295 - A Continuum of Connection: Parent-Child Relationships, Caregiving, and Self-Healing with Annie Schuessler Zam

Aug 21

“I've pivoted into really digging, doing healing work again. And it feels different coming at it from this more healed and healing place myself.” - Annie Schuessler Zam

Shout out to all the folks who continue to show up for themselves. Lending physical and emotional support to others is easy. Extending that same amount of empathy and reliability to ourselves? Ugh, no. That’s why many of us abandon our healing work just as things start to challenge us. But the muck is where we need to be if we have any hope of growing into a true expression of self.

Annie Schuessler Zam, a therapist-turned-healer and host of the Rebel Therapist™ podcast, personifies the life-long practice of showing up for oneself. So, when she asked if she could return to the show to discuss her recent healing experiences, I was all in! Our conversation recalls the quintessential premise of this show: that sharing stories of personal healing is integral and transformational to the changes we hope to make in the professional realm and beyond.

“I’ve made a pivot,” Annie begins. The shift has been a long time coming. “I was a therapist for 20 years. I had my own trauma and am one-hundred-percent sure that's why I was drawn to the work.” But, like many of us in the field, Annie avoided tasks that centered around ways to heal her trauma. Who could blame her? Therapists have a knack for putting their healing on the back burner to deal with the dumpster fires around them.

“I stopped being a therapist in 2020 and committed myself full-time to business coaching,” she explains. “Now I'm making a pivot back to healing.” But the implementation and scope of practice are different. “One of the big things I'm focused on is helping people who are estranged from a parent or caregiver. That's my story. And, I have so much love and fierceness for folks who are on that path or who have made that choice,” she says. “That's something that I've been really just digging into.”

Annie has opted out of traditional licensure to connect with her clients, especially those from the queer community, beyond the conventional medical model. Find out how she’s melding her personal experiences and Internal Family Systems-informed coaching into her work in Part 2 of our conversation.

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GUEST CONTACT & BIO

Annie Zam Healing
Annie Schuessler Zam (she/they) is a therapist turned healer and the host of the Rebel Therapist podcast. She helps people who are estranged from a parent or caregiver who want to heal trauma and live their most beautiful lives.

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