In this episode, I sit down with Kasia Piascik—HR professional, fellow author in the Reclaiming Mental Health anthology, and someone who has done the deep, unglamorous work of coming home to herself. Kasia's chapter traces her life from a gifted kid in a Mississauga classroom through depression, anxiety, addiction, and the labels that tried to define her, all the way to sixteen years sober and a life she actually recognizes as her own.

We talk about what it felt like to ask for help as a child and be turned away, the diagnoses that accumulated over the years and what she eventually made of them, and how addiction became the way she drowned out pain she didn't have language for yet. We also get into the DSM, Gabor Maté, and why finding the root matters more than naming the symptom.

There's also wonderful synchronicity with Kasia ended up writing in this book also—a thread that runs all the way back to her grade five classroom and her very first teacher. And yes, she posted about all of this on LinkedIn. She works in HR. That took guts, and we talk about that too.

Resources Mentioned:
Reclaiming Mental Health anthology: https://a.co/d/0dvGcfuS
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Connect with Kasia:

Instagram: @kasiapiascikreclaims

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Today I'm chatting with Dr. John Battye. John is an improv instructor, arts educator, professor at Grant MacEwan University, and one of my Improv 100 instructors this past winter semester. John grew up in Blyth, Ontario, a small farming town with a surprisingly big theater at its heart. His grandmother helped found the Blyth Festival, and a chance encounter with the artistic director when John was young set everything in motion. Thirty years of performing and teaching improv later, here we are.

In this conversation we talk about how improv teaches you to sort through the noise and find what actually matters in the moment, why community is the whole point, and what gets lost when arts funding disappears. John also shares what it looks like from the instructor's side: watching people walk in thinking they can't do it, and walk out knowing they can. That shift, he says, is the truest gift he's given in his work.

We also get into whether we're standing on the edge of a cultural renaissance, the strange paradox of being an introvert who's spent decades on stage, and what a giant pink Easter Bunny has to do with any of this.

At the heart of it all is something John said near the end that stayed with me: improv is a practice of understanding your own impulse and being okay with whatever that is. Radical self-acceptance. Scary, honest, and extremely rewarding.

Connect with Dr. John Battye:

Instagram: @jb3performs

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to John Battye

04:19 John's Journey into Improv and Theater

07:02 Teaching and Impact of Improv Classes

09:59 Long Form Improv Experiences

12:38 Nervousness and Excitement in Performance

13:46 Building Community through Improv

15:31 The Nature of Improv and Mistakes

18:24 Learning and Growth in Improv

21:06 The Transformative Power of Improv

24:34 Art as a Healing Force in Troubling Times

29:52 The Rise of Creative Exploration Post-Pandemic

36:18 Navigating the Stage: Stories from the Improv World

41:51 Embracing Playfulness and Vulnerability in Art

47:08 Final Thoughts: The Importance of Self-Acceptance and Community

Today I'm chatting with Ulrike Tooke, someone who has been on a long journey back to herself and she's sharing about some of that in this conversation.

When Ulrike lost her mother at seven, she made a quiet but life-altering decision: to be strong, to hold it together, to stop being a kid. What she uncovered decades later was that in doing so, she had left a part of herself behind entirely.

She shares what it means to finally grieve the self you abandoned, not just the people you've lost. We get into precognitive dreams, the ones that scared her enough to stop dreaming altogether for nearly a decade, and what it meant when they came back different.

We wander into Chinese medicine, heart rate variability, minerals, sleep, and the powerful intelligence of the body. And we land on discernment, how you build it, why it matters.

Ulrike is thoughtful, honest, and refreshingly unpolished in the best way.

Connect with Ulrike:
Instagram: @thelivingcompass_ | @redbirchriver
Website: luminawellnessco.ca

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:
Instagram: @dee_ogsoul
Website: ogsoul.ca

Today I'm chatting with Daniel Brunelle. Daniel and I met in an improv class this past winter semester.

Daniel came into this conversation with an openness that I really appreciated. We talked about what it actually feels like to walk into a room full of strangers and say yes to being seen and how that single act of showing up to an improv class became something much bigger than a fun weekend side-quest.

We got into anxiety and how it doesn't just disappear, and how anxiety is something he has lived with his whole life, but what he's doing to change how it appears in his life and how it can become something you learn to move alongside.

We touched on introversion, the tension of being someone who craves connection but also needs to retreat. Yoga came up too — a practice that has quite quickly shifted his understanding and listening to his body and feelings. We also weave in everyone's favourite word — authenticity, and talk about how it can be difficult to find that online when you're still figuring out who you are offline.

This conversation is about finding the courage it takes to grow in public and find meaningful connection through stepping into the discomfort.

