Mental health isn’t about fixing yourself; it’s about finding your way back to yourself, again and again. For licensed therapist and yoga practitioner Madina Alam, the journey has been anything but linear.
As a contestant on Season 28 of The Bachelor, Madina shared a vulnerable moment on-screen about the pressure she felt to marry. The online response was swift and divided. Some offered support; others dismissed her sensitivity entirely. Rather than retreat, Madina used the backlash as fuel. That moment became the spark for her platform Say How You Feel, It's Sexy, a space to challenge stigma and honor what it means to be fully, consciously yourself. “Being self-conscious—conscious of yourself—isn’t a weakness. It’s something we should all strive for.”
That same belief in self-awareness and honesty is what led her to therapy. “I love being able to remind people of their power,” she says.
As a specialist in Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), a behavior-based therapy for OCD and anxiety, Madina approaches mental health from a deeply practical, action-oriented perspective. She believes that healing isn’t just about talking through emotions, it’s about learning how to act through them.
Therapy, in her eyes, can and should be as normalized and structured as personal training. That means actionable tools, real-time change, and movement—not just analysis. “If you don’t like how you feel,” she often tells clients, “you need to take action in alignment with how you want to feel.”
Yoga offers a space to practice that kind of shift: moving through resistance, discomfort, even fear.
Yoga as a Complement to Therapy
Madina often recommends yoga to clients not just for the physical benefits, but also for how the practice rewires our relationship with discomfort. She views movement as one of the most effective ways to get out of your head and into the moment.
For clients dealing with anxiety or emotional overload, the ability to take physical action—especially in a setting where breath and presence are central—is a powerful counter to spiraling thoughts. On the mat, we learn to sit with discomfort. That’s a lesson that extends into daily life.
From Disconnection to Discovery
Before starting college, Madina was struggling with disordered eating and not fueling her body in a healthy way. A psychologist even advised her not to move out for school, warning that living away from home might make things worse. But for Madina, the opposite happened when she enrolled at Stony Brook University. It was her first time living away from home, and while the shift was emotionally jarring, it also marked a turning point. She found her way into a nearby hot yoga studio and instantly fell in love with the physical practice.
Yoga gave her a reason to nourish herself. She began to understand that in order to practice, she had to eat. That simple truth became a catalyst in healing her relationship with food and, ultimately, with herself.
Today, she understands that yoga is more than just movement. “It’s like a microcosm of the real world,” she says. “How we respond on the mat is how we tend to respond off the mat. It’s about learning to sit with discomfort, to move with your breath, and to slow down.”
Breath, Boundaries, and Balance
Today, Madina integrates yoga principles into both her personal practice and therapeutic work. Breathwork, especially ujjayi breathing, helps her stay present throughout the day. Mindfulness exercises create space between thought and reaction, and meditation offers a mirror to observe without judgment.
She’s careful to note that acceptance doesn’t mean approval. “Mindfulness is about accepting what is, not because you love it, but because spending energy resisting what you can’t control often makes things worse,” she explains.
This shift—observing without reacting, creating space instead of control—echoes the deeper yogic teachings of aparigraha, or non-attachment. It’s a reminder that letting go of outcomes, expectations, or the need to fix can create the clarity and freedom we often seek.
Showing Up is the Practice
For anyone feeling disconnected or overwhelmed, Madina offers a reframe: what if that awareness is a sign that you're more in tune than you think? The work isn’t about avoiding hard days. It’s about learning to meet them with presence.
Yoga, she says, is one of the few spaces where discomfort is expected, even welcomed. It’s not performative. It’s not always peaceful. But it is honest.
Whether in therapy or on the mat, the most important thing is simply showing up. That’s where the transformation begins.
Expanding the Conversation
Madina believes vulnerability deserves more space: not just in therapy, but in everyday life. Through community events in Charlotte, North Carolina, she’s creating spaces where people connect through storytelling and feel seen for showing up as they are.
“The message is never unique,” she says. “But the story behind it is.”
Madina Alam is a licensed mental health therapist, yoga practitioner, and model based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Follow her on Instagram at @dinalynee or learn more about her work at mentalhealthissexy.org.
Photo credit: Josiah Richwine and Rico Marcelo
