WA Real

I recently spoke on the Living Your Best Life podcast with Leigh Farnell about the topic of wounded healers in the mental health space. After completing the main season of the WA Real podcast, I realised this applied to the bulk of people I had interviewed.  People who had had a major life event/experience and, rather than completing the full healing journey of to clean up and remove the impact of the event/experience, set about trying to save the world instead - replicating destructive patterns in the world.   Many of the life event i describe in more detail in my short ebook - free download   Description from show:  Lead Your Best Life: Why Healers, Coaches & Leaders Must Heal Themselves First. If you're on a journey of personal development, transformation, or helping others lead their best lives—this powerful podcast is for you. Join us for an insightful conversation with Bryn Edwards, Occupational Psychologist, as we explore why true healing starts within—especially for those in roles like coaches, consultants, therapists, and managers. Before you can help others thrive, you must first do the deep inner work yourself. We dive into: ✅ Major Life Stress Events ✅ The Healing Process and Stages ✅ Energy and Emotional Flow in the Body ✅ Perturbation and Personal Growth ✅ Why People Evolve Under Pressure ✅ Tools for Transformation and Inner Alignment ... and much more. Bryn brings a holistic, integrated approach to healing, offering practical insights for anyone committed to leading a more conscious, empowered, and fulfilling life.

I was super fortunate to appear on Leigh's Leading Your Best Life podcast recently and talk all things patterns of life, cleaning up business culture and the reality of mental and emotional health. Give it a listen and tell me what you think

The purpose of this conversation is to hopefully expand your frame of reference of what it is to be in your bodies 24/7, what that means to your experience of life and where a movement orientated practice can take you through the lens of my specific personal example. Earlier this year, I successfully completed the 20km solo Rottnest Channel Swim. I had previously completed the challenge in 2016, but, despite successfully crossing, that ended up being a net negative experience physically. Therefore, this time around I enlisted the help of Mark Bernacchi, experienced explorer of all things ‘movement' and the co-founder of Modus Movement Studio in Myaree Perth. Originally, I approached Mark for guidance with preparation for the swim with the aim of increasing the integrity of my body so that, at the age of 47, I would come out of it in a net positive physical position. However, by embracing the culture and philosophy Mark has created at Modus and its application to the challenge of swimming 20km in open ocean, I started to experience the movement of my body in a deeper and broader context that exceeded the swim itself and spread out to all aspects of my life. This has given rise to a movement practice that continues to be an integral part of my life today. The practise has redefined my physical experience in life and yields so many exciting possibilities for future exploration that far exceed swimming. This conversation charts that journey. So, who would benefit from this conversation? Anybody who exercises or undertakes physical challenges; particularly anybody who exercises using singular repetitive based movement patterns, such as swimming, running, cycling, etc. Anybody who wants to consider their experience within their body more deeply Everyone who asks ‘What do you mean by movement?' To learn more about Mark and Modus visit: Instagram – @modusmovement Webpage – modusmovement.com

Rebecca Dawson returns to share a deeper lens on what many of us are experiencing through some of the major themes of her recent book ‘FU – The Return of the Magnetic Human'. As always with Rebecca, this was a playful, expansive and exploratory conversation that put its roots in to many of the surrounding recent events. Explore further with Rebecca at - www.rebeccadawson.net/

Despite our best efforts to ‘wipe our feet' of our personal life before we go to work, the reality is that all of us shows up for work – the good bits, the untidy bits, the contradictory bits – whether we like it all not. But when the typical workplace is only set up to deal with a small part of All That We Are, how does this play out? This is the focus of my conversation with Gabriella Braun, who specialises in bring psychoanalytic and systems thinking into workplaces and has authored the book ‘All That We Are'. Find out more about Gabriella and her book - www.gabriellabraun.co.uk

More and more of us are undertaking amazing challenges in life – such as an Ironman triathlon, marathon, climbing Everest or for me very recently, swimming 20km in the ocean to Rottnest Island. These are amazing, life affirming feats that require a lot of time, focus and energy. There is a wealth of information relating to leading up to and during the event, but there's been very little focus on what happens afterwards and the journey post event. In this very honest conversation, I talk and reflect with Perth swim coach Paul Newsome about this very ‘live' issue for me and his experience both as a competitor and coach of many others who have undertaken such feats.

Many will tell you the importance of reducing stress, lowering anxiety and calming your nervous system, but how is that journey experienced in real life and what are some of the points along the way as you unwind where you've come from? In this brutally honest conversation, I reflect on my journey over the past 3 years of practising Trauma Release Exercise Tremoring with Richmond Heath, Founder of TRE Australia. Together we explore the changes, impacts and growth over time that this simple but powerful practise has had on my nervous system and way of being in life. From a start point common to many - a state of high anxiety hyper-vigilant functioning in the world where I genuinely thought “I was ok” - to a place of being where I can begin to meet the complexity of the outside world with an inner existential trust and truly begin to grow. It's certainly not all blissful states of ease and grace serenely passing through life because, as you will find out, that concept is a response to an early point on the journey. Why did I record this conversation? I am no different to millions / billions of people who heavily wear the anxiety, depression, despair and stress resulting from the everyday living in the current human experience – but does it have to hang so heavily upon us? I believe not, but what is the journey ahead and what can be done about it? I believe more conversations like this need to happen so that we can chart the journey ahead and normalise it into our collective way of being. Link to online Richmond's TRE course: https://www.trecourse.com/ Link to Richmond's High Anxiety Functioning Video: https://www.treaustralia.com/product/tre-for-high-functioning-anxiety/ Learn TRE Tremoring in Western Australia with Fran Fuller: https://www.treaustralia.com/providers/listing/frances-fuller/  

In a complete change around, I was interviewed by Shaun Nannup, Si Lapping and Mark Booth. The focus - the wisdom gleamed from the journey of 4 years and 200+ conversation with the WA Real Podcast. A big thank you to all guests and listeners who all helped to make this happen - gratitude overwhelms me. 

This week I enjoyed another great deep conversation into philosophy with Dr. Alan Tapper. Alan has lectured philosophy at Curtin University, informed policy and has also been instrumental in leading philosophy being taught in schools. This is another great journey into philosophy, starting during the Age of Enlightenment and Rationality working to present day, discussing the how this period influences our modern day and illuminating many elements we may take for granted. This is a great and deep conversation that will educate you while taking you on a journey.

This week I welcome back Mike Dyson onto the podcast, who talks about his continued work with men through his company Good Blokes Co. It's been three years since Mike was on the podcast last, in this conversation he shares with us many of the patterns and consistencies that he sees across his work. He talks about the ‘Man Box', which seems to be a crappy version of masculinity that is passed down generation by generation, that involves a lack of emotional literacy and a lot of shame and guilt. He also talks about how a lot of this can play into the hands of violence. Mike also talks about opening up a space for healthy masculinity and what that involves in terms of men defining what they want to be into in terms of their masculinity. This is a great conversation; Mike gets very passionate, sharing a lot of wisdom and knowledge from his years of doing the work in the men's space. https://www.goodblokes.co/

This week I had a great conversation with Perth-based comedian Bonnie Davis, who is better known for her alter ego, the comedic character Famous Sharron - who is famous for absolutely nothing at all. In this conversation, you get a really great insight into the amount of work and the process that goes into being a comedian and developing a character like Famous Sharron. We hear about the history and the development of this character and what Bonnie's been through to take her to where she is today. Now famous Sharon doesn't actually appear in this conversation, which is maybe disappointing to some of her fans, but her theme of ‘celebrate yourself really shines through in this conversation and it's really interesting to hear how Bonnie has embraced that herself. Bonnie is a lot of fun to talk to and this is fascinating conversation from a behind the scenes of being a comedian point of view. www.famoussharron.com/

This week I explore theology and our relationship with something bigger than ourselves with Dr. Jim Cregan, former lecturer of theology and Notre Dame University in Fremantle. Jim explains what the study of theology is and delineates it from institutionalised and organised religion. Jim explains how considering the questions that theology raises helps us to orientate ourselves in life and society and, as a consequence, develop stronger existential strength and inner compass within ourselves. Jim also puts forward how a lack of orientation in life could be behind much of the anxiety and mental health issues that we see arising today. This a great conversation with a lot of depth and will leave you with much to consider. Jim is a very thoughtful gentleman and it was a real pleasure to speak with him.

When considering interior design, many of us will be aware of different styles whether it's in our home or the spaces we move through. We may be familiar with overseas styles such as the Hampton style, European. But ask yourself, what does an Australian style of interior design actually look like? Or let's go deeper - what would the style of design that's influenced by the land and the deep culture here in Western Australia looked like? It's actually a difficult question to answer because very few designers are following this path, that is with the exception of this week's guest Leah Bennett of Leah Paige Design. Leah talks through the nuances and intricacies of interior design, so that we can understand it in more clarity and more depth. She then adds the layer of culture and land so you can really begin to get a feel of how she's designing spaces that we can really connect to. Leah also talks about the challenges of putting forwards this new approach to the interior design world and how often many people want to get involved but are just a bit too worried about where to start and getting ‘things wrong'. Leah is a fantastic and articulate lady with a real drive and passion that shines through in this conversation and which is sure to underpin her impact in the future. Website: leahpaigedesigns.com

