Truthbook

Rosie Gilderthorp is a mum to three kids (aged 6, 4.5 and 14 months), a Clinical Psychologist and Podcaster.  She is the founder of The Psychology Business School and the Do More Than Therapy, which aim to help private psychologists grow their business so they can be as effective as possible in helping  others. She also specialises in mental health support for pregnancy, birth and parenthood, having had her own experience of a crushing 9 months of pregnancy sickness! She does this whilst predominantly solo parenting as her husband is in the military and often away.

We chat the ups and downs of not being able to multi-task (being extremely focused vs forgetting to pick your kids up), her experience of severe pregnancy sickness and impact on mental health, how we can break down barriers to seeking therapy and have a giggle at the image Rosie has of herself in one of the parent moments when you were glad no one was watching…

https://www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk

https://psychologybusinessschool.com

https://www.facebook.com/domorethantherapy/

Delighted to have Nathan on Truthbook, 32 year old son of Robyn (Episode 17 - If you've not already listened, then head back to it as this will make a lot more sense).

Nathan has many strings to his chatty and creative bow: Producer and announcer at SeaFM (in Tasmania!), a composer, producer, event manager and MC with his own brand called Belief Machine based out of his home recording studio (I had a tour-it's very cool) and an entry level motorsport driver. The boy who talked too much in class and just wanted to be famous has found his niche! 

Nathan was more than happy to shove on a pair of headphones and chat to me about his time at school, his perspective on teachers looking back, moving to England and share his wise advice for parents…

There has been a long pause in getting this episode out as the last 5 months have been all about shifting life from Tasmania back to Scotland- packing, unpacking, re-acquainting with family and friends and Scotland. Finally feeling settled back home, I was able to bring myself to listen back to this interview with Robyn Gay whose softly spoken Australian accent and talk of Penguin in Tasmania where we lived brought back what are now life long memories. 

 Robyn is another Yoga friend of the third age, who talks about the power of realising you can chose who and what you want to be, how being a parent is amazing and challenging, how having a kid with a kind nature does count and how the quandary of how to talk to her son about sex backfired...

Annette is my first Truthbook grandmother and wonderful yoga teacher. Annette’s words will warm your heart as she shares her experience of being ill as a child with an underactive thyroid, her passion for seeing the good in people and inclusivity and how this has been passed on through generations of her family, and her journey as a Grandmother.

Annette was introduced to yoga when she lived in a remote village in Bali in 1975 and has been teaching yoga and Pilates in Australia since 1994. She specialises in yoga for people with physical disabilities such as MS, cancer, immune disorders and intellectual disabilities. Most recently she specialises is people with lymphatic and immune system disorders. She is passionate about enabling students to access Yoga whatever their condition. She is highly qualified and informed, having done a masters in medical sciences researching the effects of yoga on women with secondary arm lymphoedema from breast cancer. Having earned a well deserved reputation in the field of rehabilitation she is a sought after speaker nationally and internationally.

Talking to Annette was so re-affirming and I was left feeling like I do after her yoga sessions- grounded, soothed and seeing the best in people.

Links
Penguin Yoga Pilates

Dawn Meredith, author, teacher, counsellor, artist, mum…encompasses all things creative. She is driven by strong values that have seen her swap urban life for rural farm life and unplug the TV. We chat about the tornado in her mind, her escape to hoodie land when she has reached her limit and the ever-present guilt monster telling her that she should not be taking time out for herself. And a rare night off being mum leaves a taste of what life once kids have left home might just be like…

Dawn and I chatted in her cosy studio on her farm in North West Tasmania. Dawn grew up in England, Norway and Australia. Despite spending most of her life in the Southern Hemisphere, she still finds celebrating Christmas in the summer ‘just wrong’.

Dawn is driven with a passion to “excite kids to turn off the computer and delve into the extraordinary, imaginary world of books; expand their thinking, challenge their narrow view of the world, open their minds to discover new and exciting ideas”. She has written 12 books for children, including '12 Annoying Monsters: Self-talk for kids with anxiety,  and 'The Anything Shop" and one adult fiction book 'Letters From the Dead'.  

