Katriona O’Sullivan : Real Take

From Ready To Be Real by Síle Seoige by Síle Seoige

May 26, 2026 · 17 min

About this episode

Katriona O’Sullivan shares her journey from a childhood of poverty and hardship to becoming a professor and advocate for inclusion and education.

This week’s Real Take, is a powerful moment from my recent conversation with Professor of Psychology and bestselling author Dr. Katriona O’Sullivan. Katriona speaks about growing up feeling deeply unloved and the many ways she felt hungry in childhood. Despite experiencing extreme poverty, addiction, abuse and homelessness growing up, Katriona went on to completely transform her life. Today, she uses her voice, her position and her privilege to help lift others up and advocate for inclusion, opportunity and education. She also reflects on what helps her now, the importance of affirmations and learning how to value yourself with greater compassion. Born in Coventry to Irish parents, Katriona later moved to Dublin where she entered Trinity College through the access programme and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. She is now a professor at Maynooth University, is married to Dave, has three sons; John, Seán and Tadhg and is also a proud grandmother. You can hear my full conversation with Katriona now on Ready to be Real, where we discuss body image, hypervigilance, self-worth, privilege, diet culture, life under patriarchy and Katriona’s powerful new book Hungry: A Biography of my…

People in this episode

Host: Síle Seoige

Guest: Katriona O’Sullivan

Topics covered

mental health
personal transformation
advocacy
education
self-worth
body image
poverty

Keywords

Katriona O’Sullivan
Síle Seoige
mental health
self-worth
advocacy
body image
Hungry: A Biography of my Body
education
poverty
transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Trinity College, Maynooth University

Books & works: Hungry: A Biography of my Body

Places: Coventry, Dublin