The Stone in My Shoe Podcast - Honest conversations about the hidden patterns shaping our lives.

What happens when the role you’ve spent your whole life performing suddenly disappears?

In this emotionally honest conversation, Riham El Hawary shares the quiet identity collapse that came after years of responsibility, performance, achievement, and caregiving.

From being conditioned from childhood to become “the strong one,” to building success through survival and eventually experiencing emotional and physical burnout, this episode explores the deeper emotional cost of living through performance instead of truth.

But beneath the responsibility, the success, and the coping mechanisms was a more confronting question:

Who am I when nobody needs me anymore?

This conversation explores the emotional reality many women experience during major life transitions — especially when identity has been built around being needed, useful, responsible, and emotionally available for everyone else.

Together, Debbie and Riham explore:

• emotional burnout from high functioning
• identity shifts in midlife
• intuition and self-abandonment
• loneliness after caregiving
• success versus fulfilment
• learning to reconnect with yourself honestly
• what happens when performance stops working
• the emotional discomfort of sitting with yourself without distraction

This episode is for women navigating:

• emotional disconnection
• people pleasing
• burnout from coping
• life transitions
• internal conflict between external success and internal truth
• midlife awakening and self-discovery

Sometimes the hardest part of transformation isn’t changing your life.

It’s finally asking yourself what you actually want underneath the role you’ve spent years performing.

👤 GUEST LINKS:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rihamelhawary.official

Website: https://www.personainternational.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhawary

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rihamelhawary

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

At 19, Andrea Gonzales ignored the feeling that something wasn’t right.

What began as a relationship that felt exciting and intense slowly became controlling, emotionally abusive, and eventually violent. In this deeply honest conversation, Andrea shares theexperience that changed the course of her life — including being kidnapped by her boyfriend after trying to end the relationship.

But this episode goes far beyond the story itself.

It explores the quiet ways women disconnect from their instincts, override their intuition, minimise red flags, and slowlylose themselves while trying to keep love, peace, or approval.

Andrea speaks openly about self-worth, emotional conditioning, toxic relationship dynamics, intuition, healing, andthe long journey back to trusting herself again.

This conversation is for women who:

•          keep overriding what they feel
•          struggle to trust their intuition
•             people please to keep relationships safe
•             feel disconnected from themselves
•             have ignored red flags hoping things wouldchange
•             are navigating identity shifts and emotionalexhaustion

In this episode, we explore:

·      emotional abuse and coercive control

·      trusting your gut instinct

·      why women ignore red flags

·      toxic relationship patterns

·      self-worth and subconscious beliefs

·      family conditioning and relationship dynamics

·      healing after trauma

·      learning to trust yourself again

·      emotional survival and resilience

·      breaking generational patterns

Some experiences change how you see relationships forever. Others change how you see yourself.

And sometimes healing begins the moment you finally stop abandoning what you already know inside.

👤 GUEST LINKS:
Instagram: Andrea Gonzales Instagram
Facebook: Andrea Gonzales Facebook

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Rory Callaghan, where I share the story behind why I created The Stone in My Shoe.

There wasn’t a big moment. Nothing fell apart.

From the outside, my life worked. I was achieving, building, doing everything that looked “right.”

But underneath it… there was a quiet feeling I couldn’t really explain.Something just didn’t feel like me anymore.

It wasn’t strong enough to force change.But it also wasn’t something I could fully ignore.

And for a while, I did what so many of us do.I stayed busy. I kept going. I carried on doing what I thought I was meant to do.

But that feeling didn’t go away.

That was my stone.

Not a crisis.Not a breakdown.Just something sitting there… asking to be noticed.

And eventually I realised — this isn’t something to push past.This is something to actually look at.

This conversation with Rory explores that moment — and how it led me to create The Stone in My Shoe.

Because I know how many women are living lives that look fine on the outside…while quietly knowing something doesn’t feel true anymore.

How easy it is to override that feeling.To stay busy.To not ask the deeper question.

This episode is about that space.The moment where something feels off… and you decide whether to ignore it or explore it.

This is for you if:

• your life looks good… but feels flat• you’ve been doing what’s expected of you for years• you feel a quiet sense that something isn’t fully aligned• you’re starting to question what you actually want

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• what my “stone” really was

• how these moments show up quietly, not dramatically

• why women trusting their intuition often starts with something small

• the moment I realised I couldn’t keep overriding what I felt

And maybe most importantly…

This isn’t about changing everything.

It’s about being honest…with what you already know.

Links to Rory Callagan Instagram — @rorykchttps://www.instagram.com/rorykc

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

There’s a version of success many women quietly try to live up to. Being present at home. Building something meaningful. Holding everything together without anything slipping.

In this conversation with Disha Solanki, that expectation is gently unravelled. She shares what it really looked like to pursue ambition while raising a family — not as a polished story, but through the moments that stayed with her.

Missing something that mattered. Carrying guilt for longer than she expected.
Realising the pressure she was holding wasn’t sustainable.

The turning point wasn’t one big decision.

It was the slow recognition that the standard she was trying to meet — being everything to everyone — didn’t actually exist.

