Life - An Inside Job

I have had a challenging relationship with sleep over the last 17 years, so I was very keen to talk to Sally because she knows masses about the physiology and psychology of sleep from a professional and a personal angle.  Sally is an award-winning hypnotherapist using Rapid Transformational Therapy, host of The Menopause Mindset Podcast and founder of The Sleep Super Power Academy, a 12-week onlin...

Suzie Warren, a craftivist who decided that instead of raging about the state of the world, she would ‘do what she could’. And what she does is to make, witty, beautiful and ‘polite’, very English acts of protest.  'Stitch it don't ditch it' has grown into a global movement protesting against the environmental damage the fashion industry causes, creating connection, community, aware...

In this episode I talk to Sarah Starrs about how living in tune with your menstrual cycle and the seasons will help you to parent better and educate your kids to be happier too.  Sarah is passionate about cyclic living, peaceful parenting, and ensuring that there's a livable planet for her son to grow up on. Her 'slashie' career includes writing, online course creation, and virtual...

I talk to writer and hypnotherapist Sophie Fletcher, whose book Mindful Menopause was published earlier this spring.  We talk about how perimenopause gets squeezed at both ends by both our parents and our kids, and the unique quality of the pressure this creates.  Sophie brings in her lived and her professional experience to offer us loads of do-able tips and practices to apply in our everyday liv...

I talk about how to manage low energy with photographer, writer and podcaster Naomi Woddis and how she lives a full, creative life despite being a carer and having a chronic invisible disability. Add menopause to the mix and energy has become an even more precious commodity, so I was curious to know how the hell she does it! Naomi says that the aim of her work is to be clear, compassionate and hon...

In this episode, I talk to flower grower, photographer, writer and consultant clinical psychologist Grace Alexander.  I’ve been following Grace for a while because she has a beautiful way of drawing us into her idyllic world of thatched cottages, dusty tones of chestnut, coral, linen and artisan-made objects. These stolen moments of beauty can be sipped at from her Gather community, the seeds that...

Opportunities to interview a role model don’t come up very often so this is a very special episode. I’ve been fascinated by Angela Farmer because of the quality of vitality, curiosity and playfulness she has in her 80’s. One of my ongoing enquiries is ‘how to age well’ and as you listen, this is what she shares in our conversation. Inventor of the yoga mat, because the floor was just too hard, Ang...

Menopause is a time when we see very clearly what is not working in our lives, and naturally, this shows up a lot in our intimate relationships. It’s confusing enough for us, but our poor partners often end up feeling bemused and abandoned. I got together with couples therapist and trainer Joanna Groves to find out how to talk to your partner about what’s happening and how partners of menopausal p...

Dr Becky Quicke aka The Menopause Psychologist shares the psychological skills she uses to help her perimenopause clients find their essential self and voyage through their transformation into Second Spring with peace and confidence and be the change the world needs to see. She shares what she did to make her PMDD-like, premenstrual symptoms disappear How to remove fear and panic in perimenopause...

Miranda is a rare bird, she has an absolutely golden heart. She’s a sensitive truth-teller, super-smart, a sharer of joy and beauty and my mate. She tells strangers on the street that they have a lovely smile. That kind of person. I blooming love her. We’ve had loads of great conversations over the years but one theme that keeps resurfacing is about grief; time passing, bereavement, the whole ache...

This episode is for anyone who is interested in how their body works, and essential   listening for anyone who's practised or taught yoga, bodyworkers and movement therapists.  In my physiology training, I was taught that fascia was a kind of wrapping that covered all our organs and muscles and bones, I’ve worked with it and touched it all my professional life. It turns out I’ve been holding...

You can tell already that this is an explicit episode, we use clear descriptive language to talk about how working with the fascia of the pelvic floor, pelvis and vagina can create healing for sexual trauma, for shame, existential issues, healing for blocked creativity, for menopause and fertility.  Andrea Clarke is a trainer and therapist for womb massage and holistic pelvic care™, who works inte...

Mindfulness is a wonderful thing, life-saving even, but the presentation and language can make it a bit out of reach.  Artist, illustrator and author Lucy Irving delivers mindfulness with colour, wit and playfulness in her illustrations, which are hopeful reminders to stay present to the everyday joys and sorrows that are familiar to all of us, especially in lockdown.  I first came across Lucy’s w...

