Show Up Anyway: What to Do When You Feel Like You Don't Belong

Ep65: Show Up Anyway: What to Do When You Feel Like You Don't Belong

Hardcore and At Ease - powered by Others Over Self®

Mitze Alexander's first supervisor told her women didn't belong in the military. She had no barracks, no female support, and no one to tell, and she knows what it's like to feel like you don't belong somewhere you know you're supposed to be. She stayed anyway, and built a twenty-year career to prove him wrong.

Episode Description

Mitze Alexander knows what it feels like to walk into a room that's already decided you don't belong there. At her first duty station, an all-male aviation unit in Korea with no barracks and no female support, her supervisor told her outright that women didn't belong in the military. She stayed anyway. That decision sits underneath everything she's built since: twenty years in the U.S. Army and Michigan Army National Guard, seven years as a Muskegon patrol officer, and, for close to two decades now, a licensed trauma therapist specializing in PTSD, depression, and anxiety with military women. Host Shelly Rood and Mitze connected through Mission Ambition's second location in West Michigan, which provides tailored support to veterans across Muskegon County and the surrounding area.

In this episode, Mitze talks through what it actually takes to stay somewhere you've been told you shouldn't be, what that moment still demands of her to this day, and what she'd tell a woman living through the same thing right now.

Chapters

00:00 Carrying Others’ Weight

03:47 Meet Mitzi Alexander

05:45 Private Practice Realities

10:21 Military Woman’s Journey

25:26 National Guard Growth

27:12 From Policing to Social Work

34:11 Therapy Fit and Boundaries

45:12 Closing Reframe and Challenge

In This Episode You'll Discover

• Why absorbing third-party trauma for a living requires real, enforced boundaries, not just good intentions
• How the old operating system of "if I can hold it, I should" differs from Lived Authority's "I can hold it, and I still decide when I put it down"
• What it took for a first-time enlistee to walk into an all-male unit with no barracks, no female support, and a supervisor who told her she didn't belong
• Why Mitze left law enforcement to work in social work and clinical therapy instead
• A concrete, repeatable way to release the weight of a hard day without waiting for it to pile up

Featured Guest

Mitze Alexander is a licensed therapist based in Muskegon, Michigan, specializing in trauma, PTSD, depression, and anxiety, with a focus on military women. She spent four years on active duty in the U.S. Army and twenty years in the Michigan Army National Guard, retiring at the rank of E6, followed by seven years as a patrol officer with the Muskegon Police Department. She now runs a private practice out of Just Us Divine Health and Wellness in Muskegon Heights.

Host

Shelly Rood, Host / Hardcore and At Ease | Veterans Radio / Co-Founder Mission Ambition, LLC

Resources & Links

Mission Ambition, LLC — West Michigan location serving veterans across Muskegon County: missionambition.org Others Over Self®: othersoverself.com Mission Wildflower Substack: shellyrood.substack.com

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