the Grow Yourself Up Podcast

a podcast to support all of us in our adult lives

Many of us did not get our needs adequately met in childhood. The devastating legacy of childhood trauma, wounding and traumatic stress lives on in our brains, our bodies, our nervous systems and our behaviour/reactions impacting the way we turn up to our lives in many ways.

We are going to unpack all of this on Grow Yourself Up. This podcast will be a companion as you journey on your own road of healing and recovery.

You will learn you are not alone. Someone has been where you are. There is hope.

We will break down shame together and learn to cultivate self compassion. There is always the possibility for change. And regardless of what has happened in our past, as adults we have to take responsibility for our own lives.

We have to tend to our pain, our sadness and our dysfunction so that we can live a life we love and shift toxic patterns for our children.

Each week we send out journal questions based around the podcast’s topic. If you would like to receive these questions, please sign up here.

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Looking for a specific topic or guest? Search below:

Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 67: Estrangement, Having a Narcissistic Mother and Growing Up in Motherhood with Harriet Shearsmith

In this episode Cath is joined by Harriet Shearsmith. Harriet is a coach, podcaster, Mum of 3 and the content creator behind @tobyandroo. In this episode she shares her experiences around growing up in a household where she always tended to the needs of her Mother, how she came to see the dynamics of her family, what action she has taken to protect herself as an adult and how she is shifting dynamics in her own family.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 66: Emotional Neglect and Narcissistic Families

In this episode Cath starts to look in more detail at what emotional neglect actually is and why it matters. She explains how widespread emotional neglect is and gives some historical context to explain why.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 65: Childhood Trauma, The Nervous System & Mothering

In this episode Cath was interviewed by Nikki McCahon for her Seasons of Matresence Podcast. We had a gentle, compassionate and open hearted conversation about the ways in which experiences of childhood trauma can shape and impact how we experience mothering and raising children.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 59: Birth Trauma, Dissociation and Growing Up in Motherhood with Sophie Burch

Cath was joined by coach, trainer and hypno-CBT therapist Sophie Burch this week. We talked about Sophie's journey to motherhood, her passion and mission in the prenatal, perinatal and postpartum stages of parenthood and how her own experiences contributed to this. We touched on how birth trauma and a stay in NICU impacted her and her children. Sophie shared how she deals with the impacts of PTSD, maintaining her sanity while parenting 4 boys and how she cares for herself.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 56: The Messy Imperfection of Rupture and Repair

In this episode Cath speaks about the process of rupture and repair with our children. We may imagine that this is a neat, easy process (and sometimes it is) and often it is more complex and messy.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 53: Neediness, Choice and Growing Up in Motherhood with Mara Glatzel

In episode 53 Cath is joined by author, coach and podcast host Mara Glatzel.

This is a rich conversation centered on needs and how we can make space for them, illustrated with stories from Mara’s life. We also discuss ambition, grappling with achievement, choice and the decisions we need to make about how we actually spend our precious lives.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 52: The Complex Journey of Meeting Needs

In episode 52 Cath focuses on our needs and why starting to meet/meeting them can be so complex (building on earlier episodes on this topic, listen to episodes 1-4 and 26).

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 50: Shame, Perfectionism and Holidays

In this half century episode Cath talks about how our own shame and perfectionism (and what happens when our shame gets touched) can impact our holiday times.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 49: Burnout and Parenting When Our Kids Struggle with Kendra Wilde

Cath was joined by Kendra Wilde this week. They talked all about how to keep our sanity intact in parenting when our children are struggling in some way. Kendra shared about the 'why' behind (Wild Peace for Parents) and how she was pushed to a place of burnout on her parenting journey. This conversation is loaded with self compassion and wisdom from someone who has kids in their twenties, we hope you enjoy it.

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Catherine Counihan Catherine Counihan

Ep 48: Understanding our Jealousy and Envy

In this episode Cath talks about two feelings - jealousy and envy - that are often seen as ‘bad’ feelings or feelings we should not admit to (because we may come across as not being ‘nice’).

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