June 11, 2024 • 52 mins
How can understanding the mind-body connection transform your health? Join us as we chat with Erin Todd, a health and performance coach with a background in psychology and functional health medicine. Erin shares her journey from working in hospitals with both children and adults to empowering women through perimenopause and beyond. We cover everything from emotional eating to fostering an optimistic mindset, all grounded in the critical interplay between mind and body.
Explore the nuanced world of positive psychology with Erin and discover how it transcends mere positivity. Learn how understanding your past experiences and mindsets can pave the way for lasting lifestyle changes. Our conversation also dives into the societal norms and gender biases that shape emotional expression, offering fresh insights on how these cultural factors impact women's health. Erin emphasizes the importance of processing negative emotions, giving you tools to foster self-compassion and emotional well-being.
Finally, we delve into the intricacies of women's health, discussing everything from optimizing gut health to navigating the challenges of perimenopause and menopause. Erin provides practical tips on managing allergies, mental health, and hormonal changes, all through a functional medicine lens. Together, we explore the critical role of supportive communities in trauma recovery and highlight Erin's upcoming group sessions on emotional eating. Join us for a heartfelt discussion that will leave you empowered to take control of your health journey.
To join her group or see all her work, please go to her website at https://www.findingyourflow.com.au/
You can also visit her Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/findingyour_flow/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi and welcome to Finding your Way Through Therapy
.
A proud member of thePsychCraft Network, the goal of
this podcast is to demystifytherapy, what can happen in
therapy and the wide array ofconversations you can have in
and about therapy Throughpersonal experiences.
Guests will talk about therapy,their experiences with it and
(00:24):
how psychology and therapy arepresent in many places in their
lives, with lots of authenticityand a touch of humor.
Here is your host, steve Bisson.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Alors, salut tout le monde and hi everyone.
Welcome to episode 156.
If you haven't listened toepisode 155 yet, go back and
listen to it.
Keith Hanks is an amazing guest.
I have the second time His book, alan.
The book, essentially, is outand going by it.
And remember, there's a littlecontest going on, so leave me a
message, a direct message,whatever you want to be eligible
(01:00):
for the giveaway.
But episode 156 will be withErin Todd.
Erin Todd is a friend of afriend, very happy to have her.
Kind of interesting to beinterviewing someone in
Australia.
But Erin Todd is a health andperformance coach with special
interests in emotional eating,perimenopause and wants to get
people to have more of anoptimist mindset and talk about
(01:21):
their nervous system health.
As a qualified functionalhealth medicine coach, coupled
with 19 years in the backgroundas a psychologist, she guides
women through transformativejourneys and she talks about the
relationship with food, mentalhealth and thriving in general.
Really looking forward to thisinterview.
And here is the interview,right after this word from
(01:42):
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(02:05):
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But it goes above and beyondthat.
(02:25):
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(02:47):
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(03:09):
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(03:52):
Well, hi everyone and welcome toepisode 156.
If I sound hoarse, thank theallergies and the season here.
But you know what's interestingis with my guests.
You see all the lights.
It looks really light.
So go on YouTube and you'll seeit.
It feels like it's the day here.
It's almost like it's past 10o'clock at night Because my
(04:13):
guests, who I really want tohave on a podcast and no, not
just because of Tracy, butbecause I find her interesting
and Tracy that was a shout outto you, just for the record.
And Tracy that was a shout outto you, just for the record is
someone who is in AustraliaMelbourne, she said, and she's a
Kiwi, which is you know.
She feels my pain of beingcalled an American when I'm
Canadian first.
So she feels my pain and butshe's going to talk about great
(04:36):
stuff.
I don't.
I just don't want to make itjust comedy, but it's always
good to have this going.
Erin Todd, welcome to findingyour way through therapy.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh, steve, it's great to be here.
Yes, it's midday here today,but it's heading into winter, so
I myself have got a bit of acold, so I sound a bit different
too.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, and we're hitting the summer season and
all the pollen decided to showup this week, so it's awesome,
you know when you have allergiesand all that, and you're
catching me right before mysummer break.
So this is great.
You're one of the last.
I think you are the last.
No, there's no.
There's the last interviewbefore I go to my summer break.
(05:14):
So but you know, I'm very happyto meet you.
So someone who connected us,Tracy coffee is someone I worked
with at another company andTracy and I never really met and
we have a great connection.
I always enjoyed her and she'slike.
You know, you got to meet Aaronand I'm like, of course,
anything for.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Tracy, she's great Love her.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I love Tracy, so now that I've given you a little bit
of intro, I'm sure you have alot more than just being Tracy's
friend as your bio.
Can you tell me more aboutyourself?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, so my background is a psychologist.
I've worked in psychology for along time about 20 years mainly
sort of in hospitals with kidsand adults who are unwell and
going through crises.
But more recently I reallywanted to combine the mind-body
connection so I did more studyin particular around women's
(06:08):
health and hormones and so totry and get that background of a
much more holistic approach tomanaging difficulties and crises
and, I guess, my switch toreally trying to optimize our
health and perform at our bestwith a focus on women's health.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And I think that's needed too.
I think that for me I couldtalk about the mind-body spirit,
so it's very close to that.
And we also worked on a crisisteam basically us too, because I
worked on a crisis team forabout 15 years here trying to
keep people out of the hospital,putting them in the hospital as
needed.
So I think we have that incommon too, which really cool
(06:46):
when you talk about a little bitabout being a psychologist.
Were you a psychologist like?
Were you like bachelor, master,phd, or did you kind of like
take time between the two orwhatever?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
yeah, it's probably a little bit different over here,
but I did a doctorate which issort of in between a master's
and a PhD, where you do someresearch as well as placements
and coursework, and that washere at the University of
Melbourne.
So slightly I think it is alittle bit different.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
This the study pathways, but probably getting
to similar places and when yousay, like you know, and I left
you, I left there wide open, youdidn't take the shot, so you're
from New.
Zealand.
What part of New?
Zealand?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I'm from New Zealand, I am from Auckland, but I have
lived in Australia for over Idon't know 24 years or something
like that.
I had some time in London aswell and didn't sort of OE that
we often do, but yeah, have comeback and sort of, I guess, made
australia my home now no, andyou enjoy australia, as you told
(07:51):
me prior to the interview, ifaustralia is playing any team
you are pulling for well,usually new zealand.
So I definitely go for newzealand.
Um does depend a bit on whatsport, but yes, I am an
Australian citizen, so I shouldown that too all right, canada
plays the United States inhockey.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Guess who?
I'm pulling for Canada everysingle time.
I don't care about my Americancitizenship yes, if you're
offended, please write to me.
I'm fine.
Um one of the questions that astandard question on finding
your way through therapy becausewe talk about therapy is have
you ever been in?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
therapy I have when I was a bit younger.
So I lost my father when I wasvery young and at some point in
around my early 20s I went to atherapist and mainly focused on
that.
I guess the other thing is someof the therapeutic techniques
that you learn as wellthroughout the ongoing study
(08:49):
that we do.
Often some of them recommendhaving your own therapy,
particularly in that sort ofmodality.
So I have done.
More recently, I've studied atechnique called brain spotting,
which is yeah, it's, it's from,I guess, the.
The person who created it wasan EMDR specialist, and so I do
(09:15):
actually a lot of brain spottingas well, whether it be in a
group or I do my own brainspotting or with someone
individually.
So I think I really love that.
I find that's been reallyuseful for me as well.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And for those of us who don't know what brains I
obviously was nodding becauseI'm a big fan, but if you can
explain it in like a sentence ortwo for people who may not know
what brain spotting is, what isit?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
In a sentence or two.
Okay, it essentially looks atthe premise.
Behind it is um where we look,impacts how we feel, and it
really was developed as a um, atherapeutic approach that is,
processing of trauma, but it'salso often used to enhance
sports performance.
I use it in my emotional eatingprogram, sometimes it's used
(10:03):
for addiction and and so it'sreally versatile and can be used
in many ways.
And it is the thing I reallylike about it.
It's not just a cognitive level, it's not just about thinking
about changing your thoughts.
It sort of also brings yourbody and your felt sense and
really connects the unconsciousprocessing as well in terms to
(10:24):
support you to move forward orto process what you need to
process I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think that brain spotting is you know, I'm an
emdr clinician myself and to bean emdr clinician you have to
have go through emdr.
Uh, so I I know what you meanabout that and eye movement,
desensitization and reprocessinghas changed a lot of my clients
lives.
I frankly think that it helpedme work on a couple of things
too.
So brain spotting, I think, isright up there with I think it's
(10:53):
cognitive process therapy.
That's another one that theyuse in the military up here in
the United States.
All good stuff for trauma inparticular, but you can use it
for just about anything.
But I'm a purist in the sensethat if you tell me we're going
to do psychoanalytic, you betterlie on the couch and do it
three times a week and pay outof pocket.
But obviously I know that youcan be used for other things,
(11:14):
including brain spotting.
Mdr has been used for otherstuff too, but brain spotting is
one of my favorites and onethat I'm studying right now
actively.
So I appreciate you explainingit to the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Amazing.
I've been using it to try andhelp my husband improve his golf
, so we'll see how that goes.
We need to talk afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
My golf is terrible, so we got to talk afterwards.
You know, one of the things isyou talked about a transition in
your intro.
You know you talked about, youknow going into transitions in
your life and talking about.
You know the mind bodyconnection and stuff like that.
So how do you integrate thoseprinciples of therapy and
psychology into the coachingapproach that you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean it is really interesting because I think, um,
I think there's lots of peoplethat just focus on one or the
other.
Like I feel like I can use alot of the skills that I have
learned through psychology, evensort of basic counseling skills
and listening skills and sortof helping integrate the things
(12:15):
that people are telling me withtheir past experiences as well.
So I think we bring with us ourpast experiences, our childhood
, how we interact and how welearned about relationships, and
we bring with us our pastexperiences, our childhood, how
we interact and how we learnedabout relationships, and we
bring with us in our everydaylife.
And so a big part of makingchange is to really support
people to understand theirmindset as well, as well as the
(12:38):
physical side of things.
So you know, there's a lot ofthings that we know that we
should do differently and dobetter.
Like you know, we know we allshould exercise and we know we
all should eat healthy, butactually doing that sometimes
isn't information, isn't enough.
So supporting that behaviorchange, using things like
positive psychology, brainspotting, things like that, I
(12:59):
sort of really integrate it intomy coaching to sort of support
people to help make thosechanges, even though it can be
really hard and also to stopbeing hard on themselves, like I
think it's a really commonthing that comes through going
oh why can't I do this?
There must be something wrongwith me.
Versus oh why can't I do this?
Well, I didn't learn to do thiswhen I was younger, or there's
(13:23):
some barrier that's blocking me.
That's maybe not as conscious,and so how do we get through
that or around that?