She started out working as a secondary school art teacher, but realised it was not for her after 5 minutes. She spent the next 28years as a special education teacher, literacy specialist and children’s counsellor.  

Three years ago she swapped teaching for farming and moved to Crumbleton Farm North West Tassie with her husband Al and their 15yr old daughter Rosie. They have around 300 sheep, all of whom have a name.

Al is also a dog trainer and was involved in Home and Away as a dog wrangler and trainer!

For Dawn, chronic pain since she was in a serious car accident in 1999, has made balancing life and creativity tricky some days.

Dawn gives a very honest and thought provoking Truthbook.

Links
Dawn Meredith Author Blog
Crumbleton Farm Blog
Instagram

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My guest, Kate Reid, is a fellow Scot with a beautiful voice but she talks about having such low confidence that she struggles to accept compliments. Kate talks about her struggle with a binge eating disorder, how opening up and talking was the single most helpful thing, and we muse over whether we can ever truly understand how the mind works…

I invited Kate onto Truthbook because I have loved her honesty and openness through poems, songs, and Facebook posts. In her own words, she has always had an insatiable appetite for wanting to understand why she feels the way she feels and has found solace in talking.

Our paths crossed in the early 2000s, during her days in the Scottish band The Midden-where she was the lead singer and guitarist with her sisters, Meggan and Hazel. A measure of their success-playing in front of 25,000 at Glasgow’s Hogmany in 2004 with Snow Patrol! I remember a particularly vibrant and foot tapping night at the battle of the bands in the Scotia bar in Glasgow and celebrating their win with a pint of Guinness.

Since then, Kate has continued to keep life interesting; she is a singer, songwriter, she has written a book of poems and has a novel in the making. She spent 9 years teaching French, German and Music and more recently she is a radio presenter with Dunoon Community Radio. She is a Top 200 UK chart singer (check out Kate’s newly released song Caroline below). At the age of 40, in 2019, she became a MUM to Alexander….

Kate and Alexander live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world on the North Coast of Scotland.

But behind the scenes of these positive images, Kate has battled with a binge eating disorder pretty much since puberty. I remember when she first spoke about it on FB and thinking wow, I had no idea…

Get touch if you want to follow up anything from this episode-
Kathryn- [email protected]
Kate- [email protected]

Links 

Kate's website
https://katereid.online

Kate's single Caroline
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/id1570666345?app=itunes

The Midden
https://www.facebook.com/themidden

OnTrack Devon
https://ontrackretreats.co.uk/

Crunch Nutrition
 https://www.crunchnutrition.co.uk/

The Binge Eating Therapist
 https://thebingeeatingtherapist.com/ 

Headspace
https://www.headspace.com

Elaine Kordys shares her Truthbook with honesty and humour. We hear Elaine's reflections on two lots of lock down homeschooling & managing her daughters new found autonomy; parenting with Rheumatoid Arthritis (Arthur as she calls it); the immense pride you can feel as a parent as well as those  Cruella Di Vil parenting moments.  And we finish off with some potty talk!

Elaine is from Helensburgh in Scotland (my home town) and we became friends when Elaine's daughter Molly and my son Struan were  babies and shared the same childminder.  They were kindred spirits until school age and they went their separate ways. 

Elaine followed her passion in helping and working with people with Dementia by starting an MSc in dementia studies in 2019 and setting up and running a wonderful series of videos of creative movement for the aged and people with dementia,  called Spin Turn Movements. The videos have been a family affair involving her daughters Robyn (7yrs) and Molly (10yrs) and her husband Myles (seen strumming the banjo in the background).

Her most recent video,  April 21, was a personal one, because it marked 10 years since Elaine was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  Arthur as she calls it, has shifted, challenged and tested Elaine.  She has now found a way to live with it, after doing a course in Holistic Health Coaching. 

Please reach out to Elaine (via her spin turn movement FB page) if you are experiencing similar challenges with arthritis or other types of chronic pain. As well as a wealth of experience and empathy you can be sure she will bring a smile to your face. 

