This is the story of a body—how it holds pain, how it hides it, and how it sometimes saves your life by refusing to keep going.

In this episode, Kristen talks with Andrea Ciannavei: writer, activist, playwright, TV producer (Mayans MC, Boots), and end-of-life doula. Andrea is also someone who spent decades navigating addiction, trauma, rage, disordered eating, and a complicated relationship with the world—and her own body.

From her early years in New Rochelle and the halls of the Actors Studio, to gastric bypass surgery, 12-step recovery, and a spiritual path paved with dogs, writing, and grief work, Andrea’s story is brutal, funny, brilliant, and deeply felt.

• 🍽️ How growing up in an Italian American family shaped her earliest experiences with food, shame, and visibility
• 🩺 Why her gastric bypass was “a suicide attempt with a side of surgery”
• 🚬 How addiction masked deeper emotional pain—and how 12-step work cracked things open
• ✍️ How writing helped her integrate the past and develop her voice
• 🌈 Why she became an end-of-life doula—and how death work is deeply linked to trauma recovery
• 🧠 How trauma isn’t just a personal wound—it radiates outward like fallout
• 🔥 Why healing is nonlinear and sometimes angry, and why she’ll never stop fighting for her own life

There are moments in this episode that hit like a freight train, and others that feel like a hand on your shoulder. If you’ve ever struggled with body image, addiction, loss, or the long arc of becoming — this one’s for you.

• 📘 Andrea’s Play: Pretty Chin Up Published by Playscripts, Inc.
• 🎤 Andrea Ciannavei – IMDb
• 📚 It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn – Book link
• 💀 National End-of-Life Doula Alliance – Certification and resources
• 🧰 The RISE Framework – A trauma-informed approach from TCOM
• 🧭 TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management) – Healing-centered strategies for helpers and systems

“I was the biggest I’d ever been, and I knew I was going to die. And I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live—but I didn’t know how.”

TV: Co-Executive Producer on Boots (Netflix/Sony), Mayans MC (FX Networks), The Path (Hulu), Last Men Out (National Geographic); American Odyssey (NBC Universal), Copper (BBC America), Borgia (Canal Plus).

Plays: The Winstons, one-act play commissioned by Hangar Theater, Deep Trees, The Hard Sell, 7 Captiva Road, and Pretty Chin Up which received a development production at LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Directors: Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz) at The...

At five years old, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with his mother, hidden on a bus. At twelve, he crossed again—this time on foot, in the cold, through a desert canyon. Years later, Abrahan served in the United States Marine Corps, completed two deployments in the Middle East, and earned his U.S. citizenship.

In this extraordinary episode, Abrahan sits down with Kristen Cerelli to share a story rarely told with such clarity, humor, and humility:

• 🇲🇽 What it meant to be “illegal” at five—and why he thought his whole family was in trouble
• 🧭 The emotional and physical toll of two border crossings before the age of 13
• 🎒 What 12 schools in 12 grades taught him about adaptability and empathy
• 🎖️ Why he enlisted in the U.S. military—and how it shaped, strained, and ultimately stretched him
• 🎭 How acting, self-reflection, and solitude became his path back to joy
• ❤️ The promise he made to his mother as a child—and how it still drives him today

This is a conversation about immigration—but also about what it means to belong, and how we carry the legacy of our family, culture, and trauma into every new identity we forge.

• 📘 It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn – On inherited family trauma and healing
• 🧭 TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management) – Person-centered tools for change agents
• 🌍 ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) – Understanding the long-term impacts of early adversity
• 🎖️ Military Path to Citizenship – USCIS
• 🎭 Resources for Veterans in the Arts

“For the first time in my life, I don’t feel like I have to take care of anyone else. I can take care of myself. And it’s beautiful.”

• EP13: I Just Wanted It to End – Richie Barlow’s journey from childhood trauma to business ownership
• EP15: I Raised Myself – Mary Grace Lim on immigration, survival, and forgiveness

• TCOM
• The Praed Foundation

• Hosted by Kristen Cerelli
• Cover art by @jacksonfall
• Theme Music by Kristen Cerelli. Additional music by Ray Wyssman and The Simoleons
• Podcast production by

Season Two continues exploring themes of resilience, inheritance, and reinvention. In Richie Barlow’s story, we saw how unmet needs became entrepreneurial muscle. In this conversation, we step through another doorway—immigration—to ask how identity and family are reshaped across borders.

Mary Grace Lim was born in Carmona Cavite, Philippines, and came to the U.S. twice: once at five with her mother and stepfather, and again at eleven with her sisters. Along the way, she was raised largely by her grandmother, navigated her mother’s long absences and addiction, and found safety in community, sports, and faith.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Mary Grace reflects on:

• 💔 Growing up between two countries — and the ache of leaving her grandmother behind
• 🌱 Raising herself when adults fell short, and the survival instincts that gave her strength
• 🏐 Sports as salvation — how volleyball and basketball gave her purpose, discipline, and voice
• 💸 Generational cycles of money and survival — and how she’s working to break them
• 🙏 Faith and artistry as compass points — discovering God, creativity, and self-forgiveness on her own terms
• 🧩 Healing generational trauma — inspired by Mark Wolynn’s It Didn’t Start With You

At the heart of her story is a hard-won lesson: forgiveness of all parts of the self, and the courage to set new boundaries.

• 📘 Book: It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycleby Mark Wolynn
• 🧭 TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management) – Learn more about shared language for healing systems
• 🌍 CDC on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

“I think I raised me. I took what I needed from where it was available—and gave myself what I didn’t get.”

Missed our last conversation? Listen to S2 EP13: Finding Light in the Darkest Places and S2 EP14: Hold On Tight with Richie Barlow for more on resilience, survival, and transformation.

• TCOM
• The Praed Foundation

• Hosted by Kristen Cerelli
• Cover art by @jacksonfall
• Theme Music by Kristen Cerelli. Additional music by Ray Wyssman and The...