Claim OwnershipMastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast
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Description
Welcome to Mastering Change, a podcast co-hosted by Emma and Araminta, where we engage in meaningful conversations centred around healing. In this series, we bring together leading experts, innovative thinkers, and emerging voices to connect knowledge with real-world impact in the areas of trauma, mental health and wellbeing.
Each episode features insightful discussions with respected figures as well as promising new contributors to the field. We explore a range of topics with a focus on making this knowledge available for anyone interested in supporting their own healing journey or that of others.
At Mastering Change, we understand the significance of conversation as a means of fostering understanding and growth. Our aim is to create a ripple effect, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and establishing a community where impactful voices are heard.
Whether you are a seasoned professional or new to the field, we invite you to engage in thoughtful discussions that can inspire meaningful change in your practice and personal life. Join us as we explore critical insights and perspectives, encouraging a shared commitment to healing trauma.
47 Episodes
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Have you ever noticed how some stress seems to not just dictate your mood, but your whole sense of presence? That’s because, according to craniosacral therapist Lulu Ferrand, we’re operating on a spectrum of vibrational frequency. On this week’s episode, Lulu speaks to us about how what we engage with, moment to moment, can raise or lower our sense of freedom, safety and connection. She explains how she understands craniosacral therapy (CST) as working not only with the nervous sy...
Sometimes, talking therapy isn’t enough. This week on Mastering Change, we speak with neurofeedback specialist Stuart Black, whose work focuses on trauma, PTSD and the patterns the nervous system can’t shift through traditional talking therapy alone. Stuart explains how neurofeedback helps a dysregulated nervous system re-regulate, especially when trauma has left people stuck in survival mode. He describes how it can support the processing of traumatic memories stored in the emoti...
Christmas can intensify grief. Familiar rituals, memories and traditions can exacerbate the feelings of absence and bring more emotional pain to the surface. In this episode of Mastering Change, psychotherapist Julia Samuel shares what years of supporting grieving individuals have taught her about love, loss and the support people need most. She explains how grief is held in the body, how the brain struggles to catch up with the reality of loss, and why “pain is the agent of change” in ...
Why are so many women only discovering their ADHD in adulthood? In this episode of Mastering Change, Dr. Samantha Hiew, founder of ADHD Girls, explores the gender bias in psychiatry and the ways in which hormones, stress and trauma intersect with neurodivergent experience. Through her own story and research, Samantha reveals how hormonal shifts and perimenopause can alter stress tolerance, why diagnosis can be a powerful act of self-recognition, and how understanding our neurobiol...
Perimenopause is often described as a hormonal shift – but what if it’s also a neurological and emotional one? In this episode of Mastering Change, Paula Rastrick, founder of The Brain-Body Method, explores how trauma, stress sensitivity and hormonal health are intricately linked. Paula explains how our stress profiles begin developing in the womb, shaped by our mother’s nervous system and early attachment experiences. Through her neuro-bio-psycho-social lens, she shows how unreso...
What happens when the part of us that wants to heal becomes the thing that gets in the way? In this episode, we speak with Laura Patryas, a nondual IFS practitioner who sees our inner parts as expressions of awareness rather than problems to fix. Laura explains how trauma disconnects us from presence and how, in both therapy and life, healing begins when we can rest in awareness rather than try to control it. She describes how nondual IFS expands traditional IFS by integrating spi...
How do we talk about trauma without retraumatising? Through animation might be one answer. In this episode, we speak with Quint Boa, founder of Synima, a production company creating short-form animation for mental health communication and education. Quint shares how metaphor in animation allows us to explore emotional and traumatic experiences safely, helping people engage with difficult material without being re-exposed to distressing imagery. He discusses the practical benefits ...
What happens when the person in crisis isn’t the only one who needs help – but the entire family system? In this episode of Mastering Change, Louise Stanger – known as “the family whisperer” – shares her trauma-informed approach to working with families in addiction recovery and crisis intervention. Louise explains that healing often begins before any formal session takes place: by preparing families, helping them feel safe, and inviting them back into connection. “The most ...
How can therapists help clients give voice to what the body remembers, when words fall short? In this episode of Mastering Change, Dr. Tian Dayton explores how psychodrama can become a powerful trauma-informed tool for healing. “When trauma happens, the story is held in the body – it doesn’t get fully told. In psychodrama, we give the body a chance to tell its part of the story.” Tian shares how she has adapted psychodrama for addiction and trauma, guiding clients to safely ...
