Henri is childless not by circumstance and talks openly and so eloquently about the challenges of being single together with being childless not by choice. She talks about the multiple losses she has faced - the loss of the father of her children who she never met, her children she never had, the loss of her as a mother, her future, her grandchildren and sense of security.

We discuss the importance that friends and family have in our healing process and that, if only they could see being childless as a loss, our grief could be better acknowledged and supported.

Henri is so open and honest about her own journey and her strength and resilience together with hope for the next chapter. A true inspiration.

If you would like to work with me on how to move forward and create a happy and fulfilling life being childless not by choice, please take a look at the coaching option below :

https://helengallagher.mykajabi.com/Kickstart

In this episode, I am delighted to be speaking to Carrie Hauskens who has been a huge inspiration to myself. Her journey involves incredible loss and adversity with the still birth of her precious daughter, Clementine due to a rare liver disease. Throughout all of her journey, Carrie has shown an incredible strength and openness to the possibility of happiness despite the challenges faced. She is the perfect example of a truly authentic human being who represents hope, resilience and a sense that, no matter what, life can be ok.

She is proud of her story and celebrates it. We discuss how she chose happiness and that the story she would tell herself through the hard times enabled her to find a narrative with a positive spin.

If you would like to work with me on how to move forward and create a happy and fulfilling life being childless not by choice, please take a look at the coaching option below :

https://helengallagher.mykajabi.com/Kickstart

In this episode, I am speaking with Dr Krystal Wilkinson and Dr Robin Hadley around the topic of childlessness in the workplace and the absent narratives which need to be addressed.

We discuss the fact that being childless not by choice is a stigmitised and taboo subject in the workplace and how the legitimacy of childlessness is a real issue compared to parenthood where policies and government legislation exist. It is essential that everybody's non work needs deserve to be addressed and acknowledged without fear of judgement and discrimination.

We talk around the challenges which arise from feeling isolated but also delve into what can be done to put childlessness on the agenda and support all employees who are affected.

Ruth Corden co hosts the podcast Finding the Funny which in just over 2 years has had 1 million downloads. Ruth is childless not by choice and has struggled for years with PCOS and endometriosis and through those years so desperately wanted to have a family.

In this episode we discuss Ruth's decision to finally stop trying and to move forward in life being intentional about finding joy. We also discuss being childless not by choice outside of the IVF journey and how the grief will always be with us but that our lives can be filled with joy and happiness if we accept where we are. 

"Childlessness is like the label in the cardigan. Sometimes it itches, sometimes it digs in and sometimes it doesn't"

We discuss how our purpose in life goes beyond parental status and that what we have to offer to others and the world around us is incredibly valuable.

Kick Start to Happy and Childless is now available and will start on 5th Feb

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Sam Walsh is the founder of The Non Mum Network and has recently been on the front page of the Daily Mail and on Woman's Hour discussing the challenges of being childless in the workplace.

In this episode we discuss the challenges faced being childless in the workplace and we talk about how we can raise awareness, educate and help those who are earlier on in their journey of being childless not by choice. We discuss how it is not the case of non parents vs parents but that we should work together to create a happy and harmonious working environment.

Sam is fiercely passionate about sharing our stories and creating a voice for childless not by choice people both in the workplace and society as a whole.

In this episode we discuss how we both are feeling on the run up to Christmas and how we have coped over the years with holidays in general being childless not by choice. It certainly is a challenging and triggering time for so many for so many different reasons.

We talk about the challenges but focus on how we have created our own magic again in life and Christmas!

This is the last episode of the 3 part series on grief with Karin Enfield de Vries. We discuss our lives now having transitioned through the worst of our grief and how we navigate the challenges that life throws our way and how we utilise all that we have learned through years of acceptancec, personal growth and healing.

Karen talks so beautifully about how we must "tend to our gardens" and how when the storms hit and change the landscape we can recognise this as time for regrowth, inspired change and beautiful beginnings.

Registration for "Kick Start to Happy and Childless" is now open

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In this second episode of the 3 part series on Grief, Karin Enfield de Vries and myself discuss acceptance of our childless not by choice situation. Both of our stories are very different but there is so much commonality in our emotions, journey to acceptance and future outlook.

We explore the next stage in the journey and ask if we can or need to reach acceptance in order to move forward. Karin was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and underwent a radical hysterectomy which threw Karin into being permanently childless not by choice. She uses her own experience to counsel others navigating this very difficult journey. Her words, energy and authenticity are truly heart warming.

Karin Enfield De Vries is a grief and loss counsellor offering her services through her business, Pure Transformations. She is also a well being coach and is passionate about supporting the childness not by choice community.

Karin has not only had to overcome the loss of being a parent but in 2011 she was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo a hysterectomy. Through all of this adversity, her strength and drive to overcome her biggest challenges and learn to love life again is truly inspirational.

This episode is the first in a mini series with Karin, covering the various stages of grief and sharing our own stories in addition to proven strategies which we both have used to transition from a place of profound grief to one where we are both enjoying life despite not having the life we had imagined.

Rianna Hijkema is a a multi-passionate serial entrepreneur who has started a consulting practise and co founded a coaching company. She has been living a nomadic life for 12 years and all she owns fits into her back pack.

She struggled for 6 years juggling her nomadic lifestyle with fertility and decided enough was enough 12 months ago when she acknowledged her situation and made a decision to become the happy person she innately was. Rianna shares tips and techniques which she has used and still uses to tap into positive feelings, not focusing on positive thoughts but by doing things that make you happy and creating positive feelings you can ultimately create happy thoughts. We discuss how we stopped looking outside of us for the answers and we started to listen to the answers which we held within