053: What Trees Teach Us About Healing, Grief, and Belonging with Lindsay Branham

Written By Sandi Serling

What happens when we stop trying to save the Earth and start loving, grieving, and remembering we belong to the living world?

In this episode of FEAR UNZIPPED®, Sandi Serling sits down with environmental psychologist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and ecodoula Lindsay Branham to explore the healing kinship between humans and nature. Lindsay shares how a mysterious, debilitating chronic illness in her late twenties became a portal into a profound relationship with the living world, one that began when three aspen trees "chose" her on a winter walk in Colorado.

Lindsay explains why our bodies respond to the Earth's suffering as our own, how interoceptive awareness (our "eighth sense") helps us speak the language of the earth, and what it means to be an ecodoula, witnessing and grieving alongside a dying world rather than rushing to fix it. Together, she and Sandi discuss the loneliness epidemic, the wisdom of kincentricity, and how small rituals of reverence can alchemize grief into more love.

Our Guest

Dr. Lindsay Branham is an environmental psychologist, Emmy-nominated film director, and eco-doula. Lindsay’s debut book, Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees (Hachette/2026) was praised by Richard Rohr as, “A gift to us all to widen our hearts with more love for this suffering world.” As a Cambridge Trust Scholar, her PhD research at the University of Cambridge pioneered the discovery that interoceptive awareness—our eighth sense—is the key capacity driving an intimate, lasting connection with the Earth that motivates pro-environmental behavior. 

Lindsay is the founder of Novo Films, a social and environmental impact studio where she has directed 40+ films reaching 200 million people and raised over $80 million for human and environmental rights efforts across 25+ countries. She is also the founder of The Heartwood Institute, dedicated to restoring kinship with the living world, and has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, and National Geographic. 

In this episode, you’ll learn

  • How chronic illness became a portal into a transformational relationship with nature

  • Why our bodies are "out of whack" on a sick planet and why that's a normal response

  • What interoceptive awareness is and how it helps us speak the language of the earth

  • The difference between rushing to save the Earth and witnessing its suffering with love

  • What an ecodoula is and how ceremony helps us grieve alongside the living world

  • Why kincentricity, being related to all that lives, can change how we move through the world

  • Practical ways to begin a relationship with a tree, a river, or a particular spot in nature

Resources from this Episode

Lindsay Branham

Sandi Serling

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Episode credits:

I'm a big fan of the team at FEAR UNZIPPED®. The show is produced by Podify. The designer and Creative Consultant is Kelly Griffin. The incomparable Katy Samwell composed and performed the high-frequency music.

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This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of FEAR UNZIPPED®, its subsidiaries, or any entities they represent. This podcast is not intended as a substitute for a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

Timestamps:

  • 00:00:00 Introduction

  • 00:01:21 Meet Lindsay Branham

  • 00:04:47 From war photographer to a mysterious illness

  • 00:08:03 Migraines, tremors, and the struggle to be believed

  • 00:12:07 Stored trauma, the nervous system, and the planet’s dis-ease

  • 00:15:51 Serotonin, Richard Rohr, and the Earth as the first sacred text

  • 00:19:10 “The trees chose me”

  • 00:24:09 Loneliness and finding belonging in nature

  • 00:27:45 A simple way to begin connecting with a tree

  • 00:30:59 Sandi’s oak tree and the cupcake message

  • 00:34:26 Grieving the drought and the suffering of the natural world

  • 00:37:36 What is an ecodoula?

  • 00:41:33 Ceremony, ritual, and small acts of reverence

  • 00:44:28 Death is not the end of the story

  • 00:47:41 Erotic ecology and the living world as lover

  • 00:49:11 Lying on the earth in Griffith Park

  • 00:52:26 “Unfixed” and living well without being fixed

  • 00:54:15 Kincentricity: family woven into all life

  • 00:57:15 Stress go-to, best advice, and what a successful life looks like

  • 00:59:28 “In the past I was… and now I am…”

  • 00:59:45 Where to connect with Lindsay Branham

Sandi Serling
Next

052: Death, Love & the NDE That Changed Everything with Jeff Olsen