The Practitioners Rise Podcast

Brittany Estrada walked out of a doctor's appointment with a prescription for an SSRI, a comment that it would probably help her lose weight, and no other options on the table. She was in college at the time, newly diagnosed with depression and bulimia, and something about that answer didn't sit right.
That instinct sent her down a fourteen-year path that eventually became her life's work.
On this episode of the Practitioners Rise Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Brittany Estrada, board-certified women's health nurse practitioner and founder of Vssel Care, to talk about why women's hormones don't run on one static plan and what she's learned from fourteen years of digging for root causes instead of just managing symptoms.
We talk about:
What happened when Brittany came off the SSRI she was prescribed in college, and what she found instead
Why she believes women are cyclical by design, and why a plan that works in your twenties may not work a decade later
The specific genetic factor she discovered in her own body years into her career, and what it explained about her mental health all along
Why postpartum depletion so often doesn't show up until perimenopause, and what most providers miss
What preconception care is supposed to include, and why most women never hear about it before trying to conceive
What gynecological visceral therapy and holistic pelvic care actually involve, and why Brittany thinks every woman could benefit from this kind of bodywork
If you already know a bit about Brittany's story or her work at Vssel Care, this conversation still goes somewhere new, especially once she gets into the specific labs she checks before recommending any hormone support, and the basics she says most women are missing before anything else will work.
Connect with Brittany Estrada: Website: brittanyestrada.com Instagram: @thebrittestrada
Follow the Practitioners Rise Podcast at practitionersrise.com/podcast to connect with us and learn more.
If this episode changed the way you think about your own body, subscribe to the show, leave a review, and pass it along to a friend navigating a season of change right now.

When Laura Longanecker's first daughter was born, she already had a book in hand explaining exactly how babies are designed to sleep. She still spent the first few nights sitting up in a rocking chair, too scared to use anything she knew, while her newborn refused to be put down for more than twenty minutes at a time.
It took a few more sleepless nights before she was willing to trust the research she'd already done as a nurse, and what happened once she did changed how she's practiced ever since.
On this episode of the Practitioners Rise Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Laura Longanecker, RN and certified baby-led sleep & wellbeing specialist and founder of Strawberry Moon Sleep, to talk about what's happening biologically when a baby won't be put down, and why so much of the sleep training advice new parents get skips real informed consent.
We talk about:
Why human babies are "carrier mammals," and what that means for how they're built to sleep
The real difference between sleep training and a gentle, responsive sleep transition
What informed consent should look like when a provider recommends sleep training, and the questions most parents never think to ask
The root causes behind frequent night waking that a standard well-child visit often never checks, including one specific lab value that gets overlooked
Why babies don't have a "brake pedal" for stress, and what that means for the idea of self-soothing
How culture, more than biology, shaped what we've come to think of as "normal" baby sleep
If you already know the basics of attachment parenting or co-sleeping, this conversation still goes somewhere new, especially once Laura gets into the specific things she checks for before ever recommending a change to a baby's sleep, and what she wishes every exhausted parent knew before their next well-child visit.
Connect with Laura Longanecker on her Website or follow her on Instagram & Facebook @StrawberryMoonSleep.
Follow the Practitioners Rise Podcast to connect with us and learn more.
If this episode changed how you think about your baby's sleep, subscribe to the show, leave a review, and pass it along to a mom who needs to hear it today.

Amy Segerstrom spent almost 20 years sitting with grieving families as coordinator of the Healing Place at Sacred Heart Hospital. Somewhere in the middle of that work, she lost her father to Alzheimer's, then her brother to complications from COVID, and today she's the caregiver for her 95-year-old mother.
What she learned from carrying both sides of grief at once, the professional and the deeply personal, changed everything about how she believes we're supposed to grieve.
On this episode of the Practitioners RISE Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Amy Segerstrom, a trained spiritual director, mindfulness teacher, and published poet, to talk about what grief asks of us, and why most of the advice we give grieving people misses the mark.
We talk about:
Why losing her father to Alzheimer's felt like living through two separate deaths
The "Kleenex box" image Amy used with grieving clients for years, and what it reveals about carrying loss
The phrase that stops well-meaning people from saying the wrong thing to someone who's grieving
A simple daily practice for building genuine gratitude, even when you don't feel grateful yet
What inspired the four sections of Amy's upcoming poetry collection, Stretch Marks
The one thing Amy wishes more people understood about grief, after two decades of sitting with it both professionally and personally
Whether you already know Amy's story or you're meeting her for the first time in this episode, this conversation offers something worth sitting with.
Connect with Amy Segerstrom on Facebook, Instagram, and Substack, or reach her directly at amysegerstrom@gmail.com. Keep an eye out for the release of her poetry collection, Stretch Marks.
If this episode moved you, subscribe to the Practitioners Rise Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who needs permission to grieve in their own way. Visit practitionersrise.com/podcast to connect with us and learn more.

