A profound exploration of addiction and recovery unfolds in this episode, featuring host Tamala Shaw and her guest, Leanna Lapidus, a holistic hypnotherapist. The dialogue navigates through the complexities of codependency and the detrimental impact of addiction on familial relationships. Leanna shares her personal journey, detailing her experiences growing up in a household affected by alcoholism, which instilled in her a sense of shame and isolation. This background not only shaped her understanding of addiction but also ignited her passion for helping others heal from similar traumas. The conversation serves as a poignant illustration of how our past experiences inform our present identities and relationships.

• lianalapidus.com
• codependentme.org
• codependentmeutlook.com

Foreign.

Welcome to the Codependent Me podcast.

I am your host, Tamela Shaw, a recovering codependent, the co author of God Turn Mommy's Wine into Water, and I'm a certified life coach.

On this podcast, we discuss a lot of relevant topics.

But the podcast was created to increase the awareness of codependency and to give information on how to live a more holistic life.

Welcome to the Codependent Me podcast.

I am your host, Tamela Shar.

Today we have a wonderful guest.

Her name is Leanna Lapidus.

She is a holistic hypnotherapist.

Liana, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

I'm just so honored to be here.

Your presence is already just radiating, and I can't wait for our conversation, to be honest with you.

Yes, it's so funny.

Like, okay, so we met on podmatch, so I like to give them a shout out, but I've just met the best people, you know, that that connects on podcast.

I mean, on a podmax.

So I really feel as though, even though there's no presence.

Right.

There's something about the energy, whether it's in the profiles or whatever.

But I have met the most phenomenal people, and you are definitely on that list.

I've enjoyed our talk pre show, so I'm so glad that you're here.

Thank you.

Me too.

Absolutely.

So, Leanna, do you mind letting the audience know a little bit about you?

Of course.

My gosh, where should I start?

I have so many testimonials, and I like to look at my life as has lots of testimonials because, you know, I consider myself as an overcomer and glory to God, all of it.

Yes, I could never have done it myself.

But a little bit about me, why I choose the work that I do.

I feel like I was chosen for it before I even got to it because I had what I.

What I call an experience of traumatic experience while growing up.

You know, I grew up in a home where alcoholism, with alcoholism and lots of fear.

So that imprint that left a huge imprint on my spirit.

And from there, everything.

Everything kind of piled onto it, and then more and more was attracted to it.

That's how it works.

That's how I see it now, as a hypnotherapist from.

From my work is that, you know, the seeds are planted and then more life experience just make that bigger and then it begins to spread and it's called negative energy.

And, you know, it just takes over and created all kinds of insecurities in me.

A feeling Of I don't belong here.

I'm different, and, you know, just didn't know how to deal with, with people.

Because growing up in, in an environment like that, and this is something from my personal experience and also from the experience of so many thousands of people that I worked with.

You know, when we grew up in those types of environments that are traumatic and scary and uncomfortable, we begin to create this shame, and the shame causes us to isolate, and we isolate in our own world.

And that's what I did in this small little world of my own inside myself.

And that's where we create the identity of who we are, by the way we're treated by our parents, by the way we're treated by our siblings, and, and everything that happens to us.

It's.

We're, we're creating this idea and identity of what we deserve, what we don't.

And so I kind of grew up in a very dark, you know, experience.

And I love my parents.

I have, I, I, I love them.

They have taught me tons of lessons, and I forgive them for, for everything, what they didn't know, because they didn't know better.

You know, when someone doesn't know better, they just don't know better.

So we forgive them and have compassion for them.

So when they talk about my past, I don't want it to seem like, you know, that that was like, they were so bad.

There was a lot of very wonderful qualities.

But I'm just saying, when they were in their addiction and in their spirit of fear, that's when it was scary for me.

So that's not the person.

That's the spirit of alcohol, of alcoholism, of addiction, you know, acting out in the human being.

So that's the effect that I got.

I love that you said that that way.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but.

Yeah, no, no, tell me, is the.

The whole spirit of the addiction?

Yes.

You know, we always say that, you know, people don't have control when they have this addictive nature, but they never look at it as if it's a spirit.

And it is.

Right.

I just needed the audience to be able to hear that and to truly, truly hear you say the spirit of the addiction.

Oh, my gosh.

It's not who they are.

It's something that they become or the spirit takes over.

And, you know, I learned that because of, really, a family member that I love so much struggled with addiction, and I saw the difference.

They were one way when they weren't in their addiction, and then they became something Else.

And I clearly saw that I had that clarity.

And.

And everything shifted for me then, because with my father, I had.

I had, you know, resentments that he was that way.

And then I actually married someone who had a very serious drug addiction, and I was angry at that as well, and I had a lot of resentment.

But then when I had an experience with a family member, it changed my perspective, because I saw in my own eyes, in my own way, that that is not the person.