Connect with Daniele Brunelle:
LinkedIn: @djbrunelle
Website: https://paridot.io/

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:
Instagram: @dee_ogsoul
Website: https://www.ogsoul.ca/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Improv and Personal Growth

07:51 The Impact of Socializing on Mental Health

13:15 Understanding Anxiety and Its Effects

18:22 The Role of Authenticity in Self-Expression

23:52 The Challenge of Being Authentic Online

Today I’m chatting with Alana Joy Newton. Alana is psychotherapist, former nurse, and a deeply intuitive human with a beautifully grounded presence. This is deep but also playful conversation and Alana opens some personal pages.

We talk about Joy as a living part of her, Gene Keys, divine timing, and the ways grief lives in the body and extends far beyond how most generally understand it. Alana also shares about leading Living With Grief (Sovereign Acres) and what it means to name what’s been carried quietly for years, especially for sensitive humans.

This is a conversation about grief, sensitivity, healing, and returning to love without bypassing the human experience.

Connect with Alana:

@alana_joy_newton

www.alanajoynewton.com

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters:

00:00 The Essence of Joy: A Personal Connection

07:37 Transitioning from Nursing to Psychotherapy

13:00 Collective Grief and Personal Stories

18:18 Sensitivity as a Superpower

25:27 Validation and Healing: Acknowledging Our Truths

31:08 The Depths of Connection: Exploring Relationships

37:57 Navigating the Journey: Writing and Publishing Together

43:28 Navigating Grief and Transformation

49:13 Embracing Intuition and Patience

In this episode of Chatting with Humans, I sit down with Jodi Dancause. Business owner, flower artist, soon to be published author and pattern-disrupting force (and light!).

We talk about the unexpected emotional depth of running a flower shop and how Jodi meets people in life’s biggest moments, from celebration to grief, and how “it’s never just flowers.” From there, we move into writing, truth-telling, and what it can look like to break generational patterns in real time.

Jodi shares what brought her into Reclaiming Mental Health (launching March 24, 2026), what it took to say yes, and how the process opened a floodgate: she’s now completing her first full manuscript, Piece by Piece (aiming for May 2026), and has also joined Women Who Rose From Ashes, Volume 2.

This is a conversation about honest reflection, boundaries, healing that ripples both backward and forward through a family line, and the kind of hope that comes from choosing a different path.

Content note: this episode includes discussion of mental health struggles and suicide loss. Please listen with care.

Connect with Jodi Dancause:

Instagram: @jodidancause

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Jody Dancause

03:35 Jody's Journey: From Employee to Owner

04:29 The Emotional Journey of a Florist

08:18 Connecting Through Flowers: More Than Just Arrangements

11:45 The Journey of Writing: From Imposter Syndrome to Authorship

14:40 Sharing Personal Stories: The Impact of Mental Health

17:39 Breaking the Stigma: Conversations Around Mental Health

22:35 Reflections on Family and Mental Health Challenges

23:45 The Burden of Perception

24:45 Diagnosis and Mental Health Struggles

26:27 Childhood Trauma and Its Impact

29:48 Healing Relationships with Family

32:07 Breaking Generational Patterns

35:47 The Power of Authenticity

39:27 Creating Lifelines for the Next Generation

40:33 The Journey of Writing and Sharing Stories

42:43 The Journey of Writing and Self-Discovery

45:13 Ongoing Healing and Personal Growth

48:25 Taking Responsibility and Ownership

51:23 The Power of Storytelling and Connection

54:29 Validation and the Need to be Seen

Today I have the honour of featuring my mom, Carmen Thieson, in a conversation that takes us through family history, aging, creativity, career pivots, and what it truly means to keep growing. We talk about her outlook on staying young, her upcoming 50th wedding anniversary with my dad, spirituality, and her deep intuitive gift of knowing.

She reflects on the career path she walked and how it shaped my own choices. As a vibrant 69-year-young human, she shares her joyful perspective on life, her plans to go to the moon, and her full intention to live to 110.

Connect with Carmen:
My mom doesn’t spend time on social media, so there aren’t any handles to share. That’s likely part of the inner peace she so clearly carries.

Connect with Darrel-Lynne:

Instagram: @dee_ogsoul

Website: ogsoul.ca

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Family Connection

05:49 Legacy of Grandma and Family Dynamics

10:07 Carmen's Intuitive Insights and Future Predictions

13:51 The Intersection of Astrology and Personal Growth

19:30 Creativity Unleashed: Carmen's Artistic Journey

24:06 Career Reflections and Efficiency in Work

29:48 Inheriting Efficiency and Burnout Awareness

32:24 Celebrating Everyday Moments

34:01 Engagement Story: Love in Simplicity

34:42 The Value of Connection and Compassion

36:42 The Importance of Being Seen

38:03 Navigating Pain with Compassion

39:29 Embracing Life's Journey

40:16 Frequency of Love and Connection

42:33 Awakening to Spirituality

44:03 Childhood Intuition and Connection

46:00 Moments of Spiritual Clarity

48:43 Navigating Loss and Connection

51:05 Moving Beyond Victimhood