What does it feel like to live without support – not emotionally, but physically, in your body? This week on Mastering Change, Betsy Polatin, somatic educator and breathwork specialist, explores how trauma takes away our sense of being supported – and how to reconnect with the forces that hold us. “Trauma takes away our universal support. When we feel ourselves be supported, we don’t need to hold ourselves up on our own.” Betsy explains how clients often describe the absence...
Imagine if fear wasn’t something we needed to manage – but something we could unlearn? This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Matt Hudson, creator of Split-Second Unlearning, about fear, hypnotic states, and how to interrupt patterns held in the body and mind. He explains why he aims to spark curiosity rather than reinforce fear, and how state shifts open the door to different choices. He also challenges the way we talk about stress – arguing that it isn’t the cause, but the sympt...
When we talk about mental health, we often forget one major ingredient – sugar. In this episode of Mastering Change, neuroscientist Sophie Hascher joins us to explore how sugar addiction affects emotional wellbeing – and what happens when we start reconnecting to the body. Sophie shares research showing that people higher on the sugar addiction scale are much more likely to experience anxiety, depression and chronic stress. She explains how sugar impacts the brain’s reward system ...
The traditional model of therapy tends to be one hour, once a week. But how effective is this? This week on Mastering Change, we speak with psychotherapist Priscilla Short, who’s challenging the way we think about relationship and trauma therapy. She introduces us to the world of intensive therapy – where months of work are condensed into a few focused days. It’s immersive, honest and allows both clients and therapists to stay with what’s uncomfortable long enough for real change ...
What happens when silence becomes a survival strategy – and healing means finding your voice again? This week on Mastering Change, we speak with therapist, author and founder of the Washington Therapy Fund Foundation Ashley McGirt about the impact of racial and intergenerational trauma. Ashley shares how trauma rooted in racism and injustice can echo through generations, shaping families, relationships and self-worth – and how healing begins when we start to name what was once...
What if healing meant slowing down, softening, and coming back to your body? This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Chen Lizra – somatic practitioner and founder of The Power of Somatic Intelligence – about how trauma pulls us away from ourselves and how presence, movement, and pleasure can guide us back. Chen explains why safety is the foundation for any healing process, how to recognise when we’re overriding our nervous system and why slowing down can be the most coura...
What if healing meant slowing down, softening, and coming home to your body This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Chen Lizra – somatic practitioner and founder of The Power of Somatic Intelligence – about how trauma disconnects us from ourselves, and how movement, pleasure, and presence can guide us back. Chen explains how working with the nervous system, rather than overriding it, creates the conditions for safety and lasting change. She shares how slowing down can be an act of co...
How do we stop working at “the wrong end of the spectrum” – only intervening when it’s too late? This week on Mastering Change, clinical psychologist and Innovating Minds founder Dr. Asha Patel shares her journey from working in forensic services to building trauma-informed systems for schools and community-based organisations. Asha explains how behaviour is always a form of communication, why exclusion punishes pain instead of addressing it, and how compassion, regulated adults ...
What happens when silence becomes survival? This week on Mastering Change, sisters Cipriana and TK Quann share their journey of surviving over a decade of childhood abuse – and what it has meant to finally speak the unspeakable. They discuss the long shadow of shame, the healing impact of psychedelic plant medicines, and why sisterhood has been their most powerful form of therapy. With honesty and vulnerability, the Quann sisters open a window into how trauma shapes identity – and how exp...
What does it take to heal after abuse, assault or complex PTSD? This week on Mastering Change, trauma therapist, speaker and author Shari Botwin joins us for a candid conversation about dismantling shame and speaking the unspeakable. She draws on her own journey as a survivor as well as 25 years of clinical work, sharing how shame takes hold and how to recognise and move through it. Compassion and safe relationships are, she says, essential in recovery and she explains why. ...
We know about the five stages of grief – but did you know there’s a sixth? David Kessler speaks to us in this episode about how finding meaning can become one of the most powerful steps in healing after loss. Kessler is one of the world’s leading grief experts and author of On Grief and Grieving and Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Drawing on decades of experience and his own personal journey with loss, David shares why all trauma carries grief, and why healing requires more t...
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