7 Content Creators I Can Thank For My Marriage

The teachers, podcasters, and authors that brought me to my healing - and can help you, too.

Apr 01, 2025

couple getting married at wedding — photos by Raw Photo & Film

It was a long road to get here. A very long road. If you’ve read about it on my instagram or heard me wax poetic about it in person, you know that my marriage is a feat I’m incredibly proud of - because it took so much work to get ready for.

Our love story spans 25 years, despite that we’re only in our mid-thirties now. I’ll save the full story for another time, but for context it includes: meeting at 12, him being my very first boyfriend after chemo while I was still bald and looked so foreign to myself, realizing the issues we were facing at such a young age were too big for us, then an entire 15 years as best friends, still in love in many ways, but having such very different lives. Me in the city, him in the mountains. Cheering each other on. Hoping for the best.

Until finally, it was time for me to come back home. To myself. To him. To the Pacific Northwest.

This post, though, is about the people who helped me through those 15 years. Living in Seattle, then Los Angeles, New York, and back to LA again. Having three very formative relationships in that time; two long-term partners, and one very brief but very impactful abusive relationship. And the years between, falling in and out of love with myself.

There was a lot to heal from the time around chemo I didn’t know about. Things like: trusting myself and life. Learning to see my body as beautiful despite size or scars. Allowing time in relationships for things to develop naturally, without feeling the rush of my cancer-inflicted knowledge that we are all dying, all the time (book editors say I’m not supposed to tell you that, but it’s important you remember.)

There was codependency to heal from childhood. That manifested as attracting the abusive partner, who destroyed my apartment and bruised my body, as well as an alcoholic partner. Who I loved dearly, but couldn’t help in the end, and had to choose saving myself, saving my own heart and ability to love and be loved, over saving him.

There was my womanhood, my femininity to save. In the years of codependency as a kid and an adult, I had forgotten my feminine power to receive, be cared for, and not live in an I-can-do-it-all-myself masculine drive. There were many, many wounds to heal around being lovable enough to accept kindness and affection, care and protection. Also: to unleash myself as a creative, writer, woman, human. To allow myself to be wild and free again.

…and more. But for now, here are the creators, writers, teachers, angels that helped me find my way back home to my own wildness. That helped me heal, enough so that I could see and accept the love that had been there all along:

Mark Groves, Create The Love

The most insightful, passionate, real (like, get ready for some brutal honesty) teacher I’ve come across. And believe me, I was spending a lot of time with my nose in books and digging on the internet for ‘why am I like this’ and ‘why do I keep attracting these jerks.’ He got me through the hardest breakup of my life, and put a mirror to my own bad behaviors. He’s got classes, podcasts, and a bevy of amazing inlets to your awakening that will absolutely blow your mind and take you to levels of reflection and breakthroughs you would not believe. Thank you, Mark.

Dr. Ramani on YouTube

I started suspecting…maybe…the abusive person I’d let into my life wasn’t just kind of cruel sometimes, he was actually a narcissist. It was Dr. Ramani’s videos that helped me identify the signs, and learn defense strategies like ‘the grey rock method’ that may have saved my life. She’s now been featured on many podcasts with even more signs to look for and tips to help people cope. Her videos also helped me to learn to trust myself in the face of manipulative tactics, one of my first steps toward loving and respecting myself. Thank you, Dr. Ramani.

Dr. Nicole LePera

It was her early YouTube videos that hooked me, followed by her many podcasts appearances and finally, her book. Nicole’s approach is kind, loving, and filled with somatic awareness practices and exercises. I learned to feel through emotions and situations, re-tap into my sensations and intuition in order to guide myself out of situations in which I was being manipulated or in pain, and finally heal some very bad habits. Those habits included: forgiving when a person hadn’t earned and didn’t deserve forgiveness, and not putting myself last in the face of another person’s needs or addictions. Thank you, Nicole.

Krista Williams of Almost 30

I’ve been listening to this podcast since my 20s as a source of wellness inquisition (they interview all the experts, and ask all the questions). By the time Krista began openly talking about her divorce, I almost felt like I was watching a close friend go through a huge transition - at the same time I was preparing for my own singlehood. Her candidness was eye-opening, and exactly the example I needed in order to believe in myself to leave. I was able to see a woman my age going through a breakup with grace, consciousness and curiosity. She followed up with advice on dating consciously, navigating self-worth in singlehood, and more. Thank you, Krista.

Matthew Hussey

He was the one to tell me: it wasn’t love. Not the kind I wanted, anyway. I was fooling myself. THEN I had to learn from him: what it looks like to be respected in a relationship. What dating should and could feel like. How to carry my own self worth over my desire to be liked. How to choose myself, instead of asking someone else to do it. Matthew is grounded, offers very real and practical dating and breakup advice, and is truly teaching women how to date again at the most fundamental levels. Thank you, Matthew.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes PhD, author of Women Who Run With Wolves

Ok, not a content creator, more of an OG badass who is still changing lives with her book. Reading this over a single summer, back and forth in a are-we-aren’t-we toxic cycle, Clarissa’s transformative book opened me up to my wildness again. My womanhood. The power I have in my womb, mind, heart, and soul, and most importantly: the responsibility I have as a woman to roar with that power. Yield it for good. And unleash myself in the world, to be loved as I am, fangs and tears and dirt and beauty and all.

Lacy Philips, To Be Magnetic

TBM’s courses helped me do the deep psychological cleaning; going into the original wounds, from decades ago. We’re talking childhood-era, to figure out: how did I get here? Why am I like this? What beliefs are driving these patterns. Through the meditations, journal exercises, and community I’ve found (hi girls, you know who you are, thank you for being with me through it all! See you next Monday!) I have made such insane shifts, my life has absolutely transformed. Seriously: it was TBM work that woke me up to realize I needed to leave an 8-year relationship. Thank you, Lacy and Jessica and the entire team.

Marriage isn’t easy or perfect, but ours is perfect for us. I’m grateful for those sometimes painful but incredibly awakening years, and the stories of triumph I can now share with my beloved. For the fact that through it all, all those years and miles apart, it was him that was my home, and I’ve finally come back. Ready to love him and myself and the family we are building completely, honestly, radically.