Words in the Wilderness

We cover: Trauma Bonding Being on the receiving end of the silent treatment Emotional abuse Narcissistic abuse Covert sexual abuse Addiction Complex trauma Trauma responses Toxic shame Going from not having a voice, to reclaiming it Parenting The healing power of writing.

A podcast episode detailing Jacky’s experience of performing her show, ‘Stop the world I want to get off’ at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022.

In this episode we begin with my poem 'Tell me your story' I wrote it about trauma; how trauma needs to be acknowledged in all its grittiness, not diminished or dressed up as ‘not that bad’ in order to be healed. As today’s guest Lucinda Gordon Lennox says, we all have some trauma and trauma can be healed. Part of what can hinder that healing is the denial of that trauma. Other people, or even our...

This episode is the second part of a conversation that I had with Julia Warren. Julia is a mother, yoga teacher, writer and recovering addict. In September 2021, she lost her husband Doug when he relapsed and died of a drug overdose. In this episode, Julia shares her own writing, documenting her thoughts and feelings as she grieves her husband. We talk about what's helpful and unhelpful when someo...

Today I am talking to Julia Warren. Julia is a mother to her two boys, a trauma informed yoga teacher and a writer. She is also in recovery from drug addiction and recently stepped into the role of widow as in September 2021 her husband Doug overdosed when he relapsed from his own addiction recovery. In this episode we talk about Julia’s recovery from drug addiction. She talks about how she went f...

In January 2017, Lara came out of a long-term relationship, and felt broken, lost, stuck, lacking in direction and purpose. In November She read a book about vision boards, created her own and 4 months later she was running her own, with 10 participants. She has since trained in NLP and expanded her knowledge with studying about neuroscience. Last year she published her first book The Mighty Book...

When faced with an empty nest, Kari Gillespie decided to spread her own wings. She gave up a job that she loved and set off to walk across Spain and then she wrote a book about it called Pilgrim. I loved the book and am excited to share this conversation with you. In this episode I started with my poem I start from where I am today.

Leslie Davies, author of ‘You can’t eat love: learning to love yourself can change your relationship with food’ is here to talk about her relationship with food and how she realised that the emptiness that she was feeling inside and trying to fill with food was to do with her relationship with herself. She shares how she used her relationship with food as a signpost for changes that she needed to...

John was the son of a heroin dealer, and he himself ended up falling into drugs and alcohol and became homeless. In 2012 he sold his own drug treatment facility for $45 million dollars and he has helped 1000s of people in their own addiction recovery. In this episode, we discuss addiction and the story behind the label of being an addict. John shares how he turned his life around from growing up a...

In this episode about belonging with Vanessa Belleau I started with my poem The Secret to Belonging. We discuss the evolution of diversity and inclusion as buzzwords to the necessary action that's needed in order to help people feel like they belong. Vanessa shares her own personal experiences of the importance of representation from a random man on the street to her own mum, and how that can be l...

In this episode on creativity, we began with my poem, Nothing rhymes with purple. Caro Gomez shared her creative path which involves tenacity, grit, criticism, self doubt, and concrete blocks, metaphorically, not literally. I think that the take out of this episode is the importance of consistency and perseverance and that we cannot not be creative. When creating there are no endings, just detours...

Joining me on The Therapeutic Poet podcast today is Jenny Alexander. Jenny is a prolific author and some of the books that she has written about tackle the subject of bullying. Some of these are for children, like her book '70 ways to bully proof yourself’, and others for adults, such as ‘When you child is bullied: an essential guide for parents’. Jenny explains why she wrote a book about bullying...

Today on The Therapeutic Poet podcast I am joined by neuroscientist, science communicator and storyteller Dr. Paula Croxson. Paula is also an open water swimmer regularly swimming marathons, a flautist with the band Marlowe Grey, senior producer of the science based storytelling platform Storycollider and, she is also my cousin! We started with my poem ‘As I stood on the shore of my memories.’ We...

Something that none of us want to experience, and yet we all do, is suffering. In our western mostly secular society it is easy to see why we see suffering as an affront to our human rights. We all want to live tidy, prosperous, fulfilled lives and can see why we would regard suffering as a threat to that and that it needs to be controlled and managed away as quickly as possible. Some may say, "ho...

In this episode I am joined by For Women Who Roar founder Megan Febuary. She describes how writing a poem to reconcile the silence of her rage and grief lead to the creation of a movement to help other women tell their stories. We spoke of the importance of the healing process through writing, rather than focussing on the finished piece. How we can let our writing write us, shedding our defences t...

How are you with boundaries? Do you know how to set them and how do you deal with the consequences when your boundaries are pushed or crossed? Are they something you shy away from or embrace with gusto? Whatever your experience with boundaries so far you are in for a treat today because I am joined by Kari Kwinn, author of the book Better Boundaries: You don’t have to be broken to be better. We st...

Joining me today is professional declutterer Belinda Knox Spinks. On her website Home of Hidden Treasures Belinda says ‘I help people find the hidden treasures of space, time and happiness. We start with my poem ‘All at Sea’

Today I am joined by Susan Earlam. Susan has been a very successful blogger in the past and her short fiction has appeared in publications and anthologies including Pure Slush, Feminist Surrealism Journal, The Debutante, Mslexia, Reflex Function and Cabinet of Heed. This year she released her debut novel Earthly Bodies, a dystopian eco horror story that spans the ages, where strangers reveal their...

Joining me to talk about trauma and how we can thrive despite, or perhaps because of the trauma we have endured is trauma specialist Lou Lebentz. Lou is founder of the group ‘Trauma Thrivers’. Lou’s mission is to make trauma therapy accessible to all and go beyond that to thriving in life. She has been a therapist specialising in trauma, eating disorders, addiction and EMDR for nearly 20 years and...

Today we talk about grief, something that Clover is very familiar with. Her mum was brain damaged in a horse accident when Clover was 16 and her mum died 22 years later. Clover has also lost her dear sister Nell to breast cancer. We look grief in the face in this episode and I hope that it gives you some encouragement to allow yourself to grieve in the way you need to, or to help support someone e...

Brad is co-founder and clinical Director of Evoke Therapy Programs. Evoke’s evidence based Wilderness Therapy is based Oregon and Utah and works with the outdoors, reaching deep and accomplishing growth that just can’t be achieved in a therapist’s office or hospital setting. Thousand of Adolescents, parents and families have benefited from the work done there. Brad also hosts his own podcast calle...

Do you or someone you know have dyslexia? Then listen up! In this podcast I speak to Michelle Catterson. Michelle is not only executive head at the Moonhall schools in Surrey, she is also a Vice Chair of the British Dyslexia Association. Moonhall school specialises in teaching children with dyslexia.

I speak to Harriet Brown about her book 'Shadow Daughter: a memoir of estrangement' which details Harriet’s own account of the destructive relationship with her mother and how this led to their estrangement.

I’m so delighted that joining me on the Therapeutic poet podcast today is the proprietor of Onsite, Miles Adcox. Miles is an extraordinarily kind, thoughtful, and humble leader, entrepreneur and speaker.