The Good Girl Rx by Kate Bartley
Have you ever felt like you were holding it all together on the outside—while quietly breaking down on the inside?
Like you had to keep going, showing up, doing what was expected—but your body and soul were crying out for change?
About ten years ago, I hit a breaking point.
At the time, I was working as a physical therapist and children's ministry director, taking on more hours to support my family while navigating emotional stress I didn’t have the bandwidth to process. My oldest had just left for college, my teenage son was rebelling, and my youngest still needed me—but I was coming home spent, with nothing left to give.
In the previous years, I'd lost parts of myself to Thyroid Cancer and an Ovarian Cancer scare and I was feeling like a shell of my former self. The back, neck pain and migraines I’d always struggled with were becoming more frequent. I couldn’t seem to go a day without some part of my body screaming at me. TMJ, vertigo, plantar fasciitis, tendinitis—everything I had spent years treating in others was now showing up in me.
The turning point came during a Sunday service. The worship team began singing It Is Well with My Soul, and everything in me screamed, “No, it is not.” I didn’t wipe away the tears that came—I let them fall. That moment cracked something open and I started shifting my attention from trying to fix my body to honoring the needs of my soul. That shift was the catalyst that restored my health when nothing in the medical model I was trained in was working.
In hindsight, I see how my nervous system had been stuck in survival mode for years—flooded by hidden stress, trauma, unprocessed emotions, and the impossible pressure of being everything to everyone. My symptoms weren’t random—they were my body trying to get my attention.
That shift didn’t just change my health—it changed my life. I eventually stepped away from the clinic and started my own business as a transformational life and health coach. In working with women, I began seeing the same patterns: high-functioning, spiritually grounded women who looked “fine” on the outside—but felt lost and were struggling silently, trying desperately like me to figure out what was wrong with them.
That’s why I wrote The Good Girl Rx—to name these invisible stressors, expose the hidden cost of chronic self sacrifice, and help women reclaim their voice, confidence, and well-being.
Writing this book has been the next step in my own healing journey. It required me to work through self-doubt, guilt, and the anxiety that taking time for my creative work was selfish and hurting my family. But every chapter became an act of restoration—of growing in self leadership and choosing to show up for my calling and trust that it mattered.
This book is for the woman who’s tired of pushing through, tired of abandoning herself, and ready to listen to the voice within.
The Good Girl Rx will help you recognize what’s really going on in your body, your beliefs, and your nervous system—so you can stop feeling stuck and start moving forward with compassion, clarity, and confidence.
You don’t have to hold it all together anymore. Let’s break free—together.
About Kate
Kate Bartley a Licensed Physical Therapist, Mind-Body Health and Life Transformation Coach, cancer survivor, and recovering over-giver. She lives in Huntsville, AL with her husband of 32 years and their 17-year-old daughter, and when she’s not geeking out on neuroscience and psychology you can find her outside, walking her dog, journaling at a coffee shop or FaceTiming with her granddaughters.
After working in physical therapy and ministry for over two decades, Kate now empowers women who are overwhelmed, burned out, or stuck in chronic symptoms reconnect with their bodies, honor their needs and take action on their dreams while embodying their healthiest selves.
She’s passionate about helping women who are holding it all together on the outside—but falling apart on the inside—find safety, clarity, and healing from the inside out. Her writing speaks to women of faith navigating invisible stress, good girl conditioning, and the hidden cost of over-responsibility.
