What if healing isn’t about fixing what’s broken, but about reconnecting with the deeper intelligence of the body and mind? In this episode of The Soul Mirror, hosted by Shreya, guests Kellie Hazlett and Kim McCarthy explore healing through acceptance, resilience, and holistic awareness.

Through their lived experience in caregiving and advocacy around neuromuscular conditions like ALS, Kellie and Kim discuss the limitations of traditional medical systems and the importance of integrative approaches. This conversation is for caregivers, patients, and anyone navigating chronic illness who is seeking hope, perspective, and a deeper understanding of healing beyond diagnosis.

About the Guest:

Kellie Hazlett and Kim McCarthy are advocates supporting individuals living with ALS and other neuromuscular conditions. They are involved in integrative healing conversations and host the podcast Healing to the Quantum within the Thrive Collective series, focusing on resilience, caregiving, and holistic wellness approaches.

Episode Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction: Rethinking What Healing Means

03:10 – Kellie’s Personal Meaning of Healing

07:25 – Misconceptions About Healing and Chronic Conditions

12:40 – The Limits of Traditional Medical Systems

17:10 – Caregiving, Support Systems, and Community

21:35 – Evidence-Informed Integrative Healing Approaches

26:00 – First Steps Toward Holistic Healing

29:10 – Final Reflections on Trust, Intuition, and Hope

Key Takeaways:

1. Healing begins with acceptance and the belief that change is possible.
2. Chronic conditions affect each person differently, making personalized healing journeys essential.
3. Caregiving and community support play a crucial role in resilience.
4. Staying present and managing stress supports the body’s natural healing processes.
5. Integrative approaches combine medical care with lifestyle, mindset, and holistic practices.

How to Connect With the Guest:

1. Website: https://thepipelinestrategies.com/
2. Email: [email protected]
3. Social: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube (Healing Through the Quantum)
4. Patreon

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00:00:08 Shreya: What if healing is not about fixing what is broken, but about remembering that we are more interconnected than we have ever been taught. But if the body is not failing us, but asking us to listen differently.

00:00:26 Shreya: Welcome to Soul Mirror, where we gently examine the patterns shaping our lives and reflect on what healing truly asks us of. I'm your host, Joseph, and today I'm joined by Kelly and Kim, volunteer leaders and advocates supporting individual living with ALS and other neuromuscular conditions, helping patients and caregivers navigate evidence informed, integrative and lifestyle approaches to improve quality of life. They also are behind the scenes of Healing Through the Quantum part of the Thrive Collective podcast series, focused on whole system resilience and caregiving. Today, we are diving into healing not just as treatment, but as a modality of awareness, advocacy, and connection. With that, I welcome my guests, Kelly Ann came to the show.

00:01:31 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Hello.

00:01:31 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Hello. Thanks for having.

00:01:33 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Us.

00:01:34 Shreya: Perfect. Kelly, before we talk about specific healing modalities, I'm curious. When you hear the word healing, what does it mean to you now, after everything you have experienced in the care giving and advocacy space?

00:01:53 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Um, I feel that it is a essential part of acceptance. So when you accept that you you can heal and you are healing, you are healed, present. It puts action into the universe and all all of it will come together. so my train of thought immediately goes to having that I approach. I am I am present to the moment. And so by accepting that healing is possible, I feel that you can move forward if you believe the paradigm and what the neurologist said, which four years ago I was told I had a year, probably would have fallen into that category of terminal illness. But later flexion and openness allowing healing to actually take place. Huge acceptance. And being in that present moment, I think is key.

00:02:54 Shreya: Mm.

00:02:55 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: I think it's amazing the power of the mind. we have been we've really been conditioned to, um, give our power away. And part of that is our power of the mind. And, uh, knowing our, our source. And, um, and I think that's a big part of the, the journey of healing through the quantum is not giving your power away and knowing that each of us came from source. Uh, so there's absolute perfection in, in each of us. And once we, um, tune in to that, then that's where the healing can begin. Um.

00:03:39 Shreya: Okay. I'm curious, what is one common misconception you see about healing, especially in the context of serious conditions like ALS?

00:03:55 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: I believe seeking others to heal you. Um, and I fell in that category. So I've walked that journey to thinking you need others to really change the dynamic of the symptoms. And you don't. You really have to trust yourself, your intuition. Because why they haven't really bothered to some kind of cure, as they would say, is every single body is affected differently with this kind of condition. Um, so the goal is just to remove the label of terminal and allow people to have chronic condition. Once you label it as chronic, you will flip the switch for a lot of people. Um, you know, I haven't worked in the medical field. You get very easily bamboozled by the language that they use, you know. Fortunately I've worked I've worked with ALS patients as a therapist. And, um, respiratory is is a big issue. And so if we can walk these people saying that this is this is treatable, this is something that you can reverse symptoms, um, and walk in that path of knowledge. I think more people would be beating it than not.

00:05:14 Shreya: Hmm. It sounds like when healing is reduced to fixing, we lose the broader experience of care and dignity.

00:05:30 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you lose your dignity when you lose your mobility.

00:05:37 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Yeah. Uh, and I've seen that, um, carry over into the people, um, regardless of their support staff, therapists or, um, care providers.

00:05:52 Shreya: Um, yeah. And when you look at the bigger picture, like caregiving, chronic illness, resilience, what deeper patterns do you notice in how our systems approach health?

00:06:09 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: The medical systems are you referencing?

00:06:12 Shreya: Yes. Yes, yes.

