GoHealth Podcast

In this episode of the GoHealth podcast, Gillian Straine speaks with Rev Canon Timothy Goode, priest, theologian, author, and Canon for Congregational Discipleship and Nurture at York Minster, about disability, ableism, healing, vulnerability, and the church’s imagination.  Drawing on Tim’s personal story of cancer, paralysis, rehabilitation, ordination, and daily prayer with Psalm 139, the conver...

In this special episode, Wendy Lloyd is joined by David Pott, pilgrimage consultant, founder of pilgrimage routes, and one of the Walks4Life Collective, to explore the extraordinary healing potential of pilgrimage, and to introduce GoHealth's exciting new partnership with Walks4Life. David shares his remarkable journey: from devising the Two Saints Way and six Northern Saints Trails in the northea...

In this episode, Gillian Straine is joined by Graham Fender-Allison, a long-standing member of the GoHealth team with a background in facilitation, creative worship, and work with the Church of Scotland. Graham shares his personal faith journey — from a restless teenager in Glasgow encountering God in unexpected places, to finding deep healing through embodied worship and honest community. Togethe...

In this episode, Gillian Straine speaks with Clare Whitney, a lay chaplain at Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital and member of the GoHealth Community, currently training for ordination in the Church of England. Clare's journey into chaplaincy began in a deeply personal moment — finding herself at her child's hospital bedside and encountering the ministry of chaplaincy first-hand. That expe...

In this episode of the GoHealth Podcast, Gillian Straine, CEO of GoHealth, steps into a different kind of conversation. Rather than interviewing a guest, Gillian joins organisational consultant Wendy Ball for an honest, searching dialogue about what it means to lead well in a time of deep instability, in the church, in our organisations, and in the world. Wendy Ball works with impact networks and...

In this deeply moving conversation, Trystan Owain Hughes shares his journey of undertaking a 140-mile pilgrimage across North Wales while living with chronic pain, and the unexpected second pilgrimage that followed when his back injury worsened dramatically. Drawing from his latest book "To Hell's Mouth and Back: Pilgrimage, Suffering, and Hope," Trystan explores how vulnerability in leadership, f...

 In this conversation, Rt. Revd. and Rt. Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally talks to Gillian Straine about her life, her models of leadership and the ways that holistic healing has shaped her approach to service as a nurse and a priest. It is an inspiring and hopeful encounter for anyone concerned with the future of the church, for how leadership can be both humble and powerful, and how the church can meets...

 Revd Dr Gillian Straine talks with dance movement psychotherapist Rachel Michael , founder of Embodied Perspective and author of Embodied Prayer as Mission: Our Response to Cultural Change . Rachel shares how dance, faith and therapy meet in her work — helping people reconnect body, mind and spirit through gentle movement, awareness and prayer. Together, they explore how the body can become a sac...

In this episode of the GoHealth Podcast, CEO Gillian Straine sits down with Dr. Shola Oladipo , a registered dietitian with nearly 30 years of experience, researcher, pastor, and CEO of Food for Purpose . Shola’s pioneering work sits at the intersection of faith, food, and health — equipping Black Majority Churches and wider communities to embrace culturally relevant approaches to health and heali...

What is Spiritual Intelligence and what does it have to offer in the times that we are living through? This is the central question in this fascinating conversation between Mark Vernon and GoHealth Podcast host, Gillian Straine.  Together they explore: Spiritual Intelligence in contrast to Artificial and Emotional Intelligence What difference Spiritual Intelligence makes to our lives Whether or no...

In this first episode of our brand new series we dive deep into the heart of Character Strengths and Virtues with our special guest, Dr. Roger Bretherton — clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, coach, and a thoughtful Christian voice in the field of wellbeing and spiritual intelligence. Together, we explore:   What are character strengths and virtues?   How can we recognise, strengthen, and heal...

We continue our 2025 season on Belonging and Healing with an inspiring conversation between Gillian and Anglican priest, Father Luigi Gioia. This is a rich and profound episode where they go deep into lived experience and the reality of what it means to pray for healing. The Rev. Dr. Luigi Gioia is the Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City, and Research Associa...

