Grow Yourself Up

Lisa Marchiano is an award-winning author, podcast host, and certified Jungian analyst. She is the author of three books published by Sounds True, Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself, The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire and Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams. She is the cocreator and cohost of the popular depth psychology podcast This Jungian Life, and has a private practice in Philadelphia. Cath and Lisa talked about Lisa’s motherhood journey, how she has grown herself up, the need for women to grow up and let go of innocence, self abandonment and pleasing others. This maturation process and claiming all parts of our feminine energy (not just that which is kind or sweet) is essential to be able to protect ourselves and our kids and live a full adult life. You can connect with Lisa on the links listed below.Instagram: @lisamarchianoOther web links LisaMarchiano.comspinningstraw.comthisjungianlife.comIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cath is joined by psychotherapist and coach Kate Merrick. Cath and Kate talked about Kate's path to motherhood, her lineage, how her ancestors turned up to support her journey, personal power in the postpartum time, advocating for our children, medical herbalism and much more.Kate is a mother, an embodied gestalt psychotherapist, transformational coach and a home herbalist and she is dedicated to guiding women on their journey's of healing and transformation. Kate specialises in the holistic treatment of childhood developmental trauma, ancestral trauma and Post-Traumatic Growth, empowering womento reclaim their inner authority, their innate wisdom, their cyclical rhythm and to deepen into loving compassionate relationships with themselves.As well as working in one to one practice, Kate also runs women’s circles that centre around psychological and spiritual growth work. In addition, she now runs Rushmead Farm, her “garden cauldron”, making organic therapeutic products from her Somerset herb garden; natural elixirs that support our minds, bodies and spirits.You can connect with Kate on Instagram below@the.embodiedwoman@rushmeadfarmWebsite: www.katemerrickpsychotherapy.co.ukIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath was joined by Dr Emma Offord. Cath and Emma talked about Emma's path to motherhood, childhood trauma, how Emma tends to and advocates for herself and her children and sensory needs and how these are so important to understand, particularly in the context of families/food/parenting. We talked about autism, ADHD, neurodivergence and trauma, late diagnosis, OCD and how Emma experiences OCD and Emma talked about unmasking and how she advocates for herself in order to tend to her needs.Dr Emma Offord is a clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Life, a neuroaffirming practice supporting neurodivergent children, parents, and adults. Divergent Life offers diagnostic assessments for autism and ADHD, alongside therapy, coaching, and group programmes that centre the whole person rather than deficit-based models.Emma is passionate about challenging medicalised approaches to neurodivergence and naming the systemic harms that arise when difference is misunderstood. Her work helps people understand their nervous systems, developmental histories, and strengths in context, with a particular focus on breaking cycles of shame, survival, and self-blame in parenting and family life.She brings both clinical expertise and lived experience as a late-identified neurodivergent woman and parent, shaped by complex developmental trauma and a deep understanding of how these layers interact across generations.Emma hosts This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast and offers group programmes including the Neurodivergent Identity Programme (NDIP), Nervous System Reset (NSR), and Empowered Parenting.Instagram: @divergentlivesWebsite: divergentlife.co.uk If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath speaks about how control is such a key coping strategy for so many of us and how this rears its head at times of stress (like early motherhood) and in new situations. Control is not the solution we think it is and Cath shares a recent incident from her own life showing how control is so seductive and seems to be the answer, but really it is an illusion.If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this deeply touching episode Cath was joined by attachment expert and psychotherapist Anne Power. Anne shared about her own attachment journey, some of her childhood story, boarding school, brief explanations about the different attachment styles, attachment in couple relationships and attachment, grief and repair in the parent child relationship. This episode will help you feel supported and seen.Anne Power first qualified at The Bowlby Centre, and later trained at WPF, Tavistock Relationships and Relate. She has worked in various settings but now works online with couples and parent-with-adult-child pairs. She has written many academic papers and two books; all of these use attachment theory to understand relationships and clinical experience. Her book Contented Couples is based on interviews with eighteen long-term couples from different traditions, including arranged marriage. It explains couple dynamics in an accessible way and describes how partners’ complementary attachment patterns can work well together.Anne posts on Instagram @and_attachment with content for people who want to understand attachment in their relationships. Her TEDx talk ‘Attachment theory is the science of love’, also addresses this theme and has been watched by over a million people.You can watch the TEDx talk yourself by clicking here.Anne has also recently finished writing a novel about a couple counsellor and the diverse couples who come to see her. Do watch for news and publication of her forthcoming novel on her Instagram page, or on her website where you can also download free PDFs on attachment themes at https://www.contentedcouples.com/If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this loving and practical episode Cath responds to a listener question about how to manage generational clashes around the approach to dealing with emotions and how to start conversations around this. She reads the listener's letter and looks at the query from multiple points of view.Cath addresses common contexts in terms of generational patterns/clashes, points out how much new information we have these days, she addresses perfectionism, anxiety and control, different approaches we might take to addressing this, and she makes some practical suggestions to support intergenerational relationships.Cath speaks about parenting as gardening and uses this analogy to provide comfort and a useful framework to hold in mind as we work on shifting/breaking