Spin Turn Movement
Deeper Yoga Thrive Course
Deeper Yoga & Thrive on Facebook
Elaine's testimonial for Deeper Yoga Thrive Course

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Rosie Butler shares her truthbook about what really went on behind the scenes of what looked like an idyllic family camping trip, being a third culture child, having a natural affinity with swans and the desire to be independent from her family, just for a week...

Rosie is a fellow Brit in Penguin, Tasmania, hence we became instant friends. I asked Rosie to come on Truthbook after she shared a photo of a family camping trip, that looked awesome but later over a coffee, she told me what really happened...

Rosie also has a lot going on behind the scenes. At the age of 16 after, she decided to leave her parent’s home in Dubai and go to boarding school in Durham, England, to repatriate her roots.  After some colourful boarding school and uni antics she passed Occupational Therapy with a 1st. At the age of 21, she decided she was going to live in Australia. Tasmania offered the best job & visa opportunities, so she found herself living in a wee town called Penguin, (that we both now call home). Shortly after arriving in Tassie, she met Andrew, her now husband, who she has two children with, aged 5 and 3. Having had enough of working for health services, and with her ability to make bold decisions, in 2018 she set up her own OT private practice; Penguin OT. And her physio husband has recently joined this business- Penguin Physio! ( folk from Penguin love their town name and name everything after it!). 

Links;
 https://www.penguinot.com.au

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On this episode, we have a clinical psychologist interviewing a clinical psychologist both of whom are a little bit daunted by this prospect, hoping that our mutual feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’ is somewhat reassuring…

Louise, brings her infectious passion and wisdom to talking about step parenting, the grief when a family is separated, the difficult emotions that come with facing climate change and how we help our kids take action and not become overly anxious. And we ponder what it would be like to swap roles and be a man for the day…until we got lost and neither of us wanted to ask for ‘directions”…

Louise Shepherd is an experienced Clinical Psychologist and director of The Sydney ACT Centre (ACT-Acceptance and Commitment Therapy more info on below).  She is also a mum and step mum to three girls aged 16, 9 and 7. It is her girls that have driven her passion for improving support and knowledge about step families and an active interest in climate action, acutely aware of the world they are growing up in. When I was put in touch with Louise, through a psychologist in Brisbane, she was keen to come on Truthbook, to share her experience in the hope that it will resonate with and help others. It has been a pleasure getting to know Louise as we have prepared for this podcast.

Links…
The Sydney ACT Centre
Podcast on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy- Psychologists Off The Clock Top Five Regrets of the Dying Blog by Bronnie Ware
Outrage + Optimism- How to Face the Mess we’re in without going Crazy with Joanna Macy
Project Drawdown-The World’s Leading Resource for Climate Solutions
2040 Film

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My ‘Truthbook’ conversation with this episode’s guest, Peter, started over a few beers at our kids class get together at the local bowls club. I mentioned my podcast to Peter as we regaled how toxic social media had been during lock down. Peter was immediately engaged, eager to share his behind the scenes, in the hope that his ‘Truthbook’ would reach out and help others. Peter works in Risk Assessment- an asset when it came to preparing for a pandemic, a hinderance when it came to managing feelings he had no control over. Peter and his wife Miledy (which can also sound like he’s saying ‘My Lady’!) have three kids spanning 8 to 13 years. 

We launch straight into conversation about when he first realised all was not well emotionally and that he needed professional help…Peter got his confession in early so he was let off the hook at the end! 

If anything in this podcast has led you to think you may also benefit from help managing sad or depressed feelings or thoughts of not wanting to be here, reach out to friends and family or seek advice from your GP or a mental health trained professional. You may also find these apps helpful…

Headspace

Smiling mind

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Made you think? If you have comments you’d like to share- pop them in a review, facebook or email. I love hearing from you. 

Or even better, come on Truthbook- your story of how you have navigated family life, will inspire and become part of someone else’s family survival guide.