Life - An Inside Job

This episode is all about how the understanding of ourselves as cyclical beings can help us navigate the climate emergency. Giulietta Durante of Hormones in Harmony, Natasha Richardson from Forage Botanicals and period educator Tara Ghosh all kindly volunteered to share their wisdom and experience, we talk about: ·      How to manage climate anxiety ·      How to manage your nervous system and mak...

My guest  Clarissa Kristjansson PhD is an internationally recognized menopause educator. She specialises in Yang Sheng, TCM nutrition, medical qigong and mindfulness. She is passionate about nurturing the body, mind and spirit in harmony with the natural rhythms of nature during perimenopause. Clarissa is the host of the popular Thriving Thru Menopause podcast, she lectures and teaches around the...

I first came across Rosie Barnes's photography through her exhibition ‘No you’re not’ a striking series of portraits and statements from autistic women who have been successful in academia and business. Two images from this series have been included in the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Gallery in London. Rosie is a  documentary and fine art photographe...

Sam Palmer of Midlife Makeover talks through all the fear of exercise and what stops us from moving, and what to do about it. Midlife makeover is an online community where women can access menopause fitness and lifestyle support. Sam’s work started in the NHS, she’s worked in further education, she trained as a running coach and was coach of the year in 2014. Midlife Makeover has supported thousan...

Born in 1922, Gerda was the founder of Biodynamic Psychology, an energy-based psychotherapeutic practice that includes touch, energy, spirituality, and great humanity, which has influenced most body-orientated psychotherapeutic and complementary health modalities that have arisen since the 70s. This episode features people who trained in Biodynamic methods and share how it has deeply touched their...

My guest Catherine Morgan multi-award-winning qualified Financial Planner and award-winning Certified Financial Coach is on a mission to reduce financial anxiety and increase financial empowerment & resilience for 1 million women around the world.   She is also very generous with her knowledge and shares about: Pensions in your 50’s How to get started with investments Why it’s so important tha...

This is another exploration into the way ADHD affects us, my guest is Victoria Gazzard, who shares more deeply and widely about the challenges of parenting girls with ADHD, rites of passage and managing adult life. Together we ponder how female gender stereotypes can be particularly restrictive and damaging for girls and women with ADHD and how these restrictions play out over adult life. Victoria...

In this very special episode, after a year or more of nudging I have persuaded my teachers Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer of Red School to come along and talk about their wonderful new book Wise Power: Discover the Liberating power of menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging . It’s published by Hay House and you can pre-order now and get your hands on an actual copy on the 22...

Out of all the guests I have had on Life An Inside job, Jess Glenny offers the most vibrant and intimate window into her inside life as an Autistic person.  I gobbled up Ravelled Up in a day, Jess's book is a beautiful exploration of how it is to be a human in movement, in growth and in authentic presence. Jess is a movement teacher, facilitator, therapist and writer about all things body.  S...

What happens to Autistic women and non-binary people in menopause? At a time when more and more people are receiving a diagnosis of Autism in midlife, we are only just beginning to discover what's going on. In this episode, we hear a range of Autistic people talking about their experiences of their perimenopause and postmenopause life, what helped them, and what made things worse. Dr Rachel M...

This episode is part of a series of podcasts that focus on neurodiversity in perimenopause. I felt it was best to let people speak about their own experiences and let these voices be heard, in their diversity and brilliance. In this episode, we hear a range of people with ADHD talking about their experiences of their perimenopause and postmenopause life, what helped them, and what made things wors...

Last week I had a great conversation with New York Times bestselling author, and funny, warm, perceptive human Kirsten Miller.  Her new book The Change just might be a unicorn; it’s a novel whose central are menopause sheroes. And more than that, you are going to want to be their friends. It’s a kickass, feminist novel about how we handle power, control over us and control of ourselves, and the fe...

In this episode, I ask craniosacral therapist Francine Forde about how come our nervous systems are so incredibly jangled at the moment and we got into a conversation about loneliness, overstimulation, boundaries and yes, even a bit of menopause too. But Francine started by sharing how she’s seeing women apologizing all the time, and getting curious about what’s going on. Francine is a craniosacra...