It's the behavior that happens when they're in that spirit or when that spirit.

When they allow that spirit to enter by actually doing it.

But so.

So.

And that's where I was inspired and excited about to work in addiction is because I have compassion.

I understand.

And I'm not working with the addict.

I'm working with them as a.

As a person, as a soul, you know, and just helping them fight this addiction, you know, this spirit.

Mm.

That is beautiful.

I absolutely love that.

I do want the audience to know that you are an addiction recovery specialist.

Yes.

And you've worked with, like you said, thousands of people through their addiction, and, you know, getting to the other side, to the beautiful recovery, sobriety side, which is, you know, it's still a battle.

Once they hit that.

Hit that mark, they still have to work on keeping that, you know, at bay, you know, forever, basically.

Forever.

You know, forever.

And it's a beautiful journey.

It really is.

So I definitely hats off, and I honor you for the work that you do.

It's very personal for me because, you know, I was telling you before, I have.

My parents are recovering alcoholics.

So I.

All that you're saying about your childhood and all of that, it's.

I completely understand for sure.

Yes.

Yes.

And it's very important to, you know, also understand that, yes, you're right.

Addiction is, you know, it's easy to get sober, but it's hard to stay in recovery or, you know, continue to do the right thing, because, you know, the power of the addiction, the.

The.

The energy and the spirit of addiction is so powerful.

So we have to learn how to fight it.

And that's some of the things that I definitely work with my clients because they have to.

It's a spiritual battle.

It's a mental battle.

Yeah, it's a.

It's a battle that only a person.

That person needs to learn how to.

Fight.

Because we can.

We can teach so many tools, but it really comes down to applying the tools and applying the.

The things that resonate, the things that make sense, you know, And I'VE seen so many people in recovery and live beautiful lives, know past addiction.

And I call it overcomers.

Right, Overcomers.

Because they've overcome this huge battle, you know, and they came out on the other side and it's not easy, but it's beautiful, like you said.

And you know, the thing is they overcome it.

But people think that, you know, the, the anxiety goes away or, you know, you have to, have to work through shame.

You know, we, I do a lot of work with my mom because, you know, I'm out here in public talking about all of these things.

And there was a time where, you know, she would be sitting right next to me.

Of course, not on the podcast, but when I'm interviewing and things like that.

When we were doing interviews for our book, she sat right there and you talking about a just tremendously God driven, beautiful woman that can sit back and tell about that spirit that was in her about, you know, the, the hardship, the thing that she, that she did that she's ashamed of, how she, you know, inside she feels like she let her children down.

You know, that's hard to sit back and tell people that in public when you're a very different person today.

Right, right.

So even though they've overcome that, there are so many things that they still have to work through.

Which is why I think that you're doing this.

Holistic hypnotherapy is so wonderful because there is emotional trauma that they've gone through.

Not only that they've given, but they went through.

Right, right.

So it's beautiful this, this work that you're doing.

So will you tell the audience a bit about, about what, what is hypnotherapy?

I know, but I want the audience just to have some virgin ears.

So, yeah, I'm going to try to put into words as much as I can.

It's so hard to explain.

It's really an experience.

So, so it's a way to enter your inner world and take a look like your eyes are going inward and you're able to see all aspects of you.

You know, the, the, the aspect of shame, the aspect of trauma and hurt and rejection and all these.

And you get to look inside yourself.

It's called the subconscious mind where all the memories, all the belief systems are held and all the experiences, all the, you know, things that, how we identify ourselves are our worth.

And so it's a storage of data, I call it, and that's 90%.

And then we have the consciousness.

Right.

Which is know for some people it's God, for some people is the universe, you know, but that part that.

That where.

Where your emotions and memories don't exist, it's just a.

A inner peace, A peace where time stands still, you know, that part that I'm talking about.

So that's the part that I help people use to heal their 90%.

So, you know, whether it's inner child healing or trauma, however it was developed, I go to the root cause of it.

And once we heal, like the, you know, that seed, the root, right.

It's like we pluck it out.

All the other weeds kind of, you know, die with it.

It's a beautiful process.

And it really is kind of like that.

It's not kind of.

It is like that.

Yeah.

It just takes time for like, everything to come together, for those weeds to die out completely.

And then a person really.

For.

It's not that they forget that they experience that those things, they just.

Their perspective changes and you know, replacing it with, you know, learning and gaining the wisdom from what you experienced, you know, And I can say for God's glory, you know, because then God uses it for the good, right?

It's being used to help other people.

Just like my trauma is now being used, just like all the things that I experienced.

You know, it's.

It's a transformative process and it happens internally.

And it's.

There's an internal shift.

There's like a release that happens from this tension.

If we're, for example, working on shame, it's.

It's released and then the person realizes, Wow.

A lot of the time I hear people going into, like, why didn't I know this sooner?

You know, And I'm like, hey, there's always the right time.

That's right.