Following on from the highly acclaimed episode #164 with Nick Duffell about the reality and dynamics of Boarding School Syndrome, this week I traced the impact in Australia with Christine Jack. Christine has spent 35 years in teacher education and educational history, authoring the book ‘Recovering Boarding School Trauma Narratives’. In this conversation Christine tracks how the concept of boarding school came from England to Australia, as a colony of the British Empire, and then the ensuing impact within our education system and beyond. Again, it was another great conversation about how difficult it is to put privilege and trauma in the same sentence. Links - Recovering Boarding School Trauma Narratives’ – https://www.routledge.com/Recovering-Boarding-School-Trauma-Narratives-Christopher-Robin-Milne-as/Jack/p/book/9780367819521 - Episode #164 with Nick Duffell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPHxGYAqbuU

This week I explored grief - the very natural but overlooked process that affects all of us - with Victoria Volk who specialises in coaching and supporting people who are struggling with loss. As Victoria puts forward, grief is so often narrowly associated with death, however it is much much wider than that as it is the result of any loss and so we incur grief more widely than we realise. Victoria shares the six common myths relating to grief and how they have been perpetuated intergenerationally, becoming part of our current culture resulting in a collective  lack of emotional discernment and literacy. Victoria is really good at breaking down the dynamics of grief and walks us through the process to release its grip. This conversation covers a lot of ground, there's a lot of interesting emerging questions that come up, which really provides a full picture in this area that affects you, me and everyone.

Measuring your heart rate variability, or HRV, may be one of the most important measures that is easily accessible to you in terms of our health, fitness, and overall life longevity, but what exactly is heart rate variability? and how can you measure it? That's exactly what I explored this week with Coach Joel Jamieson who has over 20 years of working with heart rate variability while training Olympic athletes, MMA fighters, Navy Seals, NBA and NFL stars. Joel explains exactly what HRV is – a measurement of recovery - while also breaking down the basic principles of exercise. He explains how under recovery is at the heart of most injuries. We then discuss how you can measure HRV and what are key features to look for in selecting a measurement device. Joel then explains how HRV is scored and how to interpret the score and what to do with it. The conversation then broadened out to explore the impact of stress on our HRV and how a high base level of HRV places us in good stead to face the stresses and uncertainty of the world we operate it. This is a super important measure, because as Joel puts forward – it is non-invasive and easy to track over a long period of time giving you a real indicator of life longevity. Joel is super clear and concise throughout this whole conversation dispelling many myths along the way. Whatever level of exercise or focus of well-being you are at, by the end of this conversation you'll have a clear idea of what the heart rate variability is, and how important it is to you and how you can go measure, track it and make some significant changes in your life. Joel: www.8weeksout.com/ Morpheus: www.trainwithmorpheus.com/

We are all aware of the negative impacts that are happening to our surrounding environment and nature. But how do we begin to acknowledge that within ourselves? How do we begin to navigate our emotions to avoid overwhelm, so that we can get to a place where we can actually do something about it? And just what can we do? This is exactly what I explored with Shona Hunter, Community Organiser for the WA Forest Alliance. Shona brings a wealth of experience of working in this area to open up a space to journey through this tricky journey from a real personal point of view.

This week I enjoyed a far-ranging yarn with Tyson Yunkaporta – member of the Apalech Clan, Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledge at Deakin University and author of the book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (which he’s suggests you shouldn’t buy but borrow from a friend). In this conversation we cover a lot of ground including the impact of an extraction economy, the rise and fall of civilisations and where we are in the that cycle, a deeper history of Britain, ask where the grown-ups have gone, our trajectory from the printing press, systems, the 1000 year clean up and much more. I also learnt a huge amount about Western Australia, seeing it from a different perspective. Tyson mixes his wealth and depth of knowledge together with his great sense of humour and openness to share to make for a great yarn that will take you on a journey.

How can you make sense of the problems that face us when our capacity to make sense of the problem is the problem itself? This week I explored sense making and the media with David Fuller, founder of the Rebel Wisdom Channel who is also a former BBC and Channel4 journalist. David talks about how sense making is the fundamental issue that faces all of us - our inner capacity, both individually and collective, to make sense and meaning of the outside world and then to agree on what is truth and what are the key problems we need to focus on. This issue is further exacerbated by the incentive structures, drivers and failures of both legacy media and alternative media, which is then accelerated by technologies that are purposefully designed to mine and capture our attention and concentration. These factors and their impacts, which are being left unchecked, are causing a mounting existential crisis of disconnection that potentially sit at the heart of many of the recognised mental and emotions health issues we now encounter. With financially incentivised decentralised flows of information straight to the individual now a feature of life, it is time for each of us to do our individual work in terms of ‘cleaning house’ and developing our relationship with the truth and how we make sense of the outer world so we can live a meaningful life.

