This week Cath returns to the topic of meeting our needs and how much this can involve when we have not had our needs attended to or met in childhood. She speaks about how many of us experience shame in relation to our needs and how impactful this is. Cath speaks to the nuance around meeting needs, how needs may shift over a healing journey and she shares a couple of anecdotes from her own life.

In episode 136 Cath is joined by author, coach and podcast host Mara Glatzel.

This is a rich conversation centered on needs and how we can make space for them, illustrated with stories from Mara’s life. We also discuss ambition, grappling with achievement, choice and the decisions we need to make about how we actually spend our precious lives. 

In episode 135 Cath was joined by coach and author Tamu Thomas. We had a joyful and generative discussion covering so much: overworking, why we do it, how we have to redefine success for ourselves and live in line with our values, envy and comparison, friendship and much more.

In this episode Cath was joined by Julianne Boutaleb. We discussed fertility journeys, fantasies of ourselves and our babies, how a fertility journey can impact what we believe we are allowed to feel/think and experience in our mothering journeys and so much more. Julianne used poetry to deepen our understanding of the complexities inherent in motherhood and we discussed the importance of right brain to right brain interactions and more!

In this wide ranging episode Cath focuses on parental burnout and talks about how we are more vulnerable to this if we have childhood trauma and why. She references recent research into this topic discussing what it is, risk factors for parental burnout, why it matters, how we can conceive of it through a nervous system lens and how we can support ourselves.

In this episode Cath shares that she received a diagnosis of ADHD and Autism in 2024 and some of the reasons she pursued this. She shared how she is integrating this and how she was tending to herself and meeting her needs ahead of the diagnosis. Cath speaks about executive functioning, what it is, how this may be a struggle and she shares specific anecdotes from her own life about needs, struggles in mothering and struggles with time blindness and how she supports and accommodates herself with these. Would you like more of this sort of content?

In episode 131 of Grow Yourself Up Cath was joined by Dr. Jenny Turner. Jenny and Cath had a wide ranging and rich discussion covering the following: Jenny's path to motherhood and the birth of her son, shame, relationships, the challenges of shifting cycles in parenting, when perimenopause and postpartum collide and how we often have to dig really deep in motherhood and much more.

In this episode Cath was joined by Dr Jodi Pawluski, they talked about Jodi’s path to motherhood, her postpartum time, how she prepared for this time and how her own parents’ support impacted her.

In this episode Cath is joined by Occupational Therapist and Conscious Parent Coach Maggie Viers. Maggie shares her own growth and awakening in motherhood. She talks about how becoming a mother was a catalyst for her own growth and healing.

Episode 128 ponders the question 'Am I failing my kids' and uses an attachment analogy to explain what that would actually look like. She uses details from her own life to explain how we all have periods of challenge, disconnection, stress and how we can reframe this. Instead of using black and white language to describe our experiences and saying we are bad/shit, Cath suggests how we might conceive of things instead.

In this episode Cath is joined by Yvonne Smyth. Yvonne is a Conscious Parent Coach and a Child Advocate. She's a single mum who co-parents her boys of 12 and 13 and she lives in Northern Ireland.

Cath was joined by Flora Cruft for this episode. Flora Cruft is a poet, a picture book writer, an existential psychotherapist and a creativity coach. She runs her own online therapy and coaching practice, South West Therapy. Her debut poetry book I am a Spider Mother was published by The Mum Poem Press in 2022. Flora won the Books that Help 2023 picture book mentorship with Little Tiger Press, and she loves to write, sing, bake and enjoy loud kitchen discos with her twin daughters.

Cath was joined by Kendra Wilde this week. They talked all about how to keep our sanity intact in parenting when our children are struggling in some way. Kendra shared about the 'why' behind (Wild Peace for Parents) and how she was pushed to a place of burnout on her parenting journey. This conversation is loaded with self compassion and wisdom from someone who has kids in their twenties, we hope you enjoy it.

In this solo episode Cath uses her concept 'The Good Girl Grid' to explain how women are held down in society and how this complicates our ability to own our own internal and motherhood experience. She talks about the idea of 'being on our own sides' and what that means and how that might look in practise (using anecdotes from her own life).

Cath was joined by psychotherapist and coach Kate Merrick this week. 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.

In this episode Cath speaks to how much our own inner child may be triggered in parenting and makes some suggestions about what to hold in mind to support yourself.

In this deeply personal episode Cath reflects on what often trips us up when we spend long periods of time with our kids, particularly when we have childhood trauma. She highlights some of the key issues we deal with when we have experienced trauma and gives some tips and suggestions for how you can make the most of time spent with your kids (while holding onto your sanity).

In episode 120 of Grow Yourself Up Cath was joined by Clint Davis. Cath and Clint talked about culture and patriarchy, how Clint parents differently to how he was patented and how he continues to grow himself up in fatherhood. Cath and Clint talked about Clint’s book and how the conversations you have with your kids when they are young provide an important basis for later communication and much more.

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. 

It can feel really confusing as a cycle breaking parent learning to hold space for our child's feelings without taking responsibility for them. Often there is entanglement where we may feel we need our children to be a certain way so we can feel ok. Cath speaks to all of this and the overlap around holding space for feelings, stress responses and getting more comfortable with the displeasure of our children. She uses examples from her life to bring the points alive.