Amy Wall was named US Esthetician of the Year in 2016. At the same time, she ran her spa on adrenaline and cortisol, took home a fraction of what her business brought in, and did Botox because that's what everyone in the industry did. She says once she started working with the energetics of beauty instead, she couldn't go back to doing it the old way.
What broke that old pattern wasn't a new product or a better technique. It was a string of personal crises, including a lawsuit from a former business partner and her husband's PTSD-driven legal battle, that forced her to choose between the business she'd built and the practice she said she wanted to stand behind.
On this episode of the Practitioners Rise Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Amy Wall, creator of the Light Lift Method and founder of The Skintessa, to talk about aging, self-image, and why the relationship with your own reflection might be one of the most important relationships you'll ever have with yourself.
We talk about:
Why Amy says the mirror was never showing you the truth in the first place, and what it's really reflecting instead
Her "Three Mirrors" framework, and the one mirror she says the beauty industry never told you existed
Why she called her home-care ritual a "plan" instead of a "ritual" for years, and what finally changed that
The real reason she walked away from Botox after eight years of using it herself, and what she learned about how it was marketed
Why she thinks "conscious beauty" has been misconstrued for years, and what she says the term is really about
The 30-second habit she teaches every client, and why she says it can change how you see yourself for good
Why she moved her own skincare ritual out of the bathroom, and what she recommends instead
If you've followed Amy's work before, some of this will sound familiar. If this is your first introduction to her, you're about to hear a very different way of thinking about beauty, about aging, and about the woman looking back at you in the mirror.
Find Amy Wall and The Skintessa at theskintessa.com, and across social platforms as The Skintessa.
If this episode resonates, subscribe to Practitioners RISE, leave a review, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it.

Dr. Morgan Hope looked like the picture of health. A college athlete, always active, the friend everyone called the "health nut."
But behind the scenes, she was cycling through antibiotics for months at a time, managing skin issues with prescription creams, and relying on birth control just to get through the pain of her own periods.
Then she came off the pill after nearly a decade, and everything she'd been suppressing came back at once, worse than before.
Doctors in her early twenties offered her one solution: a hysterectomy.
On this episode of the Practitioners RISE Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Dr. Morgan Hope, a perinatal and pediatric chiropractor at The Wellness Way in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to talk about hormones, fertility, and what it actually took to heal her body instead of just managing it.
You'll learn:
What actually happens in your body when you stop long-term birth control, and why symptoms can return worse than before
Why Morgan refused to accept a hysterectomy as her only option in her early twenties, and what she did instead
Whether surgery is ever truly necessary for endometriosis and PCOS, and how to think through that decision if you're facing it
The everyday chemicals hiding in your food and personal care products that most families have never been warned about
Why your baby's colic might be a nervous system issue, not something you just have to wait out
How Morgan went from being told she might never carry a baby to a healthy, medication-free pregnancy
If you've followed Morgan's healing journey online, some of this story might sound familiar, but this conversation goes deeper into the hormone piece specifically, and what she'd tell every woman considering long-term birth control before she started it herself.
Find Dr. Morgan Hope at The Wellness Way in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Facebook (Toxin-Free Living group), TikTok (@Dr. Morgan Hope), and Instagram (@Doctor of Hope).
If this episode gave you something to think about, subscribe, rate, and review the show, and follow @practitionersrise for more. That's how we build stronger, healthier communities together, one practitioner, one story, one family at a time.

Dr. Sophia Duarte spent her childhood cycling through hospital visits, prescriptions, and side effects that seemed to multiply on their own. Five medications, each one treating what the last one caused, and nobody ever connected any of it back to her nervous system.
It took a rejected physical therapy application and one chiropractor's offhand comment to send her down a completely different path.
On this episode of the Practitioners RISE Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Dr. Sophia Duarte, founder of Radiant Chiropractic in Charleston, South Carolina, to talk about the nervous system, childhood labels, and what families are missing when they're only treating symptoms.
We talk about:
Why she was hospitalized four times in a single month as a kid, and what nobody thought to check
What her own birth may have had to do with decades of health struggles
The moment she decided to come off her anxiety medication for good
Why she doesn't look at an ADHD or anxiety label when a family walks into her office
What a subluxation actually is, explained through a dimmer switch
What she wants every mom to hear before she starts questioning herself
If you've already read up on nervous system regulation or chiropractic care, there's still a personal story here you haven't heard. And if this is all brand new, Dr. Sophia breaks it down in a way that's easy to follow, no matter where you're starting from.
Find Dr. Sophia Duarte and Radiant Chiropractic at radiantchiropractic.com. 
If this episode gave you something you needed today, tag me on Instagram, share it with a friend, or leave a review. That's how we build stronger, healthier communities together, one practitioner, one story, one family at a time.

