The Inner Compass Podcast with Vanessa Bennett

This week, we’re re-releasing our most listened to episode to date, just in case you missed it!

There’s a version of love many of us were trained into: the kind you earn. Be agreeable, be impressive, don’t need too much, don’t make waves. When belonging becomes conditional, love becomes performance, and shame becomes the inner enforcer that keeps you “good,” useful, and exhausted.

In Episode 2, Vanessa Bennett, LMFT explores how conditional belonging turns intimacy into obedience and management, why being “low maintenance” is often a survival strategy, and how over-attunement (often mislabeled as being an “empath”) can be a trauma response rooted in vigilance. You’ll learn the difference between healthy empathy vs trauma empathy, how to spot the somatic signs you’re performing safety, and two experiments to move from performance to presence: the pause and one honest sentence.
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Additional Resources
Explore: VanessaBennett.com
Book: The Motherhood Myth
Community: Inner Compass Collective
Training: Inner Compass Academy

Connect with Inner Compass
Follow on Instagram
Connect with Vanessa Bennett:
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok
Learn more on Substack
Connect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedIn

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can you actually do your own work while you're still living inside an imperfect relationship — dishes undone, feelings unresolved, your partner moving at a different pace? In this solo episode, Vanessa unpacks the silent agreements that quietly run every relationship, the fear hiding underneath over- and under-functioning, and why change that only shows up during a crisis rarely lasts. She reframes resentment as one of the most reliable guides to self-betrayal, not a flaw to fix, and lays out what doing your own work actually looks like in real time, with real stakes — including for the helpers and caregivers whose jobs run on their inability to say no. This is depth work on the difference between change that happens to you and change that belongs to you.

For educational purposes only. This isn’t therapy.

If you want to go deeper, check out the written companion on Substack and explore community + training at https://www.vanessaBennett.com.

Additional Resources
Explore: VanessaBennett.com
Book: The Motherhood Myth
Community: Inner Compass Collective
Training: Inner Compass Academy

Connect with Inner Compass
Follow on Instagram
Connect with Vanessa Bennett:
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok
Learn more on Substack
Connect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedIn

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why does the thing we long for most (real closeness, being truly seen) so often make us want to run? In this solo episode, Vanessa unpacks what happens in the nervous system when connection starts to feel unsafe, drawing on attachment theory, polyvagal theory, and depth psychology to explain the shutdown, the merge, and everything in between. She traces how early relational wounds get encoded in the body long before they show up as adult patterns, and offers a simple, uncomfortable practice for rewriting them: saying the true thing, especially when it's the hardest thing to say. This is depth work on what it actually takes to stay present in your own skin while someone else gets close.

For educational purposes only. This isn’t therapy.
If you want to go deeper, check out the written companion on Substack and explore community + training at https://www.vanessaBennett.com.

Additional Resources
Explore: VanessaBennett.com
Book: The Motherhood Myth
Community: Inner Compass Collective
Training: Inner Compass Academy

Connect with Inner Compass
Follow on Instagram
Connect with Vanessa Bennett:
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok
Learn more on Substack
Connect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedIn
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kelsey Crane found her way from unexplained infertility to the healing intimacy of soil — and from there, to writing climate fiction that refuses to look away from collapse or give up on hope. In this conversation, Vanessa and Kelsey trace the thread between fertility and land, motherhood and creative risk, and what it actually means to become an apprentice of regenerative living. They talk about self-publishing a debut novel in the stolen pockets of a busy life, the difference between despair and grief, and why permaculture's first rule — observe before you act — might be the most important thing any of us can learn about healing the earth and ourselves. This is depth work: about soil, story, and the courage to plant something you may never see fully grown.
For educational purposes only. This isn’t therapy.
If you want to go deeper, check out the written companion on Substack and explore community + training at https://www.vanessaBennett.com.

GUEST LINKS
Kelsey Crane / The Exiles Series
https://www.theexilesseries.com/
The Vanishing — Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Book-One-Exiles/dp/B0HFCB846K
The Vanishing — Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/253169082-the-vanishing
Shop The Exiles Series
https://the-exiles-series.myshopify.com/collections/products
Instagram — @artforartssake
https://www.instagram.com/artforartssake/
TikTok — @thewildwriter
https://www.tiktok.com/@thewildwriter
Plant A Revolution — Substack
https://substack.com/@plantarevolution

Additional Resources
Explore: VanessaBennett.com
Book: The Motherhood Myth
Community: Inner Compass Collective
Training: Inner Compass Academy

Connect with Inner Compass
Follow on Instagram
Connect with Vanessa Bennett:
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok
Learn more on Substack
Connect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedIn
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Vanessa sits down with New York Times bestselling author and intuitive Laura Day to talk about The Prism, intuition, ego, and what it actually takes to create a different life. Together they explore why transcendence can become a spiritual cop-out, why a strong “I” is necessary for relationship and impact, and how old childhood contracts can keep us recreating familiar patterns even when we think we are choosing something new. Laura brings her signature grounded approach to intuition, showing how practical change often comes through small, safe, repeated actions rather than dramatic reinvention. This is a conversation about ego, alchemy, responsibility, and learning how to recognize the life you say you want when it finally arrives.

GUEST LINKS
Laura Day
• Website: https://lauraday.com/
• The Prism: https://lauraday.com/product/the-prism/
• Events + Boot Camp: https://lauraday.com/events/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauradayintuit/

Additional Resources
Explore: VanessaBennett.com
Book: The Motherhood Myth
Community: Inner Compass Collective
Training: Inner Compass Academy

Connect with Inner Compass
Follow on Instagram
Connect with Vanessa Bennett:
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok
Learn more on Substack
Connect with Vanessa Bennett on LinkedIn

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.