This week, survival expert and instructor Mike House returns back to the podcast to talk about resilience. Spurred to investigate resilience by the recent impacts of COVID and specific requests of clients, Mike carried out an extensive research study into resilience through interviewing a range of leaders which he’s collated in his book (Un)Shakeable. In this conversation, we dive into just how the differing personal definitions of what resilience means to different people plays out in in their lives; we have a particularly interesting exploration into the delineation between adaptability and resilience. Mike puts forward that a key part is acknowledging that we as humans are resilient and we are impacted by events. And this, in and of itself, then starts to build an amount of trust not just in ourselves, but in the collective among us. As always, chatting to Mike is a real treat. He has a unique perspective and depth of thought that he brings from his experience as a survival expert that makes this a great conversation.

 This week I had the great pleasure of speaking with Anthony James, who is the host of the Regen Narration Podcast which focuses on the regeneration of life on this planet. This conversation was the meeting of two ‘meta-nodes’ discussing much from across the range of people that we have both talked to on our respective podcasts. The topic of systems came up - those that are serving and those that are not serving us. Anthony spoke about how development involves a period of unravelling and the gentle stripping of old frameworks to reveal dissolutions as well as the need to be solid in the wilderness within. He also shared a beautiful story from Archie Rose about the elders that are sitting around the campfire waiting for us to come home – a theme that has significant meaning throughout this conversation. This was a fantastically delicate but powerful and strong conversation with a lot of humour - particularly listen out for Anthony talking about lasting change.

If you regularly attend or participate in an ‘alternative healing modalities’ or are drawn to searching further ‘within’ then the content of this episode is important for you to take on board. This week, we go further into the world of spiritual and psychological emergencies with a presentation of the findings from a recent qualitative research project that explored the experiences of people here in Western Australia that have been through such an experience. The research was conducted by Bryn with help from a number of ‘like-concerned’ friends. The presentation shares some of the emerging patterns from the research and sheds some light into naturally occurring human growth experience. Following the presentation there is a Q&A in which the exploration continues from the ensuing discussion. If you wish to get in touch as a result of listening to this please feel free to email me at warealbryn@gmail.com

This week’s conversation with Roslyn Snyder is all about patterns – the patterns that underpin the human experience and patterns of nature. Roslyn takes time to talk through Realm Theory that sets the framework of understanding for patterns she’s noticed across her life, vast studies and 20+ years as a practising Clinical Psychologist. Throughout the conversation, she gives plenty of examples to provide the context for deeper understanding of how it all comes together. It’s rare to find someone who works at this meta level of connection and who can see such deep patterns; patterns that have been understood and shared for hundreds and thousands of years previously in indigenous cultures. Indeed, Roslyn talks about how she’s not only captured the pattern mathematically but has also sang and danced the patterns. This is a very deep conversation but right now I personally believe that this is a level of thinking and sensemaking that is missing from the overall conversation that directs where we’re going in the human experience.

This week I had a beautiful but firm and honest conversation with Shaun Nannup, who describes himself as a human being, indigenous man and father. Spirit was quite a common element in the conversation with Shaun. He spoke about softening the body, the heart and the mind to receive messages, about overcoming the need for control and to trust in spirit and also how we're always in the flow of spirit, even when we feel like we might be disconnected. Shaun also spoke about how in times of radical change, much like we are in now, how we need to be brutally honest and truthful with ourselves; otherwise life will go and live on elsewhere. Listen out for when Shaun shares his analogy about handing out life jackets on a sinking ship. Shaun is a beautiful man, he's really softly but commandingly spoken. He says how often it's a challenge, strangely enough, to fully appreciate life. However, listening and truly sitting with this conversation will help you to close that gap.

How has COVID impacted our connection with one another? This is the focus of this weeks conversation with Emma Gibbens who, based on her previous work as a political campaigner, now holds space for deeper searching conversations on a range of topics. In this exploratory conversation we got into the need for boundaries; how social media has impacted the relationship between community, the market and government; we question the underlying structure of many assumptions that we connect upon; and we also consider how connection will differ, particularly for countries like the US and UK, as we come out of COVID. Emma is obviously a bright and passionate lady, which produced a hugely thought provoking conversation.

The focus of this week's conversation is about how organisations, whether private or governmental, stretch forwards into what is possible rather than snapping back to the ‘old normal’ in this post COVID world. I explore this with Andy Lamb, an experienced organisational disruption consultant who specialised in unlocking creativity within businesses. What makes this conversation super interesting is its fractal nature in that Andy started by noticing small changes that he needed to make himself on a personal level, and then spotted the patterns that emerged applying them to larger organisations in his work. We also dived how to remain open to learning, complexity, ecosystems, and much, much more. While on the surface this might seem like a very heavy topic, Andy is a super articulate guy and he's tonnes of fun to talk to, which makes this a very approachable conversation that will lightly provoke quite deep thought.

