The festive season often brings joy and togetherness, but it can also reveal differing expectations, leading to tension in our relationships. In this episode, Marie Vakakis joins Dr. Jodi to explore how understanding each other’s hopes and dreams for Christmas—and communicating well —can help prevent conflicts over finances, hosting duties and holiday plans. You'll feel beautifully supported if you're struggling to know how to navigate time spent with challenging family members or friends too. M...
Dec 10, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 167
The festive season is often painted as the most wonderful time of the year, but for many, it brings a whirlwind of stress. In this episode, I explore the common challenges we face at Christmas and share practical strategies to help ease the load. From the pressures of choosing the perfect gifts and managing financial stress to juggling time and delegating tasks, I unpack how to simplify and find more peace during this busy period. I also delve into the importance of looking after your emotional ...
Dec 03, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 166
What do you need to let go of? It's a big question, and though the answer may come easily, letting go and changing the way you think about something that's been with you a lifetime can be very hard. In this honest and vulnerable conversation the incredible Tiff Cook joins Dr Jodi to share her experiences from a recent Himalayan retreat. Tiff shares how the retreat experinece was ultimately gifted to her, about her experiences with meditation and mindfulness, and how her time on the retreat, and ...
Nov 26, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 165
With over 20 years of experience working with Olympic athletes and coaches, Dr. Kirsten Peterson, a 7-time Olympic Psychologist, shares the insights, thinking skills, and strategies we all need to better understand high performance—especially when faced with stress, anxiety, and fear. And you don’t have to be an Olympian to be a high performer. Dr. Kirsten Peterson explains that we’re all performers, no matter the roles and responsibilities we fulfill day to day. Whether you’re navigating the de...
Nov 19, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 164
Deciphering a yoga timetable can feel overwhelming if you’re new to the practice. Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Yin, and Restorative are just a few of the yoga styles to choose from, but what does each one offer, and where should you begin? In this insightful conversation, Dr. Jodi is joined by Kelly Smith, founder of Yoga For You. Together, they’ll help you understand each style, explore how yoga is so much more than just poses, and discuss ways to incorporate this powerful practice into daily life...
Nov 12, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 163
In this episode, Dr. Jodi Richardson shares her personal journey with undiagnosed anxiety and the turning point when depression prompted her to seek help. With a deep understanding of mental health and a compassionate approach, Dr. Jodi offers nine powerful strategies that have profoundly transformed her life. These tools, rooted in science and personal experience, are designed to help listeners not only manage anxiety but also embrace a fuller, more resilient life. Tune in for Dr. Jodi's inspir...
Nov 05, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 162
How much time do you spend outside? If you’re like most people, probably not enough. And it’s taking a toll on our mental and physical health. What’s profound about time in nature is how even small doses can have a relaxing, stress-reducing impact on our physiology; reducing anxiety. We feel better when we spend more time outdoors. Research shows that spending time in green or blue spaces, listening to the sounds of nature, breathing fresh air, observing nature’s patterns, and even connecting wi...
Oct 29, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 161
So many of us are 'on' from the moment we wake until our heads hit the pillow at the end of the day. It's common to feel that there's too much to do to take time to pause and give our minds and bodies even a few minutes of stillness and rest. Even when that's what we need more than anything else. This episode could be the nudge you've been waiting for start a practice that will help you live with more stillness and ease. I'm joined this week by mental health nurse, meditation and self-compassion...
Oct 17, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 160
We were never meant to do any of this alone. And yet, alone so many are. Or more specifically, an astonishing number of people are lonely. And it's wreaking havoc on our mental and physical health. This week's guest, Dr Jody Carrington, is passionate about human connection. She explains why connection is declining, the impacts of disconnection, what's standing in the way of connection and what we can do about it. It's one of the most powerful episodes we've shared. www.drjodycarrington.com Insta...
Oct 15, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 159
With our brain at the helm, the hormonal changes we experience through perimenopause affect how we think, feel, cope, react, sleep, the density of our bones, our heart health, our patience, our tolerance, how we look, how we feel about life as a whole and so much more. Shockingly, nearly 1 in 4 women report feeling as though life is not worth living through this stage of life which can unfold over many years. Any significant life change can see us knocking on the door of our local GP for help. G...
Oct 08, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 158
A messy or cluttered space around us can have a very real impact our levels of stress and anxiety. Too much 'stuff' around us is distracting and taxes our brain in ways that can reduce our ability to focus, think properly and function well. We can end up feeling completely overwhelmed and find it really hard to know where to start. In this fascinating conversation, psychologist Dr Erika Penney helps us understand why we feel the way we do when surrounded by mess and clutter, how it affects us an...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 157
Are you 'good with money'? If you're not you need to know two things. Firstly, you are not alone. Secondly, this episode will put you on a path to changing the way you think about money, feel about spending, act upon saving, being more intentional about where your hard-earned money goes - and finally change the way you feel about all of it. All thanks to this week's guest Emma Edwards, author of 'Good with Money; Reprogram your spending habits and take control of your money'. In this conversatio...
Sep 24, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 156
There is no shortage of accessible information, advice, and strategies for us parents, but it can all get a bit much. When seeking answers about how to handle a particular challenge, when anxiety shows up, or how we can build resilience, we can be left more confused than we were before we turned to friends, family, Google, or Chat GPT for help. Sometimes, we need to zoom out and look at things from a different perspective. This week's guest, Child Psychologist Clare Rowe, helps us do just that, ...
Sep 17, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 155
When two brains (and the people they belong to of course!) come together in a relationship, it's no surprise that challenges arise. These can often be worked out together but, there are times when a 'bump in the road' can grow into a mountain that can feel impossible to climb. In the midst of conflict, grief, intimacy challenges, adjusting to parenthood and countless other reasons that put pressure on a relationship, it can be incredibly isolating and overwhelming. Particularly when communicatio...
Sep 10, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 154
Does anxiety show up for you whenever you decide you'd like to try something new? Or perhaps you feel those tell-tale signs in your physiology and notice the changes in your thinking when an opportunity comes your way, you're ready to get started on bringing a dream to life or maybe whenever you decide you want to speak up about something you're passionate about. Anxiety has a way of keeping us, and our lives, small if we let it. I recorded this episode because around here, we don't let anxiety ...
Sep 03, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 153
Lipstick on people! It's that time of the year when we can all get behind women's mental health research by supporting the incredible Liptember Foundation. Mental health research, understanding, support and the development of supporting resources is important for all genders; but biological and gender-related differences mean that women can suffer from certain mental health conditions at higher rates than men. In this episode, Luke Morris from the Liptember Foundation shares with us how the foun...
Aug 27, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 152
Perimenopause, also known as puberty II, unfairly comes at a time when many women are raising young people going through puberty I! Whether you're a parent or not, it can be an extremely difficult season of life. More difficult without an understanding of the changing nature of women's hormones and the way this can impact almost every aspect of our thinking and physiology including our bones, our muscles, our tendons, our confidence and our identity. In this week's episode of Well, hello anxiety...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 151
Chronic pain can be incredibly debilitating, no matter the circumstances. But what do you do when every possible scan or investigation by medical professionals shows that there is no injury, no degeneration, absolutely nothing visible to warrant the often excruciating pain you're experiencing? This was the experience of beloved 89.9 The Light breakfast host Kel McWilliam. The first sign of chronic back pain that would plague him for years was when he fell to the floor in agony, alone at home and...
Aug 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 150
Once thought to be a male only disorder we know now that girls with ADHD are underdiagnosed. Without a diagnosis and the deep understanding that comes with it, many women with undiagnosed ADHD describe spending a lot of their lives feeling 'different', 'stupid', 'lazy' and 'careless' - not realising that their brain operates in a different way to many of those around them. Without the correct diagnosis and treatment, ADHD can greatly affect women's self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, professional ...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 149
For some kids, saying goodbye to a parent can be incredibly distressing. For others, it's really hard to say goodbye but they understand that it's important to part ways for a while. No matter the situation, when goodbyes are hard, it's upsetting for everyone. What do you do? Do you leave while they're occupied with a puzzle at kinder? Do you hang around for a while to make sure they've settled in with their teacher? Do you peer in the window to keep an eye on things after they've parted with yo...
Jul 30, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 148
This interview with renowned Developmental Paediatrician Dr Billy Garvey is a must listen for any parent, teacher or clinician supporting a child or teen with anxiety. Dr Billy shares understanding, strategies and hope in spades as he shares insights from his clinical work supporting children of all ages, and their families, with anxiety and other mental health challenges. He shares how to explain anxiety in a way that kids and teens understand, the main components of Cognitive Behavioural Thera...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 147
It's common for us to be harder on ourselves than we would ever be on others. Our tone, our words and the kindness we show when someone else makes a mistake can sound very different to our self-talk when we mess up. Learning to be more compassionate towards ourselves and to being more open to receiving compassion from others is at the heart of this week's conversation with Dr Stan Steindl. Dr Steindl shares three different flows of compassion, what can stand in the way of us being open to receiv...
Jul 16, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 146
No matter who we are and what we do, adversity eventually comes knocking bringing difficult emotions, thoughts and feelings. In times of loss, change, challenge and grief, how do we hold onto what matters, while also knowing how to let go? In this thought provoking episode Dr Jodi's guest, Dr Helen Street, answers this question and many more. Dr Street shares with us a brand new way of thinking about our experiences when facing adversity and how we can reconnect and rebuild, find hope and trust ...
Jul 09, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 145
You are so much more than your anxiety, no matter how controlling that may be for you right now. Truly you are. And if you care for someone who feels this way the same holds true. We know anxiety has a way of chipping away at our identity, our confidence and the way we look at the world around us but we can change that. Self-therapy, insight, action, soothing ourselves, asking for help, medication and seeing anxiety for what it really is all play a powerful role in sparking a glimmer of re-empow...
Jul 02, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 144
Anxiety can make it hard to reach our potential. Even thinking about taking a personal or professional risk can send our heart rates up and our confidence plummeting. It's not that we're not good enough, that we're not trying hard enough, that we don't want it badly enough. It's not about willpower or determination. It's because of reflexive bodily responses that occur in the face of stress and pressure, and the uncertainty around how we'll be received. The popular belief that 'it's all in our h...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 143
Parenting can be so hard. We're all trying to raise emotionally healthy, physically healthy, resilient, connected kids and teens while navigating the complex landscape of our kids' friendships, their social media, their school work, mental health, body image, identity, peer pressure and so much more. This week's guest, Parenting Expert and Paediatric Psychologist Deirdre Brandner, nailed it when she said that 'parents are overwhelmed with information and starved of wisdom'. Wisdom is what we nee...
Jun 18, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Do you worry a lot? Do you know someone who does? If you answered yes to either of these questions you are going to get so much relief from this week's episode. How we think has a profound impact on how we feel and what we do. Worry can be so very debilitating, bringing with it a gnawing sense of anxiety that disrupts daily activities, saps energy, impairs concentration and genuinely affecting happiness. Worry can also lead to insomnia, fatigue, a weakened immune system and more. There are a lot...
Jun 11, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 141
When life gets hard (and let's face it, that's a lot of the time) it's incredibly helpful to have a mental health professional to talk things through with. Therapists can support us to manage heavy emotions, help us get unstuck, guide us to overcome unhelpful habits, move us towards the goals we have and so much more. If you struggle with anxiety, depression, overwhelm, burnout, boundaries, work or family challenges, a therapist can help. But access isn't always easy. Hurdles in the way of thera...
Jun 04, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 140
How we breathe has a profound impact on how we feel emotionally, our experience of anxiety, panic attacks and so much more. In this insightful episode Campbell Will helps us learn more about the key role our respiratory patterns and physiology play in our mental health and wellbeing. He teaches us how to better understand our breathing patterns, to recognise dysfunctional patterns and how we can make meaningful change quickly. Campbell Will is a Senior Physiotherapist and Breathwork Coach who fo...
May 27, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 139
When we think about mental health and wellbeing, we often think about how we can reduce distress and suffering. But that's only part of the picture. At the heart of Positive Psychology is a focus on what we can all do to significantly improve our individual wellbeing and happiness, which is what this episode is all about. Dr Jodi talks with Clinical and Coaching Psychologist Dr Suzy Green, Founder of the Positivity Institute, revealing how there's more to wellbeing than feeling good, what contri...
May 21, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 138
