VIDYA with Verity

There's a version of the wellness industry that genuinely changes lives. And there's a version that quietly exploits the very thing it claims to heal. This episode isn't about fake gurus or obvious over-claiming. It's about something far more subtle and far more common. It's about what happens when sharing your healing starts driving your healing. When your worst moments become your best performin...

If you've ever delivered a great session, got incredible feedback, and still gone home convinced it was a fluke, this episode is for you. Imposter syndrome isn't a mindset problem. It isn't a confidence problem. And no amount of affirmations, credentials, or "fake it till you make it" is going to touch it because it was never designed for what you're actually dealing with...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity Coonan , we explore how your nervous system may be the very thing limiting your income, business growth, and ability to receive. Financial blocks aren’t just mindset issues, they’re survival responses stored in the body. Through real-life experiences, including making costly decisions from a dysregulated state, Verity breaks down why regulation is essen...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , we go deep into what it really takes to rebuild yourself from burnout, anxiety, and trauma… to clarity, creativity, and business. Trina from @james_boutique shares her journey of: Starting a boutique and designing her own clothing line Navigating anxiety, ADHD symptoms, and burnout The truth about trauma work (and what actually changed everything) Let...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity sits down with Sarah, founder of Book Besties Darwin, a growing community and lifestyle brand bringing women together through their love of books. What started as a simple love of reading has turned into a powerful community where women connect, share stories, and build friendships. But this conversation goes far beyond books. Sarah shares the...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity Jo Coonan explores why going slow is often the most intelligent nervous system strategy available. In a culture that rewards urgency and intensity, she explains how speed can override safety and why true capacity is built through steadiness, not force. Verity unpacks how the body interprets pressure, why healing cannot be rushed, and how moving...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity Jo Coonan explores the often-overlooked foundation of powerful facilitation: the Nervous System of the person leading the room. She explains why technique, scripts, and intensity mean very little if the facilitator’s own body is dysregulated. The depth of a space is not created by performance, it is created by capacity. Verity unpacks how co-re...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity dismantles the myth that nervous system regulation makes you soft, slow, or less ambitious. She explains how true regulation sharpens leadership, strengthens boundaries, and increases decision-making clarity. A regulated system does not remove drive, it removes chaos. Verity explores why ambition built on dysregulation leads to burnout, and why...

We talk a lot about depth in Breathwork, healing, and facilitation, but far less about discernment. In this episode, Verity explores why knowing when to guide, when to pause, and when to do nothing is one of the most important skills a facilitator can develop. This conversation goes beyond technique and into nervous system literacy, ethical holding, and the quiet intelligence that allows real chan...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity Jo Coonan explores what happens when healing stops being private and starts becoming something to perform. In a world where inner work is increasingly documented, filtered, and shared, Verity speaks to the quiet pressure to always appear healed, regulated, evolved, and self-aware and the nervous system cost of turning growth into an identity. S...

In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan explores the real cost of holding space and how that cost changes as capacity grows. Holding space is one of the most powerful skills a facilitator, coach, therapist, parent, partner, or friend can develop. But when it’s done without nervous system support, boundaries, and embodiment, it can quietly become exhausting. Verity reflects on the early years of facilita...

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) isn’t about how deeply you breathe, it’s about rhythm, regulation, and safety in the body. In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan breaks down what HRV actually measures, why it’s one of the strongest markers of longevity and nervous system health, and how Breathwork directly influences emotional resilience and stress recovery. You’ll learn the science behind HRV, how it ref...

Grief doesn’t end, it expands. In this deeply personal episode, Verity Jo Coonan shares a raw reflection on living with grief fourteen years after the death of her partner. She speaks to what it means to experience life “backwards,” how loss reshapes priorities, and why acceptance isn’t about letting go, it’s about learning to hold more. Verity shares a powerful dream that marked a turning point i...

