The Stone in My Shoe

Why do you feel like you don't matter, even when you give so much? Self-worth can be shaped very early, and it can follow us into the way we love, give and make ourselves smaller. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Teresa McLellan, a trauma therapist, somatic practitioner, university professor, co-author of three books and speaker. Teresa names the Stone she carried fo...

Have you spent years trying to earn love by being good, agreeable and easy to be around? People pleasing can begin so early that we mistake it for who we are. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie Thompson speaks with Joni Woods, a human connection and culture specialist, speaker, author and coach who spent nearly 20 years in ministry. Joni grew up believing that love meant obedience and...

Have you ever known the answer and gone looking for it anyway? Self-abandonment doesn't always look like giving yourself up. Sometimes it looks like fifteen years of searching for something you were already holding. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Becca Francis, a Lisa Williams Certified Spiritual Adviser, internationally certified psychic medium, healer and Human D...

Have you ever wondered how much of who you are was actually chosen? Identity is hard to separate from history, because a story you have carried since childhood does not announce itself as a story. It simply feels like you. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Candice Olivier, co-founder of Socially Empowered VA and a social entrepreneur who believes business should build som...

Have you ever looked at a life you worked hard for and quietly wondered when it stopped being yours? Self-abandonment rarely arrives as a crisis. It usually arrives as being reasonable, for years. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Kim Costa, a realtor, author, speaker and creator of Lifestyle Foundations and the Wheel of House Assessment. With more than thirty years in re...

Have you ever felt stuck without knowing why? Limiting beliefs and subconscious patterns can quietly shape what we think is possible, even when life looks fine from the outside. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie speaks with Giorgia Bettili, clinical hypnotherapist, dream coach and founder of Lucid Mind Hypnotherapy. Giorgia shares how leaving Italy in her twenties began a much deeper...

Why does your sense of self-worth disappear the moment there's nothing left to point to? Have you ever finished a day with nothing "produced" and felt strangely uneasy about it, like the day didn't quite count? In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie Thompson sits down with Connie Kwan, a former Silicon Valley product executive who spent over twenty years in leadership ro...

Why do we keep saying yes to things we don't want to do, even when it leaves us feeling resentful and exhausted? Have you ever agreed to something before you'd even decided if you wanted to? Said yes to a hug, a favour, a plan not because you wanted to, but because saying no felt harder than just going along with it? In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe , Debbie Thompson sits down with...

Self-abandonment rarely feels dramatic. It looks like calling something fine, long after part of you already knows it isn't. Have you ever stayed somewhere — a job, a relationship, a version of yourself — long after you first felt it wasn't right? You knew something wasn't working, yet naming it out loud felt harder than simply enduring it. In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Debbie Thompson...

Why do we keep repeating the same painful relationship patterns, even when we desperately want things to change? Have you ever found yourself attracting the same kind of relationship, making the same decisions or feeling trapped in patterns you can't explain? You know something isn't working, yet understanding it with your mind doesn't seem to be enough to change it. In this episode of...

Some of our deepest wounds don't come from dramatic moments—they come from the quiet absence of feeling truly seen. In this deeply honest conversation, Claira J shares how growing up longing for emotional connection with her mother shaped the way she viewed herself, her relationships, and her worth. For years she searched for validation outside herself, believing she had to earn love by becomi...

Have you ever realised you've been working so hard to belong that you've slowly lost connection with yourself? In this heartfelt conversation, Debbie Thompson sits down with Ramona Kossowan to explore the quiet moments that often become life's biggest turning points. For many midlife women , an identity change doesn't begin with a crisis. It begins with a quiet feeling that something no longer fit...

Have you ever looked at your life and quietly wondered… "How did I get so far away from myself?"  In this deeply honest conversation, Audra Phelps shares how years of living within clearly defined roles slowly left her disconnected from herself. As a wife, mother and committed member of the Mormon church, she did everything she believed was expected of her—until anxiety, curiosity and un...

What if the symptoms you've been trying to fix are actually carrying a message you've never been able to hear? In this deeply moving episode of The Stone in My Shoe , Debbie Thompson is joined by embodiment mentor and Ayurveda health consultant Lina Lambertini to explore the profound connection between our bodies, our stories, and the truths we haven't yet recognised. After years of li...

What happens when the life you've worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you're meant to be living? In this heartfelt conversation, Debbie Thompson sits down with facilitator and Capacity Reset founder Faith Paki to explore the quiet identity shift that unfolded beneath years of professional success, leadership and achievement. From the outside, Faith's life looked succe...

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...