And so I think thatself-compassion work is a really
huge thing as well, but justreally integrating all the
skills that I've learned tobring to the person in front of
me or the group of people infront of me, I think it's really
(13:43):
, it's been really helpful.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
it's made a huge difference, I think well as a
you know again, we in thefinding your way through therapy
podcast, we want to enter inlike really educate as well as
talk about stuff.
About five years ago, beforecovid, I just thought positive
psychology was a lot of bullshitand what I meant by that is I
never read it, so I thought itwas like, just be positive, and
(14:06):
it's far from the truth.
That that's what positivepsychology is.
But since you brought it up andyes, for those of you who
listened for 156 plus episodesor know me, you will be shocked
that I'm a huge fan of positivepsychology.
But if you could explain it topeople what positive psychology
does, and how you could explainit to people what positive
psychology does and how youintegrate that into your
(14:27):
coaching, because I think it'sfascinating, I think it's a
great idea, by the way.
But I just want you to talk alittle bit about positive
psychology.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, and I think that is a common mistake people
make when they talk about I justhave to be positive and in a
way, if you do that too much, itsort of ventures into that
toxic positivity, like I have tobe happy all the time.
But I think it's more aboutsort of that positive psychology
, is more about looking at howcan we optimize ourselves, what
(14:56):
brings us happiness, how we talkto ourselves again related to
some of that self-compassion,but using it to sort of create
like a strength approach as wellwhat am I good at, how do we
get there, and sort of thatbringing that problem solving as
well.
But I do think people find ithard to really talk about
(15:19):
emotions, and particularly the,the emotions that are negative,
whereas I think there's a, thereis a real place for them and to
process them, and you don'thave to be happy or positive all
the time, which I think is areally key thing there's so many
things I want to say because Iagree with you.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Um, well, I'm going to go on a gender bias
perspective here.
First and foremost, if men arenegative, it's almost accepted,
but women who are not positiveare somehow frowned upon because
women have to be positive, andI could be wrong.
But that's just my personalexperience of societal norms and
(16:00):
you can correct me if I'm wrong.
If it's way different inAustralia, I'm very interested,
by the way, and you can correctme if I'm wrong if it's way
different in Australia.
I'm very interested, by the way.
But I think that from myperspective you know we talked
about women's health and howimportant it is to look at it
from a different perspectiveDoes that stuff actually play a
factor?
When you talk about women'shealth?
And you know, because it's hardto talk about emotions women
are allowed to cry and be happy,but they're not allowed to be
(16:21):
mad or angry because that's notladylike and all that crap.
And I yes, I said crap becauseit is because I cry regularly
and I have no problem with thatand I tell my men to cry
regularly because it's important.
But can you tell me more aboutthat?
Because the emotional health ofwomen is so different than men
and I think that that plays afactor, because women are seen
(16:42):
as the nurturer, so they have tobe more positive.
That's just my experience, butyou can tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I mean there's so many ways things to go from that
conversation.
Look, I think I think the keything is that women and men are
different.
I think there's there's abiological difference and also
there's been a culturalupbringing difference, like, as
you say, you know girls and aremuch more likely to be okay, to
(17:10):
cry, whereas boys are often toldto toughen up.
So I think we again, I thinkit's bringing both those things
together um, we also think aboutwomen have more estrogen.
Estrogen is sort of known asthe mother hormone as well, so
maybe they, um, naturally, are abit more mothering.
There is a um, a tendency forwomen.
(17:33):
You know when they're, when,when they come across stress,
sometimes they have a risk.
Um, it's not just fight flight.
Women have this tendency totend and befriend, and so they
they look for support, they lookto protect their young ones.
I think I guess, if we'retalking about so, we also have
different ways in which werespond.
But unfortunately, in thehistory of health and probably a
(17:57):
lot of research, the researchis usually being done on
middle-aged college men, and soa lot of the research that was
done was then just extrapolatedto women and said well, if it
works for this cohort, it'sgoing to work for women, but
that's changing.
So there's a lot more researchbeing done on women and
supporting that, the hormonecycles and what's actually
(18:18):
happening and how that'simpacting as well.
I guess I haven't I your commentabout.
You know men are allowed to bea bit more grumpy.
I guess I haven't.
It's probably, it's probablyokay, it's probably true.
It's probably something that Ijust haven't taken a lot of
notice of.
But I do think there's thingsthat, like women and men are
(18:43):
responded to differently basedon how they respond.
So if women are a bit moreangry, they can often be called
just grumpy or or not listenedto or things like that, whereas
I think men can be listened to alot more and they're allowed to
be more angry than women.
So it is very cultural.
But I think there's also aphysical, hormonal type thing
(19:05):
going on as well.
I think it's that combined,that mind, body type thing
combined.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, I agree, I mean testosterone in men.
You know, testosterone is based, you know, is more prevalent in
men, but it's also what kind ofmore of the aggressive type of
hormones.
So I get that, but I think thatif I punched a wall and you
punched a wall, we would betreated way differently.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I can agree on that.
Incredibly.
Neither of us have branchingall.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean, the interview is early, so who knows what's
going to happen in the next fewminutes, but I have no intention
of doing so if that helps you.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Me neither.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
All right, that's great, and I think that you know
we're talking a little bit moreabout women, and I think that
it's important.
You know, I've I had someone afew months ago that talked about
women's health being differentthan men's health too, and it's
absolutely true.
There's a difference, and it'snot strictly perimenopause or
menopause or postmenopause, it'sso much more so.
(20:05):
I wonder if, is that part ofwhat motivated you to change
your career to more uh, topaying focus more in women's
health, women's uh bodies,women's coaching and all that?
Is that part of it, or is itsomething else?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
yeah, that's definitely part of it.
I guess you know learning muchmore about myself as well.
Obviously I'm a woman goingthrough the various, I am going
through the various changes, um,that I mean in essence as well.
Like men also again haveparticular things that they need
(20:40):
support with, and you know avery good friend of mine is a
men's coach as well, and so she,she deals with that.
But I guess the, the, the womanstuff really interested me, and
some of it that has reallyinterested me is because, um,
because of this, I guess,unfairness, this inequality that
came with it as well, um,particularly around the research
(21:02):
and and just finding out onemore about myself, and sort of
wishing going, oh, I wish I'dknown some of the stuff when I
was a teenager and thenadolescent, but either we
weren't talking about it or thestuff wasn't known.
So I think it's just beinginterested in what I'm going
through, what my friends aregoing through, how we really
(21:23):
bring it together to even reachout for some of that more
ancient knowledge that maybe ourancestors had, and also trying
to live within our cycles notjust the cycle of the day and
the culture as well, just tocreate that real optimizing, I
guess, is the key thing.
How do I optimize my health?
Optimizing, I guess, is the keything.
(21:47):
How do I optimize my health?
I really got interested.
I had periods of time where Ihad really low energy for a long
, long time and just generalmedicine.
Going to the GP, they'd testyou do your blood tests, you're
going, oh, everything's normal,it's not a problem, and you'd be
sent away.
And I encountered and gotinterested in functional
medicine it's probably calledintegrative medicine more here
and that really looked at thesystems within the body and,
(22:09):
rather than just going oneverything's in the normal, it
started to go well, this isn't.
This is normal, but it's notoptimal.
How do you optimize?
What do you need to do?
How can you create thoselifestyle changes?
What other supplements do youneed?
What is your based on yourgenetic profile?
What is not working, as well assomething else.
(22:29):
And I think just thatempowering myself in terms of
there is a lot that I can do tocreate more energy, more
vitality in myself, just on aday-to-day basis, like what I do
every day, matters.
And when I have more energy,then I have more energy to give
other people more, more thingsto follow and much more
(22:53):
enjoyment.
So I think it sort of came fromlike I love to learn, so that
sort of that also.
I'm sorry to try and get energyand it's my health I'm still
going, I'm not there.
It and get in a gym instead ofmy health I'm still going, I'm
not there.
It's a work in progress, butdefinitely much better than it
was, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There's so many questions that came up when you
were talking about this, and ina good way.
You know, for good oldCanadians and American friends,
gp is a general practitionerwhich we would call a primary
care physician here inMassachusetts or in the United
States.
Just want to throw that out,just to keep all the language.
Really I try to keep as manyacronyms out of my mouth.
(23:34):
So uh, especially for thispodcast, which I really hope
that people listen to geteducated.
That's number one.
Number two, the other thingthat you know you mentioned.
You say you know things thatyou wish you didn't talk about
when you were a teenage girl.
That'd be my first question.
(23:54):
I have a few follow-upquestions, but that's the first
one that comes up If you weregoing to talk to teenage girls I
know that's not yourconcentration now, but what
would you want teenage girls toknow that you didn't?
Speaker 3 (24:01):
know, yes, okay, so I do mainly work with women in
the perimenopausal phase, but Iguess, thinking back, like when
I was an adolescent, um, and itprobably still happens a bit now
like if you, if you hadsomething wrong with your
periods, or you had heavyperiods or something happened,
you'd get put straight on on thepill and still the case here in
(24:22):
north america and the pill is agreat contraception.
There's no doubt about that, butit's often used for everything
other than contraception andthere's even things now like
what one of the things does withthe pill is it means that a lot
of your nutrients are depleted.
So really, if you're on thepill, you should be taking extra
supplements as well to supportthat nutrient imbalance, which
(24:44):
you're never really told about.
There is a book by Sarah Hill,I think, called the Pill Changes
Everything, and it just talksabout some more research around
the contraceptive pill andactually what it does.
And if we think about it, itactually changes.
It changes our hormones and ourhormones are our chemical
messengers in our body, is itchanges our hormones and our
(25:07):
hormones are our chemicalmessengers in our body.
So it's it can change a littlebit of of who we are, um, and so
there's more and more studygetting done on it and I think
again, I think the pill is agreat contraception, but I just
think there's not a lot ofinformed consent and really
clear knowledge about whenyou're taking something like
that, what it does and impact itmay have.
Um, and the other thing is thatpsychical nature of when we're
(25:29):
taking something like that, whatit does and impact it may have.
And the other thing is thatcyclical nature of when we're.
The other thing I wish I'd sortof known about is when we go
through the our cycles, ourmonthly cycles.
We have peaks in our cyclewhere we have lots more energy.
We're sort of, you know, we'reovulating, there's lots of
estrogen in our body, but thenwe go through cycles when our
hormones are quite low and wehave lower energy as well, and
(25:51):
as a woman, we're just expectedto function the same way, even
those different cycles where Ithink sometimes, if we're maybe
about to have our periods or wehave low hormones, it can be
okay to go I'm going to have areally slow day and not feel
guilty about it, or, you know,sometimes you can't, but if you
can, it's like giving your bodya rest and being okay and
(26:13):
knowing you're doing the rightthing, rather than going oh, why
can't I function?
