Alex Williams was eight years old when his mum was murdered by his stepfather.

In this episode, Alex shares what it’s really like to grow up after extreme trauma, how it shaped his nervous system, identity, and relationships, and why “healing” is often misunderstood.

Alex is an NHS mental health practitioner with over 20 years of experience and a suicide and self-harm prevention trainer. He brings both lived experience and frontline insight into what actually helps people after childhood trauma, and what doesn’t.

We talk about:

Growing up after domestic abuse and parental homicide

Why safety matters more than therapy in the early stages of trauma

The long-term impact of unprocessed grief in childhood

Compassion fatigue in mental health and helping professions

Why forgiveness is not required for healing

How the mental health system labels people instead of holding them

Phone addiction, numbing, and modern forms of escape

Meaning, survival, and choosing a life after trauma

This is a raw, honest conversation about loss, resilience, and what it means to live a good life after something unimaginable.

If you grew up in dysfunction, abuse, or emotional neglect, this episode will likely resonate.

Find Alex here -

https//instagram.com/thealexjwilliams

https//tiktok.com/thealexjwilliams

https//www.linkedin.com/thealexjwilliams

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trauma doesn’t just live in your head. It can shut down your voice too. Vocal coach Claire Delaney joins me to talk C-PTSD, nervous system survival, toxic industry culture, and finding your voice again.

"Claire is a vocal coach who works with singers and actors whose voices have to hold up under real-world pressure. She’s coached performers across the West End, Broadway, and the National Theatre, and has worked for Italia Conti and ITV’s Mamma Mia: I Have a Dream.

Her approach is trauma-aware and shaped by the belief that you can’t separate a voice from the person using it. Her work blends science, psychology, and practical technique, with a lens shaped by lived-experience. She helps performers rebuild the physical, emotional, and technical foundations of their voice, aiming for long-term reliability, confidence, and self-trust to make singing actually enjoyable again."

Instagram: @clairedelaney.vocalcoach

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In this episode I’m joined by Jared Shurin, a strategic communications specialist who works in counter extremism, violent radicalisation, misinformation, and social cohesion. We dig into the psychology of people who reach the point of extreme violence, why it often starts with the loss of trust, hope and faith, and how communication can pull people back from the edge.

We talk about:

How people become vulnerable to radicalisation

The link between extremism, suicidality, and hopelessness

Why most people sit in the exhausted moderate middle

The role of belonging, community, and agency in prevention

How governments, NGOs and everyday people can reduce social harm

What actually works when trying to talk someone down from violent thinking

This episode explores the real human drivers behind extremism, how isolation fuels dangerous behaviour, and why rebuilding local community may be our best defence.

Find Jared -

https://extra-fox.com/

newsletter - https://raptorvelocity.beehiiv.com/

https://www.instagram.com/straycarnivore/

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What if those moments where you’re convinced you’re a horrible person who “shouldn’t even be here” aren’t proof that you’re broken… but that you’re in what my guest calls a shame storm?

In this episode I’m joined by Melinda Delisle, MS LCCE – clinical nutritionist, former childbirth educator, and someone who has spent years navigating intense emotional dysregulation herself. We talk honestly about what it actually feels like inside a shame storm, why some of the most popular “healing tools” can make it worse, and how food, supplements and nervous system health quietly drive so much of our emotional world.

We get into:

- The difference between a shame swamp, a shame spiral and a full-blown shame storm

- Why gratitude lists, mindfulness and “just be present” advice can feel like gaslighting when you’re in survival mode

- How trauma, high sensitivity and people-pleasing set us up for chronic hypervigilance

- The link between nutrition, B vitamins, SSRIs and emotional dysregulation

-- Mistaking familiarity for safety – and why so many of us feel unsafe even with “nice” people

- Self-parenting, accountability and facing the ways our own dysregulation can make us the “toxic” one at home

Melinda also shares a free upcoming 4-week program she’s creating to help people build awareness, have better conversations around triggers and start finding their way out of constant dysregulation.

Substack: https://melindadelisle.substack.com/

Free 4-week program: https://melindadelisle.com/foundation/

Instagram: @melindadelisle

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melinda-delisle/

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Children with a parent in prison are some of the most invisible kids in the country. In this episode, I sit down with Sarah (founder of charity Children Heard and Seen) and Felix (communications officer) to talk about what really happens to those children when a parent goes to prison, and why nobody is officially keeping track of them.

We talk about:

How Children Heard and Seen supports kids in the community with mentoring, groups and one to one support

The shocking reality of children left completely alone at home when a parent is sent to prison

Why there is no national data on which children have a parent in prison

The role of media, stigma and vigilante attacks on already vulnerable families

Why support must be child led, not focused on “fixing” the parent or forcing contact

The first ever Children with a Parent in Prison Day (25th November) and the national conference

If this episode moved you, please share it, talk about it with someone, and check out Children Heard and Seen to see how you can support or spread the word.

Link to the conference:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hear-me-see-me-parental-imprisonment-lived-experience-conference-tickets-1700692921309?aff=oddtdtcreator

Link to our website:

https://childrenheardandseen.co.uk/

Lived Experience Blogs written by adults who had a parent in prison as a child:

https://childrenheardandseen.co.uk/hidden-voices/

#parentalimprisonment

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Josh talks about:

Why the phrase “toxic person” makes some people more uncomfortable than abuse itself

The difference between “people doing toxic things” and people who are mostly harmful

How spiritual bypassing and “it’s all trauma” language can erase accountability

Why victims get to choose the language for what happened to them

Empathy with no boundaries and why it’s self-destructive

Healthy shame vs toxic shame

Why it’s okay to walk away and even hate someone who hurt you

#toxicpeople

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Maike is the author of The Confession: A Journey to Acceptance, her memoir of growing up with a father with undiagnosed mental health issues who went on to take his own life. She is a lived experience speaker and volunteer for Survivors of Bereavement by suicide

When Maike Mullenders was eleven years old, her dad sat her down and told her he was going to end his life — and made her say goodbye.

He survived that night. But ten years later, he died by suicide and left behind a confession to the police saying he’d “been inappropriate” with her — something Maike had no memory of.

In this conversation, we talk about what happens when your childhood forces you into the role of caretaker, and how that shapes everything that follows. We explore dissociation, survival, and what it means to grow up reading every tone of voice in a room just to stay safe.

Maike shares how decades of therapy, yoga, and community work helped her reclaim her body, her boundaries, and her right to take up space — even without ever knowing the full truth about her past.

We talk about:

Surviving a parent’s suicide attempts and living with the aftermath

The lifelong impact of emotional enmeshment and hypervigilance

Parenting after trauma and breaking generational patterns

Acceptance versus forgiveness — and why you don’t need both

Learning to feel safe in your body through movement and presence

The healing power of community and self-compassion

This episode is about what real healing looks like — messy, nuanced, and deeply human.

It’s about learning to live with not knowing, and finding peace anyway.

Please take care of yourself while listening.

Find Maike here -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maike-mullenders-3021232b7/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091853840552

#suicideawareness #mentalhealth

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