There’s a moment many people are living in right now where the body knows something before the mind catches up.

You feel braced. Alert. A little stunned that certain conversations even need to be happening. And while you may technically feel supported in your work or community, safety still feels conditional.

That’s where this episode begins.

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by Dr. Anna Larson (she/any), a family medicine physician with over 15 years of experience in LGBTQ+ leadership, advocacy, and gender-affirming care. Anna is also a coach and intuitive healer who understands—both personally and professionally—what it means to live, parent, and practice medicine in a climate where identity, autonomy, and care are under scrutiny.

As a queer clinician myself, I’m Chrissie Ott, MD (she/her), and Anna and I talk honestly about how political rhetoric doesn’t just live in headlines—it lives in nervous systems. We explore how fear reactivates old survival patterns, why burnout is often a long-held scream rather than a personal failing, and what happens when people are forced to edit themselves in order to belong.

Anna shares deeply personal stories, including advocating for her patients and community while breastfeeding her infant—holding tenderness and resistance in the same moment. It’s a powerful reminder that care, joy, and justice are not mutually exclusive.

We also spend time talking about trans joy and queer joy—not as performance or bypass, but as embodied truth. Joy as regulation. Joy as resilience. Joy as something that becomes possible when people no longer have to explain, code-switch, or protect themselves in order to be safe.

This conversation naturally weaves into the origins of the Cultivate Pride retreat, a space Anna and I are co-creating for trans, queer, and allied people to rest, process, reconnect, and remember who they are when they’re not in survival mode.

In this episode, we explore:

• The difference between being supported and being truly safe
• How political and cultural pressure lands in the body
• Why burnout often masks years of suppressed expression
• The real impact of disrupted gender-affirming care on patients, families, and clinicians
• Trans joy and queer joy as grounding, non-performative, and deeply human
• Community as a form of medicine
• Advocacy that is sustained by tenderness rather than depletion
• What becomes possible when people heal together

This episode isn’t about debating identity or ideology.

It’s about autonomy. Dignity. Care. And joy.

And it’s an invitation to remember: you were never meant to carry all of this alone.

Learn more about the Cultivate Pride retreat:
https://www.cultivatepride.com

Connect with Dr. Anna Larson (she/any):
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queerdoc.anna

Stay Connected
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissieottmd
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solvingforjoypodcast
Website & transcripts: https://www.solvingforjoy.com

For Physician Coaches
Physician Coaching Collective: https://www.physiciancoachingcollective.com
Physician Coaching Summit: https://www.thephysiciancoachingsummit.com