What happens when the thing you most want to share is also the thing that terrifies you most?

In this episode, Anna sits down with poet and author Mer Monson to talk about Mer’s debut poetry collection, For the Wounded, and the deeply human journey that brought it into the world. Together, they explore writing as a place of refuge, the connection between depression and expression, the fear of being seen, and the slow, tender process of creating from a place of truth rather than performance.

Mer shares how journaling became a lifeline early in life, how writing came alive for her during a cancer diagnosis, and how a season of grief, loss, and spiritual unraveling led to the poems in this collection. Anna and Mer also reflect on the coaching process they shared together, and on what it means to move toward visibility with self-compassion, support, and nervous-system safety.

This conversation is for anyone standing at the threshold between hiding and expression, especially if your desire to create feels inseparable from your fear.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Mer’s path through cancer, grief, and spiritual change led her more deeply into writing

• Why poetry asks to be experienced slowly, from “the neck down”

• The fear that can arise around sharing honest creative work

• How fear can disguise itself so well that you don’t even know what you really want

• The role of coaching, publishing support, and self-compassion in helping creative work come into form

• The connection between chronic pain, stress, visibility, and self-expression

• What it looks like to move at the pace your body actually needs

• Why expression can be part of aliveness, healing, and becoming more fully human

About Mer:

Mer Monson fell in love with writing during a cancer adventure in 2015, and has studied Method Writing since 2019. She is the author of For the Wounded, Reality Bathed in Hope and a featured author in Stories from the Muses. Her essays and poems have been published in Shark Reef, Adanna, Method Writers Speak, Exponent II, and Say More.

Her past adventures include time as a K–12 school counselor, adult educational counselor, Advanced BodyTalk practitioner, and Master Transformational Coach. She loves every flavor of flying and lives with her husband and three sons in the Rocky Mountains of Cedar Hills, Utah.

Find Mer here:

• Website: www.mermonson.com

• For the Wounded: available via Mer’s website, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

• Substack: Mer Monson on Substack

Connect with Anna

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/

• Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/

• Free workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen: https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseen