Do you dread your own birthday? This is a painful subject that most of my clients struggle with.

We can often feel social pressure to be grateful and happy on our birthday’s but for many of us, this is not just another trip around the sun but often traumatic and complicated with painful reminders of past disappointment, neglect, and unmet needs.

So in this episode I’m holding space for those of you with birthday complexities, we’ll explore:

• Why "Birthday Activation" is a real, valid nervous system response.

• How to stop feeling shame for having human needs and wanting to be celebrated.

• The layers of grief that show up on our special day and how to honor them.

• Moving away from the pressure of one "perfect" day to a more sustainable, self-nurturing approach.

You deserve to be celebrated, but that celebration starts with you. If you’re ready to shift how you handle these milestones, this conversation is for you.

Resources:

• Need more support? Grab my free workbook at www.heal.juneallen.net to start your healing work. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend who may also find it helpful.

In this episode, I’m marking 16 years in recovery. Yay me!! Looking back to 2010, the person I was then had very specific ideas about what healing and racial sobriety would look like. The reality of my journey has been far more profound and wonderful than I could ever have imagined.

Today, I’m opening up about living in the promises of recovery, the truth about racialised complex trauma, decolonising spirituality, and the power of prioritising to rest. Recovery doesn't make me perfect, and it didn’t remove all the pain, but it did give me hope, a future, the capacity to dream and a way to navigate life without feeling like everything is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Join me as I reflect on how these recovery years have changed everything, from my relationships to the way I love and care for myself. If you’re on your own path of recovery, or if you’ve ever felt like you’re just surviving rather than living, this conversation is for you.

You can explore my work on recovery and racial sobriety at www.heal.juneallen.net If you have questions for future episodes, please email me at [email protected] Please remember this is not a substitute for therapy. If this episode helped you or could help a friend, please share it.

In this episode, I continue our conversation about jealous mothers and wounded daughters, exploring how the mother wound can quietly shape our professional lives, visibility, relationships, and relationship with money.

In Part 1, I explored how maternal jealousy can impact a daughter's sense of self. In this follow-up episode, I focus on healing pathways and how these early experiences can show up in our work as therapists, coaches, healers, wellness practitioners, and business owners.

Together we explore:

• Why some of us undercharge, overgive, or struggle to receive• How hiding online can be connected to early experiences of being punished for visibility• The impact of the mother wound on collaboration and trust, particularly with other Black women.• How unmet childhood needs can continue to influence our professional relationships• The importance of grieving the mother we needed but did not have• Why reparenting and developing a strong inner parent is essential for healing• A simple receiving practice that can begin to shift our relationship with support, goodness, and abundance.

This episode is not about blaming mothers. It is about bringing compassion, awareness, and understanding to patterns that often operate outside of our conscious awareness. If you have ever found yourself shrinking, undercharging, struggling to be seen, or feeling uncomfortable receiving praise, this conversation may help you understand why.

The Mother Wound and Your Money experience is a powerful healing exploration on how the mother wound impacts visibility, self-worth, receiving, and prosperity. To find out more about how to join us, contact me directly or visit my website at heal.juneallen.net

When a girl grows up being punished for shining, it often follows her into adult life.

In this first of a two-part series, I explore a painful but important topic: what happens when a Black mother’s unresolved wounds are taken out on her daughter?

This episode was inspired by a viral TikTok video showing a Black mother aggressively cutting off her daughter’s hair while verbally abusing her and filming it for social media. My comment on the post received over 27,000 likes, and many people shared their own experiences in the comments.

That showed me how many daughters are carrying wounds that have never been named.

In this episode, I explore how maternal jealousy can show up in different ways, why it happens, and the lasting impact it can have on daughters.

This conversation is not about attacking Black mothers. It is about telling the truth about how trauma is passed down through generations and acted out in the present.

