the narrative space professionally for ten years, and much longer as an artist, writer, musician, and poet. As a narrative specialist she's traveled the world speaking, listening, teaching, coaching, and facilitating narrative workshops and depth work with clients ranging from beekeepers to professional athletes, grandmothers to first graders – all to do one thing: to feel for the truth, to tell it, to do good with it, and to heal. Her journey into this work was through a doorway of pain, and her heart sings to work with the deep-hearted, soulful persons of this world – activists and creatives and change-makers to do good work while we're here, and find our way back to love. If you are ready to touch your story and let love tell it, she would love to meet you.

Find Amy and learn more about her services at: https://www.storywell.org/.

Amy also shared a couple of ways you can support those in Minnesota right now. You can find a list of grassroots efforts in Minnesota collecting donations HERE. Another neat way to spread the love is by sending a brief message of hope, inspiration or gratitude to folks working on the frontlines, which you can do HERE.

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Get the Boundaries Breakthrough Mini Course for FREE – and kickstart your boundaries journey.

Pre-order Molly's new book, The Great All, and get an illustrated copy of the companion journal for free.

Thanks for listening to We Are the Compassionate Revolution! If you love the show, please help support it (at no cost) so we can reach more compassionate souls: follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or leave a review. Remember: Love is the way!

Molly was interviewed by Rachel Strong Smith on The Betrayal Trauma Recovery Bookshelf Podcast, and this week we’re bringing listeners part two of that interview! (Part one is available here.)

In this episode, Molly and Rachel continue to explore boundaries through a wider, more spacious lens – one that moves beyond rules, ultimatums, or control and into meaning, symbolism, and self-honoring truth.

Inspired by Molly’s upcoming book, The Great All: A Parable of Hope, New Beginnings, and You, this conversation invites a zoomed-out perspective on boundaries. Rooted in compassion and dignity, the two explore what it means to truly honor yourself and others.

For those navigating betrayal trauma, boundaries often feel confusing, heavy, or weaponized and something you’re told to “set” without ever being taught how to feel your way into them. This episode offers a different entry point.

Molly and Rachel discuss:

• Boundaries as symbols of self-respect rather than defenses
• What it means to honor me / honor you without self-abandonment
• How parables and story can bypass shame and speak directly to the nervous system
• Why boundaries are not punishments, but expressions of truth
• The “compassionate revolution” and choosing integrity over control

This is a reflective, meaning-rich conversation, especially for those healing from betrayal who are tired of black-and-white rules and longing for something more humane, spacious, and soul-honoring.

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Today’s Guest:

Rachel Smith Strong understands betrayal trauma because she’s lived it. After experiencing the devastating impact of betrayal firsthand, Rachel found support that helped transform her life from constant trauma, isolation, and emotional suppression into authentic connection and boundaried living. She now helps guide others through their own healing process.

Rachel holds a Master of Science in Social Work (MSW), is a Board Certified Coach (BCC), and is an APSATS CPC-Candidate. In her work, Rachel focuses on boundary development, gaslighting recovery, addiction-related betrayal, emotional exploration, and mindfulness-based healing. The approach blends evidence-based techniques with deep empathy, guiding clients to reconnect with their authentic selves, create sustainable boundaries, and reclaim their voices. Rachel emphasizes that each healing journey is unique and offers both professional tools and heartfelt support to help individuals transform pain into purpose and trauma into authentic strength.

Find Rachel at The Betrayal Trauma Recovery Bookshelf Podcast, sign up for a free consultation with Rachel here, or join her on Instagram and Facebook.

*****

Get the Boundaries Breakthrough Mini Course for FREE – and kickstart your boundaries journey.

Pre-order Molly's new book, The Great All, and get an illustrated copy of the companion journal for free.

Thanks for listening to We Are the Compassionate Revolution! If you love the show, please help support it (at no cost) so we can reach more compassionate souls: follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or leave a review. Remember: Love is the way!