Grow Yourself Up

In this episode Cath talks about how many of us go into peak fantasy at this time of year and set ourselves up to have a tricky time. She talks about getting clear about what your fantasy is and to notice that and stop comparing to it.Cath talks about planning ahead to set your family up for success in the holiday time and what that might look like. She also talks about stress responses, recognising these and how you might support the various stress responses. We will be back on Tuesday 6th Jan 2026.The workshop mentioned in the podcast both last week and this week, 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 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.

Therapy is necessary for many of us as we heal from childhood trauma and therapy is typically 1 hour a week. That leaves 167 other hours where we may be depressed, anxious, spinning out, criticising ourselves, living in fear or stressed about our own emotions. In this episode Cath shares some of the books that have helped her move from living in fear, books that have helped dealing with grief, despair, relationship patterns and books that have helped with compassion, understanding addiction and more. This episode contains personal stories from Cath to illustrate these points.Cath also talks about mirroring and containment and how many of us have to learn to do this for ourselves when we have not had this sufficiently done in childhood. Let us know if you would like more episodes like this.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 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.

Cath was joined by art psychotherapist Gerardine Boyle in this episode. Cath and Gerardine talked about how generational trauma impacts families, the legacy of emotional neglect, what is unspoken, shame and the complexity of unwinding functional freeze in the system. Gerardine generously shared her own stories of generational trauma and what she believes has impacted her on her journey. We talked briefly about primitive reflexes and how the retention of these can be extremely impactful for nervous system and mental health. Gerardine Boyle is an Art Psychotherapist who has worked for over twenty years in Adult Psychiatry in the HSE (health service in Ireland) and in private practice. She is also trained in the Diamond Approach, the Hearing Voices Approach and she was part of a specialised HSE team delivering Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) for seven years, supporting individuals with high levels of emotional dysregulation. Gerardine trained as a Transforming Touch Practitioner with Dr Stephen Terrell world expert in working with developmental trauma at the first training workshop in Ireland (in Cork in 2019) and this training has been life-changing for her and her clients. She continues to marvel at how supporting the nervous system powerfully lends itself to healing on all levels. Supporting the nervous system means the client, over time gets to know and trust their own nervous system better and shame is addressed on a somatic level. Gerardine's website is https://morninglighttherapy.ie/She works in person and offers intensives, which is multiple therapy sessions over a number of days (with client staying locally in east Cork, Ireland). She also delivers the therapy on line via zoom as well.The link to the training in Dublin with Dr Stephen Terrell is, https://www.austinattach.com/transforming-the-experience-based-brain/dublin-ireland/ and this training welcomes parents, therapists and individuals on their own healing journey.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.