In this episode Cath uses Polyvagal Theory to shine a light on how discombobulating things in parenting can be (and why), the shift in being the default parent and how this relates to our nervous systems. She talks about how we can learn to send ourselves signs of safety and how we can use PV to support our families.

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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.

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To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In this episode Cath speaks about how tricky first times can be and how many of these may happen in a holiday (and in our children’s lives) and how we can support ourselves and our families with this.

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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This week Cath returns to the topic of meeting our needs and how much this can involve when we have not had our needs attended to or met in childhood. She speaks about how many of us experience shame in relation to our needs and how impactful this is. Cath speaks to the nuance around meeting needs, how needs may shift over a healing journey and she shares a couple of anecdotes from her own life.

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In episode 136 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. 

Mara Glatzel (she/her) is a coach, podcast host, and the author of "Needy: How to Advocate for Your Needs and Claim Your Sovereignty." She teaches fellow needy humans to uncover the most vulnerable and true expressions of themselves, and learn how to deeply tend to their needs. Through her online programs, workshops, and retreats, Mara supports people to reclaim space for their own humanity and create ambitious lives filled with meaning, without abandoning themselves in the process. 

Find out more about Mara at maraglatzel.com

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In episode 135 Cath was joined by coach and author Tamu Thomas. We had a joyful and generative discussion covering so much: overworking, why we do it, how we have to redefine success for ourselves and live in line with our values, envy and comparison, friendship and much more.

Tamu Thomas is an author, keynote speaker, and leadership consultant. She helps high-achieving women stop overworking and redefine success so it fuels their ambition without eroding their quality of life. Her work helps leaders create workplaces people want to be part of where they can do their best work without needing a sabbatical to recover from burnout.

With 15 years in social work and expertise in behaviour change, Tamu brings a unique ability to translate complex human dynamics into practical, organisational strategy. Her approach is informed by Polyvagal Theory and Positive Psychology, helping organisations build cultures where high

performance and wellbeing coexist.

Tamu is known for her work on the biology of belonging, demonstrating how nervous system safety underpins psychological safety, inclusion, and sustainable high performance. She helps leaders understand how culture is experienced in the body, and how signals of safety or threat directly shape

behaviour, retention, innovation, and growth.

She has a rare ability to make complex, often uncomfortable topics feel accessible, engaging, and even joyful, blending science, storytelling, and personal insight to connect with diverse audiences. Her talks create shared understanding, making people feel seen and supported, while delivering

mindset-shifting insights with warmth, clarity, and practical relevance.

She is the author of Women Who Work Too Much, a guide for women ready to stop proving their worth through exhaustion. Her work has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Stylist, Psychologies, Marie Claire, Grazia, and on BBC Sounds.

Tamu works with leaders, founders, and organisations to create cultures where performance is sustainable, people feel seen, and success is measured by more than output alone.

For speaking engagements, leadership consulting, and media enquiries, contact [email protected]

Or follow her on Instagram here.

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In this episode Cath was joined by Julianne Boutaleb. We discussed fertility journeys, fantasies of ourselves and our babies, how a fertility journey can impact what we believe we are allowed to feel/think and experience in our mothering journeys and so much more. Julianne used poetry to deepen our understanding of the complexities inherent in motherhood and we discussed the importance of right brain to right brain interactions and more!

Julianne is the Clinical Director and Founder of the Parenthood In Mind practice. She is a passionate and highly experienced perinatal psychologist who has worked for over 24 years in the NHS and private practice with parents and parents-to-be and their babies (and bumps) who have needed support with a wide variety of issues including anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy, miscarriage and reproductive loss, attachment issues, re-emergence of childhood issues and couples issues.

Julianne is a member of the Birth Trauma Association and specialises in working therapeutically with birth trauma, PTSD and tokophobia (fear of giving birth) as they impact the mother, couple relationship and parent-infant attachment. In addition, she is also affiliated with BICA (British Infertility Counselling Association) and offers tailored psychological interventions for individuals and couples (including same sex couples) who are pregnant or are parenting following ART (IVF, ICSI, donor conception, surrogacy) or adoption. She also specialises in offering psychological support to parents (either individually or together) who are co-parenting in the midst of separation and divorce. She has over 15 years’ experience teaching and training psychologists and health professionals on issues of parental mental health, attachment, early years and positive mental health for babies and young children.

Julianne works from a variety of perspectives including psychodynamic and attachment models, CBT, integrative, ACT and compassion-focussed work, couples work and can also offer parent-infant sessions using the Watch, Wait & Wonder model which focusses on how you can improve your attachment relationship with your baby.

You can connect with Julianne on Instagram here. Or her website listed here.

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

Follow Cath on social media here:

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In this wide ranging episode Cath focuses on parental burnout and talks about how we are more vulnerable to this if we have childhood trauma and why. She references recent research into this topic discussing what it is, risk factors for parental burnout, why it matters, how we can conceive of it through a nervous system lens and how we can support ourselves.

The link to the research discussed in the podcast, is listed below. 

Ren, X., Cai, Y., Wang, J. et al. A systematic review of parental burnout and related factors among parents. BMC Public Health 24, 376 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17829-y

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In this episode Cath shares that she received a diagnosis of ADHD and Autism in 2024 and some of the reasons she pursued this. She shared how she is integrating this and how she was tending to herself and meeting her needs ahead of the diagnosis. Cath speaks about executive functioning, what it is, how this may be a struggle and she shares specific anecdotes from her own life about needs, struggles in mothering and struggles with time blindness and how she supports and accommodates herself with these. Would you like more of this sort of content?

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

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In episode 131 of Grow Yourself Up Cath was joined by Dr. Jenny Turner. Jenny and Cath had a wide ranging and rich discussion covering the following: Jenny's path to motherhood and the birth of her son, shame, relationships, the challenges of shifting cycles in parenting, when perimenopause and postpartum collide and how we often have to dig really deep in motherhood and much more.

Jenny is a clinical psychologist and founder of 'Mind Body Soul Psychology'. She is based in North Yorkshire, and works online with people from all over the UK. Jenny is also a mum to a four year old son.

With an extensive NHS background in child and adolescent mental and physical health services. Jenny is now passionate about supporting Mothers, a central theme of the work she offers is how we can all get our own needs met, while we are caring for so many other people, Jenny believes that the care we receive, our boundaries, and our own healing are all fundamental to the care we offer as mothers, and to our enjoyment of the process of mothering.

She is also passionate about helping mothers to navigate through the emotions that society too often (wrongly!) tells us 'we're not meant to feel' as Mothers, such as resentment, ambivalence, anger, rage, trauma, shame, guilt, grief, exhaustion, and burnout.

Jenny offers integrative therapy to her clients - She draws largely on systemic, societal, psychodynamic, compassion-based and body-based, trauma-informed models (such as polyvagal theory). As well as the therapeutic model of shame-resilience developed from Brené Brown's research.

You can connect with Jenny on her website listed here: www.mindbodysoulpsychology.co.uk

Or, Instagram: @drjennypsychologist

If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.

To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. 

Follow Cath on social media here:

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