In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan explores a powerful reframe in healing and Breathwork: intensity does not equal transformation, safety does. In a wellness world that often glorifies peak experiences, emotional release, and catharsis, Verity invites a slower, more honest conversation about what actually creates lasting change in the nervous system. Drawing on trauma-informed principles and real-w...

In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan speaks openly about one of the most important and often avoided conversations in the breathwork space: safety . - Not safety as a checkbox. - Not safety as a certification. But safety as something that is lived, embodied, and practiced . Drawing from personal experience, facilitation work, and years of holding people through deep emotional states, Verity explores...

In this threshold episode of The Dark Side of Verity , Verity Jo Coonan invites you to slow down, breathe, and meet yourself in stillness. Inspired by the Lighthouse Principle, this is not a “how-to” conversation it’s an embodied reflection on leadership, boundaries, nervous system authority, and what happens when you stop chasing connection and start anchoring into yourself. Verity explores how o...

Motherhood, mum rage, guilt, grief and… Breathwork. In this episode, Verity sits down with shadow work + Breathwork coach Steph Beers , mum of three, to talk honestly about what really happens behind closed doors in modern motherhood. They dive into: Mum rage, shame and yelling (and why you’re not a “bad mum”) Gentle parenting vs reality at 5pm Why your kids aren’t attacking you, they’re learning...

In this episode, Verity guides listeners through her end-of-year ritual, a powerful process of releasing, reflecting, and preparing the body for what’s next. As 2025 comes to a close, she shares the mixed feelings that come with looking back on a rollercoaster year while craving new energy and a fresh start. Verity opens up about the importance of closing loops, acknowledging both the beautiful an...

In this episode of Dark Side of the Verity, we dive deep into one of the most powerful teachings you can integrate into your life:Nothing actually triggers you, everything simply reflects what’s asking to be healed. As we move through the chaos, closeness, and emotional charge of the holiday season, Verity unpacks the truth about triggers, blind spots, and why our loved ones often set us off the m...

In this episode, Verity reflects on what turning 41 has opened in her, the honesty, the softness, the truths she can’t avoid anymore. She shares how this year pushed her to close loops in her business, prepare for the future she wants, and finally get real about love, relationships, and the patterns she’s outgrown. It’s a candid look at ageing, desire, identity, and the very human experience of wa...

Verity sits down with VIDYA Facilitator Graduate, Hannah, a former corporate high-achiever who stumbled into a Breathwork class after a panic attack and walked out with a new path. They unpack Nervous System safety, why so many of us “hide” in our 30s, the power of community in healing, and the surprising breakthrough that rewrote Hannah’s story about motherhood and relationships. If you’ve ever f...

Verity drops in with three grounding breaths and welcomes Shauna, VIDYA Facilitator graduate, an Irish Breathwork + mindset coach based in Perth, who casually reveals she’s 24 weeks pregnant. They unpack how Breathwork helped Shauna process lifelong grief, open a spiritual side she didn’t know she had, and build a flexible business serving FIFO workers, men who don’t love “talking,” and community...

Exhale the noise, inhale your Nervous System reset. This guided 4·7·8 practice slows your heart rate, softens tension, and signals safety to your body in under three minutes. Perfect before bed, between meetings, or anytime your mind is racing. A gentle drop-in to orient your body to safety 4·7·8 cadence: inhale 4, hold 7, exhale 8 (repeated 4–8 rounds) Soothing cues to lengthen your exhale and me...

In this episode of The Dark Side with Verity , Verity Jo Coonan explores what it really means to let go of the “good girl” conditioning so many of us carry. From school systems that reward compliance, to the pressure of being perfect in every role, mother, partner, business owner, this ingrained pattern often leads to exhaustion and burnout. Verity shares her own struggles with learning, perfectio...

This practice isn’t just breathing, it’s N ervous System training . When we use structured Breathwork daily, especially in short intentional bursts like this, we’re teaching the body how to move between sympathetic activation (stress response) and parasympathetic regulation (rest, repair, clarity) with control instead of chaos. Most people live stuck in sympathetic mode, fast, overwhelmed, reactiv...