In this episode, Karen sits down with Jenny Cohen to explore how she danced her way through 16 rounds of chemotherapy, why she believes movement is our birthright, and how listening to our bodies can transform everything from morning routines to major life decisions.

Jenny shares why she showed up to her final radiation treatment with a giant inflatable palm tree, how she learned to trust her body again after cancer destroyed that trust, and why she believes most of us are running on autopilot without realizing what we’ve lost.

Connect with Jenny

Jenny Cohen is the creator of the Spotlight Confidence Formula, an occupational therapist, award-winning belly dance fusion competitor, and author of Outside In Mastery: Dancing My Way Back to Myself After Breast Cancer. She hosts the top 10% ranked Dance to Heal podcast and leads Move to Bloom, monthly subsidized masterclasses for women ready to reconnect with their bodies.

Monthly Masterclasses: movetobloom.com (subsidized by a nonprofit)
Podcast: Dance to Heal (top 10% ranked)
Book: Outside In Mastery: Dancing My Way Back to Myself After Breast Cancer

From Hamster Wheel to Healing

Before dance became central to Jenny’s life, she was raising three kids while coaching junior Olympic rhythmic gymnasts – her own daughters, who were labeled to have “no future” by traditional coaches yet went on to win gold and silver medals. She couldn’t do a cartwheel herself, but she could break down complex skills into achievable steps. That same analytical gift now helps women reconnect with bodies they’ve stopped trusting.

Self-Care Isn’t What You Think

Jenny challenges the “splash of water on your face and call it self-care” approach most of us default to. Real self-care, she argues, means giving yourself 45 minutes to an hour each morning-without a countdown clock running in your head. Somatic exercises. Physical therapy movements. Energy clearing. Time in front of the mirror, actually believing you’re worth it. She admits it took her years to build this routine, and even longer to stop rushing through it.

The Body Keeps Score-And Has Opinions

Much of the conversation centers on applied kinesiology (muscle testing), a technique Jenny uses to ask her body yes-or-no questions and get real answers. Is this supplement good for me? Should I attend this event? Is my hormone level still right? She explains how to do it yourself and why your body’s answers might shift as your circumstances change.

Dancing Through Cancer

In 2014, Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer at her healthiest: eight months vegan, working out daily, fit and strong. She made her doctors crazy by scheduling dance competitions between chemotherapy cycles. She showed up to her final radiation treatment with a giant inflatable palm tree. She refused to be treated like she was dying, because she wasn’t.

But cancer left marks. Chemotherapy destroyed her gut health. Radiation affected her body’s ability to retain nutrients. She developed severe neuropathy in her hands and feet. And she went into chemo-induced menopause at 45, which led to osteoporosis in her back, neck, and hips. She now advocates fiercely for women to understand hormone replacement options and bone density testing.

What Nobody Tells Cancer Survivors

Jenny’s book, Outside In Mastery, explores territory most survivors recognize but few discuss openly: survivor’s guilt, anger, shock, and the strange realization that it’s not just you who doesn’t trust your body—your body doesn’t trust you either. During the pandemic, she realized the book wasn’t just for cancer survivors. It was for everyone processing collective trauma.

Key Insight: Life is a dance and you need all your tools. You need to be able to react and you need to be able to be in the flow. Ready to start listening to your body? This conversation is your invitation.

Takeaways

Self-care isn’t a bath at the end of the day, it’s permission to give yourself 45 minutes to an hour each morning that isn’t rushed.
Your body carries intelligence you’ve been trained to ignore, and dance is one way to start listening again.
Applied kinesiology (muscle testing) can help you bypass external programming and tune into what’s actually true for you.
After 40, we enter what Chinese medicine calls our “second spring”, an inward turning of energy that demands we prioritize longevity and self-knowledge.
It’s not your body that doesn’t trust you after illness or trauma, it’s both: you don’t trust your body, and your body doesn’t trust you.

dance to heal, movement as medicine, breast cancer survivor, belly dance fusion, applied kinesiology, muscle testing, morning self-care routine, somatic exercises, second spring, occupational therapy, women over 40, energy clearing, body intelligence, hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis prevention