What is the opposite of complexity?That is the starting question from which I explored complexity in this wonderful conversation with the wise owl and elder that is Rod Griffiths.Just what is complexity? Can it be defined or is it felt?In exploring complexity, we went through many areas in this conversation ranging from beauty in design, existentialism, aesthetics, the role of our nervous system, as well as how we actively move away from complexity and why we protect ourselves from it.We live in a highly complex world, something COVID has painfully revealed to us.We also talked about surrendering to complexity and just being in it, as opposed to restlessly needing to do something.This is a fantastically gentle yet deep conversation that has so much to offer as we continue to face an uncertain, complex, ever changing and ambiguous world.

Dating is broken - that is the real-life observation that returning guest Dr. Kate Raynes-Goldie is fixing with Lovego, a very clever combination of play and Lego that is designed to help those in the dating scene find a deeper and more meaningful relationship quicker and in a way that is more transparent to the deeper aspects of ourselves.In this fun and playful discussion, Kate shares her real-life journey that brought together the mix of play, Lego and dating together.We also broadened out the conversation to focus on the general state of human connection and the barriers to that.NOTE: Kate is currently launching Lovego and she offering all ‘Badass Professional’ Lady WA Real Listeners the opportunity to work with her personally to journey further into their dating with Lovego; all you have to do is email her at: Kate@lovegomethod.comWhether you're currently dating or generally in need of greater quality human connection, there’s plenty in this discussion for you.For more info go to: lovegomethod.com

This week, I had a fantastic conversation with a young gentleman called Joseph Andrin about death; not just death in terms of the end of life, but death in terms of the end of ideas, or stories or narratives that we might tell ourselves.In this conversation, we talked about letting go, the process of letting go, about actually sitting and being with death and how death can question our identity as a source of its greatest growth.Joseph is a fantastic person to talk to; he's very thoughtful and considered. He is very transparent with his emerging thought process as he shares it.Also, there is an extra 10 minutes after the end of the conversation about the stories of death that we told ourselves probably before the period of rational enlightenment and how those mythical stories now play into our rational scientific view of the world.

When was the last time that you actively went out to meet a stranger? To expand your perspective, to truly listen to and engage with other people?Meet Alex Waters, who set himself the challenge of having 100 coffees with 100 strangers throughout the year in 2020.Alex shares his journey throughout the challenge and talks about how it brought a new sense of humility to him, how he learned to receive feedback, how he really zoned in on his own listening and the importance of human connection, as well as just undertaking a challenge for no other reason that you feel called to.Alex gets raw and candid about his journey, which makes it a fantastic, fun and engaging conversation.Hopefully, it might just inspire you to go out and meet strangers and expand your own network and perspective.

I was recently invited on to the experts podcast, which is hosted by Lana Hill and Nick Hayes, a former guest.We talked about podcasting, and the art of podcasting. And so I thought it would make for a great little episode, as it provides a fantastic behind the scenes look of what goes into creating WA Real.Also in this, I think there's a lot of pointers in there for just how to have a more deeper and engaging conversation. It's a lot of fun, and I thought it would make for a great episode with a different viewpoint.

This week we go further into our inquiry and exploration into philosophy with local WA philosophical lecturer, Meera Finnigan.Meera sets the scene of what philosophy and philosophical inquiry is all about, before sharing some of the big questions that she herself is wrestling with currently.She takes you on a fantastic tour, through the origins of philosophy and introduces some of the great thinkers that have come before us. She also introduces you to the three main areas that of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, or in other words, questions relating to our reality, our knowledge, and our sense of right and wrong.This is a fun and engaging conversation where we exchange many views.What you will soon begin to realise is just how some of those bigger questions that many of the great thinkers that have come before us have wrestled with, still apply to today, and our current situation.

Where does psychology and philosophy begin in our human journey?What is good? What is evil? How should I live my life?Richard Grannon returns to discuss the importance of continuing to wrestle with important questions just like these to develop your own moral philosophy.Previously, we spoke about co-dependency, people pleasing, and the impact of trauma. In this conversation, we go further into why a lack of moral philosophy will leave you in a weakened and a unboundaried state that can be so easily preyed upon by the outside world.This is about our thinking, our decision making, and how we implement boundaries to live a more healthy life.Considering your moral philosophy is not as difficult as you think, but it's possibly more important than you may ever consider; there's a strong suggestion that this may sit at the heart of some of our rising mental health issues.As always, speaking to Richard was a true privilege and honour; he is incredibly articulate and has an amazing sense of humour. This conversation pushed me right to the forefront of my thinking currently, and possibly right to the forefront of my use of language.

