💡 ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Stef Vachon is a former international figure skater who came up through relentless homophobic abuse, walking away from competitive skating as a teenager before rebuilding his life from the ground up. In this episode, he and Natalie talk about surviving in silence, the therapist who finally helped him ask for it, and what it took to return to the ice decades later as a husband, an adoptive father, and a man living fully as himself. Stef now hosts the Together Moving Forward podcast, a platform for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community centered on healing, resilience, and self-respect. This conversation covers shame, safety, chosen family, and what it means to reclaim your identity instead of trying to reinvent it.
🎧 Together Moving Forward Podcast: togethermovingforwardpodcast.com
📺 YouTube: youtube.com/@TogetherMovingForwardPodcast
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/togethermovingforwardpodcast
🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@togethermovingforward
📷 Instagram: @stef_vachon @stefvachonspeaker @togethermovingforwardpodcast
🎯 KEY TAKEAWAYS
🔹 Survival mode started young — constant abuse as a teenage competitive figure skater shaped how Stef saw himself for decades.
🔹 The therapist who saved his life — handing over his entire written history in his early thirties became the turning point.
🔹 Reclaiming, not reinventing — Stef rejects the idea of becoming someone new and instead talks about returning to who he already was.
🔹 Back on the ice in his fifties — his return to competitive figure skating has become a measure of safety and self-trust.
🔹 Chosen family changed everything — marriage, fatherhood, and community gave him permission to stop hiding.
TOPICS
HEALING & SELF-TRUST
LIFE TRANSITIONS
MENTAL HEALTH
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Read the Full Transcript
Prefer to read? The complete episode transcript is available here.
