We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kimberly Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kimberly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

A woman walked into my Southern California office with a hat, three layers of clothing and sunglasses. She explained that she was always cold, and that her friends often joke that she was in cognito. The reason she came to me was that after giving birth to her 3rd child, she felt extraordinarily sensitive, almost agoraphobic, and didn’t want her husband anywhere near her, but she had no idea why. She came to me for pelvic floor work postbirth. As I listened to her, I notice that she was exhibiting all the behaviors of a prey animal. She was trying to hide herself, and create extra layers of protection through clothing and disguise that she couldn’t create from the inside out. Because I am a somatic therapist, I had an idea. I thought that she could play the wolf and I could play the rabbit. Since she was already in rabbit mode, I doubted that she would want that role.

The moment I suggested that she take the position of the wolf, she began to tremble and shake. She went into even more extreme rabbit behavior, and then froze completely. Throughout the length of that session, I helped her come out of freeze. I left understanding that many women have ideas of being powerful, feminist, and assertive, but our bodies just don’t know how to occupy the predator role- to be the wolf, when we need to. It took us six sessions for me to slowly teach her how to become a wolf in her body and nervous system. That whole process happened a few months before the #metoo movement of 2017, when I decided to try to teach this 6 step process online. I later wrote Call of the Wild; How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power and Use it for Good, to help any woman anywhere go through this process on her own.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was a fulltime yoga teacher and bodyworker for 10 years, when I became a mother. In 2007, motherhood turned my world upside down. The tools that I had didn’t seem to work in helping me recover from childbirth and some postpartum challenges. I realized right away that my own difficulties were not personal, but actually cultural and archetypal as well. I was surprised that motherhood, something I wanted so much, blindsided me the way that it did, especially coming from holistic capital of the world, Boulder, CO. As I reassembled myself, I had to dive deep into many areas- including pelvic anatomy and feminine spirituality. Women everywhere started telling me their stories and I realized how fragmented women’s health has been. So I started offering hands-on, hands-in integrative pelvic care. Soon I experienced how much trauma was held in the pelvis, and knew I needed further training in both Sexological Bodywork and Somatic Experiencing- the modalities that had helped me the most. I decided to write a book, The Fourth Trimester, hoping that I could help with a map for women that I wish that I had had. That book has become an early mothering classic, translated into eight languages, used in doula and prenatal yoga teacher trainings and recommended by Kaiser hospital. From there, I wanted the information to reach more women, so I made a Fourth Trimester Card Deck and Journal.

Over three years, I worked with 800 women in private practice in San Diego, Vancouver, Chicago, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, specifically helping with birth injuries, gynecological procedures, and sexual boundary violations. When my waiting lists became longer and longer, I realized that I needed a different approach to democratize women’s anatomy and nervous system information. I developed online courses starting in 2016- Forging a Feminine Path, MotherCircle, and later Activate Your Inner Jaguar, which over 10,000 women have participated in.

When I saw the way discourse was going with the #metoo movement, the pendulation away from understanding that most people are not rapists or perpetrators, but instead we are all in a great grey area with very little adequate sex and relationship practice and education, I knew that I needed to teach and write about how the nervous system works from an inside out perspective. When we do not coordinate our facial expressions, tone of voice, content of what we say, and body language- we send mixed signals, and often expect someone else to translate. I teach women to become coherent in what they are communicating so they can have the relationships and sex that they want. From this experience, and my own experience as a sexual assault survivor, I wrote Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it for Good. In COTW, I write it as a both a stakeholder and a practitioner. I am not a distant observer commenting on the female experience, or female sexuality. I am a woman who has walked this path, understands the nuances, and has gone on to help thousands of other women heal as well.

Recently I recorded a 6 part audio series with Sounds True. Reclaiming the Feminine: Embodied Sexuality as Spiritual Practice. It was an absolute life highlight to teach- the end result is that it sounds very intimate and like I am talking directly to the listener.

One of the aspects of my business that started as a passion project is my podcast, Sex Birth Trauma, which now has 800,000 downloads, and is one of my favorite things that I do. I have genuine curiosity for my guests and it shines through.

After publishing Call of the Wild last year, I was planning to have a year off of deadlines, but then I met Stephen Jenkinson, culture activist and deathworker. He fileted me open and we ended up having a series of 7 conversations, which we made into my latest book, Reckoning, which I am very proud of. It’s an unlikely collaboration from the outside, but one of the richest exchanges I’ve ever had. A man who looks like me who teaches informed by common ancestors (most of my other teachers were teaching South Asian traditions)

I am a single mom, sole breadwinner to a 14 year old daughter. I am grateful for the fire that having to be a businesswoman and provide for our small family has provided. I’m not sure I would have put the earth boots on otherwise. I work on behalf of her generation, and those to come. And it’s a fine calculus all the time of what I give to her and what I give to the world.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Training is very important. It can be a trap to feel we need more and more and more training before we can begin. However we also live in an age where anyone can declare themselves an expert, so I think it’s important to be honest with ourselves about our capacity- what is in my lane and what is out of my lane?

Coherence is my number one business value. I teach women to follow their own rhythms based on the season of life they are in. Therefore it would be bizarre if I sent out emails all the time, or produced content non-stop. People feel my own rhythms in my communications with them. People can sense sincerity. People can sense genuine care. People can also sense desperation or sleezy, manipulative sales tactics.

Since I am an educator, all of my selling involves free education. So that even if people don’t buy from me, they have still learned something. I also have a variety of ways and pricepoints for people to engage with me- listening to the podcast is free, buying a book is $15 or $20, a course is $99 to $249, and I provide a lot of scholarships because my value is democratization.

I tell people what’s important to me, and I also talk about when I have doubts or when I am pivoting. I DO the things that I think will help people shift their patterns or give them permission rather than just talking about it.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Sometimes I underestimate how long I have been working in the somatic arts. I have been teaching movement and yoga for over 20 years. I still have people on my list who were yoga students in 1999, or came on retreat with me in Brazil in 2006- that trust matters. I also sent them all an email letting know that my content was going to veer towards motherhood, women’s health and trauma healing, so they didn’t feel railroaded if they were just interested in yoga tips.

Then I consistenly shared free content. My forum of choice is live or impromptu video- I don’t like prerecorded content, it makes me feel stiff, and like I am playing myself, so 7 years ago, I just let myself riff on all kinds of topics on Facebook, and people got used to hearing me talk about sex, relationships, intimacy and embodiment. Because of that, I outlive the trends whatever they are, because of been hanging out in the same wheelhouse for awhile. My first book also gave me a lot of credibility because I shared my own story, my experience as a doula, and I had expertise in biomechanics, biochemistry, scar tissue, and trauma. It struck a chord of the zeitgeist, so that was great timing!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kimberlyannjohnson.com
• Instagram: @kimberly.ann.johnson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kajauthor
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sex-birth-trauma-with-kimberly-ann-johnson/id1286485146

Image Credits
Miranda Guzman Nicholas Borrelli