What does it really mean to live with integrity? 

In this bonus episode of Back To Self, Sian explores thespiritual law of integrity through the heart-led energy of Leo season.

Rather than viewing integrity simply as honesty or doing theright thing, this episode invites you to understand it as inner wholeness: when your thoughts, emotions, body, energy, values and actions begin moving in the same direction.

Sian explores why it can feel difficult to live authentically when people-pleasing, fear of judgement, shame, culturalconditioning and old survival patterns have taught you to disconnect from your truth. She also shares personal reflections on beauty standards, spirituality and learning to bring every part of herself into a more honest, integratedrelationship.

You’ll discover how living out of alignment can contributeto overthinking, resentment, burnout, self-doubt and disconnection- and how small, compassionate acts of integrity can help you rebuild self-trust.

This episode is an invitation to notice where your inner andouter worlds may have become divided — and to consider one small act of integrity that could help you return to yourself this week.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

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📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or areplacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

Leo season invites us to reconnect with our confidence,creativity, joy and authentic self-expression- but what happens when our need to be seen becomes tangled with approval, performance or self-doubt?

In this episode of Back To Self, Sian explores the psycho-spiritual meaning of Leo season and how Leo energy can support you in returning to your inner light.

Moving beyond predictions and traditional horoscopes, thisreflective astrology episode looks at Leo as an archetype of identity, self-esteem, courage, play, personal power and the desire to be fully seen for who we are.

Sian shares gentle practices to help you celebrate yourself,reconnect with what brought you joy as a child, soften your inner critic and reflect on the question: “What is my light?”

You don’t need to be a Leo to connect with this episode. Weall carry Leo energy somewhere within our birth chart, and this season offers each of us an opportunity to explore where we may be dimming our light, seeking approval or longing to feel more confident in who we are.

This is an invitation to stop performing, listen inward andremember that you do not need to become more extraordinary to be worthy of being seen.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷 

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

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🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or areplacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

In this episode of Back To Self, Sian is joined by counsellor, tarot practitioner and workshop facilitator Emma Dellow for a grounded, thoughtful conversation about tarot, symbolism, therapy, intuition and self-reflection.

Together, they explore how tarot can be used as a reflective tool rather than a predictive one, offering a way to slow down, connect with your inner world and build a deeper relationshipwith your own intuition.

They talk about the difference between giving your power away to the cards and using them as a mirror for self awareness, emotional insight and personal growth.

This conversation also touches on common misconceptions around tarot, the fear that can arise with cards likeDeath, The Tower or The Devil, and how to approach tarot with curiosity, playfulness and compassion rather than pressure or perfectionism.

Whether you’re completely new to tarot, have a deck gathering dust on a shelf, or already use tarot as part ofyour spiritual practice, this episode invites you to see the cards as a gentle doorway back to yourself.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

🩷Connect with Emma

📸 Instagram: @enlightentherapies👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠ https://enlightentherapies.com/📧 Email: ⁠ [email protected]

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or areplacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.

As more people turn to ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for mental health support, emotional reassurance and self-reflection, it raises an important question: where can AIgenuinely help, and where might it get in the way of human connection, self-trust and therapeutic support?

In this episode of Back To Self, Sian explores the growing use of AI for emotional wellbeing with curiosity, nuance and care.

We look at why AI can feel so appealing when we’re anxious, overwhelmed, lonely or unsure what to say, while alsoconsidering the risks — including misinformation, constant validation, emotional dependency, privacy concerns and the limits of AI when it comes to spirituality, intuition and embodied self-knowledge.

This episode is an invitation to use AI with more discernment, boundaries and intention.

AI can support reflection, but it cannot replace your own inner wisdom, your relationships, or the depth of human therapeutic connection.

* If you feel like your usage of AI chatbots for mentalhealth support is becoming dependent- I would encourage you to seek professional support with a therapist or counsellor.

🔗Download your FREE AI Guide – Created by Sian

https://the-soulshine-therapist-uoqzuz.subscribepage.io 

Links for further reading

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec8352

https://mental.jmir.org/2025/1/e77951

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3715275.3732039 

https://www.apa.org/topics/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/guide-navigating-ai

https://mentalhealth-uk.org/news-and-insights/over-one-in-three-using-ai-chatbots-for-mental-health-support-as-charity-calls-for-urgent-safeguards/

https://neurosciencenews.com/ai-chatgpt-mental-health-30266/

How to talk to AI by Jamie Bartlett (Penguin Random House, 2026)

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

 🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or a replacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

In this gentle and reflective episode of Back To Self, Sian explores how holidays can become more than a chance to escape everyday life — they can become a meaningful opportunity to reconnect with yourself.

When the usual routines, roles, responsibilities and noise of daily life fall away, we may begin to notice what we have been carrying, what we truly need, and which parts of ourselves have been patiently waiting for attention.

Drawing from her recent trip to Montenegro, Sian shares five simple ways to return to yourself whilst on holiday.

This episode is for anyone who feels stretched, disconnected, or caught in autopilot, and wants to use their next holiday, staycation, or time away from everyday life as a space for emotional reconnection, self-trust and inner alignment.

You’ll be invited to reflect on questions such as: What do I need from this time away? Who am I when I’m not working, organising, achieving or caring for everyone else? How can I soften back into the version of me that feels most true?

