Integrate Trauma Informed Network

A system can technically work and still be exhausting.

That’s the idea I’m exploring in this week’s Empathy by Design podcast.

I recently looked at a healthcare workflow where allied health professionals needed to coordinate joint home visits.

The problem wasn’t that people couldn’t schedule the visits.

They could.

The problem was everything they had to carry in order to make the scheduling happen:

Check the message.
Check the calendar.
Consider drive time.
Check the family’s availability.
Respond.
Wait.
Come back later.
Remember what everyone had already said.
Try another time.

Repeat.

Eventually the visit gets scheduled, so technically the system “works.”

But what did it cost the humans using it?

That’s where Somatic UX changes the question.

Instead of only asking:

Can someone complete this task?

I’m also interested in:

How much cognitive, emotional, and physiological capacity does the system require from someone in order to complete it?

Because sometimes we don’t need another platform, app, notification, or feature.

Sometimes we need to remove the things humans never needed to carry in the first place.

And that’s really the heart of this episode:

Capacity is part of usability.

🎧 New episode of Empathy by Design: When the Workflow Becomes the Work

https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-rhkei-1b6b20d

Learn more about Somatic UX + Integrate:
www.letsintegrate.live

Experience the nervous-system-informed work inside the Let’s Integrate app:

www.letsintegrate.live/app

Speaking of life as an iterative process, I’ve loved writing and collaborating with other entrepreneurs and heart-centered leaders for Shaking On The Inside.

There’s something I deeply value about placing my own thought leadership alongside the perspectives of other people.

It reminds me that none of our ideas are created in isolation.

Our work is shaped by the people we’ve learned from, the identities and experiences we carry, the communities we belong to, and the ideas we continue to build upon.

That’s also part of how I think about Somatic UX.

Somatic UX asks us to pay attention not only to what people do inside a system, but to what they experience while moving through it.

Where do they hesitate?

Where do they brace?

Where do they feel choice?

Where does trust increase?

Where does the system ask them to override themselves in order to keep moving?

In that sense, design is iterative too.

We notice the signal.
We respond.
We learn.
We redesign.

And thought leadership can work the same way.

It doesn’t have to be competitive.

When we place our perspectives beside one another, we don’t diminish our individual voices. We create a larger conversation—one where different lived experiences can deepen, challenge, and amplify one another.

Sometimes, somewhere in that collection of perspectives, we uncover something that feels almost universal:

Belonging doesn’t require sameness.

Our individual contributions can stay distinct while still contributing to the whole.

That’s also the title and heart of my chapter in the upcoming anthology, Shaking On The Inside: How to Turn Your Scariest Moments into Sacred Success, releasing October 21.

Through stories of fear, resilience, and transformation, the book explores what can happen when we stop treating uncertainty as something we simply have to push through and begin paying attention to what it can teach us about ourselves, our relationships, and the ways we lead.

And maybe that’s part of what Somatic UX is asking of us, too:

What changes when we stop designing people through discomfort—and start designing with enough awareness to learn from the signals along the way?

Katie Gearin
Repka-Geller
of Hope Donations
McCutcheon Barcz
Jamry
L. Davis
Annette
Hall Gruyter

What has your body been trying to tell you lately?

Maybe you notice your shoulders tightening before you realize you’re overwhelmed.

Maybe your breathing changes.

Maybe you get restless, tired, distracted, or suddenly feel like you need some space.

These are signals.

And we don’t always need to immediately fix them.

Sometimes the first practice is simply noticing:

What am I feeling?
Where am I noticing it?
What might I need right now?

This week inside Integrate, we’re exploring how to notice the small signals our nervous systems send us—and how curiosity can create a little more space before we automatically push through, shut down, or react.

🌿 This week’s Rhythm Note: Notice the Signals

Open the Integrate app and explore this week’s practice.

You don’t have to fix the signal.

Start by listening.

www.letsintegrate.live/app

What happens when we stop treating listening as just something the ears do?

Sound can influence attention, orientation, connection, and how much capacity we have in a given moment.

That’s what we’ll explore in Listening for the Nervous System — a guided lunchtime experience using intentional listening, gentle somatic awareness, breath, and nervous system education.

This is not about forcing yourself to relax or trying to “do regulation right.”

It’s an invitation to notice.

What shifts when you listen with your whole system?

This event also offers a gentle introduction to the listening-based work I offer through Integrated Listening Systems / Unyte for those who want to explore further.

🎧 Listening for the Nervous System
📍 Online
📅 October 9, 2026
⏰ 12:00-12:45pm

Register through the Let’s Integrate app.