What would an upgrade to our current democracy actually look like? And how would democracy 2.0 actually work?That's exactly what I discussed with Daithi Gleeson, member of the Flux Party – political party and movement that is drawing on technology to put forward an upgrade to our democratic system.  In this discussion, Daithi gives us a history of our democracy through today with key suggestions of how we can upgrade to make it work for us better in the present day.Daithi and I about went into the current state of our individual and collective capability to be effective citizens in Democracy 2.0Daithi is superbly articulate which makes this a very accessible conversation. It is also fascinating because all too often political discussions focus on the differences between parties and policies rather than on the actual nature of the underlying system and its ability to serve us the citizens and meet the complexity of the current day.  

This week I had a fascinating conversation about all that we can learn from being in nature with Claire Vanderplank.Claire, through her company, Weapons of Mass Creation provides a vision quest service here in Western Australia.During this conversation, we really dived into what exactly is a vision quest and in particular the role of nature and all that we can learn from nature in relation to transition within our own systems and community.This is a super conversation with a lady who has spent a lot of time solo by herself out in nature; and you can really tell that there's a lot of depth of character that she's drawing on throughout the podcast.

This week I had a great conversation about science, the natural beauty and purity of science and scientific investigation with Wallace Thornhill, Vice President of the Thunderbolts Project.Wallace shares his paradigm changing Electrical Universe theory.What makes this so interesting is that Wallace, and others, have conducted their research and exploration separate from the university infrastructure.As well as expanding your understanding of the fabric of the universe, hopefully from this conversation you will be inspired to rethink your own relationship with science and consider your own scientific exploration and experimentation to further your own horizons rather than abrogating to University Scientists.

This week I welcomed back Nick Hayes, Managing Director of Media Stable, to discuss his observations across the media landscape and media consumption over the last six to nine months during this changeable period.Nick explains is that, as he predicted in the last podcast, that there's been a real move back to traditional forms of media, in particular radio.  We really had a great discussion about becoming more discerning in our media consumption and sense making, particularly recognising the leanings, particularly the political orientation, of the sources that you're listening to. We also talked about the pitfalls of going to social media as a source of news and also the concept of consuming too much information.Nick is really articulate and has a great sense of humour. He brings a very grounded and grown up perspective to the topic of news and media in general.

Take a deeper refection into our interior subjective human experience by considering auditory hallucinations, in particular hearing voices, with Johanna Babcock, Adjunct Professor at UWA School of Psychological Sciences, and also one of the founders of Perth Voices Clinic.Surrounded in cultural interpretation, what becomes more and more apparent in this conversation is the fact that hearing voices is not quite what you think - it's very subjective to an individual and a lot more common than one might expect.We also dive into the link with loneliness to mental health and the onus on those of us who are not lonely to open the door to those who are for the sake of a healthy society.Why would you listen to this conversation? Because it’s a fascinating exploration into holding space for the legitimacy of your interior personal experiences. It highlights how much there is to explore and just how normal ‘things we don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking about’ really are.

Take a deep dive into incredible world and healing power of Medicinal Mushrooms with Graham Upson of Touchwood Mushroom Farm.With over 45 years of mushroom growing experience, Graham is WA’s leading expert in this field. He shares some of his stories learning how to grow and think like a mushroom as well as the businesses he’s developed along the way. You will soon begin to appreciate just how complex and precise growing mushrooms is.Graham then talks about the main medicinal mushrooms that he supplies and their properties - lion’s mane, turkey tail, cordyceps, chaga, reishi, maitake and shiitake.This is a fascinating conversation; Graham is a real font of knowledge in this field.As the listener, you will soon realise that there's so much more to learn and explore when it comes to mushrooms. https://www.touchwoodmushrooms.com/

This week I had the great pleasure of welcoming back Bill Saunders, one of Perth’s leading clinical psychologist who's recently come out of retirement.Through Bill’s research for his new book, he’s really dived into the true reliability and robustness of the underlying psychiatric framework and treatment protocols that shape the mental health space.The picture that soon emerges is one that may well have lost its way scientifically becoming too complex, overly industrially influenced and separated too far from the true nature of the human journey.Bill suggests that rather than asking ‘what's wrong with a client?’  the better starting point is to ask ‘what has happened to you?’ because more often than not the source of the majority of mental health issues originated from an early traumatic event in childhood.This is a super engaging and detailed conversation with someone with over 40+ years of clinical practice and research experience.If you or a loved one has any mental health issues or is receiving treatment – particularly medical drugs – then I would strongly recommend taking this on board.  

Dreams - we all have them, whether wild or wacky, recurring nightmares, vividly exciting or highly sexual.But how often do you pay attention to your dream? How often do you legitimise them? How often you actually talk about them and share them?This week it was absolute pleasure to talk to Debbie Ford, dream therapy psychotherapist, about this rich source of connection to psycheDebbie explains what dreams are, their underlying dynamics and mechanics and just how beautifully subjective they are in their very essence. She gives an insight into how she works with clients and their dreams and provides some wonderful examples to really set some context of how we can begin to work with our own dreams.Fascinatingly, we also discussed on a bigger level of what she's beginning to see across her client’s and their dreams at this time in this COVID disrupted time – messages from the collective psyche.This is a truly subtle, beautiful, yet really powerful conversation with a wonderful lady who is really amazing at holding space for something that our own ego so often sweeps over or puts to one side.

