Power of Transformation | Juliana Barton

📝 Shift Shift Bloom S2 EP 17 Show NotesThis is the story of a body—how it holds pain, how it hides it, and how it sometimes saves your life by refusing to keep going.In this episode, Kristen talks with Andrea Ciannavei: writer, activist, playwright, TV producer (Mayans MC, Boots), and end-of-life doula. Andrea is also someone who spent decades navigating addiction, trauma, rage, disordered eating, and a complicated relationship with the world—and her own body.From her early years in New Rochelle and the halls of the Actors Studio, to gastric bypass surgery, 12-step recovery, and a spiritual path paved with dogs, writing, and grief work, Andrea’s story is brutal, funny, brilliant, and deeply felt.In this conversation, Andrea shares:🍽️ How growing up in an Italian American family shaped her earliest experiences with food, shame, and visibility🩺 Why her gastric bypass was “a suicide attempt with a side of surgery”🚬 How addiction masked deeper emotional pain—and how 12-step work cracked things open✍️ How writing helped her integrate the past and develop her voice🌈 Why she became an end-of-life doula—and how death work is deeply linked to trauma recovery🧠 How trauma isn’t just a personal wound—it radiates outward like fallout🔥 Why healing is nonlinear and sometimes angry, and why she’ll never stop fighting for her own lifeThere are moments in this episode that hit like a freight train, and others that feel like a hand on your shoulder. If you’ve ever struggled with body image, addiction, loss, or the long arc of becoming — this one’s for you.🔗 Related Resources📘 Andrea’s Play: Pretty Chin Up Published by Playscripts, Inc.🎤 Andrea Ciannavei – IMDb📚 It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn – Book link💀 National End-of-Life Doula Alliance – Certification and resources🧰 The RISE Framework – A trauma-informed approach from TCOM🧭 TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management) – Healing-centered strategies for helpers and systems💬 Favorite Quote“I was the biggest I’d ever been, and I knew I was going to die. And I didn’t want to die. I wanted to live—but I didn’t know how.”Andrea Ciannavei is a writer, actor, teacher, producer, and political activist.TV: Co-Executive Producer on Boots (Netflix/Sony), Mayans MC (FX Networks), The Path (Hulu), Last Men Out (National Geographic);  American Odyssey (NBC Universal), Copper (BBC America), Borgia (Canal Plus). Plays: The Winstons, one-act play commissioned by Hangar Theater, Deep Trees, The Hard Sell, 7 Captiva Road, and Pretty Chin Up which received a development production at LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Directors: Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz) at The…