Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

What if healing didn’t start with words – but simply with presence?  This week on the Mastering Change podcast, we speak with Rianne Sibma-de Vries , a trauma-informed counsellor and equine therapist based in the Netherlands. Rianne’s work combines Internal Family Systems (IFS), systemic constellations, somatic techniques and equine-assisted therapy to help people reconnect with themselves in prof...

Is traditional talk therapy enough to heal trauma?  This week on Mastering Change , we speak with Rathika Marsh – a spiritual psychologist who helps people connect with their inner voice, their bodies, and their soul.  “The body doesn’t just hold trauma – it holds wisdom and resilience.”  Growing tired of the limitations placed upon her as a psychologist, Rathika developed the Freedom and Expansio...

Often what keeps us stuck isn’t the trauma itself but the shame it leaves behind.  This week on Mastering Change, we sit down with Annalie Howling – EMDR therapist, performance coach, and author of Unapologetic – to explore shame as one of trauma’s most corrosive legacies.  Annalie speaks openly about her own history of violence, self-harm, and the masks she wore to stay hidden. She shares why she...

In Part III of our three-part series with psychology researcher and technology executive Steve Siddals , we explore perhaps the most important and challenging question yet:  What happens when people in crisis turn to AI for help – and it gets it wrong?  Joined by AI ethicist Catherine Mooney , we dig into the unintended consequences and ethical grey areas emerging as more and more people turn to c...

It’s Part II of our conversation with psychology researcher and technology executive Steve Siddals .  Last week, we uncovered surprising insights into how people are using AI chatbots for emotional support. Now in Part II of this three-part series, Steve unpacks the ethical complexities, unintended consequences and extraordinary potential of using AI in therapeutic contexts.   We explore the parad...

Can a chatbot provide emotional support in moments of crisis? Can AI ever replicate the safety and insight of human connection? These are the questions Steve Siddals – psychology researcher and technology executive – set out to explore in one of the first qualitative studies into AI chatbots and mental health.  In this episode of Mastering Change, we dive into Steve’s surprising findings: that 18...

“Why should a child have to fight an adult in a court of law?”  This week on Mastering Change, we had a deeply moving conversation Poppy and Miranda Eyre . Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse; Miranda, her mother, was the first person she told. Theirs is a story of survival, resistance, reform, and a call for systemic change.  They are one of the rare families for whom the legal system worke...

We’re joined by acclaimed Hungarian-Canadian physician and one of the world’s foremost voices on trauma and addiction – Dr. Gabor Maté .  It’s an illuminating conversation that spans everything from the inner workings of conflict, compassion and self-regulation to media and politics. We touch on polarisation which, Gabor explains, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  We also explore Rupture and repair...

As an openly autistic psychotherapist, Dr. Katherine Uher works with those experiencing anxiety, low self-esteem and complex trauma – often shaped by a lifetime of feeling "othered."  Her research explores the impact of systemic trauma, especially how institutions often misunderstand, pathologise or erase the needs of neurodivergent people. She speaks from both professional and lived exp...

Most of us think of nightmares as something children experience, but in fact 2-8% of the adult population suffer from persistent, trauma-related nightmares.  Dr. Justin Havens is on a mission to change that, sharing in this week’s episode of Mastering Change, his breakthrough dream completion technique. “You can resolve persistent traumatic nightmares in one session, in as little as 20 minutes,” h...

This week on Mastering Change, we speak to Debi John – founder of Play Healing CIC and a self-described “play pollinator” – about the science, spirit and social value of play. In the modern digital age where we feel increasingly stressed and overstimulated, play is more important than ever.  Debi is on a mission to help adults reconnect with creativity, expression and their nervous system through...

“People say ‘it’s just biology’ but it’s more complex than we think.”  Confusion and misinformation reigns around gender issues so in this episode we speak to Rachel Hulstein-Lowe – an expert in gender diversity and parent coach. As a parent of a non-binary child herself, Rachel advocates for young people navigating identity and is determined to bring a spotlight onto the needs of these children a...

