TOTAL W(H)INE

Meet Emily

It was a wild road to get here, but I’m so glad this is where God had me end up.

I‘m Emily Frase (rhymes with “crazy”), a south Louisiana native living in northern Virginia with my husband Nick and our three precious children. After receiving my bachelor’s degree in architecture, I went on to work in the nonprofit world in DC for five years. I left politics shortly after the birth of my daughter (but found myself bored at home), and founded the Total Whine blog, along with a popular Instagram page and podcast, where I share my Catholic faith in a joyful and honest way, especially the areas of NFP, sex and motherhood, which includes autism as of 2024.


In 2020, I launched my one-on-one coaching service to help women navigate the often-overwhelming reality of fertility awareness and family planning, but closed it shortly after the birth of my third. That same year, I co-founded the nonprofit organization FAbM Base, where I also serve as president, which aims to make fertility awareness education accessible and authentic. As of 2025, I am writing a comprehensive NFP book for a noted Catholic publisher.

My work with FAbM Base has been featured in Catholic News Agency, OSV Catholic and various diocesan publications nationwide. I have been a guest post writer for Catholic Women in Business, FemCatholic, The Fruitful Hollow and The Young Catholic Woman. I have been a guest on the podcasts Like a Mother with Katie McGrady, Life Beyond the Chariot, and Letters to Women. In 2024, I delivered a keynote address at the Marquette Method Professionals Conference.

My experiences with NFP were, shall we say, tumultuous and frustrating, though I never had any issue with Church teaching prior to marriage. Since early 2018, I have immersed myself in Church documents, including Gaudium et Spes, Casti Connubii, Humanae Vitae, Mulieris Dignitatem, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Theology of the Body, alongside spiritual direction and listening to the experiences of thousands of women across the fertility spectrum. As a result, I am outspoken against incoherent ideologies such as providentialism and the offshoots of Jansenism, both of which attack the goodness, truth and beauty of the totality of Church teaching on human dignity, sex, marriage and family planning. Overall, my approach is to share the simplicity of the truth of Church teaching in a manner that is truthful, compassionate, rooted in curiosity, and maybe just a little funny.

Speaking experience

TOPIC: Introduction to Fertility Awareness

  • Immaculate Conception Church | Washington, DC | May 2023
  • Immaculate Conception Cathedral | Tyler, TX | June 2024
  • St. John the Apostle Church | Leesburg, VA | February 2025
  • All Saints Catholic Church | Manassas, VA | October 2025

TOPIC: The User Perspective

Selected Guest Writing

Selected Guest Podcasts

Fun Facts.
When my husband asked me to marry him, I didn’t say “yes”, I said, “Are you sure?” I’ve met me, so I felt it a fair question.

As for my wine preferences, I’m quite fond of South American or Australian reds. Carmenere, Malbec and Shiraz, oh my!

I’m also a big fan of scotch, Glenmorangie neat, if you please. Unless there’s drambouie available, in which case, I’ll happily sip on a Rusty Nail.

I am a hardcore sanguine with a pretty good sense of humor. My secondary personality fluctuates between choleric and phlegmatic, depending on how to balance the room. In practice, this means that I take charge only to make sure everyone has fun, but the minute things stop being fun, I tend to shut down.

Fr. Jacques Phillipe’s books have changed my life. If we’ve met and I haven’t recommended either Interior Freedom or Searching for and Maintaining Peace, just give it 5 minutes.

I have eclectic taste in movies and TV shows, happy to settle in for a BBC period mini-series just as much as Star Wars or something from the MCU or Ken Burns. However, the third installment of Lord of the Rings is the greatest film of all time.

Favorite Saints.
St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, Pope St. John Paul II, and (the soon-to-be-Saint) Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Favorite Quotes.
“…the nobler the woman, the nobler the world.” – Arch. Fulton Sheen

“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” – Galadriel

Read Emily’s story on the blog

Catholic living. Straight up.

Here at Total Whine, you’ll find a place where topics like NFP, sex, marriage and motherhood are all discussed through the lens of Catholic Church teaching in an honest and joyful way.

This is the corner of the internet where TMI goes to die, where curiosity is recognized as the condition of learning truth, and honest questions receive honest answers. Because we serve the God of Truth. And Truth sets us free.