A grounding listen for spiritually curious, self-aware people who want to reconnect with themselves, their body, their joy, and their inner world — wherever they are.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or a replacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

How do we practise compassion in a world that can feel sodivided, reactive and overwhelming — without losing ourselves in the process? 

In this episode of Back To Self, we explore the spiritual law of compassion and what it means to meet ourselves and others with more understanding, tenderness and humanity.

Inspired by The Laws of Spirit by Dan Millman andreleased during Cancer season, this conversation looks at compassion as both a spiritual practice and a grounded way of living.

We explore why compassion is not about excusing harm,abandoning boundaries, tolerating disrespect or forcing forgiveness before we are ready. Instead, compassion asks us to stay connected to our own heart and values while recognising that every human being is carrying their own unseen story.

This episode also looks at the difference between sympathy,empathy and compassion; how fear, shame, people pleasing and the inner critic can block compassion; and why self-compassion is often the first doorway into offering genuine compassion to others.

You’ll also hear practical ways to begin cultivatingcompassion in daily life, including loving kindness practice, community connection and the invisible backpack practice.

A gentle, thoughtful episode for anyone seeking to stayopen-hearted, spiritually grounded and connected to their humanity in a world that often encourages us to shut down.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or areplacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

In this episode of Back To Self, Sian explores the soft,nurturing and emotionally attuned energy of Cancer season.

Through a psycho-spiritual lens, this episode looks at the astrological sign Cancer as the archetype of home, belonging, emotional safety, family roots, care, protection, the mother archetype, and the divine feminine.

Rather than using astrology to predict external events,Sian invites you to use Cancer season as a mirror for your inner world, your emotional needs, and your relationship with giving and receiving care.

You’ll hear about the empowered and shadow expressions ofCancer energy, including sensitivity, compassion, intuition, over-giving, emotional dependency, ancestral patterns, nostalgia, and the longing to feel truly held.

Sian also shares reflective journal prompts and gentlepractices for working with Cancer season, including self-care, moon tracking, home tending, mother wound healing, ancestral reflection, and womb or sacral energy work.

This is a soulful episode for anyone wanting to feel moreemotionally connected, spiritually grounded, and at home within themselves.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or a replacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

What if the summer solstice isn’t asking you to shine brighter, but to meet yourself more honestly?

In this short impromptu episode of Back To Self, Sian offers a gentle summer solstice reflection practice for anyone who feels the pressure of summer as much as the beauty of it.

While the solstice is often associated with light, abundance, vitality and growth, summer can also bring pressure: pressure to be social, happy, spontaneous, body-confident, available, and constantly making the most of things.

But just because the days are brighter doesn’t mean our inner world automatically feels brighter too.

This episode invites you to soften the expectation to feel bright on demand and instead use the light of the solstice as a moment of awareness, compassion and return.

Through a short guided reflection, you’ll be invited to explore what is being illuminated within you, where you may need warmth rather than pressure, and how you want to experience the summer season in a way that truly supports you.

A grounding listen for anyone who finds summer beautiful, but also a little overwhelming.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: ⁠www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or areplacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

In this short episode of Back To Self, Sian pauses to say thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, or reflected and been part of the Back To Self story so far.

After 15 episodes, Sian reflects honestly on the creative wobbles, inner critic moments, and quiet courage involved in showing up, recording, and sharing psycho-spiritual reflections with the world.

She also shares how listener messages have affirmed the heart of this podcast: creating a calm, grounded space to slow down, reconnect, and come back to yourself.

This episode is also an invitation to co-create future conversations. Sian shares some of the topics listeners have requested so far, and encourages listeners to send in any questions or topic suggestions you’d love to hear explored on future episodes.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸 Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or a replacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.  

In this week's episode of Back To Self, Sian continues the conversation from episode 12, Wanting Without Relating: Moving Beyond Transactional Spirituality, and explores how to begin building a more mutual, consistent relationship with spirit, the universe, God, the divine — or whatever language feels most true for you.

This is a gentle, practical episode for anyone who feels spiritually curious but unsure where to begin. You do not need to be psychic, gifted, or deeply intuitive to connect with spirit. In fact, cultivating a relationship with the divine can be one of the ways your intuitive self begins to grow.

Sian shares reflections on how our relationship with spirit may mirror our attachment patterns, why intention matters, and how spiritual practice can support us before life feels overwhelming — like a kind of emotional and spiritual fire prevention.

This episode is an invitation to stop seeing spirituality as another thing to perfect, and instead approach it as a relationship: one that grows through presence, consistency, curiosity, and gentle returning.

Listen if you are exploring:

spiritual practice, connecting with spirit, divine connection, everyday spirituality, intuitive development, prayer, meditation, altars, devotion, nature, spirituality, and building a deeper relationship with yourself.

Thanks for listening 🙏🏽🩷

🗓️New episodes every Thursday

🎙️Follow now to join the conversation

🩷Connect with me

📸Instagram: @the.soulshine.therapist

👩🏽‍💻Website: www.thesoulshinetherapist.co.uk⁠

📧 Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Disclaimer: Just to say, this podcast isn’t therapy or a replacement for professional support. Although I am a therapist, I show up here as myself- sharing ideas and experiences. If you are struggling, I’d encourage you to seek support with a registered mental health professional.