Or I shouldn't be doing this,and so just just having
permission to be with our cyclesand our energy as well.
I think that it probably thetwo main things I would have
liked to have known when I wasyounger.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I hope that the teenage and young girls and
young adult women who arelistening to this will get a
little hint about it.
That's very important to me.
I have educated my owndaughters on that stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Because, again, maybe it's a male bias, but for me,
putting hormones in your body tochange how it reacts, how can
it not fuck up other stuff?
It's just not.
It's just to me, it's just.
I don't know, maybe it's my ownthoughts, but that's how I feel
, which brings me to my otherpoint that I want to talk about.
You talk about health andnutrition and how things change,
(27:03):
and one of the things that Iconcentrate with my
perimenopausal, menopausal womenin particular is I talk about
gut health as a balance.
So I don't know if you have anyideas on that, because you
talked about gut health veryquickly and I'm like, wow,
that's one of my wheelhouses, soI want to hear more about that.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Oh yeah, there's so much and I guess this this is
the other thing like even fiveyears ago or something, we
didn't know how much the gutimpacted the brain and how the
brain.
You know that, all thatcommunication, so there's so
much knowledge and stuff comingout at the moment that I, I just
imagine, you know, even inanother five years we'll feel
like we knew nothing now.
But there is a lot of, there'sa lot of stuff about gut health
(27:46):
and how that impacts us and how,you know, leaky gut is a common
thing and things getting intoour bodies that shouldn't be
there.
I mean, I think it's imperative.
And I think it's even moreimperative when we're going
through perimenopause, becausewe have much more stress at that
time.
That hormonal changes, thatthat we have to manage and
(28:08):
having our gut function and ourmetabolism functioning well is
going to make going through thatprocess a lot easier.
And I do see it in my clients,the ones that are eating not
well and their metabolism's notgreat and their gut health isn't
great.
Often they're having somereally tough times as well.
So I mean, if you can fix yourgut, that's great, whether
(28:31):
that's through a gut healthspecialist or, you know, doing a
little bit of elimination diettype thing to see what's
supporting you in the moment.
But I think it's reallyimportant to be able to see a
practitioner that can help yousupport your gut as well.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
You know, I think we talk about menopause,
perimenopause but I also talkabout mental health because it
is finding your way throughtherapy.
I've talked about this, I think, on my podcast before, so if
you missed it, that's fine,because I'm going to repeat the
story because I think it'simportant.
A good friend of mine shout outHelen.
You know we've been friendssince high school and she
(29:07):
unfortunately had a lot ofmental health issues,
particularly bipolar, and shehad difficulties with that.
And she started reading a bookby Kelly Brogan and I wish I
could remember the name, but Icannot remember the name of the
book and she changed her dietand over time, with changing
that diet, she was able toremove most of her medication.
(29:29):
I think she takes one now andthat's from her gut biome and
how she moved, like she didn't.
By the way, for the record incase anyone's thinking that me
or Aaron are sitting here goingdon't eat.
That's going to keep your gutgoing strong.
No, it's putting the rightstuff in your gut.
That's so important.
And yes, you know I sit downand my gut's pretty big and all
(29:51):
that.
But I really, truly believe thatpart of me, not struggling as
much as I use usually do withthese allergies, has to do a
little bit of my gut bile andavoiding certain foods, and I
mean there's no, I don't have aformula for you, but being you
know I talk about Kelly Brogan,but you need to pay attention to
your gut and I feel that womenwho do pay attention to their
(30:13):
nutrition.
I don't like to talk about diet, I'd like to talk about
nutrition because it's much morepositive in some ways and yes,
I have been positive but I thinkthat that's what I talk about
with the women I work with.
It's get your gut biome balance.
It's not going to take away allthe symptoms I don't claim that
by any stretch but itdefinitely helps.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
And I don't know if that makes sense to you or you
think I'm crazy, but I think,from both mental health
perspective, as well asmenopause, perimenopause, it's
so important to manage your gutbile it is really important,
like it's the gut, it's theexercise, it's the sleep, it's
the community and sort of stressmanagement, like if we think
(30:53):
about some, all those lifestylefactors that they're, they're so
important.
And I do think it can be reallyhard to nourish our bodies in
this day and age because we gointo all the stores and the
supermarkets and there's so muchfood that isn't isn't good for
us, so much processed stuff thatjust isn't helpful, um and so
(31:14):
sometimes, being the one that iseating the fresh food, you can
feel like the one that's a bitof the odd one out and it makes
it harder, I think, which isreally unfortunate yeah, you
know in, uh, north America, andI don't want to speak for every
country in the world, but I'lljust talk about my experience
with North America and KellyBrogan talks about that in her
book.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Buy your food on the outside of the supermarket,
because usually that's where allthe fresh stuff is.
The periphery is much moreimportant than the aisles and I
keep that in mind.
My friend Helen talked aboutthat to me a couple of times and
I think it's very important tothink about that and but be
curious and learn how to balanceit out.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, so, and the other thing about the
supermarket aisles like all thea lot of the cleaning products,
a lot of the stuff we put in ourface and our skin, a lot of
them have endocrine disruptorsthat impact our hormones as well
, and so I've had experiencewith women, particularly through
the perimenopause phase, whenthey clear out their products
(32:11):
and they put better products ontheir skin.
It can actually also help theirsymptoms as well.
So it's not just through thegut, it's also what we put on
our skin and what we clean thehouse with, and all that stuff
which I think is reallyimportant too.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
And I think it's also making sure that you know the
gut biome is not also justnutrition, it's also about the
exercise and you keep your bodymoving.
That's also very important.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
There's so much we can do to help ourselves.
We don't, so I guess that'ssome of the key messages that I
really want to sort of share isthat sense of empowerment.
It's like you know, I knowthere are times where we feel
that, where we can't do anything, but, you know, even getting up
and getting a bit of sunshinein the morning Andrew Huberman
(32:59):
talks a lot about the light atnight and the light in the
morning, like these are thingsthat we can do, and we can do on
a regular basis.
That can help shift how we'refeeling too, especially if we're
really struggling you know myum, I had an.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I had an interview with someone else on sleep.
I think it was like episode 141roughly, and she talked about
the lux and the lights.
And even if you do like we're,I'm pretty bright.
It's a studio here, so you know, you can, you can see that it's
fairly bright in here, but thisonly brings my lux level to
maybe 50 to 60.
You go outside on a cloudy dayit's 250.
(33:35):
And you know she talked aboutthe importance of getting that
light and I think that that alsohelps with perimenopause
menopause.
I think it helps everyone,frankly.
But I also think that gettingthat cycle in so that you feel a
little more normal, you get alittle bit of that sunshine.
You can talk about vitamin dand vitamin c and all that and
I'm fine and I'll go with thattoo.
But I really think that youknow, historically, until about
(33:58):
100 or 150 years or so, give ortake, we didn't live in
buildings with this andelectricity and fake light.
We went outside and when thelight went out we went to bed.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yep.
So I would also add that for me, when you talk about women's
health and particularperimenopause and menopause, I
say get your sleep, get in aregular cycle of sleep.
The eight hours is a myth in myopinion.
I know my guests would disagreethat I had a few weeks ago, but
I think that it's important toget some sleep and as we grow
(34:35):
older, I'd like to tell you thatI sleep eight hours.
As I get older, I don't sleepeight hours and I don't think
I'll be able to get thereanymore, but this is a hard
thing, I think, particularlywhen you're going into
perimenopause.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
This is the thing that has often disrupted the
first.
It's people and women aretalking about.
I just can't get the sleep thatI used to, and part of that is
because one of the hormones thatstarts to reduce first is the
progesterone, and so that's thehormone that is the chill-out
hormone, that helps us feel moresleepy, that helps us feel less
(35:09):
anxious, and so, suddenly,without changing anything,
people's sleep is changing, andso, therefore, it's really
unfair.
But it's about then what do Ineed to do?
And so sometimes you reallyneed to up the sleep hygiene, or
even think about going to adoctor, maybe getting some sort
(35:30):
of additional hormones orfinding stuff that really
supports our sleep in adifferent way too.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
The sleep hygiene.
I know we're talking aboutwomen's health, but I do this
with all my clients.
I say, what's your sleephygiene?
And most people look at me likethis, so go to YouTube if you
want to see what I did.
But I'm like, yeah, sleephygiene, what is your routine?
30 minutes to an hour prior tosleep?
I don't know, and I'm likethat's probably why your sleep
is shitty and I think that thatI don't know if you talk about
(35:59):
sleep hygiene, but to me, that'sanother key for most human
beings to be functional.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yes, yeah, yes, well, I think it impacts, because if
you're getting bad sleep, thenyou often make bad food choices
about bad choices about what toeat, and then that impacts how
you're feeling and then youprobably get worse sleep, and if
you're getting bad sleep,you're probably less likely to
exercise.
So there's a lot of again.
(36:26):
It's the body, is the system.
You're not just looking at onething.
It's just so interrelated whatwe do, how we sleep, what we eat
, how we move during the day.
It just impacts us in so manyways and it really is a system,
rather than focusing ondifferent separate parts.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Fighting these allergies right now and having
trouble sleeping because I'mcoughing every other minute.
My girlfriend would say everysecond.
I get it and I certainly knowthat it affects my crankiness.
You know, I don't think my babaor my juice is going to help me
.
I'm just cranky because Ididn't sleep and it's so
important to keep that in mind.
I think that, with women'shealth in general, it's
(37:05):
something that you know we don'ttalk enough about, you know,
and that's important to bring up.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, I think it's, I think, yeah, I think it's so
important.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
One of the things that I would talk about is that
you know, when you think aboutwomen's health and all the work
that you're doing right now,which is fabulous I'd like to
hear more about the projectsyou're on, but maybe it's
important to think about, maybethe future.
What's your vision of thefuture for your work, especially
around women's health?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I know so much Well where to start.
So what my what I'm hoping todo is create different
communities as well.
So a key thing that I amsupporting women with is around
perimenopause and menopause andsort of educating around those
changes and supporting thethings that they can do.
(37:56):
Supporting helping them findout where their health care team
can be, but that sort ofincludes you know who's at home.
You know things are changinginternally in their, in their
body, so things often need tochange externally because
there's also the they're movinginto a different stage.
So from a psychologicalperspective they're letting go
(38:16):
of things that may or not bewhat they wanted, whether they
wanted to have more kids or theyhad kids and you know weren't
able to have kids and what thatmeans, sort of being that parent
or not parent to moving to atime where they're older.
And I guess in our cultureprobably in North American
(38:37):
culture as well the elderlyaren't really revered.
You know some cultures have theelderly as wise woman or wise
men.
You know they come to, but thatdoesn't sort of happen in our
culture over there.
So what that even means interms of what does this
transition mean, is my life over.
How can I have a reallyproductive next stage of life.
(39:01):
So there's a lot ofpsychological also grief and
loss.
You know what didn't I do whenI was in my sort of reproductive
age that I wish I'd done?
So we've got a lot oftransitions there as well, and
when we're going throughtransitions, we have to leave
some parts behind as well aswell as look to the future.
So there's some key areas thatI really want to support and
(39:24):
really help educate women.
It's not the food is importantand the exercise is important,
but there's also a change in astage of life and I think it's
going to be really great to talkmore about that.
One of the other projects thatI'm working on is around
emotional eating as well.
So I think we emotions and foodis linked from before.
(39:45):
We can even remember, you know,often if, as a baby, we cry,
you know, often we're offeredfood even though we may not be
hungry.
And I think, particularly whenit comes around perimenopause
because the other thing thatoften happens is we put on
weight even though we haven'tchanged anything we are more
emotional because our hormonesare changing and often we turn
(40:06):
to food to manage that, and oursolution to manage that is
usually I need to eat less foodor I need to go on a food plan,
and often people are not lookingat the real issue, which is
what are the emotions and howthey're coping with these
emotions.
So I do have a program aroundemotional eating that I'm
working on.
I use brain spotting in thatprogram to sort of support that
(40:29):
as well.
And the other project I'mworking on is with a friend of
mine who is a traumapsychologist and also a breast
cancer survivor and we'reputting together some education
and possibly a membership.
We haven't totally decided tosupport that recovery from
breast cancer as well.
So when she went through herexperience she got quite
(40:51):
traumatized and she found thatshe, although there's some
really good support while you'regoing through breast cancer, as
soon as you're sort of in thecured stage and the mainly the
support is about getting back tolife and getting moving but
there's not a lot of supportaround.
Well, what?
What have you been through andwhat's that like emotionally, as
(41:13):
well as the other added thingthat happens is that often some
of the treatments put women intomenopause who aren't in
menopause already, and it's avery sudden thing.
So this is the other thing thatyou know.
Not only are people dealingwith an illness, they're dealing
with the chemotherapy, they'redealing with um, you know, all
those changes.
They're also dealing withsuddenly going into menopause.
(41:35):
So sort of looking about howyou heal from a health what can
you do but also from a trauma,emotional perspective too.
So they're sort of the thethings that I've got on the go,
that I'm trying to sort ofdevelop so you're not doing
anything.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You're just sitting on your laurels just doing
nothing.
Um, a couple of things I wantto mention.
You know, endometriosis issomething that I also.
When you are you're very youngand you get to go through
endometriosis, it really doeschange a woman's body and the
trauma and the other part too.
When you talk about trauma, Iliken people who survive any
(42:09):
like we talk about cancer, anykind of health scare, whatever
you want to call it, becauseI've had people who've had
Cushing's.
You can talk about whatever youwant, but there's a lot of
things you can survive.
I liken it to grief and what Imean by that is this when people
pass away like if someonepasses away in my life I'm not
going to say any names orbecause I don't want to wish
anything bad.
What people tend to do is theyturn around.
(42:32):
They turn around and they helpyou for about two weeks.
Everyone's there for you fortwo weeks and on almost like two
to T, 15 days later you're onyour own.
Oh yeah, I took care of her fortwo weeks, or him or whatever,
and I I talk about when peoplesurvive a very big health scare
and whatever that is.
There's this grief of likewhere the hell is the support
(42:55):
gone?
And you turn around and you'relike where are they?
And I wanted to mention thatbecause I see that a lot,
particularly women who are alsokind of like if you go to
endometriosis it's kind of scary.
You can survive it, but onceyou get literally scraped,
people are there for thebeginning, but after that
they're like okay, so you'reback back to life in general and
(43:16):
we're not ever talking aboutthis again.
I.
I think that there's a lot tobe said around that number one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
I don't know what you yeah I totally agree because I
think, um, I think what oftenhappens is is people, if
someone's going through atreatment or having to make
medical decisions, or having tomanage their nausea because
they're having chemo, it's verymuch the physical side of things
that people are focusing on andthere's no time or energy to
(43:43):
focus on the emotional side.
So once all that physicalthing's done and the planning
and the hospital visits, that'swhen I think the emotions
processing sort of sets in andthat's when the support's not
really there, um, and, as yousay, like people go oh, you're,
you're cured.
Now you've got you, you've.
You know you've done thetreatment, we'll get back to
(44:04):
normal, but you're not quiteready for normal.
You still got some processingand, and whether it be grief or
adjustment, you could still gotsome stuff to do.
Maybe there is some trauma aswell, medical trauma, what that
means, the fear of reoccurrence.
There's so much stuff thatyou're having to sort of manage,
and that usually comes afterthe physical treatment.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
I have a client today that went for her seven year.
For people who've never knownabout cancer.
You go yearly for about fiveyears and then you say you're
all set, but she's concerned.
So she does it every year.
It's year seven and you know,right yesterday we had our
session and I'm not identifyingher in any other way other than
(44:46):
this.
She said I think I'm ready toprocess this and it took seven
years.
And you know what I said to herno, you're over it, move on.
No, I'm kidding.
I said, of course, and I thinkthat that's something that not
only because it just happened,it's something that I see
regularly.
The other part, too, that Iwanted to mention, because you
talked about trauma, you know,and eating and how that affects
(45:09):
women.
I also mentioned a generationaltrauma in there and how, you
know, you got to be a properlady or you got to whatever, or
if you've had a parent that wentwithout food for several months
or several weeks, and thatgenerational trauma and your
attachment to food and howfucked up that gets.
And again, I'm not blaminganyone.
(45:31):
It's just a generational trauma.
I blame the trauma, not anyhuman being.
It's just a generational trauma.
I blame the trauma, not anyhuman being.
It really plays a factor, Ithink, particularly with women,
particularly after, likemenopause and perimenopause,
because you know not too longago, oh, so you can't produce
any babies anymore.
All right, you're not a humananymore, you're not helpful, and
that trauma continues to thisday, for the record.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, and that's a big part of it Like thinking
about.
I talk to people about what,what is their food story and not
just their food story.
You know how did their parentsrespond when around food and
what was it?
And you know, I had a clientwho their parents just if there
was any negative emotions, theywould just buy her chocolate and
(46:14):
that was that, was.
That was it.
That's how they managed it andand they were doing the best
they can and it's, you know,it's from their growing up and
how they were taught to manage,and so it's, it's, it's.
It's no one's fault, it's justtrying to understand it and
where it's come from and thentry and make a shift.
So if something's unhelpful foryou, how do you process that
(46:35):
and go through it and createthat time where it is more
helpful?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
So I just wanted to throw those things out.
I appreciate you validating mypoints of views, because one of
the things I also want to makesure and for those of you who've
known me long enough, you'llknow Aaron, you may not know me
I don't want to pretend I knowwhat women go through.
I'm not that self-centered orwhatever you want to call it,
but I definitely have someinformation and that's why I was
(47:01):
asking you to kind of confirmit or deny it, because if I'm
wrong, I'd rather be wrong andbe told I'm wrong than people
going oh yeah, you're white male, you know everything.
I hate that stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, and I mean we've sort of spoken as well
often about women and men inthis and there's obviously
transgender and other you knowlike things and other other
diversities and other minoritiesthat um are are all you know,
got valid points and validperspectives and trying to get
their points heard.
(47:32):
But I guess we are talkingtalking about the market and the
place where I'm sort offocusing my energy on Right.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
You know, we can also talk about race.
We can talk about like again, Idon't know what they refer to
in Australia, new Zealand, Italk about the Oceania, like
that.
You know, we talk about NativeAmericans here.
I've heard aboriginals beingused as a common word because
they have their own set oftrauma and experiences with that
and we're not we're notdismissing those situations.
(48:04):
We are not.
That's not what we were reallyfocusing on women's health and,
yeah, I brought up them.
You know, again, in case youdidn't know, I'm a male, um, so
I brought up a little bit ofthose point of views, but I also
want males to be curious and dolike me.
I'm like hey, here's myinformation.
Is it right, is it wrong?
Because I think that one of thethings we need to shift in as a
community is we don't knoweverything, and that's okay.
(48:26):
Versus, you know I'm atherapist and people are like oh
, you must know a lot.
No, I'm a dumb as a rock.
I'm learning and it's the truth, and I think I want to make
sure I displayed that with youtoo.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
And I think it's not.
Women's health isn't just forwomen, like, as you say, you
have educated your daughters,and so to help understand what
they're going through as well,and help them understand, but
help you understand, you know.
And so if you have a womanliving in your household, then
women's health is important, andthe same vice versa if you have
(49:02):
a man, transgender, like alltheir health is important and
for us to understand each other,I think is a really key thing.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
You know the time flew.
I just looked at the time.
The time flies when we'rehaving a good time.
Yeah, truly, erin.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, but I'm sure that
other people have enjoyed iteven more and may want to join
some of these groups that youwere talking about.
I don't know what to call themother than groups, so you can
correct me all you want.
How would people reach you?
How would people get into thesethings?
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, so I have my website.
My business is called Findingyour Flow, so my website is
findingyourflowcomau.
As in the Australian side, myemail is erin at
findingyourflowcomau, so you canlook at anything on there.
I do have a group starting onthe 24th of June for emotional
(49:49):
eating.
It is at a time that isprobably in the middle of your
night over there, but I will berunning if.
If anyone is interested, I canrun other groups at other times
and it's a six-week group.
It's group coaching as well asinformation.
So you know, like I, I think mymornings are your afternoons
(50:09):
and evenings.
So, um, it's just about.
If anyone's interested, thenreach out to me and we can.
We can work together and it'dbe.
It'd be great.
It'd be great and I.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
I don't think that it's going to limit anyone,
because I think that when you'reinterested in something, you
just jump on it.
You want to do it, so I'm happyto send people at your website
findingyourflowcomau sorry, andplease go there and I'm going to
put the show notes, are goingto have all those links and I
think you have an instagram alsoinstagram finding your
(50:44):
underscore flow yeah, so I'mgoing to put all that in uh on
the show notes.
please go see in, even if youdon't know if you could do it or
not.
Go see Erin's stuff.
I know her website.
Like I didn't know the address,but I've been to her website.
Very informative, go to it,erin.
I can't thank you enough.
This was very informative.
I appreciate it.
I hope the audience enjoyed ittoo and I really thank you for
(51:07):
your time.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
Oh, it's been great, it's been lovely.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, tracy, we all owe you a couple of dollars.
See you later, bye.
Well.
This concludes episode 157.
Erin Todd, thank you so much.
Go to her website.
Go join her coaching groups.
I know that people might youknow.
She said in the interview oh,maybe it's going to be too far,
but you know you listen to her.
(51:35):
You know she knows what she'stalking about.
Sometimes it's worth staying upto listen to that.
But episode 157 is the returnof guest host Courtney
Romanowski.
Courtney will be joined forthat interview with Bed Herman.
I hope I pronounced the wordright and there's an H in there,
so that's even worse.
But I hope you come back forthat.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Please like, subscribe and follow this
podcast on your favoriteplatform.
A glowing review is alwayshelpful and, as a reminder, this
podcast is for informational,educational and entertainment
purposes only.
If you're struggling with amental health or substance abuse
issue, please reach out to aprofessional counselor for
consultation.
If you are in a mental healthcrisis, call 988 for assistance.
(52:25):
This number is available in theUnited States and Canada.
Hi and welcome to Finding your Way Through Therapy
.
A proud member of thePsychCraft Network, the goal of
this podcast is to demystifytherapy, what can happen in
therapy and the wide array ofconversations you can have in
and about therapy Throughpersonal experiences.
Guests will talk about therapy,their experiences with it and
(00:24):
how psychology and therapy arepresent in many places in their
lives, with lots of authenticityand a touch of humor.
Here is your host, steve Bisson.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Alors, salut tout le monde and hi everyone.
Welcome to episode 156.
If you haven't listened toepisode 155 yet, go back and
listen to it.
Keith Hanks is an amazing guest.
I have the second time His book, alan.
The book, essentially, is outand going by it.
And remember, there's a littlecontest going on, so leave me a
message, a direct message,whatever you want to be eligible
(01:00):
for the giveaway.
But episode 156 will be withErin Todd.
Erin Todd is a friend of afriend, very happy to have her.
Kind of interesting to beinterviewing someone in
Australia.
But Erin Todd is a health andperformance coach with special
interests in emotional eating,perimenopause and wants to get
people to have more of anoptimist mindset and talk about
(01:21):
their nervous system health.
As a qualified functionalhealth medicine coach, coupled
with 19 years in the backgroundas a psychologist, she guides
women through transformativejourneys and she talks about the
relationship with food, mentalhealth and thriving in general.
Really looking forward to thisinterview.
And here is the interview,right after this word from
(01:42):
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(03:52):
Well, hi everyone and welcome toepisode 156.
If I sound hoarse, thank theallergies and the season here.
But you know what's interestingis with my guests.
You see all the lights.
It looks really light.
So go on YouTube and you'll seeit.
It feels like it's the day here.
It's almost like it's past 10o'clock at night Because my
(04:13):
guests, who I really want tohave on a podcast and no, not
just because of Tracy, butbecause I find her interesting
and Tracy that was a shout outto you, just for the record.
And Tracy that was a shout outto you, just for the record is
someone who is in AustraliaMelbourne, she said, and she's a
Kiwi, which is you know.
She feels my pain of beingcalled an American when I'm
Canadian first.
So she feels my pain and butshe's going to talk about great
(04:36):
stuff.
I don't.
I just don't want to make itjust comedy, but it's always
good to have this going.
Erin Todd, welcome to findingyour way through therapy.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh, steve, it's great to be here.
Yes, it's midday here today,but it's heading into winter, so
I myself have got a bit of acold, so I sound a bit different
too.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, and we're hitting the summer season and
all the pollen decided to showup this week, so it's awesome,
you know when you have allergiesand all that, and you're
catching me right before mysummer break.
So this is great.
You're one of the last.
I think you are the last.
No, there's no.
There's the last interviewbefore I go to my summer break.
(05:14):
So but you know, I'm very happyto meet you.
So someone who connected us,Tracy coffee is someone I worked
with at another company andTracy and I never really met and
we have a great connection.
I always enjoyed her and she'slike.
You know, you got to meet Aaronand I'm like, of course,
anything for.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Tracy, she's great Love her.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I love Tracy, so now that I've given you a little bit
of intro, I'm sure you have alot more than just being Tracy's
friend as your bio.
Can you tell me more aboutyourself?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, so my background is a psychologist.
I've worked in psychology for along time about 20 years mainly
sort of in hospitals with kidsand adults who are unwell and
going through crises.
But more recently I reallywanted to combine the mind-body
connection so I did more studyin particular around women's
(06:08):
health and hormones and so totry and get that background of a
much more holistic approach tomanaging difficulties and crises
and, I guess, my switch toreally trying to optimize our
health and perform at our bestwith a focus on women's health.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And I think that's needed too.
I think that for me I couldtalk about the mind-body spirit,
so it's very close to that.
And we also worked on a crisisteam basically us too, because I
worked on a crisis team forabout 15 years here trying to
keep people out of the hospital,putting them in the hospital as
needed.
So I think we have that incommon too, which really cool
(06:46):
when you talk about a little bitabout being a psychologist.
Were you a psychologist like?
Were you like bachelor, master,phd, or did you kind of like
take time between the two orwhatever?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
yeah, it's probably a little bit different over here,
but I did a doctorate which issort of in between a master's
and a PhD, where you do someresearch as well as placements
and coursework, and that washere at the University of
Melbourne.
So slightly I think it is alittle bit different.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
This the study pathways, but probably getting
to similar places and when yousay, like you know, and I left
you, I left there wide open, youdidn't take the shot, so you're
from New.
Zealand.
What part of New?
Zealand?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I'm from New Zealand, I am from Auckland, but I have
lived in Australia for over Idon't know 24 years or something
like that.
I had some time in London aswell and didn't sort of OE that
we often do, but yeah, have comeback and sort of, I guess, made
australia my home now no, andyou enjoy australia, as you told
(07:51):
me prior to the interview, ifaustralia is playing any team
you are pulling for well,usually new zealand.
So I definitely go for newzealand.
Um does depend a bit on whatsport, but yes, I am an
Australian citizen, so I shouldown that too all right, canada
plays the United States inhockey.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Guess who?
I'm pulling for Canada everysingle time.
I don't care about my Americancitizenship yes, if you're
offended, please write to me.
I'm fine.
Um one of the questions that astandard question on finding
your way through therapy becausewe talk about therapy is have
you ever been in?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
therapy I have when I was a bit younger.
So I lost my father when I wasvery young and at some point in
around my early 20s I went to atherapist and mainly focused on
that.
I guess the other thing is someof the therapeutic techniques
that you learn as wellthroughout the ongoing study
(08:49):
that we do.
Often some of them recommendhaving your own therapy,
particularly in that sort ofmodality.
So I have done.
More recently, I've studied atechnique called brain spotting,
which is yeah, it's, it's from,I guess, the.
The person who created it wasan EMDR specialist, and so I do
(09:15):
actually a lot of brain spottingas well, whether it be in a
group or I do my own brainspotting or with someone
individually.
So I think I really love that.
I find that's been reallyuseful for me as well.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And for those of us who don't know what brains I
obviously was nodding becauseI'm a big fan, but if you can
explain it in like a sentence ortwo for people who may not know
what brain spotting is, what isit?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
In a sentence or two.
Okay, it essentially looks atthe premise.
Behind it is um where we look,impacts how we feel, and it
really was developed as a um, atherapeutic approach that is,
processing of trauma, but it'salso often used to enhance
sports performance.
I use it in my emotional eatingprogram, sometimes it's used
(10:03):
for addiction and and so it'sreally versatile and can be used
in many ways.
And it is the thing I reallylike about it.
It's not just a cognitive level, it's not just about thinking
about changing your thoughts.
It sort of also brings yourbody and your felt sense and
really connects the unconsciousprocessing as well in terms to
(10:24):
support you to move forward orto process what you need to
process I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I think that brain spotting is you know, I'm an
emdr clinician myself and to bean emdr clinician you have to
have go through emdr.
Uh, so I I know what you meanabout that and eye movement,
desensitization and reprocessinghas changed a lot of my clients
lives.
I frankly think that it helpedme work on a couple of things
too.
So brain spotting, I think, isright up there with I think it's
(10:53):
cognitive process therapy.
That's another one that theyuse in the military up here in
the United States.
All good stuff for trauma inparticular, but you can use it
for just about anything.
But I'm a purist in the sensethat if you tell me we're going
to do psychoanalytic, you betterlie on the couch and do it
three times a week and pay outof pocket.
But obviously I know that youcan be used for other things,
(11:14):
including brain spotting.
Mdr has been used for otherstuff too, but brain spotting is
one of my favorites and onethat I'm studying right now
actively.
So I appreciate you explainingit to the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Amazing.
I've been using it to try andhelp my husband improve his golf
, so we'll see how that goes.
We need to talk afterwards.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
My golf is terrible, so we got to talk afterwards.
You know, one of the things isyou talked about a transition in
your intro.
You know you talked about, youknow going into transitions in
your life and talking about.
You know the mind bodyconnection and stuff like that.
So how do you integrate thoseprinciples of therapy and
psychology into the coachingapproach that you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean it is really interesting because I think, um,
I think there's lots of peoplethat just focus on one or the
other.
Like I feel like I can use alot of the skills that I have
learned through psychology, evensort of basic counseling skills
and listening skills and sortof helping integrate the things
(12:15):
that people are telling me withtheir past experiences as well.
So I think we bring with us ourpast experiences, our childhood
, how we interact and how welearned about relationships, and
we bring with us our pastexperiences, our childhood, how
we interact and how we learnedabout relationships, and we
bring with us in our everydaylife.
And so a big part of makingchange is to really support
people to understand theirmindset as well, as well as the
(12:38):
physical side of things.
So you know, there's a lot ofthings that we know that we
should do differently and dobetter.
Like you know, we know we allshould exercise and we know we
all should eat healthy, butactually doing that sometimes
isn't information, isn't enough.
So supporting that behaviorchange, using things like
positive psychology, brainspotting, things like that, I
(12:59):
sort of really integrate it intomy coaching to sort of support
people to help make thosechanges, even though it can be
really hard and also to stopbeing hard on themselves, like I
think it's a really commonthing that comes through going
oh why can't I do this?
There must be something wrongwith me.
Versus oh why can't I do this?
Well, I didn't learn to do thiswhen I was younger, or there's
(13:23):
some barrier that's blocking me.
That's maybe not as conscious,and so how do we get through
that or around that?
And so I think thatself-compassion work is a really
huge thing as well, but justreally integrating all the
skills that I've learned tobring to the person in front of
me or the group of people infront of me, I think it's really
(13:43):
, it's been really helpful.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
it's made a huge difference, I think well as a
you know again, we in thefinding your way through therapy
podcast, we want to enter inlike really educate as well as
talk about stuff.
About five years ago, beforecovid, I just thought positive
psychology was a lot of bullshitand what I meant by that is I
never read it, so I thought itwas like, just be positive, and
(14:06):
it's far from the truth.
That that's what positivepsychology is.
But since you brought it up andyes, for those of you who
listened for 156 plus episodesor know me, you will be shocked
that I'm a huge fan of positivepsychology.
But if you could explain it topeople what positive psychology
does, and how you could explainit to people what positive
psychology does and how youintegrate that into your
(14:27):
coaching, because I think it'sfascinating, I think it's a
great idea, by the way.
But I just want you to talk alittle bit about positive
psychology.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, and I think that is a common mistake people
make when they talk about I justhave to be positive and in a
way, if you do that too much, itsort of ventures into that
toxic positivity, like I have tobe happy all the time.
But I think it's more aboutsort of that positive psychology
, is more about looking at howcan we optimize ourselves, what
(14:56):
brings us happiness, how we talkto ourselves again related to
some of that self-compassion,but using it to sort of create
like a strength approach as wellwhat am I good at, how do we
get there, and sort of thatbringing that problem solving as
well.
But I do think people find ithard to really talk about
(15:19):
emotions, and particularly the,the emotions that are negative,
whereas I think there's a, thereis a real place for them and to
process them, and you don'thave to be happy or positive all
the time, which I think is areally key thing there's so many
things I want to say because Iagree with you.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Um, well, I'm going to go on a gender bias
perspective here.
First and foremost, if men arenegative, it's almost accepted,
but women who are not positiveare somehow frowned upon because
women have to be positive, andI could be wrong.
But that's just my personalexperience of societal norms and
(16:00):
you can correct me if I'm wrong.
If it's way different inAustralia, I'm very interested,
by the way, and you can correctme if I'm wrong if it's way
different in Australia.
I'm very interested, by the way.
But I think that from myperspective you know we talked
about women's health and howimportant it is to look at it
from a different perspectiveDoes that stuff actually play a
factor?
When you talk about women'shealth?
And you know, because it's hardto talk about emotions women
are allowed to cry and be happy,but they're not allowed to be
(16:21):
mad or angry because that's notladylike and all that crap.
And I yes, I said crap becauseit is because I cry regularly
and I have no problem with thatand I tell my men to cry
regularly because it's important.
But can you tell me more aboutthat?
Because the emotional health ofwomen is so different than men
and I think that that plays afactor, because women are seen
(16:42):
as the nurturer, so they have tobe more positive.
That's just my experience, butyou can tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I mean there's so many ways things to go from that
conversation.
Look, I think I think the keything is that women and men are
different.
I think there's there's abiological difference and also
there's been a culturalupbringing difference, like, as
you say, you know girls and aremuch more likely to be okay, to
(17:10):
cry, whereas boys are often toldto toughen up.
So I think we again, I thinkit's bringing both those things
together um, we also think aboutwomen have more estrogen.
Estrogen is sort of known asthe mother hormone as well, so
maybe they, um, naturally, are abit more mothering.
There is a um, a tendency forwomen.
(17:33):
You know when they're, when,when they come across stress,
sometimes they have a risk.
Um, it's not just fight flight.
Women have this tendency totend and befriend, and so they
they look for support, they lookto protect their young ones.
I think I guess, if we'retalking about so, we also have
different ways in which werespond.
But unfortunately, in thehistory of health and probably a
(17:57):
lot of research, the researchis usually being done on
middle-aged college men, and soa lot of the research that was
done was then just extrapolatedto women and said well, if it
works for this cohort, it'sgoing to work for women, but
that's changing.
So there's a lot more researchbeing done on women and
supporting that, the hormonecycles and what's actually
(18:18):
happening and how that'simpacting as well.
I guess I haven't I your commentabout.
You know men are allowed to bea bit more grumpy.
I guess I haven't.
It's probably, it's probablyokay, it's probably true.
It's probably something that Ijust haven't taken a lot of
notice of.
But I do think there's thingsthat, like women and men are
(18:43):
responded to differently basedon how they respond.
So if women are a bit moreangry, they can often be called
just grumpy or or not listenedto or things like that, whereas
I think men can be listened to alot more and they're allowed to
be more angry than women.
So it is very cultural.
But I think there's also aphysical, hormonal type thing
(19:05):
going on as well.
I think it's that combined,that mind, body type thing
combined.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, I agree, I mean testosterone in men.
You know, testosterone is based, you know, is more prevalent in
men, but it's also what kind ofmore of the aggressive type of
hormones.
So I get that, but I think thatif I punched a wall and you
punched a wall, we would betreated way differently.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I can agree on that.
Incredibly.
Neither of us have branchingall.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I mean, the interview is early, so who knows what's
going to happen in the next fewminutes, but I have no intention
of doing so if that helps you.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Me neither.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
All right, that's great, and I think that you know
we're talking a little bit moreabout women, and I think that
it's important.
You know, I've I had someone afew months ago that talked about
women's health being differentthan men's health too, and it's
absolutely true.
There's a difference, and it'snot strictly perimenopause or
menopause or postmenopause, it'sso much more so.
(20:05):
I wonder if, is that part ofwhat motivated you to change
your career to more uh, topaying focus more in women's
health, women's uh bodies,women's coaching and all that?
Is that part of it, or is itsomething else?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
yeah, that's definitely part of it.
I guess you know learning muchmore about myself as well.
Obviously I'm a woman goingthrough the various, I am going
through the various changes, um,that I mean in essence as well.
Like men also again haveparticular things that they need
(20:40):
support with, and you know avery good friend of mine is a
men's coach as well, and so she,she deals with that.
But I guess the, the, the womanstuff really interested me, and
some of it that has reallyinterested me is because, um,
because of this, I guess,unfairness, this inequality that
came with it as well, um,particularly around the research
(21:02):
and and just finding out onemore about myself, and sort of
wishing going, oh, I wish I'dknown some of the stuff when I
was a teenager and thenadolescent, but either we
weren't talking about it or thestuff wasn't known.
So I think it's just beinginterested in what I'm going
through, what my friends aregoing through, how we really
(21:23):
bring it together to even reachout for some of that more
ancient knowledge that maybe ourancestors had, and also trying
to live within our cycles notjust the cycle of the day and
the culture as well, just tocreate that real optimizing, I
guess, is the key thing.
How do I optimize my health?
Optimizing, I guess, is the keything.
(21:47):
How do I optimize my health?
I really got interested.
I had periods of time where Ihad really low energy for a long
, long time and just generalmedicine.
Going to the GP, they'd testyou do your blood tests, you're
going, oh, everything's normal,it's not a problem, and you'd be
sent away.
And I encountered and gotinterested in functional
medicine it's probably calledintegrative medicine more here
and that really looked at thesystems within the body and,
(22:09):
rather than just going oneverything's in the normal, it
started to go well, this isn't.
This is normal, but it's notoptimal.
How do you optimize?
What do you need to do?
How can you create thoselifestyle changes?
What other supplements do youneed?
What is your based on yourgenetic profile?
What is not working, as well assomething else.
(22:29):
And I think just thatempowering myself in terms of
there is a lot that I can do tocreate more energy, more
vitality in myself, just on aday-to-day basis, like what I do
every day, matters.
And when I have more energy,then I have more energy to give
other people more, more thingsto follow and much more
(22:53):
enjoyment.
So I think it sort of came fromlike I love to learn, so that
sort of that also.
I'm sorry to try and get energyand it's my health I'm still
going, I'm not there.
It and get in a gym instead ofmy health I'm still going, I'm
not there.
It's a work in progress, butdefinitely much better than it
was, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There's so many questions that came up when you
were talking about this, and ina good way.
You know, for good oldCanadians and American friends,
gp is a general practitionerwhich we would call a primary
care physician here inMassachusetts or in the United
States.
Just want to throw that out,just to keep all the language.
Really I try to keep as manyacronyms out of my mouth.
(23:34):
So uh, especially for thispodcast, which I really hope
that people listen to geteducated.
That's number one.
Number two, the other thingthat you know you mentioned.
You say you know things thatyou wish you didn't talk about
when you were a teenage girl.
That'd be my first question.
(23:54):
I have a few follow-upquestions, but that's the first
one that comes up If you weregoing to talk to teenage girls I
know that's not yourconcentration now, but what
would you want teenage girls toknow that you didn't?
Speaker 3 (24:01):
know, yes, okay, so I do mainly work with women in
the perimenopausal phase, but Iguess, thinking back, like when
I was an adolescent, um, and itprobably still happens a bit now
like if you, if you hadsomething wrong with your
periods, or you had heavyperiods or something happened,
you'd get put straight on on thepill and still the case here in
(24:22):
north america and the pill is agreat contraception.
There's no doubt about that, butit's often used for everything
other than contraception andthere's even things now like
what one of the things does withthe pill is it means that a lot
of your nutrients are depleted.
So really, if you're on thepill, you should be taking extra
supplements as well to supportthat nutrient imbalance, which
(24:44):
you're never really told about.
There is a book by Sarah Hill,I think, called the Pill Changes
Everything, and it just talksabout some more research around
the contraceptive pill andactually what it does.
And if we think about it, itactually changes.
It changes our hormones and ourhormones are our chemical
messengers in our body, is itchanges our hormones and our
(25:07):
hormones are our chemicalmessengers in our body.
So it's it can change a littlebit of of who we are, um, and so
there's more and more studygetting done on it and I think
again, I think the pill is agreat contraception, but I just
think there's not a lot ofinformed consent and really
clear knowledge about whenyou're taking something like
that, what it does and impact itmay have.
Um, and the other thing is thatpsychical nature of when we're
(25:29):
taking something like that, whatit does and impact it may have.
And the other thing is thatcyclical nature of when we're.
The other thing I wish I'd sortof known about is when we go
through the our cycles, ourmonthly cycles.
We have peaks in our cyclewhere we have lots more energy.
We're sort of, you know, we'reovulating, there's lots of
estrogen in our body, but thenwe go through cycles when our
hormones are quite low and wehave lower energy as well, and
(25:51):
as a woman, we're just expectedto function the same way, even
those different cycles where Ithink sometimes, if we're maybe
about to have our periods or wehave low hormones, it can be
okay to go I'm going to have areally slow day and not feel
guilty about it, or, you know,sometimes you can't, but if you
can, it's like giving your bodya rest and being okay and
(26:13):
knowing you're doing the rightthing, rather than going oh, why
can't I function?
Or I shouldn't be doing this,and so just just having
permission to be with our cyclesand our energy as well.
I think that it probably thetwo main things I would have
liked to have known when I wasyounger.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
I hope that the teenage and young girls and
young adult women who arelistening to this will get a
little hint about it.
That's very important to me.
I have educated my owndaughters on that stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Because, again, maybe it's a male bias, but for me,
putting hormones in your body tochange how it reacts, how can
it not fuck up other stuff?
It's just not.
It's just to me, it's just.
I don't know, maybe it's my ownthoughts, but that's how I feel
, which brings me to my otherpoint that I want to talk about.
You talk about health andnutrition and how things change,
(27:03):
and one of the things that Iconcentrate with my
perimenopausal, menopausal womenin particular is I talk about
gut health as a balance.
So I don't know if you have anyideas on that, because you
talked about gut health veryquickly and I'm like, wow,
that's one of my wheelhouses, soI want to hear more about that.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Oh yeah, there's so much and I guess this this is
the other thing like even fiveyears ago or something, we
didn't know how much the gutimpacted the brain and how the
brain.
You know that, all thatcommunication, so there's so
much knowledge and stuff comingout at the moment that I, I just
imagine, you know, even inanother five years we'll feel
like we knew nothing now.
But there is a lot of, there'sa lot of stuff about gut health
(27:46):
and how that impacts us and how,you know, leaky gut is a common
thing and things getting intoour bodies that shouldn't be
there.
I mean, I think it's imperative.
And I think it's even moreimperative when we're going
through perimenopause, becausewe have much more stress at that
time.
That hormonal changes, thatthat we have to manage and
(28:08):
having our gut function and ourmetabolism functioning well is
going to make going through thatprocess a lot easier.
And I do see it in my clients,the ones that are eating not
well and their metabolism's notgreat and their gut health isn't
great.
Often they're having somereally tough times as well.
So I mean, if you can fix yourgut, that's great, whether
(28:31):
that's through a gut healthspecialist or, you know, doing a
little bit of elimination diettype thing to see what's
supporting you in the moment.
But I think it's reallyimportant to be able to see a
practitioner that can help yousupport your gut as well.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
You know, I think we talk about menopause,
perimenopause but I also talkabout mental health because it
is finding your way throughtherapy.
I've talked about this, I think, on my podcast before, so if
you missed it, that's fine,because I'm going to repeat the
story because I think it'simportant.
A good friend of mine shout outHelen.
You know we've been friendssince high school and she
(29:07):
unfortunately had a lot ofmental health issues,
particularly bipolar, and shehad difficulties with that.
And she started reading a bookby Kelly Brogan and I wish I
could remember the name, but Icannot remember the name of the
book and she changed her dietand over time, with changing
that diet, she was able toremove most of her medication.
(29:29):
I think she takes one now andthat's from her gut biome and
how she moved, like she didn't.
By the way, for the record incase anyone's thinking that me
or Aaron are sitting here goingdon't eat.
That's going to keep your gutgoing strong.
No, it's putting the rightstuff in your gut.
That's so important.
And yes, you know I sit downand my gut's pretty big and all
(29:51):
that.
But I really, truly believe thatpart of me, not struggling as
much as I use usually do withthese allergies, has to do a
little bit of my gut bile andavoiding certain foods, and I
mean there's no, I don't have aformula for you, but being you
know I talk about Kelly Brogan,but you need to pay attention to
your gut and I feel that womenwho do pay attention to their
(30:13):
nutrition.
I don't like to talk about diet, I'd like to talk about
nutrition because it's much morepositive in some ways and yes,
I have been positive but I thinkthat that's what I talk about
with the women I work with.
It's get your gut biome balance.
It's not going to take away allthe symptoms I don't claim that
by any stretch but itdefinitely helps.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
And I don't know if that makes sense to you or you
think I'm crazy, but I think,from both mental health
perspective, as well asmenopause, perimenopause, it's
so important to manage your gutbile it is really important,
like it's the gut, it's theexercise, it's the sleep, it's
the community and sort of stressmanagement, like if we think
(30:53):
about some, all those lifestylefactors that they're, they're so
important.
And I do think it can be reallyhard to nourish our bodies in
this day and age because we gointo all the stores and the
supermarkets and there's so muchfood that isn't isn't good for
us, so much processed stuff thatjust isn't helpful, um and so
(31:14):
sometimes, being the one that iseating the fresh food, you can
feel like the one that's a bitof the odd one out and it makes
it harder, I think, which isreally unfortunate yeah, you
know in, uh, north America, andI don't want to speak for every
country in the world, but I'lljust talk about my experience
with North America and KellyBrogan talks about that in her
book.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Buy your food on the outside of the supermarket,
because usually that's where allthe fresh stuff is.
The periphery is much moreimportant than the aisles and I
keep that in mind.
My friend Helen talked aboutthat to me a couple of times and
I think it's very important tothink about that and but be
curious and learn how to balanceit out.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, so, and the other thing about the
supermarket aisles like all thea lot of the cleaning products,
a lot of the stuff we put in ourface and our skin, a lot of
them have endocrine disruptorsthat impact our hormones as well
, and so I've had experiencewith women, particularly through
the perimenopause phase, whenthey clear out their products
(32:11):
and they put better products ontheir skin.
It can actually also help theirsymptoms as well.
So it's not just through thegut, it's also what we put on
our skin and what we clean thehouse with, and all that stuff
which I think is reallyimportant too.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
And I think it's also making sure that you know the
gut biome is not also justnutrition, it's also about the
exercise and you keep your bodymoving.
That's also very important.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
There's so much we can do to help ourselves.
We don't, so I guess that'ssome of the key messages that I
really want to sort of share isthat sense of empowerment.
It's like you know, I knowthere are times where we feel
that, where we can't do anything, but, you know, even getting up
and getting a bit of sunshinein the morning Andrew Huberman
(32:59):
talks a lot about the light atnight and the light in the
morning, like these are thingsthat we can do, and we can do on
a regular basis.
That can help shift how we'refeeling too, especially if we're
really struggling you know myum, I had an.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I had an interview with someone else on sleep.
I think it was like episode 141roughly, and she talked about
the lux and the lights.
And even if you do like we're,I'm pretty bright.
It's a studio here, so you know, you can, you can see that it's
fairly bright in here, but thisonly brings my lux level to
maybe 50 to 60.
You go outside on a cloudy dayit's 250.
(33:35):
And you know she talked aboutthe importance of getting that
light and I think that that alsohelps with perimenopause
menopause.
I think it helps everyone,frankly.
But I also think that gettingthat cycle in so that you feel a
little more normal, you get alittle bit of that sunshine.
You can talk about vitamin dand vitamin c and all that and
I'm fine and I'll go with thattoo.
But I really think that youknow, historically, until about
(33:58):
100 or 150 years or so, give ortake, we didn't live in
buildings with this andelectricity and fake light.
We went outside and when thelight went out we went to bed.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yep.
So I would also add that for me, when you talk about women's
health and particularperimenopause and menopause, I
say get your sleep, get in aregular cycle of sleep.
The eight hours is a myth in myopinion.
I know my guests would disagreethat I had a few weeks ago, but
I think that it's important toget some sleep and as we grow
(34:35):
older, I'd like to tell you thatI sleep eight hours.
As I get older, I don't sleepeight hours and I don't think
I'll be able to get thereanymore, but this is a hard
thing, I think, particularlywhen you're going into
perimenopause.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
This is the thing that has often disrupted the
first.
It's people and women aretalking about.
I just can't get the sleep thatI used to, and part of that is
because one of the hormones thatstarts to reduce first is the
progesterone, and so that's thehormone that is the chill-out
hormone, that helps us feel moresleepy, that helps us feel less
(35:09):
anxious, and so, suddenly,without changing anything,
people's sleep is changing, andso, therefore, it's really
unfair.
But it's about then what do Ineed to do?
And so sometimes you reallyneed to up the sleep hygiene, or
even think about going to adoctor, maybe getting some sort
(35:30):
of additional hormones orfinding stuff that really
supports our sleep in adifferent way too.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
The sleep hygiene.
I know we're talking aboutwomen's health, but I do this
with all my clients.
I say, what's your sleephygiene?
And most people look at me likethis, so go to YouTube if you
want to see what I did.
But I'm like, yeah, sleephygiene, what is your routine?
30 minutes to an hour prior tosleep?
I don't know, and I'm likethat's probably why your sleep
is shitty and I think that thatI don't know if you talk about
(35:59):
sleep hygiene, but to me, that'sanother key for most human
beings to be functional.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yes, yeah, yes, well, I think it impacts, because if
you're getting bad sleep, thenyou often make bad food choices
about bad choices about what toeat, and then that impacts how
you're feeling and then youprobably get worse sleep, and if
you're getting bad sleep,you're probably less likely to
exercise.
So there's a lot of again.
(36:26):
It's the body, is the system.
You're not just looking at onething.
It's just so interrelated whatwe do, how we sleep, what we eat
, how we move during the day.
It just impacts us in so manyways and it really is a system,
rather than focusing ondifferent separate parts.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Fighting these allergies right now and having
trouble sleeping because I'mcoughing every other minute.
My girlfriend would say everysecond.
I get it and I certainly knowthat it affects my crankiness.
You know, I don't think my babaor my juice is going to help me
.
I'm just cranky because Ididn't sleep and it's so
important to keep that in mind.
I think that, with women'shealth in general, it's
(37:05):
something that you know we don'ttalk enough about, you know,
and that's important to bring up.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, I think it's, I think, yeah, I think it's so
important.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
One of the things that I would talk about is that
you know, when you think aboutwomen's health and all the work
that you're doing right now,which is fabulous I'd like to
hear more about the projectsyou're on, but maybe it's
important to think about, maybethe future.
What's your vision of thefuture for your work, especially
around women's health?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
I know so much Well where to start.
So what my what I'm hoping todo is create different
communities as well.
So a key thing that I amsupporting women with is around
perimenopause and menopause andsort of educating around those
changes and supporting thethings that they can do.
(37:56):
Supporting helping them findout where their health care team
can be, but that sort ofincludes you know who's at home.
You know things are changinginternally in their, in their
body, so things often need tochange externally because
there's also the they're movinginto a different stage.
So from a psychologicalperspective they're letting go
(38:16):
of things that may or not bewhat they wanted, whether they
wanted to have more kids or theyhad kids and you know weren't
able to have kids and what thatmeans, sort of being that parent
or not parent to moving to atime where they're older.
And I guess in our cultureprobably in North American
(38:37):
culture as well the elderlyaren't really revered.
You know some cultures have theelderly as wise woman or wise
men.
You know they come to, but thatdoesn't sort of happen in our
culture over there.
So what that even means interms of what does this
transition mean, is my life over.
How can I have a reallyproductive next stage of life.
(39:01):
So there's a lot ofpsychological also grief and
loss.
You know what didn't I do whenI was in my sort of reproductive
age that I wish I'd done?
So we've got a lot oftransitions there as well, and
when we're going throughtransitions, we have to leave
some parts behind as well aswell as look to the future.
So there's some key areas thatI really want to support and
(39:24):
really help educate women.
It's not the food is importantand the exercise is important,
but there's also a change in astage of life and I think it's
going to be really great to talkmore about that.
One of the other projects thatI'm working on is around
emotional eating as well.
So I think we emotions and foodis linked from before.
(39:45):
We can even remember, you know,often if, as a baby, we cry,
you know, often we're offeredfood even though we may not be
hungry.
And I think, particularly whenit comes around perimenopause
because the other thing thatoften happens is we put on
weight even though we haven'tchanged anything we are more
emotional because our hormonesare changing and often we turn
(40:06):
to food to manage that, and oursolution to manage that is
usually I need to eat less foodor I need to go on a food plan,
and often people are not lookingat the real issue, which is
what are the emotions and howthey're coping with these
emotions.
So I do have a program aroundemotional eating that I'm
working on.
I use brain spotting in thatprogram to sort of support that
(40:29):
as well.
And the other project I'mworking on is with a friend of
mine who is a traumapsychologist and also a breast
cancer survivor and we'reputting together some education
and possibly a membership.
We haven't totally decided tosupport that recovery from
breast cancer as well.
So when she went through herexperience she got quite
(40:51):
traumatized and she found thatshe, although there's some
really good support while you'regoing through breast cancer, as
soon as you're sort of in thecured stage and the mainly the
support is about getting back tolife and getting moving but
there's not a lot of supportaround.
Well, what?
What have you been through andwhat's that like emotionally, as
(41:13):
well as the other added thingthat happens is that often some
of the treatments put women intomenopause who aren't in
menopause already, and it's avery sudden thing.
So this is the other thing thatyou know.
Not only are people dealingwith an illness, they're dealing
with the chemotherapy, they'redealing with um, you know, all
those changes.
They're also dealing withsuddenly going into menopause.
(41:35):
So sort of looking about howyou heal from a health what can
you do but also from a trauma,emotional perspective too.
So they're sort of the thethings that I've got on the go,
that I'm trying to sort ofdevelop so you're not doing
anything.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
You're just sitting on your laurels just doing
nothing.
Um, a couple of things I wantto mention.
You know, endometriosis issomething that I also.
When you are you're very youngand you get to go through
endometriosis, it really doeschange a woman's body and the
trauma and the other part too.
When you talk about trauma, Iliken people who survive any
(42:09):
like we talk about cancer, anykind of health scare, whatever
you want to call it, becauseI've had people who've had
Cushing's.
You can talk about whatever youwant, but there's a lot of
things you can survive.
I liken it to grief and what Imean by that is this when people
pass away like if someonepasses away in my life I'm not
going to say any names orbecause I don't want to wish
anything bad.
What people tend to do is theyturn around.
(42:32):
They turn around and they helpyou for about two weeks.
Everyone's there for you fortwo weeks and on almost like two
to T, 15 days later you're onyour own.
Oh yeah, I took care of her fortwo weeks, or him or whatever,
and I I talk about when peoplesurvive a very big health scare
and whatever that is.
There's this grief of likewhere the hell is the support
(42:55):
gone?
And you turn around and you'relike where are they?
And I wanted to mention thatbecause I see that a lot,
particularly women who are alsokind of like if you go to
endometriosis it's kind of scary.
You can survive it, but onceyou get literally scraped,
people are there for thebeginning, but after that
they're like okay, so you'reback back to life in general and
(43:16):
we're not ever talking aboutthis again.
I.
I think that there's a lot tobe said around that number one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
I don't know what you yeah I totally agree because I
think, um, I think what oftenhappens is is people, if
someone's going through atreatment or having to make
medical decisions, or having tomanage their nausea because
they're having chemo, it's verymuch the physical side of things
that people are focusing on andthere's no time or energy to
(43:43):
focus on the emotional side.
So once all that physicalthing's done and the planning
and the hospital visits, that'swhen I think the emotions
processing sort of sets in andthat's when the support's not
really there, um, and, as yousay, like people go oh, you're,
you're cured.
Now you've got you, you've.
You know you've done thetreatment, we'll get back to
(44:04):
normal, but you're not quiteready for normal.
You still got some processingand, and whether it be grief or
adjustment, you could still gotsome stuff to do.
Maybe there is some trauma aswell, medical trauma, what that
means, the fear of reoccurrence.
There's so much stuff thatyou're having to sort of manage,
and that usually comes afterthe physical treatment.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
I have a client today that went for her seven year.
For people who've never knownabout cancer.
You go yearly for about fiveyears and then you say you're
all set, but she's concerned.
So she does it every year.
It's year seven and you know,right yesterday we had our
session and I'm not identifyingher in any other way other than
(44:46):
this.
She said I think I'm ready toprocess this and it took seven
years.
And you know what I said to herno, you're over it, move on.
No, I'm kidding.
I said, of course, and I thinkthat that's something that not
only because it just happened,it's something that I see
regularly.
The other part, too, that Iwanted to mention, because you
talked about trauma, you know,and eating and how that affects
(45:09):
women.
I also mentioned a generationaltrauma in there and how, you
know, you got to be a properlady or you got to whatever, or
if you've had a parent that wentwithout food for several months
or several weeks, and thatgenerational trauma and your
attachment to food and howfucked up that gets.
And again, I'm not blaminganyone.
(45:31):
It's just a generational trauma.
I blame the trauma, not anyhuman being.
It's just a generational trauma.
I blame the trauma, not anyhuman being.
It really plays a factor, Ithink, particularly with women,
particularly after, likemenopause and perimenopause,
because you know not too longago, oh, so you can't produce
any babies anymore.
All right, you're not a humananymore, you're not helpful, and
that trauma continues to thisday, for the record.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, and that's a big part of it Like thinking
about.
I talk to people about what,what is their food story and not
just their food story.
You know how did their parentsrespond when around food and
what was it?
And you know, I had a clientwho their parents just if there
was any negative emotions, theywould just buy her chocolate and
(46:14):
that was that, was.
That was it.
That's how they managed it andand they were doing the best
they can and it's, you know,it's from their growing up and
how they were taught to manage,and so it's, it's, it's.
It's no one's fault, it's justtrying to understand it and
where it's come from and thentry and make a shift.
So if something's unhelpful foryou, how do you process that
(46:35):
and go through it and createthat time where it is more
helpful?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
So I just wanted to throw those things out.
I appreciate you validating mypoints of views, because one of
the things I also want to makesure and for those of you who've
known me long enough, you'llknow Aaron, you may not know me
I don't want to pretend I knowwhat women go through.
I'm not that self-centered orwhatever you want to call it,
but I definitely have someinformation and that's why I was
(47:01):
asking you to kind of confirmit or deny it, because if I'm
wrong, I'd rather be wrong andbe told I'm wrong than people
going oh yeah, you're white male, you know everything.
I hate that stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, and I mean we've sort of spoken as well
often about women and men inthis and there's obviously
transgender and other you knowlike things and other other
diversities and other minoritiesthat um are are all you know,
got valid points and validperspectives and trying to get
their points heard.
(47:32):
But I guess we are talkingtalking about the market and the
place where I'm sort offocusing my energy on Right.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
You know, we can also talk about race.
We can talk about like again, Idon't know what they refer to
in Australia, new Zealand, Italk about the Oceania, like
that.
You know, we talk about NativeAmericans here.
I've heard aboriginals beingused as a common word because
they have their own set oftrauma and experiences with that
and we're not we're notdismissing those situations.
(48:04):
We are not.
That's not what we were reallyfocusing on women's health and,
yeah, I brought up them.
You know, again, in case youdidn't know, I'm a male, um, so
I brought up a little bit ofthose point of views, but I also
want males to be curious and dolike me.
I'm like hey, here's myinformation.
Is it right, is it wrong?
Because I think that one of thethings we need to shift in as a
community is we don't knoweverything, and that's okay.
(48:26):
Versus, you know I'm atherapist and people are like oh
, you must know a lot.
No, I'm a dumb as a rock.
I'm learning and it's the truth, and I think I want to make
sure I displayed that with youtoo.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
And I think it's not.
Women's health isn't just forwomen, like, as you say, you
have educated your daughters,and so to help understand what
they're going through as well,and help them understand, but
help you understand, you know.
And so if you have a womanliving in your household, then
women's health is important, andthe same vice versa if you have
(49:02):
a man, transgender, like alltheir health is important and
for us to understand each other,I think is a really key thing.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
You know the time flew.
I just looked at the time.
The time flies when we'rehaving a good time.
Yeah, truly, erin.
I really enjoyed ourconversation, but I'm sure that
other people have enjoyed iteven more and may want to join
some of these groups that youwere talking about.
I don't know what to call themother than groups, so you can
correct me all you want.
How would people reach you?
How would people get into thesethings?
Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, so I have my website.
My business is called Findingyour Flow, so my website is
findingyourflowcomau.
As in the Australian side, myemail is erin at
findingyourflowcomau, so you canlook at anything on there.
I do have a group starting onthe 24th of June for emotional
(49:49):
eating.
It is at a time that isprobably in the middle of your
night over there, but I will berunning if.
If anyone is interested, I canrun other groups at other times
and it's a six-week group.
It's group coaching as well asinformation.
So you know, like I, I think mymornings are your afternoons
(50:09):
and evenings.
So, um, it's just about.
If anyone's interested, thenreach out to me and we can.
We can work together and it'dbe.
It'd be great.
It'd be great and I.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
I don't think that it's going to limit anyone,
because I think that when you'reinterested in something, you
just jump on it.
You want to do it, so I'm happyto send people at your website
findingyourflowcomau sorry, andplease go there and I'm going to
put the show notes, are goingto have all those links and I
think you have an instagram alsoinstagram finding your
(50:44):
underscore flow yeah, so I'mgoing to put all that in uh on
the show notes.
please go see in, even if youdon't know if you could do it or
not.
Go see Erin's stuff.
I know her website.
Like I didn't know the address,but I've been to her website.
Very informative, go to it,erin.
I can't thank you enough.
This was very informative.
I appreciate it.
I hope the audience enjoyed ittoo and I really thank you for
(51:07):
your time.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
Oh, it's been great, it's been lovely.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Yeah, tracy, we all owe you a couple of dollars.
See you later, bye.
Well.
This concludes episode 157.
Erin Todd, thank you so much.
Go to her website.
Go join her coaching groups.
I know that people might youknow.
She said in the interview oh,maybe it's going to be too far,
but you know you listen to her.
(51:35):
You know she knows what she'stalking about.
Sometimes it's worth staying upto listen to that.
But episode 157 is the returnof guest host Courtney
Romanowski.
Courtney will be joined forthat interview with Bed Herman.
I hope I pronounced the wordright and there's an H in there,
so that's even worse.
But I hope you come back forthat.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Please like, subscribe and follow this
podcast on your favoriteplatform.
A glowing review is alwayshelpful and, as a reminder, this
podcast is for informational,educational and entertainment
purposes only.
If you're struggling with amental health or substance abuse
issue, please reach out to aprofessional counselor for
consultation.
If you are in a mental healthcrisis, call 988 for assistance.
(52:25):
This number is available in theUnited States and Canada.
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