I discuss how some harmful patterns may be shaped by unresolved pain, internalised racism, misogynoir, patriarchy, scarcity, grief, and wounds that were never healed. These early experiences can later show up as:

• fear of visibility

• under-earning

• people pleasing

• staying silent at work

• difficulty charging for services

• anxiety around success

• shrinking in relationships

Healing requires honesty. We cannot heal what we keep minimising or calling discipline when it is domination. Understanding where these patterns come from does not excuse the harm. It helps us break the cycle.

In part two, I will explore healing pathways, reparenting the inner daughter, and how to reclaim visibility, voice, and earning power. If this topic feels activating, please go gently with yourself. You do not need to face everything at once. You can come back when you have more capacity.

If this topic speaks to you, join me for The Mother Wound and Your Money Experience on Saturday 27 June 2026 for therapists, healers, coaches, and wellness professionals.

Register at heal.juneallen.net

In this episode, I explore the concept of hiding at work and why it’s often misunderstood. Hiding doesn’t always look like avoidance. It can look like overworking, perfectionism, undercharging, or staying in preparation mode. 

I share how these patterns are often protective responses shaped by early relational experiences, particularly the mother wound, and how they show up for Black women and therapists in professional spaces.

We’ll explore the four key ways hiding can manifest, and how understanding these patterns is the first step toward creating more visibility, sustainability, and alignment in your work.

In This Episode, I Cover:

• Why hiding is not laziness or lack of discipline

• How productive behaviours can still be forms of hiding

• The impact of the mother wound on visibility and self-expression

• The four protective patterns.

• Why these patterns develop as survival strategies

• How they show up in therapy and wellness businesses

• The first steps toward shifting these patterns with compassion

These patterns are not personal failings, but protective responses that make sense. This topic is also some of the work we’ll be exploring in my upcoming online session: 

The Mother Wound & Your Money Experience.

A place to begin understanding the patterns that shape how we show up, what we charge, and how safe it feels to receive. If this feels aligned, you can find more details here.

Unfortunately, having therapy still carries a lot of stigma in our community but many will not think twice about having coaching. So, what's wrong with that you might ask? It matters because your needs and timing will impact the results and could even cause more harm if not chosen wisely. So, this episode is for you if you:

• Want to know the difference between therapy and coaching.

• Felt unsure about where to invest your energy, time, or money in your growth.

• Notice yourself pushing forward, while something inside still feels unsettled.

• Wondered whether you need deeper emotional support, or support to move forward in your life or business

This is also a conversation rooted in our lived experience as Black people, because the context we live in shapes what we need.

I also speak about how to begin recognising what kind of support your system is actually asking for, why moving too fast can create more overwhelm and how to think about healing and growth in a way that honours your capacity. This isn’t about choosing the “right” thing, It’s about learning how to listen to yourself more deeply.

Do you feel safe with your mother?

In this episode, I explore this tender topic that many Black women carry with shame because there is no safety for them, and often they end up blaming themselves. This is not just about being physically safe, but emotionally, culturally, spiritually, and relationally safe. I also speak honestly about estrangement, boundaries, and the complex grief that can exist when safety and trust are absent. 

This episode is not about blaming mothers. We know that they navigate systems of oppression that are not designed for the wellbeing of Black families. However, it is important for us to tell the truth about how pain gets recycled across generations so that healing becomes possible. Here are the key areas that explore what safety looks like within Black mother–daughter relationships.

Emotional Safety

Healthy relationships must allow us to be our full selves, so I talk about what happens when wounded daughters feel they must hide parts of themselves to avoid criticism, or shrink to maintain peace.

Nervous System Safety

Sometimes the body tells the truth before the mind does, so I invite listeners to notice what happens in their body when they think about their mother. Do you feel calm, or do you feel tension, anxiety, or emotional shutdown?

Power and Control

For many, the parent–child hierarchy never evolves into a respectful adult relationship, so I explore how control, obedience, and fear of accountability can keep daughters stuck in childish roles that conflict with their adult lives.

Identity and Cultural Safety

Many Black daughters also have to navigate shaming dynamics around colourism, sexuality and identity so I explore how these experiences can make it difficult to feel fully accepted within our own families as well as socially.

