In this episode Cath is joined by Dr. Kathrin Stauffer for a rich and varied discussion about emotional neglect, what causes this, how we might know we have been emotionally neglected, the interplay with narcissistic family dynamics, what constitutes narcissistic traits and how narcissism and perfectionism can play out in motherhood. 

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.

In this episode Cath speaks about emotional neglect, some of what that involves and how it presents when we are an adult. She speaks about the complexity of holding space for emotions when that was never done for us. Please be gentle with yourself as you practise this skill.

In this episode Cath shares an anecdote from her own life about how something her kids wanted to do triggered shame and the desire to people please and what happened. She talks about people pleasing and fawning and the actual nature of people pleasing and what it is really about.

In this episode Cath and Dr. Herman talked about trauma and recovery, justice for survivors, complex trauma, stages of recovery/healing, what helps in the postpartum period according to research and Dr Herman's incredible work in the field of trauma, justice, repair, healing and recovery.

In this episode Cath talks about moving away from panic and urgency, the complexity of healing chronic stress and how everything in our body is linked and how she's moving forward in this in her own life.

In this episode Cath uses Polyvagal Theory to shine a light on how discombobulating things in parenting can be (and why), the shift in being the default parent and how this relates to our nervous systems. She talks about how we can learn to send ourselves signs of safety and how we can use PV to support our families.

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.

In this episode Cath speaks about how tricky first times can be and how many of these may happen in a holiday (and in our children’s lives) and how we can support ourselves and our families with this.

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.