00:06:14 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: No acknowledgement whatsoever. I mean, I speak to my medical team because you have to be in the system in this country, uh, to get insurance coverage. Um, they just quietly go, oh, okay. They don't really, um, embrace it. But when I walk into the office, they'll embrace it because they'll physically see it. So, um, they listen to me very, um, casually. And, you know, I'm in the hopium category at this point. I think that's what they're that's how they would label me, which is is fine. You know what I mean? The stats are against me. There's no question. I don't argue that that perspective.

00:06:57 Shreya: Um. Anything that you want to add?

00:07:04 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Um, well, since Kelly and I align so much in, uh, modality thinking and wellness, I agree. Um, having a diagnosis such as ALS can be extremely limiting from a traditional or allopathic path. So, um, having teams that are willing to, um, to truly listen to you, not just to, to update your chart with the information, but to really see that progress is being made. But you also need to look for where the progress is being made. When when you're in a traditional path, then oftentimes they are only looking at the the outer shell of the person, the body, and how it reacts instead of, um, inside, things are really cooking and moving along. It's just taking longer to show it externally.

00:08:04 Shreya: Sure, for someone listening who may be a caregiver or living with a neuromuscular condition, how does this fragmentation show up in everyday life?

00:08:18 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Oh, that's a good question. Um, well, I'll answer it from a caregiver's perspective. Um, it shows up in a lot of my life outside of the time that Kelly and I are working together. I see other people who have very different situations, but at the same time when they fall into, um, racing. Um, one diagnosis that, uh, doesn't really find you or your situation, whether that's the diagnosis, prognosis or, um, moving in your direction. So that's how I see it outside of when I work with with Kelly. But when we're together, um, I mean, not as a pat on the back, but I'm a cheerleader to her because I see these small, incremental changes, and that's exciting to me. And then I think that's just my personal opinion. I think that it transfers over to her and she says, you know what, I am making progress in these areas.

00:09:28 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: And it's nice to have an outside person sharing that, rather than me living in the hopium as somebody might want to term it as, um, I yeah, if it wasn't for Kim's enthusiasm, boy, it would be a it would be a bigger mountain to climb, let me tell you. I mean, it's already a pretty steep grade to go uphill, but huge help to have that a great support team.

00:09:57 Shreya: Yeah. You know, your answer shows me how important is to be not dependent. I would say better word will be interdependent to each other. That's how our lives would be. This particular modern era is pushing people to be hyper independent. Stay alone, stay alone, be alone. Stay away from the family.

00:10:25 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Yeah. Nope, I hear you. Yeah. Our culture really get the kids out at eighteen. Need to run their own life where collective community is really where it's at. And we as humans support each other. That's our energy field. That's how we we that's how we grow.

00:10:44 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Absolutely.

00:10:47 Shreya: Yeah. And when you say evidence informed, integrative approaches, what does that actually mean?

00:10:59 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: I guess I can I can reference it in the medical field. You know, if I show signs of growth shifting from my physical current state to something, then they would use that as an evidence based approach. So the study that we've launched, it's a one thousand person study to really look at how and what people are doing across the board that are actually trying to flip the switch, trying to, um, heal themselves. What are the commonalities? Because there are a lot of them. And that way, the way we track them and we look at them in this study will help future people diagnosed because they get caught in the system, I feel. And once we have all that data, we can write white papers and start publishing. So we can really start a trend of going, this is not a terminal condition. It is strictly a chronic. Something went awry with the immune system and we just need to get it back on track.

00:12:03 Speaker 9: Mhm. Okay.

00:12:05 Shreya: If someone is new to integrative healing what's a grounded first step they can take without feeling overwhelmed.

00:12:15 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Um you know I reference if you're dealing with ALS go to healing als org. Um we have a wealth of information on how to direct first steps, how to detox, but do it in a very gentle, soft way. Um, how to take ownership of your own journey rather than giving your power away? Um, how to work with the medical community because it's it's a challenge. Um, and you can get very frustrated very easily. Um, but if you're frustrated and living in anger, what is your nervous system doing? It's shooting cortisol. It's staying in that fight or flight rather than allowing the body to get into that restful digestive state, the parasympathetic. And that's key. If your body is in parasympathetic, you know, most of the day the body can heal. But if it's always in sympathetic it's fighting itself. It's just a it's like a circle battle. Um, so we have a lot of tools that I've learned, uh, to really, I would say be present every day.

00:13:21 Speaker 9: Mm. Yeah.

00:13:24 Shreya: Kim and Kelley, are there any ways that our listeners can connect with you?

00:13:31 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Yes, please. Um, you can find us on the pipeline strategies. Comm. The pipeline strategies dot com. You can email us at jump into that's j u m I n t o at the Pipeline Strategies. Com. And of course, please connect with us on all of our social media LinkedIn Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. That's where you'll find the podcast. Um, that featuring, uh, Kelly and I on healing Through the Quantum that's Thrive Collective podcast. So we enjoy talking about, um, about healing the quantum and how others can also find, uh, the love and light through healing through the quantum.

00:14:22 Shreya: Perfect. And to everyone listening, all these links are in the show notes, so just go and check those out. I want this answer from both of you. Uh, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

00:14:39 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Um, you know, trust your instincts, trust yourself, and take the right steps. Whatever's right for you in healing. Don't accept what somebody else says.

00:14:52 Kim McCarthy and Kellie Hazlett: Right. I would say start within. Um, oftentimes it's it starts with, um, introspection and moving into meditation and through there. I think that's that's an open gateway that, uh, that takes you through the healing and wellness path.

00:15:16 Shreya: So everyone listening mirror asks us to reconsider what healing truly means. Not perfection, not certainty, but integration, advocacy and compassionate curiosity. If this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone walking their own healing path. And as always, take a moment to pause, reflect, and notice what your own system may be asking for. Until next time. This is the sole mirror.