In this episode Cath talks about her concept 'Giving Up on Being Good' and the 'Good Girl Grid'. The experience of emotional neglect produces a set of coping strategies based on our stress responses and unwinding these as we grow and develop as adults is really important so that we can live our own TRUE lives.

In the episode this week, Cath is joined by Colleen Adrian. Colleen is an author and a connected parenting coach for parents of sensitive spirited children. She’s a Mom, a Stepmom, and a Grandma and lives on a small island on the west coast of Canada.

In this episode Cath answers two listener questions. The first question is a short question related to attachment and trauma in our younger years. Have a listen to episode 14 which gives a broad overview of trauma and helps provide context for the first question. Cath will be doing a more detailed view on this material (from episode 14) in an upcoming episode.

In this episode Cath speaks about the expression of mixed feelings in motherhood and how we may move between two positions. With childhood trauma we may have more intense swings and not have much access to a ‘middle ground’.

In this episode Cath talks about our 8 sensory systems, about the importance of sensory integration, how trauma can impact this and shares some specific sensory systems and a couple of anecdotes from her own life to give you an idea about how impactful our sensory experience is.

Lisa Marchiano is an award-winning author, podcast host, and certified Jungian analyst. She is the author of three books published by Sounds True, Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself, The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire and Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams. She is the cocreator and cohost of the popular depth psychology podcast This Jungian Life, and has a private practice in Philadelphia.

In this episode Cath speaks to over-functioning, how this traps many of us, breaking cycles, noticing and including ourselves in care and to stop operating like a hologram in our own lives. This is long term work with small shifts, Cath says please go gently with yourself.

Cath is joined by psychotherapist and coach Kate Merrick. Cath and Kate talked about Kate's path to motherhood, her lineage, how her ancestors turned up to support her journey, personal power in the postpartum time, advocating for our children, medical herbalism and much more.

Cath was joined by productivity strategist and home educating Mum of 3 Amanda Appiagyei this week on the podcast. Cath and Amanda talked about Amanda's path to motherhood, mothering in a neurodivergent family, how Amanda tends to herself, her nervous system, her kids and her business, breaking cycles in a black mixed race family and the complexities of dealing with our own stuff as we parent. 

In this episode Cath was joined by Dr Emma Offord. Cath and Emma talked about Emma's path to motherhood, childhood trauma, how Emma tends to and advocates for herself and her children and sensory needs and how these are so important to understand, particularly in the context of families/food/parenting. We talked about autism, ADHD, neurodivergence and trauma, late diagnosis, OCD and how Emma experiences OCD and Emma talked about unmasking and how she advocates for herself in order to tend to her needs.

In this episode Cath answers a listener's letter. The content of this episode deals with the question: ‘How can we tend to ourselves when we realise some of our parenting has come from our own pain and trauma?’ How do we deal with the guilt and shame arising from this? What helps this shift?

In this episode Cath speaks about how control is such a key coping strategy for so many of us and how this rears its head at times of stress (like early motherhood) and in new situations. Control is not the solution we think it is and Cath shares a recent incident from her own life showing how control is so seductive and seems to be the answer, but really it is an illusion.

In episode 160 Cath speaks about how we have to develop our own sense of power and sovereignty as we heal from childhood trauma and how this involves really moving away from external approval. She talks about developing self trust, ceasing to gaslight ourselves and the concept of unconditional love. We have to consciously unhook from societal messages so we can craft the life of our own dreams.

In this deeply touching episode Cath was joined by attachment expert and psychotherapist Anne Power. Anne shared about her own attachment journey, some of her childhood story, boarding school, brief explanations about the different attachment styles, attachment in couple relationships and attachment, grief and repair in the parent child relationship. This episode will help you feel supported and seen.

In this rich and wide ranging episode Cath is joined by Dr Arielle Schwartz. We discussed Arielle's path to motherhood, mother wounds in her matrilineal line and how this impacted her childhood, ambivalence in motherhood, complex trauma, nervous system healing, vagal toning and much much more. This episode is woven with rich storytelling crossing multiple generations and offers so much hope to all of us on our own healing journeys.

