➡️Reframing Guilt & Shame Associated with Coming Out Later in Life : Season 6 Episode 6

🌈 Welcome to another episode of "Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories"!

Host Anne-Marie Zanzal invites fellow later-in-lifer Barbara Rowlandson back to the podcast to talk about everyone's favorite topic 🙄, guilt and shame! Guilt and shame are two of the most common feelings that later-in-lifers struggle with. Anne-Marie and Barb have a conversation about these very challenging feelings in the context of coming out, deconstruct them, and offer new perspectives.

❓ What to Expect in This Episode:

🌧️ Definitions guilt and shame and understanding the nuanced differences between them.

⚖️ Review justified vs. unjustified guilt and shame and how societal pressures contribute to unjustified guilt.

🧗‍♀️Recognizing how guilt and shame manifest in our bodies, separating our identity from our feelings and more!

Real Stories, Real Advice: Anne-Marie and Barbara talk about guilt and shame in the context of their own lives and experiences.

✨ Why This Matters:

It's important to differentiate between feelings and identity. Reflection and perspective can help in understanding guilt and shame. Women are disproportionately impacted by societally driven guilt and shame based on gender role expectations. Self-compassion is a practice that can significantly reduce these difficult feelings.

📌🎙️About Barbara Rowlandson:

With years of experience as a relationship coach, Barbara specializes in helping LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples create fulfilling and authentic relationships. Her compassionate approach empowers individuals to embrace their identity and build strong connections.

💬 Join the Conversation:

What does dating readiness mean to you? Share your thoughts, experiences, and questions in the comments below. Let’s foster a supportive community where we can learn from each other.

🔗 Visit our website:

Anne-Marie's : [ www.annemariezanzal.com]

Barbara Rowlandson’s : [ www.lavenderdating.com]

🌟 Why Watch This Episode?

If you're a later in lifer in what we call "The Messy Middle," you might be experiencing a great deal of guilt and shame over your sexual identity, wanting divorce, impacting your children, or going against your faith tradition. In this episode, you'll learn you aren't alone in those feelings, feel understood, and begin to learn ways to navigate the murky waters of guilt and shame.

🔗 Follow us on social media:

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠 Twitter: twitter.com/annemariezanzal

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

👉 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more inspiring stories and advice on navigating life, love, and everything in between!

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🌈 Welcome to another episode of "Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories"!

In this episode, host Anne-Marie Zanzal and fellow coming-out coach, Barbara Rowlandson, talk about leaning into queer community during challenging times. Informed by their work with later-in-lifers, Anne-Marie and Barb discuss why this demographic of women needs community so much.

❓ What to Expect in This Episode:

✔️ Explanation of the recent changes to Facebook Community Standards that are harmful to the LGBTQIA+ community.

✔️Protecting your mental health during a period of uncertainty that comes with political and social change.

✔️ How, as a newly out person, you can find queer community in real life.

✔️Moving later-in-life lesbian Facebook communities to a safer space (Authentically Us on Mighty Networks).

✨ Why This Matters:

Women who come out later in life often feel like outsiders in both the hetero and LGBTQIA+ worlds. It is common for later-in-lifers to feel alone, and in these uncertain times, many are scared. Now more than ever, later-in-life queer women need to lean into each other for support, camaraderie, joy, and to be seen.

📌🎙️About Barbara Rowlandson

With years of experience as a relationship coach, Barbara specializes in helping LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples create fulfilling and authentic relationships. Her compassionate approach empowers individuals to embrace their identity and build strong connections. Barbara's work is centered on values identification, examining and reevaluating core beliefs, overcoming limiting beliefs, fostering self-worth, and cultivating psychological flexibility.

💬 Join the Conversation:

What does community mean to you? Share your thoughts, experiences, and questions in the comments below. Let’s foster a supportive community where we can learn from each other.

🔗 Visit our website:

Anne-Marie's : [ annemariezanzal.com]

🌟 Why Listen to This Episode?

If you're a queer person who needs to feel connected to others in your community, this episode holds many fantastic suggestions for finding like-minded individuals who will respect your identity.

🔗 Follow us on social media:

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠 Twitter: twitter.com/annemariezanzal

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

🌈 Welcome to another episode of "Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories"!

In this episode, host Anne-Marie Zanzal interviews Pastor Greg Bullard, the longest-serving affirming pastor in Tennessee. They discuss Greg's coming out journey, the importance of community in faith, and the role of acceptance within the church. Greg shares his experiences growing up in a strict religious environment and how he found his place in the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). the conversation delves into the challenges of language in faith, the duality of love, and the need for community support. Greg emphasizes the importance of transforming hate into love and creating a beautiful world through action and connection.

❓ What to Expect in This Episode:

✔️ Emphasis on the importance of community to faith and salvation.

✔️ The importance of language in faith matters and how it can be a barrier or a bridge.

✔️The power of transforming hate into love and more!

✨ Why This Matters:

Many within the LGBTQIA+ community experience rejection from their faith communities and suffer religious trauma. Pastor Greg Bullard offers a perspective that makes space for queer individuals and emphasizes that church trauma stems from individuals, not God. Finding friendship and support within a faith community can be deeply meaningful and healing for those who have suffered religious trauma.