cycles in our families.The book Cath reads from is called 'The Gardener and the Carpenter' by Alison Gopnik.The 'Brene Brown' TED talk can be found here: https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerabilityIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath starts to speak about some of the key points of attachment theory, why this is important for us as adults and starting to cultivate a sense of being fully self supporting of ourselves. With Reparenting we are working to cultivate a relationship with all our selves and to tend gently to these parts. She uses an example of a boundary from her own life to demonstrate self protection (even if others disagree).If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath reflects on how rage may be one of the most common experiences in motherhood (particularly if we have had childhood trauma). She speaks about getting to know our own rage, the shame we might feel and how that might derail us and trying to understand what our rage might be protecting us from. She uses one of the books she talked about last week to springboard into this conversation and highlights psychological patterns by telling a couple of anecdotes.The workshop mentioned in the podcast, can be found here: www.cathcounihan.com/triggers-workshopIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 151 Cath was joined by Kimberley Olliff-Cooper. They talked about progressive education, neurodivergence, realising how this impacted our own school experience, the possibility for changing schools and making them more fit for children, healing and growing in motherhood and understanding emotional unavailability, trauma and addiction. We also talked about changing educational systems and the exciting work ThriveNow is doing. Kimberley is a teacher, education consultant, speaker, and co-founder of ThriveNow, a not-for-profit organisation opening a progressive secondary school in September 2026, alongside a Learning Hub designed to share all the assets of the ThriveNow Framework.With a Master’s in Education and over 25 years’ experience in student-centred learning, Kimberley believes that schools should be places of wellbeing, creativity, and deep human and planetary connection.Through ThriveNow, she collaborates with schools and organisations around the world to co-create inclusive, inquiry-led, and climate-conscious learning environments. Her work centres on four key pillars: thriving communities, inquiry-led pedagogy, transdisciplinary curriculum, and multi-modal formative assessment.Website: https://thrive-now-org.webflow.io/Substack: https://thrivenowedu.substack.com/Meta handles: @thrivenoweducationLinkedin (personal), Kimberley Olliff Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kocooper/Linkedin (ThriveNow): https://www.linkedin.com/company/thrivenoweducation If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 149 Cath was joined by Suzy Reading. Cath and Suzy talked about tending to ourselves in winter, making the most of the seasons while holding onto sanity, people pleasing, what Suzy means when she talks about being selfish and all about self advocacy. Suzy talks about her 7 steps to taking back your power and peace and you can find much more detail about this in Suzy's newest book 'How to be Selfish' which releases on the 20th of November 2025.Suzy Reading is a Chartered Psychologist and one of the UK’s leading self-care and self-advocacy experts. She has three decades of experience in the health and wellbeing industry, drawing on her qualifications in yoga and personal training, together with psychology, to empower people with sustainable healthy lifestyle habits. Suzy has a special interest in helping people heal their relationship with ‘self’. She is a monthly columnist for Top Sante Magazine; the Psychology Expert for Neom Organics; the Wellbeing Ambassador for BABTAC and is a founding member of the ‘Nourish’ app. She is the author of The Little Book of Self-Care, The Self-Care Revolution, Stand Tall Like a Mountain, Self-care for Tough Times, This Book Will (Help) Make You Happy, And Breathe, Sit to Get Fit, Rest to Reset and Self-care for Winter. How to Be Selfish is hot of the press.If you wish to follow Suzy, she's on Instagram @suzyreadingIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath was joined by Dr Kathrin Stauffer. They chatted about how the body remembers in multiple ways and how not getting what we need in childhood impacts multiple systems in our bodies (not just the nervous system). When we are on a healing journey the expression of sadness and grieving are an important part of this journey. However, it may be that we are blocked from crying by our defences. We dived into this and talked about food, body shape, body psychotherapy, the the function of comfort eating, shame and much more. Kathrin Stauffer PhD, UKCP Registered Body Psychotherapist, is the author of ‘Emotional Neglect and the Adult in Therapy: Lifelong Consequences to a Lack of Early Attunement’ (W.W. Norton 2020).Kathrin was born and educated in Switzerland. Originally a research biochemist, she retrained at the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy. She lives in Cambridge in the UK and works in private practice as a body and humanistic psychotherapist, EMDR practitioner, trainer and supervisor. She previously wrote ‘Anatomy & Physiology for Psychotherapists: connecting Body & Soul’ (W.W. Norton 2010). Currently she is the President of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy EABP.You can contact her via her website which is www.stauffer.co.uk.If you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Cath was joined by therapist and coach Catherine Topham Sly. Catherine and Cath talked about adult love relationships, conflict, couples therapy, learning to communicate, how the mental load after kids can cause conflict and much more.Catherine Topham Sly is the UK’s leading expert in relationships after kids. Founder of Insight & Connection, she's a BACP accredited couples therapist and relationship transformation coach. Catherine is the creator of the 'Love Happy Live Free' method, a unique personal development and relationship skills training programme. Catherine works with both individuals and couples who want to develop the mindset and skills to have loving, satisfying, joyful relationships, so they can enjoy their happiest family life.You can find Catherine on Instagram @insightandconnectionIf you're enjoying this podcast. Please leave a review and rate the podcast, this really helps others to find it.To sign up for the journal prompts and Nurture.Heal.Grow (on Substack) please head to www.cathcounihan.com or @cathcounihan on Instagram. Follow Cath on social media here:Instagram: @cathcounihanSubstack: Nurture.Heal.GrowFacebook: Cath Counihan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.