The Stone in My Shoe

What happens when you've built the life you always dreamed of… and still don't feel free? In this deeply honest conversation, Debbie Thompson speaks with entrepreneur, investor and founder Nyasha Ngwena about the hidden patterns that shaped her life long after she had achieved the career she'd always wanted. From growing up believing she needed approval to pursue her dreams, to recogni...

What happens when you've spent your entire life believing you're the problem? In this deeply honest conversation, Debbie Thompson sits down with Amanda Gorman, artist, ADHD advocate, TEDx speaker, founder of Distractd, and mother of two, to explore the emotional reality of living for decades without understanding why life felt harder than it seemed for everyone else. Amanda shares her expe...

How many of the things that matter most have quietly been placed in the "someday" category? In this heartfelt conversation, Debbie Thompson speaks with Adriana Carballo—storyteller, community builder, founder, mother, and creator of Spark Keepers—about the dream that changed the direction of her life. What begins as a story about her grandmother's wish to see the Norwegian fjords bec...

What happens when you've spent so many years helping everyone else that you can no longer hear yourself? In this deeply honest conversation, Karen Blair shares the moment she realised that the life she had built around caring, achieving, helping and doing had come at a cost she never expected. For years, she believed her value came from being useful. She stayed busy, kept moving, supported oth...

Sometimes the moment that changes everything isn't a crisis. It's a question. A comment. A reflection from someone who loves us. In this deeply honest conversation, Victoria Solomon shares the turning point that forced her to see her life through a different lens. What began as a seemingly ordinary interaction with her teenage daughter became the moment she could no longer ignore the reali...

Have you ever looked around your life and quietly wondered: "When did I stop feeling like me?" In this deeply honest conversation, Debbie Thompson speaks with Valerie Ritchie — known as The Crone Goddess — about identity, silence, relationships and what happens when we spend years becoming who life asks us to be. Valerie shares the moments that slowly shaped her life: a childhood experie...

What happens when the role you’ve spent your whole life performing suddenly disappears? In this emotionally honest conversation, Riham El Hawary shares the quiet identity collapse that came after years of responsibility, performance, achievement, and caregiving. From being conditioned from childhood to become “the strong one,” to building success through survival and eventually experiencing emotio...

At 19, Andrea Gonzales ignored the feeling that something wasn’t right. What began as a relationship that felt exciting and intense slowly became controlling, emotionally abusive, and eventually violent. In this deeply honest conversation, Andrea shares theexperience that changed the course of her life — including being kidnapped by her boyfriend after trying to end the relationship. But this epis...

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Rory Callaghan, where I share the story behind why I created The Stone in My Shoe . There wasn’t a big moment. Nothing fell apart. From the outside, my life worked. I was achieving, building, doing everything that looked “right.” But underneath it… there was a quiet feeling I couldn’t really explain. Something just didn’t feel like me anymore. It wasn’t st...

There’s a version of success many women quietly try to live up to. Being present at home. Building something meaningful. Holding everything together without anything slipping. In this conversation with Disha Solanki, that expectation is gently unravelled. She shares what it really looked like to pursue ambition while raising a family — not as a polished story, but through the moments that stayed w...

Have you ever had a moment where you should feel something… but you don’t? Not joy. Not gratitude. Not even frustration. Just… nothing. This episode explores what happens when you suppress emotions for so long that youlose access to all of them,  not just the difficult ones, but the ones that make life feel meaningful too. Because you don’t get to choose which emotions you turn down. The same patt...

This conversation explores what happens when the way you’ve always coped with life quietly stops working. Dr Alla Demutska shares her experience of growing up in an environment shaped by instability, fear, and uncertainty -where control, achievement, and constant effort became a way to feel safe. From the outside, it led to success, resilience, and capability. But underneath, there was something e...

How do you know when something isn’t right… but you keep going anyway.  In this episode, Lisa Walker shares what it looked like to build a life that appeared successful on the outside, while quietly ignoring what didn’t feel right underneath. Working in marketing and holding everything together, she foundherself repeating patterns in relationships that reflected something deeper she hadn’t yet fac...

Have you ever looked at your life and thought… everything is fine, but something doesn’t feel right? In this episode, Debbie speaks with Alena Uzhnyeva, a successful entrepreneur who built an international business and achieved what many would define as success—financial freedom, travel, and recognition. But beneath the surface, something wasn’t aligned. After years of pushing forward in a high-pe...

In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe , Giancarla shares a deeply reflective and layered journey of self-discovery, intuition, and identity. From an early awareness that she experienced the world differently, to navigating the tension between science and spirituality, Giancarla explores what it means to truly embrace all parts of yourself — even the ones that don’t fit neatly into what’s expecte...

Outwardly , Marali had built the perfect life. A successful corporate career across Europe. Financial independence. Achievement. Discipline. But Inwardly there was Shame. Disconnection. An eating disorder. Burnout so severe her body refused to get out of bed. In this deeply honest episode of The Stone in My Shoe , I sit down with Marali — certified Tantra teacher, breath worker, and leadership men...

Why is it that you can show up for everyone else… build a career, raise a family, carry responsibility… but when it comes to yourself, something unravels?   In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, I sit down with Terry Tateossian , founder of THOR and host of How Good Can It Get, to explore the hidden patterns behind self-sabotage, emotional eating, and high-functioning burnout in midlife.   From...

This episode is for the woman who has built a full, successful life and enjoys learning, refining, and growing, not because something is wrong, but because curiosity keeps pulling her forward. Jane Slack-Smith’s career has moved across many worlds: from explosives engineering, to mortgage broking and property education, to mentoring tens of thousands of people and developing practical tools to hel...

In today’s episode, you’re going to hear a deeply grounding and expansive conversation about intuition, courage, and what it means to trust yourself when the old path no longer fits. My guest is Doro Fisher, a senior communications strategist, international coach, and community builder who has spent more than two decades working with global organisations including the United Nations and the Europe...

In today’s episode, you’ll hear a powerful and deeply relatable conversation about burnout, over-responsibility, and what happens when being “the strong one” starts to take a toll. Erika Navarro is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist,  from Colombia and used to work in Los Angeles. She’s also a mother, wife, and the founder of Healing Souls by Erika, where she offers courses and support tha...

In today’s episode, you’re going to hear a powerful conversation about loss, resilience, and the healing potential of deep psychological repair. Dr. Jayn is a neuro-physiological psychologist whose work spans continents, cultures, and decades. With a doctorate and two master’s degrees in psychology, she brings extraordinary depth to the field of nervous system healing and trauma recovery. In this...