While more of us are becoming aware of the idea of spiritual awakening, the arising question is what is the actual experience of a spiritual awakening actually like?Many may have a preconception that this is a lovely serene experience, however the truth of the matter is often something very different and scary, which is where the term ‘Spiritual Emergency has come from’.This week had the great privilege of exploring the topic of spiritual emergencies with Jules Evans, practical philosopher and co-editor of the book Breaking Open, which documents real cases of individual spiritual emergencies.In this conversation, Jules provides some of the characteristics and surrounding mechanics and dynamics of spiritual emergencies, as well as the impacts.In an uncertain and rapidly changing world that can so easily trigger a deep change within us set against a noticeable increase in an uptake of differing healing modalities, this is an important conversation to normalise and map out what exactly is happening during these deeply subjective experiences.FURTHER NOTE: - If you listen to this podcast, and you resonate with the contents based on your own experience, and would be willing to share and participate in a WA based research study to deepen our understanding of these experiences - then please, reach out because we'd like to hear about your spiritual emergency experience.

This week, I had the great pleasure of speaking to Christine Morrison, WA based musician, composer, music alchemist and sound healer.While I featured guests of a similar ilk previously on the podcast, what makes this really different is the fact that over the last four months I myself have been working with Christine to explore sound for myself. So rather than this being a theoretical discussion, it's very much starts off as an experiential discussion with Christine providing deeper context. This includes how I’ve myself now use sound to connect into my body and how that has led to a number of experiences which I could say rival certain psychedelic experiences.From that Christine talks about how her work with sound came into her life – which is something she didn't really want to start with but she shares her process of letting go  and answering the call.Christine is a super grounded lady with a deep history of working with sounds that includes indigenous links which really sets the tone for this discussion about using sound as a modality to really bring us back into our body at a time when it's easy to be just swept up and swept away by our minds.

This week I had the absolute privilege of speaking to Thomas Bjorkman, entrepreneur, businessman, author and also the founder of the Oak Island retreat in Sweden.Tomas explains how Oak Island is modelled on the original retreats that were state funded across the Nordic Countries at the turn of the last century - also captured in his book ‘The Nordic Secret’. It was these retreats that helped instil the human capabilities within the population to face adversity and uncertainty at that time, and which saw those Nordic countries turn around and flourish socially and economically.Tomas then introduces the 5 clusters of human capabilities that are key to facing the unknown, complex and volatile world we’re faced with – Openness, Perceptive Taking, Sense Making, Inner Compass and Compassion.In this conversation, we go on to explore the depths of the shifts that we're experiencing right now to our collective imaginary in an interconnected world and how this can only be facilitated, it cannot be managedThe focus of this conversation will be challenging to your own sense making and aspects of how you construct reality for yourself. Yet despite this Tomas points to a way forward that is beautifully grounded and human.

This week I had a very illuminating discussion with Darpan, musician, healer and general explorer of human consciousness.In this conversation Darpan spoke very eloquently about just how the current chaotic conditions are actually the perfect settings for a transformation in human consciousness.While it would be very easy for the conversation to depart into light, nebulous and mystical realms, Darpan stressed the need to ground in this 3D reality, feeling into the darkness to bring in higher frequencies rather than trying to avoid this necessary step through dissociating into a form of ‘spiritual bypassing’. To really feel into what you stand for and your sovereignty.Darpan is a great storyteller and he uses some fantastic metaphors to get his point across, which makes this a very engaging conversation.

This week I continue the exploration into the depths of psyche with Brittain Garrett, one of the few Jungian analysts in Western Australia.In this conversation we explore her perspective of the world through the lens of Jungian depth psychology.Within this conversation, Britt shares a pertinent throw from the I Ching and Jung’s equation for realising God. We also discussed the tension of opposites and the link to cancel culture, as well as legitimate suffering.What shines through in this is that all systems move towards wholeness – particularly psyche - and that the way forward is not through spiritual bypassing, playing on social media or just burying your head in the sand hoping that it'll all go away. The way forward is actually being in your self, your body and dropping into the darkness.While this is scary, it's only in the depths of the darkness that potentially we will find the light.Ultimately, this is a process in which psyche is on a journey, and we are part of it.

