
Episode #23
Before You Say Yes: Relationships, Boundaries & the Body with Dr. Lissa Rankin
What happens in the body when we repeatedly abandon ourselves to preserve a relationship? In this conversation, Anne speaks with physician and bestselling author Dr. Lissa Rankin about her book RelationSick , co-authored with Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, and the profound connection between our relationships and our physical and emotional health. They explore overgiving, people-pleasing and the fawn response—not as personal failings, but as intelligent ways we learned to protect ourselves and stay connected. Lissa shares how she is learning to pause before automatically saying yes and to ask herself: Am I a yes? Am I a no? Am I a maybe? What am I genuinely resourced to give? Together, Anne and Lissa discuss relational trauma, Internal Family Systems, spiritual bypassing, nervous-system regulation and the courage it takes to create honest boundaries. They also explore the body’s remarkable capacity to heal when we stop leaving ourselves behind. This is a compassionate conversation about learning to hear yourself again, remaining connected to others without self-abandonment, and allowing healing to become a homecoming to your own wholeness.