📌🎙️About Pastor Greg Bullard:

Pastor Greg Bullard started his ministry in northern Alabama when he first felt the call at his home church. His pastor, then, said, “Greg, I’m sorry you’ll never be able to be in ministry because of who you are, and that’s not fair.” Over three decades later, Pastor Greg has built one of the most long-standing affirming ministries in the Southeast. A graduate of The University of Alabama in Huntsville, he made Nashville his permanent home in the late 1990s. With an accounting and business systems background, he marries his analytical side with his humor and storytelling each week as he ministers in the community and his home church. Greg has been recognized by the Human Rights Campaign, Tennessee Equality Project, Middle Tennessee State University, and Hands On Nashville for his work in LGBTQ+ ministry and food security. He and his husband, Brian, live with their son, Micah, born in 2011 and daughter, Esther, born in 2014. You’ll find his other son, Zach, on the piano bench every Sunday, sharing the ministry. Learn more about Greg here: https://www.covenantofthecross.com/staff-nav

💬 Join the Conversation:

What does faith mean to you? Share your thoughts, experiences, and questions in the comments below. Let’s foster a supportive community where we can learn from each other.

🔗 Visit our website:

Anne-Marie's : [ www.annemariezanzal.com]

🌟 Why Watch This Episode?

If you're a queer person who has been impacted by a conservative faith tradition and feeling the loss of acceptance by your faith community, let this episode inspire you and help you to know that you are inherently lovable and that there is space for you in an affirming church.

🔗 Follow us on social media:

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠 Twitter: twitter.com/annemariezanzal

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

You can also tune into this episode of Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Apple Podcasts:...

Buckle up, daters! In this episode of Coming Out & Beyond, we’re diving even deeper into the complexities of dating in the LGBTQIA+ community with Barbara Rowlandson, a seasoned relationship coach and LGBTQIA+ advocate. 🌈❤️

Dating can be both exciting and daunting, especially when you’re navigating life after coming out or rediscovering your authentic self. In this candid conversation, Barbara offers insights, tools, and strategies to help you assess your dating readiness and build meaningful connections that honor your true self.

💡 Topics Covered:

☑️ What you need to consider before starting to date

☑️ The importance of self-acceptance to the dating experience

☑️ Ridding yourself of limiting thoughts about yourself and dating

☑️ Why vulnerability is essential for connection

☑️ Preparing for rejection – an inevitability in dating

🎙️About Barbara Rowlandson:

With years of experience as a relationship coach, Barbara specializes in helping LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples create fulfilling and authentic relationships. Her compassionate approach empowers individuals to embrace their identity and build strong connections.

💬 Join the Conversation:

What does dating readiness mean to you? Share your thoughts, experiences, and questions in the comments below. Let’s foster a supportive community where we can learn from each other.

🔗 Visit our website:

Barbara Rowlandson’s : [ lavenderdating.com]

Anne-Marie's : [ annemariezanzal.com]

🌟 Why Watch This Episode?

Whether you’re new to the dating scene or seeking to improve your approach, this episode provides valuable insights to help you date with confidence, authenticity, and purpose.

🔗 Follow us on social media:

💠 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amzanzal

💠 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/annemariezanzalcoaching/

💠 Twitter: twitter.com/annemariezanzal

💠LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariezanzalpurposefulempowerment/

👉 Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more inspiring stories and advice on navigating life, love, and everything in between!

Please download, like & subscribe! You can also tune into this episode of Coming Out & Beyond: LGBTQIA+ Stories on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Dating later in life can feel like tricky business! That's why we've asked our in-house dating expert, Barbara Rowlandson, to chat about best practices when stepping out into the dating world after a long hiatus. This episode covers dating while you're still in your heteronormative marriage, assessing your dating readiness, priorities in dating, and much more!

Interested in taking part in Lavender Dating's 2-part dating workshop, Jan 25th & Feb 1st? Visit www.lavenderdating.com or www.annemariezanzal.com for more information and to register.

Another year of podcasts is in the history books! In this first episode of Season 6, host Anne-Marie Zanzal and her fellow coach/producer Barbara Rowlandson review some of their favorite episodes of 2024, and give us a peek into topics that will be covered in 2025. Happy New Year, everyone!

80% of gender is between your ears (not your legs) says, transition coach Wendy Cole. Wendy's remarkable story begins in the 1950s, when as a very young child she knew she was a girl. In her conversation with host Anne-Marie Zanzal, Wendy shares her struggles in early childhood with her parents and psychiatric professionals who gave her harmful labels, how she coped in a heteronormative world, her eventual breaking point when she finally stepped into her identity as a woman, her friendship with her ex-wife, figuring out her sexuality post-transition, and much more.

Oh yes! Oh no! It's the holiday season once again! Individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community experience unique stressors during the holiday season. Queer/coming out coaches Anne-Marie Zanzal and Barbara Rowlandson have a lively discussion about strategies for coping with family, friends, and life changes during the holiday season. This is an especially good episode for anyone who is coming out or newly out!