Stephanie Nash
Paradigm Expansions with Dr. Steph: where science gives the soul permission to flourish
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
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Dr. Stephanie Nash, PhD, OTR/L, is an occupational therapist, intuitive practitioner, and the founder of Paradigm Expansions, where she helps high-achieving empaths, women, and especially those who have spent a lifetime over-functioning for others find their way back to themselves. Her work sits at a rare intersection: clinical neuroscience and rehabilitation science meet chakra-based and intuitive frameworks, giving the analytical mind permission to step aside so the soul can be heard.
Dr. Steph speaks on the science and spirituality of intuition, what it really means to choose yourself without being selfish, and why we need an expanded paradigm of who we are as both spiritual and human beings. Drawing on her own journey from self-abandonment to self-reclamation, chronicled in her forthcoming book The D Word, she brings audiences a rare combination of clinical credibility and lived experience.
Her talks leave audiences with both a framework and a felt sense of permission, whether she's speaking to a room of women rebuilding after loss, empaths learning to set boundaries, or teenagers beginning to ask who they are beneath who they were told to be.
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Permission to Choose Yourself: A Workshop on Releasing Guilt and Reclaiming Identity
For many high-achieving, empathic women, choosing themselves feels like a betrayal of everyone else. This interactive workshop explores the self-abandonment loop, how empaths are conditioned to regulate their worth through over-giving, and what it actually takes to interrupt that pattern without guilt. Drawing on neuroscience, occupational therapy, the chakra framework, and her own journey through divorce and self-reclamation, Dr. Stephanie Nash guides participants through a guided practice that gives the overthinking mind permission to step aside so intuition can be heard. Attendees will leave with a felt experience, not just a concept, of what it means to choose themselves and a concrete first step to practice it before they leave the room.
Participants will learn: the psychological and somatic roots of self-abandonment; why "self-care" alone often fails high-achievers; a guided practice for accessing intuition under stress; and how to take one boundary-setting action immediately following the session.
First public delivery: November 10, 2024; collaboration with Babesburgh and the Pop District (an initiative of the Andy Warhol museum); 30 participants.
30 minute talk followed by 45 minute meditation; then time for mingling and reflection
Ideal time frame = 90-120 minutes
The Science Gives the Soul Permission: Bridging Logic and Intuition for Real Change
Most personal growth advice asks people to choose between evidence and intuition, between the rational mind and the deeper self. This workshop dissolves that false choice. Dr. Stephanie Nash, an occupational therapist and intuitive practitioner, shows how neuroscience and behavior-change research can give the analytical mind enough safety to loosen its grip, creating room for intuition, embodiment, and a more expanded sense of identity to emerge. Designed for any audience navigating a major life transition, identity shift, or persistent gap between what they know and what they actually do, this session blends research-backed framing with experiential practice.
Participants will learn: why willpower-based change fails and what actually works; a framework for integrating science-based and intuitive approaches to growth; a guided practice for embodied decision-making; and how to apply this in moments of major life transition.
Adapted from a summit series hosted by Dr. Steph Nash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzlLjjr1kaQ
The D Word: What Divorce Taught Me About Self-Abandonment, Identity, and Coming Home to Yourself
Long before her own divorce, Dr. Stephanie Nash had already abandoned herself, just in smaller, quieter ways: shaping who she was around what others needed, mistaking self-sacrifice for love, losing touch with her own intuition. Her forthcoming book, The D Word, uses divorce as the backdrop for a much more universal story: what happens when the identity you built around someone else's expectations falls away, and you have to meet yourself for the first time.
This talk speaks directly to anyone navigating an identity in transition, including students forming their sense of self outside family or societal expectation for the first time, professionals questioning a path they didn't fully choose, or anyone who has ever felt like a stranger inside their own life. Dr. Nash, an occupational therapist with a PhD, blends personal story, clinical insight, and practical tools to help audiences recognize the early signs of self-abandonment and begin the return to an authentic identity, long before a major rupture forces the issue.
Participants will leave with: a framework for recognizing self-abandonment before it becomes a crisis; the psychological research behind why we lose ourselves in roles and relationships; and a practical first step toward living from a more authentic, self-chosen identity.
Note for organizers: this session pairs well with a bulk book order of The D Word as a course companion, student-life resource, or audience takeaway, and Dr. Nash is glad to coordinate honorarium structures that include book copies in place of or alongside a speaking fee.
Here is information about the book: https://drstephnash.com/dword
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