Tammie Delveaux was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2018, then Crohn's disease and ankylosing spondylitis in 2020, after a decade of pain no one could explain. Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and a double hip replacement followed. She built her practice, Belly Love Holistic Wellness, out of the years it took to find what was driving all of it.
One dietary shift, paired with testing most doctors never run, changed nearly everything for her, though she is quick to say healing was not a straight line.
On this episode of the Practitioners RISE Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Tammie Delveaux, a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and founder of Belly Love Holistic Wellness, to talk about autoimmune disease, gut healing, and what it takes to find a root cause instead of another prescription.
We talk about:
The specific food she cut that stopped ten years of pain in two weeks
Why she believes mold sits behind more autoimmune diagnoses than most doctors realize, including her own
Why she tests with a wheat zoomer and a GI map instead of relying on standard bloodwork
Why she teaches clients to count nutrients instead of calories
Her plans for a celiac-safe community kitchen, funded by a 2026 grant
If you have followed Tammie's story before, you already know pieces of this journey, but there is more here than a highlight reel. This conversation goes into the specific tests, the specific triggers, and the specific steps that got her from bedridden to building a practice that helps hundreds of families do the same.
Find Tammie at Belly Love Holistic Wellness, bellyloveholisticwellness.com, and through her Happy Belly Foodies cooking classes for the Chippewa Valley community.
If today's episode spoke to you, tag me on Instagram, share it with a friend, or leave a review. That is how we build stronger, healthier communities together, one practitioner, one story, one family at a time.

Mary Anne Tillotson had a hysterectomy at 31. She's never given birth, and yet, she's built her entire career around guiding women through pregnancy, labor, and the fourth trimester.
It started with a simple request from a friend in 2021 — one Mary Anne almost turned down because she felt completely unqualified to say yes.
On this episode of the Practitioners RISE Podcast, host Hailey Krajewski sits down with Mary Anne Tillotson, registered prenatal yoga teacher, NASM-certified personal trainer, and founder of The Bump Collective in Belmont, North Carolina, to talk about pregnancy, postpartum identity, and why "bouncing back" might be the wrong goal entirely.
We talk about:
What led Mary Anne to a hysterectomy at 31, and how that same year reshaped everything she thought her future would look like
Why she says she was "terrified" to teach something she'd never personally experienced, and what changed her mind
The pregnancy prep habit she thinks distracts parents from what actually matters in those final months
Why she pushes back hard on the phrase "bouncing back" after birth, and what she believes happens to a woman's body and identity instead
The one thing she wishes people would offer new parents instead of "let me know if you need anything"
What inspired her upcoming book, and the four pillars it's built around
If you've heard pieces of Mary Anne's story before, this conversation goes further into the parts most people don't ask about, from the professional path she left behind to the community model she's now built from scratch.
Connect with Mary Anne:
Website: thebumpcollectivenc.com
Instagram: @thebumpcollective and @queenbeecoach
If this episode gave you something to think about, subscribe, leave a review, and follow @practitionersrise for more conversations with practitioners doing the real work.
Share this one with a friend who's pregnant, postpartum, or just tired of being told to bounce back.

"It's just hormones." Most women have heard some version of that. Maybe you've said it about yourself.
But what if the brain fog, the fatigue, the painful periods, the trouble conceiving, or the infection that keeps coming back are pointing to something deeper?
In this episode, I'm joined by Jamie Wilcox and Vallie Aris, two Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners from Eau Claire Acupuncture who spend their days helping women find the root cause behind hormone imbalances, fertility struggles, and the symptoms so many of us have been told are just part of being a woman.
A few of the things we get into:
Why birth control can make a cycle look regular without making it function normally
What's really behind the decline in fertility, including the male side of the story that usually gets left out
The everyday toxins that interfere with hormones and conception
The patterns that show a woman's body has been asking for help for years
Savvy Vagi, Vallie's program for vaginal health, recurring infections, and the microbiome most providers never test for
If you've ever been told your symptoms are "normal" and left it there, this one is worth your time.

In this powerful episode of Practitioners Rise, I sit down with Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Level II Certified Nutrition Recovery Coach, Amen Clinics Certified Brain Health Professional, and founder of Sycamore and Sage Nutrition, Jayne Reynolds, for a conversation that reframes anxiety, panic attacks, and mental health.
Before helping others heal, Jayne was experiencing three to four panic attacks a day, ending up in the ER convinced she was having heart attacks, unable to work, parent, or function normally — despite doing everything she had been told to do.
Doctors.Medication.Counseling.Nothing was working.
It wasn’t until someone finally started asking why that everything began to shift.
Together, Hailey and Jayne explore:
The hidden physical root causes that can contribute to anxiety
Blood sugar instability and panic symptoms
Gut health, mold exposure, hormones, thyroid function & neurotransmitters
Why mental health symptoms are often deeply connected to the body
The limitations of symptom-only treatment approaches
Small, sustainable changes that support healing
The powerful reframe that “your brain may not be broken”
This episode is validating, hopeful, and incredibly eye-opening for anyone who has felt dismissed, stuck, or quietly wondering if there’s something deeper going on beneath their symptoms.