This week, I follow the line of inquiry into just how we accept and enable narcissism in our society with Richard Grannon.Richard puts forward that co-dependency, or people pleasing, is a master-slave dynamic that has been deeply in trained and entranced within culture and society at large. That this is an unseen issue that is more pervasive than narcissism. Richard asserts that if we're to crack the puzzle of the pervasive presence of narcissism in society, then we need to bring our perspective closer to home and have an honest look at how we’re actively accepting and enabling it.Through the conversation, we go into the dynamics and mechanics of co-dependency in depth across a variety of areas of life providing a number of clear examples including how you’re governed, consumerist capitalism, slave morality and many more.Through all of this, you will begin to gain a deeper understanding of your own co-dependency, or people pleasing, tendencies and why you’ve become so conflict adverse and unable to say no leaving you in very much an infantilised state.This is a fascinating conversation and it was a real privilege and honour to speak to Richard. What is most impressive is his ability to articulate, with a great humour, much of why you have such an deep uneasy feeling about life currently.I can't say it is easy listening because much of what Richard has to say is very triggering, but when you do find yourself arguing and strongly disagreeing with him then I would suggest X marks the spot for greater personal inquiry.

This week, I on a personal journey and deep dive into Boarding School Syndrome with one of the world's leading experts, Nick Duffell.Whether you, or a loved one, attended boarding school or not, there is a lot to take on board and consider in this conversation.Why?Because to understand boarding school survivorship is to understand:one of the core fundamental elements of the British psyche that also spreads across what was the Empire and is now a Commonwealtha very clean example of early developmental trauma and the defence mechanism of splitting to create a survival self-survival personality away from what Nick refers to as our inner indigenous or natural self.In this conversation we cover:Reconciling the concept of linking ‘trauma’ with the privilege of a private educationThe mechanics and dynamics of boarding schools school syndrome and how that's plays out in creating a Strategic Survivor PersonalityHow that plays out as the ex-boarder then goes out into the world.The inevitable collapse of the Strategic Survivor Personality that has been created by a very young childThe process of normalisation that perpetuates this cycleFrom this, we then go further into the wider implications on the British psyche, and leadership and culture and how that spread across the world.As said above, there is a lot to learn from this conversation; even more if you yourself were a boarder and there’s aspects of how you ‘do life’ that you still struggle to truly understand.

Professor Sam Vaknin, the world's Real foremost leading expert, takes you on a very deep dive into narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder.I went into this thinking that I was going to learn about a mental health issue, but what I soon began to realise was that this is much bigger than that - to use Sam's own words ‘narcissism is more than just a mental health issue or a personality disorder; it's an organising principle of our culture and our society’. It's a primal drive in all of us that pervades parenting, education, media, social media, politics, governments, all of it.Sam talks in great detail about the dynamics and mechanics of narcissism. He then goes on to discussing the specific design of social media and the links between its usage and narcissism, which is very chilling indeed.He then goes on to talk about how narcissism is shaping all of us and why is now becoming the one true religion – a decentralised, networked religion.Sam finishes with two suggestions of how to navigate the waters ahead.This isn't easy listening, but it's necessary listening if you truly want, and have it in you, to understand the ‘water you swim in’.

This week I welcome back previous guest Suzanne Waldron – straight-talking behavioural facilitator, TedX Perth Curator and artist. This is a far-ranging conversation offering a number of perspectives of the world we now live in. Among the many things we go into are: Looking into the illusions of life that we’ve all being buying intoThe need to slow the world the fuck down from the previous rush, need to know, constant doing and sellingThe invitation to become more ‘human’ and sit with that – shadow and allDeep diving into Karpman’s drama triangle and how that plays out in life – particularly the role of victim and well-meaning helper in the capitalist contextFeeling into the collective experience that is going on as oppose to individual experiencesHow we’re at the apex of worshipping ourselves as individuals Suzanne also talks about her recent book Sleeping Giants, which provokes further discussion about resilience and an accessing your own sleeping inner giant. This is a playful yet searching conversation and often it’s difficult to work out just exactly who is interviewing who in this conversation. I personally found this a wonderfully nourishing conversation and hope you the listener will too.

Learn how take responsibility for your own health with Australia’s leading wellbeing researcher Dr. Peter Dingle. Peter wastes no time getting straight to the point putting forward the research that clearly indicates that the majority of the chronic illnesses that we suffer from today can track their source back to poor nutrition and gut health – including COVID-19. Peter presents how the state of one’s nutrition and gut health are linked to hypertension, obesity and diabetes that is reducing our life expectancy. This will be difficult listening to some as it clearly indicates the direct impact of our lifestyle choices upon our health and time on earth. We also talk about the key difference between true scientific research and the pathology focused business of medicine, and how you as an everyday person can tap into the latest research that isn’t always so forthcoming. Peter is super enthusiastic, and this was a great opportunity to tap into such a wealth of evidence-based wellbeing information and data. For the listener you will be given some clear tips and steps of just how to regain your health and standard of life.