And that continuing to push through it was costing her more than she realised.

This conversation opens up the reality behind ambition, motherhood, and identity — and what happens when you begin to question how much you’re holding.

This episode is for you if:
• You feel the pressure to do everything well — and still feel like it’s not enough
• You’re trying to balance ambition with being present at home
• You’ve started to question the expectations you’ve been carrying

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• Why the idea of “doing it all” is often unrealistic
• How internal pressure builds without being noticed
• What happens when you push beyond your capacity for too long
• Why there is no perfect time — and what that really means

If something in this conversation feels familiar, it’s might be because it reflects a pressure many women carry quietly.

And sometimes, simply recognising that is where things begin to shift.

👤 GUEST LINKS:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazehers
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedishasolanki
Website: https://www.thetrailblazehers.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dishasolanki/

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

Have you ever had a moment where you should feel something… but you don’t?

Not joy. Not gratitude. Not even frustration. Just… nothing.

This episode explores what happens when you suppress emotions for so long that youlose access to all of them,  not just the difficult ones, but the ones that make life feel meaningful too.

Because you don’t get to choose which emotions you turn down.

The same patterns that help you avoid discomfort eventually disconnect you from joy, appreciation, and connection.  

And it doesn’t happen all at once. It builds quietly, through adapting, people-pleasingand trying to hold everything together.

Until one day, you realise you are  numb , you feel nothing.

This episode is for women who:
• feel emotionally numb or flat
• have learned to suppress difficult feelings
• have spent years holding everything together
• are starting to question why they can’t feel joy or gratitude

In this conversation, you’ll understand:
• why suppressing emotions leads to numbness
• why you can’t turn down one emotion without losing others
• the hidden cost of coping patterns that “work”
• how emotional disconnection builds over time
• why this moment can be the beginning of something deeper

Guest Links

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growrecoverdiscover
Website: https://www.growrecoverdiscover.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanna-atherton-441239389/

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

This conversation explores what happens when the way you’ve always coped with life quietly stops working.

Dr Alla Demutska shares her experience of growing up in an environment shaped by instability, fear, and uncertainty -where control, achievement, and constant effort became a way to feel safe. From the outside, it led to success, resilience, and capability. But underneath, there was something else driving it.

Over time, that pattern of pushing, solving, and holding everything together began to take its toll. Not in a dramatic or obvious way, but through a growing sense that something wasn’t quite right — even when life looked fine.

The turning point didn’t come from a single moment. It came from reaching a place where pushing harder no longer worked. Where the instinct to override, fix, and control couldn’t carry things forward anymore.

What followed wasn’t about changing everything overnight. It was about something more subtle, and often harder — learning to stop overriding what she felt. Letting go of the need to force outcomes. Allowing life to unfold in a different way.

This conversation is for you if:

• You’re used to holding everything together
• You find it hard to slow down or stop pushing
• Your life looks “fine” but doesn’t feel fully aligned
• You’ve started questioning the way you make decisions
• You’re beginning to notice what you’ve been overriding

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How early experiences shape patterns ofcontrol and over-functioning
• Why pushing and achieving can become a way to avoid deeper feelings
• What it looks like when those strategies stop working
• The difference between forcing life and allowing it
• How to begin listening to what you’ve been overriding

There’s a quiet honesty in recognising thatsomething isn’t wrong — but something isn’t fully true either. And sometimes,the shift doesn’t come from doing more, but from noticing what you’ve beendoing all along.

Guest Links

Website: https://drallademutska.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.compassionate.psychologist/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drallademutska/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-alla-demutska-6263491/

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

How do you know when something isn’t right… but you keep going anyway.

 In this episode, Lisa Walker shares what it looked like to build a life that appeared successful on the outside, while quietly ignoring what didn’t feel right underneath. Working in marketing and holding everything together, she foundherself repeating patterns in relationships that reflected something deeper she hadn’t yet faced.

The turning point came when everything stopped. She found herself leaving her life behind and going on the run with her children, forced to confront what she had been avoiding for years.

What followed wasn’t immediate clarity, but a recognition that she had been living in a way that required her to constantly prove her worth, minimise herself, and override her own intuition.

This conversation explores how early beliefs about love, worth, and safety shape the choices we make in adulthood. It’s about the quiet patterns that go unnoticed until they can no longer be ignored — and what happens when awareness begins toshift everything.

If you are a woman who:

·     questions your instincts in relationships

·     feels like you have to prove your worth to be loved

·     finds yourself staying in situations that don’t feel right

·      is navigating a midlife identity shift

·      feels something is off but can’t fully name it

·      is starting to recognise patterns in your life

You’ll learn:

·      how early conditioning shapes relationship patterns

·      why we ignore what we know doesn’t feel right

·     the connection between achievement and emotional avoidance

·     what a real turning point can look like

·     how awareness begins the process of change

Sometimes the moment that changes everything isn’t something new — it’s finally seeing what has been there all along.

👤 Guest:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deitycircle
Website: https://www.deitycircle.com/

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

Have you ever looked at your life and thought… everything is fine, but something doesn’t feel right?