Gillian begins our 2025 season on Belonging by talking with Prof John Swinton, Professor of Practical and pastoral theology at aberdeen university. John is an registered mental health nurse, ordained minister and noted theologian, researching particularly in areas of mental health and dementia. He is also President of GoHealth, and a musician, recently releasing an album Beautiful songs about diff...

What is ours to do? We've been deep in this theme of Creation Cares for a number of weeks as a GoHealth Community. In this episode Gillian talks with Clare Fussell from Operation Noah about what we can do in response, and what we can leave undone! Clare Fussell joined Operation Noah in January 2024. Clare has a background in coordinating environmental campaigns, with experience leading The Climate...

What in Creation caught your attention today? Do you have a sense of why that might have been? These are some of the many questions explored in this beautiful conversation between Gillian Straine and Steve Aisthorpe. Steve is the Director of Kilmalieu, a retreat centre on the west coast of the Highlands, part of the Abernethy Trust. He is a coach, retreat leader and author of T he Invisible Church...

 Spending a long time gazing at a flower with a small child, having your hands covered in soil and being held by a fresh water lochan. These are just a few of the ways the GoHealth team share their experiences of nature connection in this special episode.  In this special episode we hear from members of the GoHealth team, chair of the board and a member of the GoHealth Community about their connec...

Learning from the wisdom of Zen meditation. In this episode Gillian chats with the Revd. Chris Collingwood, a Christian Priest, former canon of York minster and Zen master.   The conversation explores the following:  Chris explains how he felt called to be a priest. What Zen is. How Chris got interested in Zen. How he became a Zen Master. How Zen practice fitted with his role as a canon at York Mi...

Revd Ian Spencer helps us heal from a long history of bodies being denigrated by the Church. Drawing on wisdom from the Gospels, Zen wisdom and from Yoga, Gillian and Ian offer us a transformative body based way of knowing.  The episode explores: Ian's biography including Mindwell Ministries (you can read this in full on the GoHealth website: gohealth.org.uk/podcasts/healing-histories-embody/ ) Ia...

There are few stones left unturned in this episode. The Revd Dr Dan Inman, Precentor of Chichester cathedral, leads us on a pilgrimage through liturgy, buildings, arts and pilgrimage itself. TW: Gillian and Dan also get into a delicate conversation about the handling of a specific historic alleged abuse case regarding Bishop George Bell.      Dan shares what a Precentor does.  Cathedrals as more t...

How do we heal the history of racism when it is still so present and prevalent? Gillian explores this difficult question with the Revd Dr Sharon Prentis. Revd Prentis is Deputy Director of Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit. She is also a tutor in theology and in her previous work was recognised by the Department of Health when she was named as a Mary Seacole Scholar for a project on faith an...

Gillian and Associate Professor Mark Roberts tackle big questions, including the nature vs nurture? Mark shares insights from research into bananas and microbes, and much more, to make this a hopeful and fascinating episode where they explore: What genes are and how they influence who we are.  The discovery of genes and history of genetic study Genes being like an on-off switch in simple terms. Ge...

Be inspired by a conversation exploring the healing power of psychotherapy and where it sits within Christian spirituality.  In this second episode of the Healing Histories series we share a conversation with Susanne Hyde, Director of the St Marylebone HCC.  In their conversation, Gillian and Susanne cover the following topics:  What is psychotherapy?  What powers psychotherapeutic healing and why...

Be inspired by the roots of healing in the early church. Find out how healing was so linked to the growth of Christianity. Consider how we can be a healing presence today by learning from those who have gone before. We hope you find this an uplifting and hopeful podcast episode! In this first episode of the Healing Histories series we share a conversation with Professor Amanda Porterfield, profess...

What is going on in our brain when we experience pain? Are emotional, mental and physical pain the same? Is it all in our heads after all? In this episode of the GoHealth podcast we take a deep dive into the topic of pain, what it is and how to live with it, with Professor Amy Wachholtz. Prof Amy Wachholtz is an Associate Professor in psychology at the university of Colorado where she is the direc...

We can't think of a better way to draw our series on burnout to a conclusion by talking to Jonathan Malesic - he literally wrote the book on how to end burnout. 'The End of Burnout' was an Amazon best book in 2022 and is being translated into 9 languages - this is an episode many people need to hear! Jonathan Malesic is an essayist, journalist, and scholar whose writing has appeared in the New Yor...