The Braver Women® Show

This episode closes out Lesbian Visibility Week 2026. Visibility isn’t just about being seen. It’s about being able to stand in who you are as a lesbian woman without shrinking, adapting, or dissolving yourself to fit a world that still pushes back. What you’ll hear in this episode are REAL and bite sized moments from women I’ve worked with. Women who spent years understanding themselves, but stil...

I don’t usually work with men. But every now and then, someone comes to me at a point where nothing else has worked, and Baz was one of those people. When he reached out, he described it as his last chance saloon . Baz is 45, a paediatric nurse from Scotland, and identifies as gay and intersex. When we started working together, he had already spent years in therapy, read the books, tried to unders...

Mother’s Day is often presented as a day of warmth, gratitude and celebration. But for many women, the reality of that relationship is far more complicated. In this episode, Leanne speaks openly about the emotional impact of growing up with a difficult relationship with her own mother, and the quiet grief many women carry when their experience doesn’t match the cultural script of what a mother - c...

www.braverwomen.com In this episode, you’ll hear a real Braver Women transformation story. You're going to listen to Sally, 64, a retired teacher who for most of her life on the the outside she appeared as steady, capable and confident. For decades she managed her life well enough that no one would have questioned her resilience. She grew up in a home shaped by strong religious beliefs and hig...

This episode is a little different. After experiencing a sudden health scare, Leanne shares the clarity that comes when life interrupts autopilot. Not from fear - but from the realisation that many of us are quietly living in a waiting room. Waiting to feel ready, waiting to feel certain, waiting for permission before we move. Living inside your head instead of Through a familiar story we can all...

In this shorter, more personal episode today, Leanne shares a conversation originally recorded inside the Braver Women® Community following Valentine’s Day - a time that can stir up powerful emotions around loneliness, romantic love, and self-worth, especially for LGBTQ+ women who have not always felt fully seen or understood. This episode explores the deeper reality behind fear of judgement and f...

Fear of judgement is often framed as a confidence issue or an overthinking problem. For many lesbian and queer women, it’s neither. In this episode, Leanne goes beneath surface explanations to look at what fear of judgement is really organised around, why it shows up in the body before the mind, and why “just be yourself” advice misses the point entirely. This episode is for women who know their f...

In this episode of The Braver Women Show , I’m joined by client, George, a queer woman based in the UK, for a real and honest conversation about trauma, recovery, and what it means to find your voice again after years of holding it back. This is not a polished interview. It is a relaxed, human conversation about what changes when a woman stops performing and starts relating to herself differently....

Content Note Prior to Listening: This episode includes discussion and references to childhood sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts. Please listen with care and pause whenever you need. In this deeply personal episode of The Braver Women ® Show , Leanne shares a conversation that reveals the quiet power of a specialised therapeutic relationship designed to reach places ordinary approaches often can’t...

What does it really take to come out later in life, when you're married, a mother, and terrified of breaking everything you've built? In this powerful episode of The Braver Women Show , Nichole shares her raw, honest journey of coming out at 50 after decades of hiding her truth. From growing up in a conservative religious environment in Utah, to the fear of disappointing her family, to the...

What if everything you believed about who you had to be, strong, self sufficient and always in control was actually keeping you stuck? How much joy does that leave for you in your life? In this raw and powerful episode, I sit down with child centred councillor Suzy, a woman who, approaching 60, made the decision to stop surviving and finally let go to start healing. Suzy grew up in the 1970s and &...

Do you feel stuck in your life? Ever feel like no matter what you do, you end up back in the same place? Same doubts. Same fears. Same types of relationships. Same patterns that leave you questioning yourself. In this episode, we get into the real reason it happens and why it’s not about willpower or working harder. We’ll talk about survival strategies that once protected you but are now keeping y...

Most lesbian and queer women aren’t walking around saying, “I feel shame.” They’re saying, “I don’t feel good enough.” “I overthink everything.” “I’m scared to be fully myself - even now.” In this powerful and personal episode, I take you deep into the hidden layers of internalised shame - what I call the master emotion . It’s not loud. It doesn’t announce itself. But it silently shapes everything...