In this episode, Debbie speaks with Alena Uzhnyeva, a successful entrepreneur who built an international business and achieved what many would define as success—financial freedom, travel, and recognition.

But beneath the surface, something wasn’t aligned.

After years of pushing forward in a high-performing corporate world, Alena reached a point where success no longer felt fulfilling. Despite everything she had achieved, she felt empty, disconnected, and exhausted.

A powerful retreat experience became the moment everything shifted—forcing her to confront deeper emotional patterns and the true reason behind her drive for success.

This conversation explores what happens when we build a life based on expectations, conditioning, or something we’re trying to prove—rather than what is truly ours.

It’s about the quiet realisation that something is missing… and the courage to listen to it.

This is for you if you are a woman who:• feels like your life looks good, but doesn’t feel right• is questioning your direction or purpose• is navigating a midlife identity shift• feels disconnected from yourself despite external success• senses there is something more, but can’t yet name it• finds yourself constantly doing, but rarely just being

What you will learn: Why success doesn’t always equal fulfilment• How unconscious patterns can shape your life choices• The moment that signals it’s time to change direction• What it means to reconnect with yourself• The role of intuition in making life decisions• How to move from proving… to living

This episode is a reminder that nothing has to be “wrong” for something to no longer feel right. And often, the most important shift begins not with action—but with honesty.

🎧 PODCAST EPISODE LINKS:YouTube:https://youtu.be/6vQOlqZXJdY?si=JsBsiFvChWhrSRri

👤 GUEST LINKS:

Website: https://iamcreationretreat.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamcreationretreat

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamcreationretreat

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgMf7iRDGaRFn7xKeYogSvQ

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠

Youtube-  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠

Website - ⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

In this episode of The Stone in My Shoe, Giancarla shares a deeply reflective and layered journey of self-discovery, intuition, and identity.

From an early awareness that she experienced the world differently, to navigating the tension between science and spirituality, Giancarla explores what it means to truly embrace all parts of yourself — even the ones that don’t fit neatly into what’s expected.

A significant turning point came through a long-term relationship that, in hindsight, revealed patterns she couldn’t fully see while she was inside it. Like many women, she found that clarity only came after stepping away — when she could finally recognise the dynamics that had been present all along.

This conversation gently explores how awareness unfolds over time, how we learn to trust ourselves again, and what it means to begin honouring who we are — even when it requires change.

It’s not about dramatic transformation.
It’s about the quiet, internal shift that changes everything.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why it’s often hard to see patterns when you’re inside them
• The role of intuition and internal awareness
• Navigating identity shifts in midlife
• The experience of rediscovering yourself after a relationship
• What it means to truly honour yourself
• How different parts of ourselves can coexist (logic and intuition)

This is a thoughtful and expansive conversation for any woman who feels a quiet sense that something is changing — even if she can’t yet fully name it.

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠⁠

Youtube-  ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠⁠

Website - ⁠⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/

Outwardly, Marali had built the perfect life. A successful corporate career across Europe. Financial independence. Achievement. Discipline.

But Inwardly there was Shame. Disconnection. An eating disorder. Burnout so severe her body refused to get out of bed.

In this deeply honest episode of The Stone in My Shoe, I sit down with Marali — certified Tantra teacher, breath worker, and leadership mentor — to explore what happens when high achievement masks deep inner tension.

From growing up as a twin in Lithuania, to carrying guilt after her parents’ divorce, to developing bulimia in her teens and chasing success in London, Marali shares the invisible drivers behind her ambition — and the moment her body finally said no.

This conversation is not about sex.

It’s about integration.About weaving together the masculine drive to achieve and the feminine capacity to feel.About understanding that burnout is not weakness — it’s intelligence.

If you are a woman who:

• Achieves easily but feels disconnected from her body• Has built success but feels something is missing• Struggles with shame, perfectionism, or “not good enough”• Is tired of living neck-up and wants to feel fully alive• Is curious about Tantra but unsure what it really means

This episode will resonate deeply.

In this conversation, you will learn:

• How childhood guilt and “good girl” conditioning fuel overachievement• Why eating disorders and coping mechanisms can be survival strategies• What burnout is really communicating• How suppressing parts of yourself strengthens them• What Tantra actually means (and why it’s not just about sex)• How to reconnect mind and body after years of disconnection• Why true intimacy begins within

Marali explains Tantra as “weaving together” - the integration of masculine and feminine energies within us. Not rejecting ambition. Not rejecting softness. But allowing both to coexist.

Because success without embodiment is exhausting.And healing begins the moment we stop fighting ourselves.

If this episode speaks to you, subscribe and share it with a woman who needs to hear that burnout is not failure  it’s a doorway.

This conversation is honest, grounded, and deeply liberating.

🔗 Connect with MaraliWebsite: https://tantrawithmarali.comInstagram: @tantrawithmarali

CONNECT WITH DEBBIE

Facebook - ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠⁠ 

Instagram - ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thestoneinmyshoe/⁠⁠ 

LinkedIn - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-thompson-b3b1b715/⁠⁠

Youtube-  ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@stoneinmyshoepodcast ⁠⁠

Website - ⁠⁠https://debbiethompson.lovable.app/