Actually, You Can: Healing, Belonging, and Building Intentional Spaces — with Liz Frost
Building Safe Spaces with Intention
A Reflection on Liz Frost’s Episode of Spiritual Friction
In this powerful and deeply human episode of Spiritual Friction, host Laurel LeMohn sits down with licensed therapist and practice founder Liz Frost for an honest, nuanced conversation about trauma, burnout, belonging, and what it really means to create spaces that feel safe—not just sound safe.
Liz shares her winding and unconventional path into the therapy world, beginning with ballet and biochemistry before leading her toward social work, clinical practice, and eventually founding Intentional Spaces Psychotherapy. Along the way, she reflects openly on childhood trauma, religious harm, and the ways systems—both clinical and cultural—often fail the very people they are meant to support. Her story is not one of linear success, but of questioning, unlearning, and choosing again and again to imagine something more ethical and humane.
A central theme of this episode is the distinction between performative safety and embodied safety. Laurel and Liz explore how healing doesn’t happen through polished language, productivity, or self-sacrifice, but through intentionality, relational accountability, and systems that honor the humanity of everyone involved. For Liz, building a practice was not about replicating what already existed—it was about creating structures that allowed both clients and clinicians to breathe.
The conversation speaks directly to helpers, caregivers, and clinicians who have been taught that exhaustion equals dedication. Liz challenges this deeply ingrained narrative, naming how burnout is often normalized or even rewarded in helping professions. Together, she and Laurel reflect on how minimizing our own pain can quietly erode our capacity to care—and how rest, when viewed through a trauma-informed lens, becomes an ethical imperative rather than a luxury.
There is also a quiet hopefulness woven throughout the episode. Liz speaks candidly about her belief that the world can get better—but only if we are willing to put action behind our values. This means examining power, rethinking systems, and allowing ourselves to imagine safer ways of living and working, even when that imagination feels risky. Healing, in this sense, becomes both personal and collective.
What makes this episode especially resonant is its permission-giving quality. It invites listeners to stop minimizing their pain, to honor the resilience that brought them this far, and to question narratives that say healing must be earned through suffering. Liz’s presence is a reminder that meaningful change does not require perfection—only honesty, intention, and community.
If you have ever felt overextended, unseen, or unsure whether rest and healing are truly allowed, this conversation offers both validation and grounding. It reminds us that safer spaces are possible, that ethical care starts within, and that believing in something better is not naïve—it is necessary.
Connect with Liz:
Instagram: @yourhonesttherapist
Instagram: @intentionalspaceshealing
Podcast: With Intention
Practice Website: https://intentionalspaces.com
“Actually, you can heal. It might not be on the timeline you want—but actually, you can.”