This is a deliciously sweary episode, so if explicit language is not your thing, please choose a different interview. But I have to say it’s very juicy. Uma Dinsmore Tuli is a force of nature, a yoga therapist with special expertise in women’s health, mother of three, and has written four books on yoga for women, including the massive Yoni Shakti now in its fourth printing and updated.  Uma is co-...

I got very lucky and my dear friend Abi Denyer-Bewick agreed to have a conversation with me about perfectionism, how we constantly feel we’re getting things wrong,  have to try harder and are just not enough. We ask, what if you couldn’t get it wrong? What if we turned to kindness instead? Abi is a passionate advocate for cyclical living and all things menstrual. She works using the Medicine Circl...

We can be active and productive and acquire and acquire but if we don’t let go, things get seriously toxic. On all levels. And it’s not something we’re very good at. This is a soulful, sweet meandering conversation in which we cover all kinds of letting go. As well as death, there’s funerals, loss, hope, the menstrual cycle and what that teaches us about letting go, compost, menopause, grieving in...

I am just fascinated by creative process, almost to the point of obsession, because making things whether it’s visual art, textiles or writing is one of the most important things in my life. It makes me VERY happy. I feel like myself.  So I was excited when Anne Tannam agreed to do a pod chat because not only is she a fabulous poet, but she also coaches people to harness their own creativity in bu...

I was excited to listen in to Mangala Holland’s wisdom because she knows a lot about pleasure and how to support people to find more of it in their lives in a way that is not about looking sexy for other people.  No surprises then, that there is some explicit language in this episode.   Mangala is a Women’s Empowerment and Sexuality coach, and facilitator.  She describes herself as being on a miss...

I couldn’t get started with this podcast series without talking to my dear partner in Woman Kind, Leora Leboff. Leora is not only my partner at work but also a very dear friend and an awesome human. I learn so much from being around her.  She’s been a therapist for more than a quarter of a century, practising and teaching womb massage, EFT, aromatherapy and Medicine Circles. Mostly focusing on wom...

I wanted to have a conversation with Angie Litvinoff because she is an inspired healer. She’s a medicine woman, creator of ceremonies and rites of passage and a mentor who is utterly grounded. Very often people who reach her level of teaching and visibility are full of smoke and mirrors, pretence and ego, but Angie makes finding identity so simple and straight-forward and DO able. This translates...

This episode features an inspirational facilitator whose favourite thing is to empower women to feel good. The soft and strong, wild and free, fragile and fierce Sophie Cleere. Together we take a no-bullshit look at Sophie’s journey from disconnection to body confidence and the pleasures and heightened sexuality of her perimenopause. There is some explicit language so if that’s not your thing, you...

This episode is a mind-expanding stonker of a conversation with yoga teacher John Stirk. If you've ever meditated (or tried to) if you work with mind-body healing or have been to a yoga class, this is going to be fascinating. If you’ve not come across him, John has been very influential in the yoga world. He started teaching yoga in 1974, and graduated as an osteopath in 1988, later becoming...

This week is all about the female pelvis and its healing, in which I have an honest chat with Jane Dancey about how she has found her own route to heal her prolapse.  She’s a somatic yoga coach and facilitator specialising in women’s well being, especially the pelvis, when it goes wrong as well as exploring the good stuff, like pleasure and sexuality. She shares her journey to find a juicy inner-l...

In this episode, I have a fascinating insight into period pain with my colleague, menstruality coach, educator, speaker and facilitator Lisa de Jong. Lisa works in Ireland and helps women understand and work with the cyclical nature of their menstrual cycle for physical and emotional wellbeing.  I was so touched that Lisa decided to share her personal journey with period pain, it’s a sweet, tender...

In this episode I have a wonderful conversation with Scaravelli inspired Yoga teacher and trainer Catherine Annis. I’ve been lucky enough to benefit from her classes over lockdown and have found them super-interesting because the focus is on our inside experience, not what the pose looks like. After a class when she was encouraging us to kind-of NOT follow her instructions, I really wanted to talk...