"Inauthenticity is like choosing to breathe through a straw, rather than breathing freely..." Those words stopped me in my tracks and they came from a hugely inspirational client I’ve had the honour of working with. In this episode, I’m joined by a courageous, thoughtful, and deeply honest gay woman from North America who’s completed her Braver Women journey with me. And today, she’s here to share...

If you want to feel deeply moved to change your life, to experience what it feels like to live a life of genuine authenticity and emotional freedom - from the inside out - Then you're not going to want to miss a moment of this story. Today I’m going to introduce you to a very courageous client of mine who is using some of the insights from breakthroughs she’s experienced since working with me priv...

In this episode, Leanne talks about her own experience with heartache anxiety. She provides a popular and relatable talk that gained so much gratitude in the Braver Women community for her raw honesty and relatability when she first shared it five years ago. She's sharing it outside of her community for the first time - Breaking the mould on what traditional therapists do! If you're a lesb...

For lesbians and queer women, relationships aren’t just about dating—they’re about identity, belonging, and the search for real connection in a world that hasn’t always made space for us. But if you find yourself caught in cycles of attachment anxiety, fear of abandonment, or stuck in emotional dependency, it’s not about what’s wrong with you—it’s about what’s missing inside, I'm going to reve...

From Braver Women to Britain's Got Talent What does it take to step onto the Britain’s Got Talent stage and perform in front of millions? Confidence. But not just any confidence—the kind built from the inside out. In this exclusive episode of The Braver Women Show , I sit down with Al Start , a much loved gay singer-songwriter, composer, musician and published author, who used the Braver Women...

In this episode, I’m breaking down: 🔹 Why self-help can’t fully reach the deeper layers of healing for LGBTQ+ women or minority groups 🔹 The difference between coping strategies and actual transformation 🔹 10 key signs to help you recognise that it’s time to move beyond self-help and into real, lasting change. The unique patterns that are common, from growing up in a heteronormative world 🔹 Ho...

In this powerful, jam-packed episode, I guide you through a realistic and therapeutic approach to creating lasting change, with a focus on emotional growth and healing for queer women. Forget the quick fixes and surface-level resolutions—this is about transforming from the inside out. We’ll explore: Why your habits and emotional patterns determine your results. How your emotional history impacts y...

If you're dreading Christmas – whether it’s because of loneliness, anxiety, or the thought of sitting across from family members who don't get you – this episode’s for you. I know how tough this time of year can be, especially if you’re dealing with family estrangement or bigoted relatives. I’m sharing 8 powerful, no-nonsense strategies to help you stay grounded, protect your mental health, and ge...

In this Braver Women Show Podcast episode, host and therapist, Leanne C Jones introduces lesbian fiction author, Rain McAlister . Rain is a courageous gay woman from the West Coast of Ireland. Rain has bravely faced a lifetime of intense anxiety and the heavy burden of childhood trauma, which caused her to live in fear and avoid leaving her home for years. Join us as Rain opens up about her incred...

Braver Women Client, Carol went from dreaming of being a writer to seeing her lesbian fiction novel, ' Charlotte and Me ', on the shelves of Waterstones and all good bookstores. But this success didn’t come easily. For years, Carol struggled with low confidence, anxiety, and low self-worth, stuck in relationships where she couldn’t truly value herself. Fear and unresolved trauma affected every are...

Do you find yourself fighting an internal battle, struggling to feel enough, only to feel like you're making progress but not getting all the way there? Good news - You need to lean into something that you perhaps think you've achieved, but it requires you to do some deeper heavy lifting. If you don't know where to begin, I'm going to show you. If you're after a quick fix - This isn't for you. In...

Teaching LGBTQ+ women how to become braver, so they can banish self-doubt, and anxiety to learn how to stop letting the noise from outside of them, dictate how they show up in every area of their lives. Every episode of The Braver Women Podcast Show is packed with proven, actionable strategies and thought-provoking content from a therapeutic perspective, that you can implement now. Courage comes,...