“Genes don’t control your life – your life controls your genes,” says Dr. Leo Pruimboom in the eleventh episode of Mastering Change. A clinical psychoneuroimmunologist, researcher and pioneer in systems-based medicine, Dr. Pruimboom is challenging everything we think we know about trauma, disease, genes, psychology and mental health.  “You can take a human being out of nature, but you can’t take n...

"Trauma is in our bones. We inherit it through our lineage. And science supports that,” says Dr. Christy Gibson .  This week on Mastering Change , we speak with Dr. Gibson – a physician and global trauma advocate – about trauma as a systemic issue, not just a personal one. It’s a powerful, inspiring conversation that reimagines the role of doctors, communities and systems in the face of traum...

Is it possible that the most profound breakthroughs in trauma therapy come from altered states of consciousness? Healing trauma isn’t just about repair, it’s about reclaiming wholeness and reconnecting with the soul.  This week on Mastering Change, we welcomed clinical psychologist and trauma healing expert Dr. Chantell Thomas and explored the therapeutic use of psychedelics.  Dr. Thomas is the ex...

To truly heal, we must address both body and energy systems.  Ruthie Smith , an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist, approaches energy work from a scientific standpoint, challenging the misconception that working with vibrations and frequencies is 'out there'.  In this week’s Mastering Change episode, she refers to research that shows how trauma is stored at a cellular level,...

What if the pain in your shoulder wasn’t just a physical sensation but unresolved negative emotion stored in your body? What if you could rid yourself of chronic pain by addressing past trauma? What if we viewed energy healing or somatic work, such as yoga or meditation, not as ‘woo-woo’ fringe concepts but as essential tools for transformation?  We still have a way to go, but the evidence increas...

"We’re saving lives in the NICU, but we need to start asking – what kind of lives are we shaping?"  On average, we remember nothing before the age of 3.5. And when we consider which childhood experiences have shaped us as adults, we overlook the most significant of all: our own birth.   This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Texas-based neonatologist Dr. Jaclyn Ruggiero , an expert...

‘90% of communication is nonverbal’ so the adage goes. In this week’s episode of Mastering Change, we explore this idea with Gestalt counsellor, group therapist and neuroscientist Aleksandra Vancevska .  We dive into the intersection of psychotherapy, science, and art – unpacking how creativity helps externalise and process difficult experiences. As Aleks explains, art therapy allows us to choose...

When we think of sleep disorders, we tend to imagine insomnia or sleep apnoea. But did you know there are over 80 different sleep disorders?  This week, we spoke to sleep expert and UKCP-registered psychotherapist Heather Darwall-Smith on the complexities of sleep. Heather, author of The Science of Sleep, holds an MA in Core Process Therapy and has studied sleep medicine and cognitive behavioral t...

In this episode of Mastering Change , Dr. Ameet Aggarwa l, a Family Constellations Therapist, Naturopathic Doctor, and Gestalt Psychotherapist, unpacks the complex relationship between trauma, physical health and mental well-being. Dr. Aggarwal explains how anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges are often rooted in hidden causes such as leaky gut, inflammation, liver toxicity, adr...

What is cybertrauma?  In our second episode of Mastering Change, researcher, trauma psychotherapist and cybertrauma and online harm expert, Catherine Knibbs , explains.  She shares key insights from her PhD research and her work with cybertrauma survivors, offering a deeper understanding of the often-invisible ways digital environments shape our emotional and psychological well-being. As Catherine...

Join us on this episode of Mastering Change as we speak with Dr Brian Pennie – a former addict who turned his life around to become a doctor of neuroscience and psychology, author, consultant and founder of Change is Possible. Brian shares his personal journey from addiction to recovery and explains how trauma can shift our values and disconnect us from what truly matters.  "Trauma isn’t just...