Season Four · Episode Nine · Katherine Chestnut
The Parts of Me I Had to Hide
Healing Childhood Trauma Through Self-Trust
What happens to the parts of us we hide to stay safe?
Katherine Chestnut’s story begins with a childhood spiritual wound. After her mother’s divorce, the response they experienced from the Catholic Church left Katherine associating God with punishment and fear. She spent years searching for a spirituality she could experience as her own while building a successful, highly logical corporate identity.
Later, inside a marriage she experienced as abusive, Katherine again learned to hide her intuitive and spiritual self. Leaving began a gradual process of rebuilding safety, boundaries and trust—and bringing the practical and spiritual parts of her life back together.
Before · The change · What came next
Before
Katherine learned early to separate parts of herself. Faith remained apart from religion, spirituality stayed outside her professional life, and outward achievement helped conceal questions and pain that success could not resolve.
The change
Inside her marriage, Katherine says her spiritual practices were dismissed and her perceptions were repeatedly undermined. Financial dependence, shame and fear made leaving feel impossible until remaining no longer felt compatible with living fully.
What came next
Recovery came through small, repeated practices: meditation, journaling, breathwork, boundaries and community. Katherine became a meditation teacher and now helps achievement-oriented people find stillness while trusting herself to care for the whole of who she is.
“There are going to be things in our lives that we feel are going to break us. And they will. But… we are rebuildable.”
Katherine Chestnut
Listen to Katherine Chestnut’s story
The Parts of Me I Had to Hide premieres December 1, 2026. Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube links will be added when the episode is released.