I’ve been nudging Laura to come and chat with me for ages because I find her story so inspiring, her creativity has just rocketed in the last few years, smack in the middle of perimenopause.  She’s a poet and comedian from Leeds. She writes brilliantly playful poetry that packs a punch about midlife, menopause and the north. She also does fanny jokes. What’s not to love?? She has been shortlisted...

Rosie is a money management and business coach, healer and grower and she talks about her light switch moment, how she knew something was up with her, and the new trajectory this took her on.  We talk about her experience of arriving in perimenopause, and about not fitting in.   Stand by for some deadpan humour, extraordinary experiences and truth-telling. Rosie's website is www.themoneyhaven...

If you have listened to or read anything I’ve ever created before, you’ll know that the value of connecting to our bodies is central to everything I do. Interoception is essentially feeling the feelings in the body, it gives us access to our emotions, our nervous system, and our relationships so we can self-regulate. But what stops us from connecting with our bodies, and how can we actually do it?...

This week I got to chat with someone who is just as enthusiastic about cyclical living as me, Stella Tomlinson. Stella is an author-poet and Priestess sharing soul care for midlife women's self-knowledge and healing. I can thoroughly recommend her most recent book  'Cycles of Belonging: Honouring ourselves through the sacred cycles of life' which is published by Womancraft  We are n...

This episode is about rest and creativity, and how come doing nothing at all can make the kind of magic that a to-do list can never get near.  In conversation with Steph Satriawan we explore: How does creativity come out of rest? What needs to change so we can stop striving? How does living in a cyclical rhythm support us? Steph is a mother, therapist and coach, passionate about empowering women t...

This is a conversation with a very special person, and dear friend Catherine Tugnait. we talk about the process of transformation and what might be needed for change to happen, through the lens of menopause and Metamorphic Technique.  Catherine is a Birth and parenting educator, fertility and maternity therapist and Metamorphic Technique practitioner teacher who has been working within her communi...

To celebrate the centenary of innovative psychotherapist Gerda Boyesen, the founder of Biodynamic psychotherapy, I talk to Anat Ben-Israel M.A. Anat explains the central theory behind Biodynamic methods, how these ideas have been integrated into the mainstream of body-mind theory, why Gerda's work was overlooked in favour of her male colleagues, and how relevant this work is to our everyday l...

Today you can listen in to a conversation I had recently with nature and cycle-inspired business coach, writer and podcast host Sophie Jane Hardy, about how to create a sustainable business by using the seasons of menstruality as a guide: What Sophie has learned returning  to work after maternity leave  How can we run our businesses without burning out   Planning for quiet periods, illness and our...

In this episode, you'll listen in to my conversation with author, academic and podcaster Dr Henriette Runte about her extraordinary life and work. She says: Navigating through midlife has not been easy, especially after cancer surgery and trying to balance a full-time job and 3 kids. My best coping mechanism has been writing, because it allows me to remember who I used to be and lets me explo...

Lois Blackburn creates issue-based pieces, mainly in batik and textiles and makes art that is vibrant, evocative, approachable and connects people together.  She exhibits her work internationally, has been commissioned for a wide range of public art and private artworks, and her artwork is held in public collections.  We talk about: Her fabulous menopause quilt How she was an arty child The war wi...

I chat with author and trainer Petra Coveney about how we navigate postmenopause aka our Second Spring. Having both come through menopause as a relatively conscious process of personal growth, where has that brought us? How do we operate now? What kind of self-care do we use and how does it feel to be embarking on a new cycle of life? How can we embrace more life and vitality in a way that respect...

This episode is the first one with two guests, Dr Claire Phipps and Caroline Phipps-Urch who have an excellent podcast: the menopause sisters. Claire is a GP, trainer and mentor in London, with a special interest in menopause and reproductive health, Caroline is a trauma aware yoga teacher and also weaves cognitive behavioural therapy into her work. We look at the inner world lying beneath the men...