There's always a perfect.

Because now we can't go back and regret, you know, and that's another negative, you know, so it's like, okay, now, you know, so.

So I hope I explained the process of being.

Yeah, absolutely.

You did a great job explaining it.

So I know you talked about your past and how, you know, again, things that happen in our past, when we heal those things and we work through those things, that's how we can help others get through their traumas and all of those things.

So I know that you have a book.

Can you talk about just.

I know we got a little bit of time.

We had about two, three minutes about you.

About the book.

Yeah, so I wrote the book because, you know, I.

There was a vision.

I got a vision and, you know, I was supposed to write a Book.

And I wrote the book, and it's very small, but it describes my.

My childhood, my upbringing, the feelings that I've gone through, and then how I use all of that to transform it into working for me.

Meaning I use it to empower myself, you know, self awareness, being aware of your thinking and how to reframe your thoughts, and then journaling.

So it talks about journaling.

You know, a lot of therapists offer, you know, suggest journaling.

So I started journal.

I'm like, hey, this is so negative.

And then I thought, okay, what if I go back and cross out the negative words and replace them with positive ones?

And then the story just changes completely, you know?

So then I understood that our story, what we focus on and what we think about is so important because it creates our perspective and which creates our reality.

So I talk about that in the book as well.

And I kind.

I list steps on what I took to get.

To get through the healing process.

I love that.

I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna take my journal, take negative words, and turn them into positive words, and I'm going to read it again.

That's right.

Oh, my goodness.

Because your heart is already telling you that.

Yeah, right.

Your heart is already speaking that because it knows, like, what you need.

So if we know what we don't want, then we know what we do want.

I love that.

Yep.

Yep.

I love that.

Yes.

And you're right.

What you focus on is what will grow.

So if you focus on these positive words, focus on the good things, those are the things that will grow.

Not all of this negative muck.

Right?

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

And, you know, talking about trauma too much.

We, we, we.

It's.

We're bonding through trauma.

We're constantly living in that place.

You know, I don't really like to talk about it too much.

We'll bring it up in.

In sessions when I work with people, we'll look at it, we'll heal it, We'll.

We'll reconnect it, and then we will push away the emotions that were attached to the trauma but will heal it.

And then they're.

They're far away.

So the person remembers what happened, but they're not emotionally internalizing it.

They're just like, oh, that happened.

But look at the miracle that happened after that because of that, you know, so.

So that's the main goal for me when I work with.

With people.

I love it.

But what was the name of the book?

You have a choice.

You have a choice.

You have a choice to start living yes.

Where can they find it?

On Amazon.

All right, good stuff.

So, audience, I think you should go out and grab it because it's got good stuff inside.

She's got some great tips, ways to, you know, get on the other side of this trauma or these bad feelings, because it is possible.

And what's your website?

It's my first and last name, so it's liana lapidus.com and it's L E A N N A L A P I D U S. And I.

If anybody wants to get in touch with me, if you have any questions for any reason, fill out my contact form and I will get back to you as soon as I can to schedule.

And there's also a calendar, so that's the way to contact and easy and it's quick.

That's wonderful.

And then she has a Facebook and Instagram and also a LinkedIn.

So if you want to check out what she's putting out there, because it's all good stuff, definitely go on those social media platforms.

And I want to ask, because I ask all of my guests, if you could give one last nugget to the audience, what would it be?

Yeah, anything is possible.

Whatever you're going through, it can be transformed and turned around.

You know, we just need the right guidance and the right help, and we need to believe that it can happen.

We believe that is big.

I had to take a breath on that one because I could feel it.

Yeah, you have to believe it.

That's part of the manifestation.

You just hoping and wishing and not truly believing it.

You know, stand 10 toes down in that thing and really know that the goodness is happening.

What I learned is whatever comes into my mind, whatever vision I have, comes to me for a reason.

That means that I can accomplish and I can live.

And I learned to trust it.

And.

And so when we trust it, we then can believe it.

Because I'm telling you over and over and over, time and time again, it's been proven to me in my life.

And I just wish people would hold on to the vision that they have and not think that they can't get there, but they will get there when the time is right.

And it's just about taking one step, the first one, and you'll get there.

So.

Absolutely.

Well, I have to say, Leanna, you seem to be definitely living in God's will at this point.

You know what I mean?

I love you.

I love it.

Yes.

Well, I want to thank you so much for being on the show.

This has been cute.

It went by so quick.

I know, I know.

Audience, I want you to know that there are millions, probably billions at this point, of podcasts out there, but you chose this one, and I am appreciative.

And I want you to remember that you matter and your story matters.

And until next time, me and Liana are going to say goodbye.

Yeah.

I truly understand that time is valuable, so thanks for listening.

Be sure to check us out on our Facebook page.

Like us on Instagram website codependentme.org and if you need a coach, email me@codependentmeutlook.com.