In this episode, Trisha and I answer three listener questions.

We talk about the overlap between anxiety, ADHD traits, trauma, hormones, parenting, and overwhelm — and how to know when something is manageable and when it’s time to seek further support.

We also answer a question on nutrition and endurance training, and why nutrition can unravel when training volume increases.

Finally, we talk about confidence and identity, and how working from home can slowly change how you feel about yourself and your social confidence.

This episode is a practical, honest conversation around issues many people are dealing with but rarely talk about.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in patterns that feel exhausting, confusing, or out of your control, click play and let’s dive in.

To apply for membership to Jessica’s Thrive Academy go to www.jessicacooke.ie/apply

To contact Trisha for more information on Therapy and Counselling services:

About Trisha MacHale:

Trisha is a Psychotherapist and Director of Mind & Body Works Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, based in Galway, with centres in Galway and Dublin. Their team of over 50 Psychotherapists and Psychologists work with adults, couples, adolescents, and children, offering therapies including CBT, EMDR, and Art Therapy. They also run a low-cost counselling service.

Click play and let's dive in.

For a long time, I thought this was just life.

Always rushing. Always behind. Always putting myself last.

In this episode, I talk honestly about how living in constant rush became my normal, the wake-up moment that made me stop, and the small but powerful change that helped me step out of survival mode.

If you feel like you never have time for yourself and you’re tired of living on edge, this one’s for you.

Click play and let’s dive in.

In today’s episode, Trisha and I answer three powerful listener questions that so many women quietly struggle with.

We talk about family estrangement — what’s really happening when an adult child cuts off communication, the deep hurt and confusion it causes on all sides, and whether these breakdowns can be prevented or gently repaired.

We also dive into long-term social anxiety. One listener shares her experience of living with anxiety since her teens, how bullying shaped her fear of speaking up, and the toll it’s taking on a job she genuinely loves. We explore why “just pushing yourself” often makes things worse, what’s happening in the nervous system, and what can actually help when anxiety feels overwhelming and ingrained.

Finally, we look at people-pleasing and over-performing in conversations — the urge to say the right thing, be liked, keep the peace, and carry the emotional load — and why these patterns are so hard to break, even when you’re aware of them.

As always, Trisha McHale brings a compassionate, practical psychotherapist lens to each question, helping you understand what’s really going on beneath the surface — and where real change starts.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in patterns that feel exhausting, confusing, or out of your control, click play and let’s dive in.

To apply for membership to Jessica’s Thrive Academy go to www.jessicacooke.ie/apply

To contact Trisha for more information on Therapy and Counselling services:

About Trisha MacHale:

Trisha is a Psychotherapist and Director of Mind & Body Works Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre, based in Galway, with centres in Galway and Dublin. Their team of over 50 Psychotherapists and Psychologists work with adults, couples, adolescents, and children, offering therapies including CBT, EMDR, and Art Therapy. They also run a low-cost counselling service.

Click play and let's dive in.

You think you have a weight problem — but what if that’s not actually the issue?

In this episode, I share my own experience of feeling tired, overwhelmed, and stuck in the all-or-nothing cycle with food, exercise, and life. I talk about what my days really looked like, why forcing discipline never worked for me, and the moment I realised the problem wasn’t my body — it was overload.

We explore how stress, lack of structure, and constant decision-making quietly sabotage progress, and why calm, steady habits create real change. Not through punishment or perfection, but through support, consistency, and meeting your body where it’s at.

If you’ve ever felt fed up, bloated, exhausted, or like you “should be further along by now,” this episode is for you. There is another way to do this.

Click play and let’s dive in.

I’m starting this year the way I mean to go on — slowly and steadily. In this episode, I talk about how self body-shaming is deeply harmful.

I share how learning that where your focus goes, energy flows completely changed my life. I also reflect on the fact that none of us are here forever, and why that matters when it comes to how we live and work. 

This episode is a reminder to do the things you want to do, live fully, and leave work on time.

Click play and let’s dive in.

After how popular our first Ask Trisha episode (episode 293) was, Trisha is back.

In this Ask Trisha, we answer the questions you sent in — the ones about feeling drained after therapy, navigating family dynamics, supporting others without taking everything on, and making sense of the emotions that show up after loss.

It’s an honest, practical conversation about protecting your energy, setting emotional boundaries, and learning how to care deeply without burning yourself out.

As always, Trisha brings clarity, warmth, and common sense to topics that can feel heavy, helping you understand what’s normal and how to look after yourself through it all.

About Trisha

To contact the Galway centre:

Click play and let’s dive in.

Every Christmas, well-meaning advice gets thrown around like confetti.

In fact, it’s the reason so many women stay stuck in the same December–January cycle year after year.

In this episode, I talk about the advice I will never give over Christmas — and why quick fixes, swaps, and control-based thinking don’t work long term. We’ll look at how diet culture sneaks in during the festive season, why all-or-nothing thinking ramps up, and what actually helps you stay steady, grounded, and well.

This isn’t about being perfect over Christmas.

If you’ve ever thought, “I’ll just get back on track in January,” this episode is for you.

Click play and let’s dive in.

In this episode I’m chatting about how I only changed when the pain of my own habits got too big to ignore.

I was tired of feeling sluggish, bloated, unfit, anxious, trapped in excuses, trapped in cycles I kept promising myself I’d break.

That pain wasn’t a weakness — it became my turning point.

Today, I’m breaking down how I turned the pain of my old habits into power…

and how you can use your own pain as the push that gets you out of the patterns you’re stuck in.

If you’re fed up with your own bullshit, if you’ve hit a point where you can’t keep living the same day on repeat, this episode is for you.

Click play and let’s dive in.

How do you get out of old patterns and cycles that you’re stuck in?

How do you talk to your adult children?

And how do you stop self-sabotaging on a Thursday when you’ve been healthy all week?

These are the questions I put to psychotherapist Trisha McHale on my latest podcast episode. Trisha has a real gift for getting straight to the root of things and explaining it in a way that actually makes sense — it’s why she’s been on the podcast so many times.

Contact Trisha:

Phone: 091 725750

Click play and let’s dive in.

Are you done eating crap and drinking too much over Christmas?

This will be my 4th Christmas having a healthy one — enjoying myself in ways that aren’t food or alcohol related. I’m blessed. I feel like I’ve broken free from a toxic part of our society that gets pushed on us the second Halloween is over.

The idea that we need to spend, eat, and drink to have a good time — and if we don’t, there’s something wrong with us or we don’t know how to have fun.

Nobody feels good after overeating and over-consuming, so why do we keep doing it?

If you’re sick of how you feel at the end of every December, this episode is for you.

Click play and let’s dive in.