The Inner Compass Podcast with Vanessa Bennett

The Choose Me Wound: Why You Feel Like You Have to Earn Love

Why do you feel like you have to earn love? Vanessa explores the choose me wound, the fear of not being chosen that sits underneath people pleasing, perfectionism, and co

Re-Release: The Invisible Contract When Working on Yourself Becomes Self Abandonment

This week, we're re-releasing one of our most listened to episode to date, just in case you missed it! Most of us were raised inside an invisible contract: if you try ha

You Don’t Have to Forgive to Heal: Anger, Codependency, and the Grief Underneath

What if you’re told you have to forgive in order to heal, and something in you resists? In this episode, Vanessa answers a listener question from one of her live Q&As abo

Re-release: Shame and the Performance of Love: When Belonging Becomes Conditional

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

Why I Love Resentment: Silent Agreements, Fear, and Doing Your Own Work

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

Why You Sabotage the Closeness You Want Most: Attachment, Intimacy, and the Fear of Being Known

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 sys

Your Gut Mirrors the Soil: Kelsey Crane on Fertility, Permaculture, and Climate Grief

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 collap

The Ego Is Not the Enemy: Laura Day on Intuition, Healing, and The Prism

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 c

Dr. Shefali on Conscious Parenting, Cycle Breaking, and Raising Sons and Daughters

In this episode, Vanessa sits down with Dr. Shefali, clinical psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneer of the conscious parenting movement, for a conv

The Three C’s: Codependency and the End of the Fantasy of Control

If you grew up learning that the safest thing you could do was manage the emotional environment, this episode is for you. Vanessa explores the Three C’s from codependency

Taking the Unseen Seriously: Lizzie Tilia on Intuition, Soul, and Earth Practice

In this episode, Vanessa sits down with Lizzie Tilia, spiritual guide, psychic, teacher, and founder of Earth Mystery School, for a conversation about intuition, earth-ba

Embodiment Isn’t a Performance: Ailey Jolie on the Body, Pleasure, and Healing

In this episode, Vanessa sits down with Ailey Jolie, Chartered Psychologist, somatic psychologist, certified sex therapist, and creator of INBODY, for a conversation abou

When Suffering Becomes Identity: The Martyr, Meaning-Making, and Codependency

If you’ve ever wondered whether suffering can be meaningful without becoming your whole identity, this episode is for you. Vanessa explores the difference between sufferi

Some Things Change You Forever: Initiation, Rupture, and the New Self

If you’ve ever gone through something that changed you so completely that the language of “getting back to normal” started to feel almost insulting, this episode is for y

Narcissism Is Not Always Loud: The Fragile Self Behind the Mirror

Narcissism is usually imagined as arrogance, dominance, and the loudest person in the room, but it is not always that obvious. In this episode, Vanessa explores narcissis

God Is Change: Trust, Impermanence, and Learning to Stay Present

What if trusting life doesn’t mean trusting that everything will become stable, coherent, or reassuring? In this episode, Vanessa explores change as both a spiritual and

Fear Belongs: Why Healing Isn’t Becoming Fearless

If you have ever felt fear in your body and then immediately made that fear mean something bad about you, this episode is for you. Vanessa explores fear not as something

When Betrayal Breaks More Than Trust: How to Heal What the Relationship Broke

Betrayal doesn’t only break trust in another person; it can also rupture your trust in yourself. In this episode, Vanessa explores why betrayal can feel so psychologicall

Re-Nature with Clara Schroeder: Ecotherapy, Climate Grief, and Healing Our Bond with Nature

In this episode, Vanessa sits down with Clara Schroeder, ecotherapist and author of Re-Nature: How Nature Helps Us Feel Better and Do Better, for a conversation about eco

Are You Actually Healing, or Are You Trying to Become More Acceptable?

What if some of what we call healing is actually an argument with the Self? In this episode, Vanessa explores the fantasy that enough therapy, coaching, spirituality, or