Accountability and Repair

I also discuss the difference between apologies and true repair. Healing in relationships requires honesty, accountability, and changed behaviour.

If this conversation brings up difficult emotions, you are not alone. Many Black women are beginning to tell the truth about their experiences so they can process grief, set boundaries, and reconnect fully with themselves.

If this episode resonates, email me at [email protected] on how to work with June. You don’t have to move through this alone.

Mother’s Day can be a beautiful celebration for many people, but for Black women who have painful, complicated, or estranged relationships with our mothers, it can also be one of the most emotionally difficult days of the year. In this episode, I talk openly about how to care for your inner child during Mother’s Day when your relationship with your mother carries grief, trauma, or distance. 

Drawing from my work as a racial trauma therapist, as well as my own experience of family estrangement, I explore how this day can activate younger parts of us that still long to be seen, loved, protected, and understood. We explore how different younger parts of us may show up during this time, how childhood trauma can shape the ways we soothe ourselves as adults, and how we can begin rebuilding trust with parts of ourselves that were ignored or silenced in the past.

I also share some practical ways I personally care for my inner child, creating intentional self-care rituals and learning how to protect my younger parts through healthy boundaries.

Mother’s Day does not have to be a day of shame or emotional isolation. It can become a day where you gently turn toward yourself and offer the love and care that your younger self deserved all along.

Key themes in this episode include:

• Why Mother’s Day can be triggering for people with difficult mother relationships.
• How different inner child parts may be activated during this time.
• The impact of childhood trauma on adult coping behaviours.
• Rebuilding trust with your inner child.
• Self-parenting and compassionate self-care practices.
• Setting boundaries with challenging family dynamics

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inwardly, and honor the younger parts of yourself that still deserve care.

In this deeply reflective episode, I talk about how the Black mother wound shows up in our romantic relationships. I share my personal experience and what I see working with clients over and over again: this kind of healing isn’t something you just “get over,” but a tender, lifelong commitment to compassionate care and self-parenting. 

So many of us try to heal our Black mother wounds alone or unconsciously expect our romantic relationships to soothe this pain so I share how I work with clients around this topic and invite you to consider therapeutic support as a place where this healing can unfold safely at a pace that works for you. 

In this episode, I explore:

• What the mother wound is and how it forms
• How avoidant attachment and emotional withdrawal shows up in adult relationships
• Over-giving, self-abandonment, and the struggle to receive care
• The grief of accepting a mother who could not meet your needs
• Inner child work and self-parenting as pathways to healing
• Relationship anorexia and fear of closeness
• How unresolved mother wounds emerge during conflict
• Why this healing needs for time, gentleness, and support

For details on how to work with June go to www.heal.juneallen.net

As melanated folks, many of us were never taught to listen to our bodies, only to push through them. 

In this episode, I share how creating intentional space for quiet, reflection, and stillness helps us move out of survival mode and into something more spacious and honest. I talk about how silence and solitude helped me reconnect with my body, my capacity, my sacred Self and why these practices are especially important for us living inside systems that reward over-functioning and self-abandonment. Rest is not about self-improvement. It’s about self-inclusion and remembering that our worth is not tied to output. In This Episode, I Talk About:

• Why burnout is not a personal failure, but a systemic response

• How silence and solitude support trauma healing and nervous system regulation

• The impact of slavery and intergenerational trauma on rest and productivity

• Why Black women are often valued for usefulness rather than humanity

• What happens when we stop overriding our bodies

• How intentional rest improves boundaries, clarity, and relationships

• Simple ways to begin practicing mindfulness and silence in everyday life

Book reference : Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise by Thich Nhat HanhThis book was a gentle entry point for me into stillness and presence. If you’re tired, overstretched, or longing to slow down, this conversation is for you.

#BlackWomenHealing #BurnoutRecovery #RestIsResistance #RacialTrauma #Mindfulness