In this loving and practical episode Cath responds to a listener question about how to manage generational clashes around the approach to dealing with emotions and how to start conversations around this. She reads the listener's letter and looks at the query from multiple points of view.

In this episode Cath speaks more about earned secure attachment, infant attachment and its relationship to adult attachment and how we can shift our patterns.

In this episode Cath starts to speak about some of the key points of attachment theory, why this is important for us as adults and starting to cultivate a sense of being fully self supporting of ourselves.

In this episode Cath talks about how many of us go into peak fantasy at this time of year and set ourselves up to have a tricky time. She talks about getting clear about what your fantasy is and to notice that and stop comparing to it.

In this episode Cath reflects on how rage may be one of the most common experiences in motherhood (particularly if we have had childhood trauma). She speaks about getting to know our own rage, the shame we might feel and how that might derail us and trying to understand what our rage might be protecting us from. She uses one of the books she talked about last week to springboard into this conversation and highlights psychological patterns by telling a couple of anecdotes.

Therapy is necessary for many of us as we heal from childhood trauma and therapy is typically 1 hour a week. That leaves 167 other hours where we may be depressed, anxious, spinning out, criticising ourselves, living in fear or stressed about our own emotions. In this episode Cath shares some of the books that have helped her move from living in fear, books that have helped dealing with grief, despair, relationship patterns and books that have helped with compassion, understanding addiction and more. This episode contains personal stories from Cath to illustrate these points.

In episode 151 Cath was joined by Kimberley Olliff-Cooper. They talked about progressive education, neurodivergence, realising how this impacted our own school experience, the possibility for changing schools and making them more fit for children, healing and growing in motherhood and understanding emotional unavailability, trauma and addiction.

Cath was joined by art psychotherapist Gerardine Boyle in this episode. Cath and Gerardine talked about how generational trauma impacts families, the legacy of emotional neglect, what is unspoken, shame and the complexity of unwinding functional freeze in the system.

In episode 149 Cath was joined by Suzy Reading. Cath and Suzy talked about tending to ourselves in winter, making the most of the seasons while holding onto sanity, people pleasing, what Suzy means when she talks about being selfish and all about self advocacy. Suzy talks about her 7 steps to taking back your power and peace and you can find much more detail about this in Suzy's newest book 'How to be Selfish' which releases on the 20th of November 2025.

In this episode Cath speaks about the process of welcoming in our own humanity and how a healing journey leads to more emotional messiness, at least initially. She talks about some signs that indicate that you are growing up/healing.

In this episode Cath was joined by Dr Kathrin Stauffer. They chatted about how the body remembers in multiple ways and how not getting what we need in childhood impacts multiple systems in our bodies (not just the nervous system). When we are on a healing journey the expression of sadness and grieving are an important part of this journey. However, it may be that we are blocked from crying by our defences. We dived into this and talked about food, body shape, body psychotherapy, the the function of comfort eating, shame and much more.

In this episode Cath is joined by Dr. Kathrin Stauffer for a rich and varied discussion about emotional neglect, what causes this, how we might know we have been emotionally neglected, the interplay with narcissistic family dynamics, what constitutes narcissistic traits and how narcissism and perfectionism can play out in motherhood. 

In this episode Cath was joined by therapist and coach Catherine Topham Sly. Catherine and Cath talked about adult love relationships, conflict, couples therapy, learning to communicate, how the mental load after kids can cause conflict and much more.

In this episode Cath speaks about emotional neglect, some of what that involves and how it presents when we are an adult. She speaks about the complexity of holding space for emotions when that was never done for us. Please be gentle with yourself as you practise this skill.

In this episode Cath shares an anecdote from her own life about how something her kids wanted to do triggered shame and the desire to people please and what happened. She talks about people pleasing and fawning and the actual nature of people pleasing and what it is really about.