The Dark Side with Verity

Most high-achievers don't identify as stressed. They identify as driven, focused, and switched on. But underneath the performance, something else is running, a nervous system locked in chronic activation, quietly accumulating a cost that doesn't show up until it has to.In this episode, Verity Coonan breaks down the neuroscience of chronic vigilance: what the HPA axis is actually doing when the stress response never fully deactivates, what chronically elevated cortisol does to the immune system, sleep, memory consolidation, and the dopamine system and why the high-achiever stops feeling the wins long before they stop achieving them.She also explains why understanding the pattern is never quite enough to resolve it and what the research says about where the real work has to happen instead.For anyone who functions brilliantly and feels nothing. Who lies awake at 3am with a brain that refuses to stop. Who has read all the books, done all the work, and still can't switch off.🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

You've done the work. You've built something real. So why does your body feel like it's shutting down right when the next level is right in front of you?This isn't a mindset problem. It isn't fear of success. It's a nervous system event — and the mechanism is the same whether you're about to close an eight-figure deal or finally raise your prices.In this episode, Verity breaks down what's actually happening in the body at the threshold of expansion, why the most driven people on the planet still freeze, and what separates the ones who cross it from the ones who retreat.You'll learn:— Why your nervous system treats your next level like a threat— The three states that show up right before a big decision— What regulated people do differently (it's not willpower)— A 3-minute breathwork practice for any high-stakes momentThe practice mentioned in this episode is inside the VIDYA app. Start free → verityjocoonan.co/vidya-wellness-club-app🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

The wellness industry has a problem nobody wants to say out loud. People are getting certified to facilitate breathwork in a single weekend, and people are getting hurt.In this episode, Verity walks through what a 14-week trauma-aware certification actually covers versus what a weekend program leaves out. CO2 tolerance. Polyvagal theory. Contraindications and screening. What to do when someone dissociates, panics, or goes into a freeze response mid-session. The science and safety that most certifications skip entirely.She recently watched a "certified" facilitator tell a woman in full tetany to push through because "the trauma was leaving." It wasn't trauma leaving. It was a CO2 crash. That moment is why this episode exists.If you've got a certificate and a tight feeling in your chest, this one is for you. It doesn't mean you stop. It means you train deeper.Cohort 1 of VIDYA Certification closes Saturday midnight AEST. Comment TRAINING on the episode post and Verity will send you the page.Topics:What a weekend breathwork certification actually includes (and what it dangerously leaves out)Why you cannot learn clinical safety skills in three daysThe real risks: tetany, dissociation, dorsal vagal shutdown, flashbacksWhat VIDYA's 14 phases cover, from respiratory science to supervisionHow to know if you actually know enough to hold a room safely🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

The breath is the only autonomic function you can consciously control which makes it the most direct access point you have to your nervous system. In this episode, I'm talking to the part of you that's a little skeptical. The part that thinks breathwork is just fancy deep breathing with a playlist.No woo. Just science.We go deep on the mechanisms most certifications skip: why CO2 tolerance matters more than oxygen, how your vagal tone is trainable, what's actually happening in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex during a session, and why emotional release, tetany and somatic waves are signs the nervous system is working not breaking.I'll walk you through the BOLT test so you can measure your own CO2 tolerance in real time, break down the breath styles I use with clients (slow coherent, box, 4-7-8, conscious connected, breath holds) and explain why a complete facilitator toolkit requires all of them.This is the episode I wish every Breathwork student and every skeptical client had access to. If you're a facilitator, this is the standard. If you're a practitioner, this is the mechanism. If you're curious, welcome in.In this episode:Why breath is the only direct intervention for the nervous systemCO2 tolerance and why breathing more doesn't mean more oxygenThe BOLT test, measure yours as you listenVagal tone, HRV, and why your baseline is trainableWhat breathwork actually does to the amygdala, prefrontal cortex and default mode networkWhy emotional release happens and why it needs skilled facilitationThe breath styles every facilitator needs in their toolkit🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

There's a version of the wellness industry that genuinely changes lives. And there's a version that quietly exploits the very thing it claims to heal.This episode isn't about fake gurus or obvious over-claiming. It's about something far more subtle and far more common. It's about what happens when sharing your healing starts driving your healing. When your worst moments become your best performing posts. When vulnerability stops being an act of courage and starts being a growth strategy.Verity goes there. Fully.In this episode she unpacks:How authenticity became currency and what that actually costs youThe moment your audience starts shaping your healing instead of the other way aroundWhy the most regulated, ethical practitioners are often outperformed by people bleeding publicly and what to do about itClient stories, consent, and where social proof crosses into exploitationThe difference between sharing from your healed place versus sharing from an open woundWhy "you're allowed to feel good and still have something to say" might be the most radical thing you can modelThis one is for every coach, facilitator, and wellness practitioner navigating the tension between building a brand and staying true to why they started.Your audience is not your processing container. But your story? Still one of the most powerful things you have.🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

Grief doesn’t end, it expands.In this deeply personal episode, Verity Jo Coonan shares a raw reflection on living with grief fourteen years after the death of her partner. She speaks to what it means to experience life “backwards,” how loss reshapes priorities, and why acceptance isn’t about letting go, it’s about learning to hold more.Verity shares a powerful dream that marked a turning point in her grief: imagining her partner grown, happy, and moved on, and how that dream became an unexpected moment of permission to move forward herself.This episode explores grief through the lens of the Nervous System, Breathwork, dreams, and daily practices like meditation and journaling, reminding us that healing doesn’t come from pushing pain away, but from meeting it with curiosity, compassion, and presence.If you’ve ever felt like you needed permission to move on, this episode is for you.🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan speaks openly about one of the most important and often avoided conversations in the breathwork space: safety.- Not safety as a checkbox.- Not safety as a certification.But safety as something that is lived, embodied, and practiced.Drawing from personal experience, facilitation work, and years of holding people through deep emotional states, Verity explores why being “trauma-informed” isn’t something you learn once, it’s something you become.This conversation challenges the belief that technique equals readiness, and instead invites facilitators, coaches, and space-holders to reflect on their own nervous system, self-awareness, and capacity to truly meet another human.Inside this episode:Why certification alone doesn’t make you a safe facilitatorWhat trauma-informed facilitation actually requiresWhy technique should never come before nervous-system safetyHow lived experience shapes real leadership and presenceThe human element that can’t be taught only embodiedThis is an honest, grounded conversation for anyone working in healing, coaching, or Breathwork and for anyone who has ever trusted another person with their vulnerability.Because transformation doesn’t happen through methods alone.It happens through presence, humility, and safety.🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

Motherhood, mum rage, guilt, grief and… Breathwork.In this episode, Verity sits down with shadow work + Breathwork coach Steph Beers, mum of three, to talk honestly about what really happens behind closed doors in modern motherhood.They dive into:Mum rage, shame and yelling (and why you’re not a “bad mum”)Gentle parenting vs reality at 5pmWhy your kids aren’t attacking you, they’re learning boundariesHow shadow work + Breathwork (“shadow breath sessions”) help regulate your nervous systemSteph’s journey through loss, sobriety and finding herself again in motherhoodIf you’ve ever put the kids to bed, scrolled their photos and cried because you felt guilty for how the day went… this one will feel like a deep exhale. 🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.Connect & Train with Verity● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @thevidyawellnessclub.app● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity